Assemblance 11: Seeing Double
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
> If you don't take care of this, then-!
"Ash?"
You swivel around.
"Oh good, you're back." Sayaka says, seeming both slightly annoyed and a little concerned. "What was that about? You just sort of froze in place for like a solid minute, and weren't responding to anything that either of us-"
<Change of plans!> you frantically interrupt. <We need to find Kaname-san, NOW!>
Sayaka and Tira both startle a little, the urgency in your "voice" clearly coming through despite lacking any actual sound.
"I... have no real issue with that, but may we at least know the reason for this rather abrupt change of heart?" Tira asks.
"Same." Sayaka adds, squinting up at you. "Not that I'm not more than okay with you having a sudden crisis of conscience, but what's with the panic?"
You quickly relay your concerns to them, anxiety rising by the second now that you've realized what could potentially happen at any second. It's true that in trying to get her friends back, Madoka could theoretically still end up making a wish that benefits you, but in the state of mind you imagine she's in right now, she could far more easily make one to end you instead... and you'd bet your chances of the former are only going to worsen the longer you can't get in contact with her. Hitomi cautioning her against making a wish at all might be the only reason she hasn't done so already, especially if Kyubey has been actively trying to push her into a contract for the past few hours, as you imagine is very likely the case. Hell, Kyubey doesn't even have to actually know what happened after Mami and Tira entered your barrier, all he has to do is imply that the worst has likely come to pass, and making a wish will seem like a better and better option to a presumably-grieving Madoka by the minute-
"Woah woah woah!" Sayaka cuts in, rapidly waving her hands back and forth. "Let's get something straight here. Madoka would never wish anyone ill, especially not literally! She's... just not that kind of person, alright?"
<You don't know that!>
"I'm her best friend, of course I know that!" Sayaka shoots back.
<Yes, but have you ever seen her in a situation even remotely like this one?> you ask. <Where she's likely stressed out of her mind, has all the reason in the world to believe that one or more of her friends might be dead, and there's undoubtedly an evil little alien rabbit whispering in her ear that she could help, she could fix this, all just by making one small, simple wish?>
"Pardon, did you just imply that Kyubey is an alien-?"
<NOT the time!>
Unlike Tira, Sayaka doesn't immediately react to that particular revelation, and to your surprise seems to push back her initial instinct to immediately defend her friend further. Instead, she quiets, apparently taking a moment to seriously consider your question... and clenching her teeth together when she doesn't like the answer she comes up with.
"...fine." she concedes in a low tone. "I still don't believe that Madoka would ever intentionally hurt someone. Even you, now that she knows you're not just some mindless monster. But you're right that I don't know for sure that she wouldn't make a wish like that, if she felt it was the only way to help her friends."
Sayaka shakes her head as though to clear it, then lets her expression fall back into indignance as she glances up at you again.
"If you're really that concerned about what Madoka might or might not do though, how about we just try calling her again first?"
...
Okay, you admit you kind of forgot that was still an option.
As you abashedly assent to that plan, Tira pulls her phone back out of the purse that you, and seemingly even she forgot she's been carrying around for the past several hours, before passing it over to her fellow magical girl. As Sayaka turns the device's screen back on, you privately note the time again — it's nearly evening, apparently. You still don't understand where all the time went; Madoka's probably been worrying herself to death all day...
Although... maybe it isn't actually that late, and Tira's phone is just broken or something? Because now that you look closer, the time it's currently claiming isn't even the weirdest part about its display. The fact that the sun is only barely hovering over the horizon does seem to bear out the former statistic though, so why-
Sayaka redials Madoka's number, and you shove Tira's potential phone issues to the back of your mind for the moment, trying not to flip back into your previous panic.
The tone rings once... twice...
"Ah- hello?"
The sound of the voice on the other end, carrying a similar, but distinctly different tone from the earlier voicemail message, sends a massive wave of relief crashing through you. Sayaka seems to share the sentiment, as several muscles she'd unconsciously tensed abruptly relax themselves.
"Madoka!" she exclaims.
"Huh? Sayaka... chan?"
"Yeah, it's me." Sayaka confirms, clearly cheered to hear the other girl's voice again. "Thank goodness..."
Not particularly caring about the pleasantries at the moment, you almost take over Sayaka's mouth so you can talk to Madoka directly... and then you think better of it, and refrain. If things have indeed gone as you suspect they might have, or even if not for that matter, Sayaka's likely got a much better chance of getting Madoka to listen than you do. Plus, after the breakdown of this morning's meeting, combined with your memories of another... prior incident, you're starting to suspect you just kind of suck at diplomacy anyways.
"So, uh. I'm alive!" Sayaka says, a tad awkwardly. "And- well, no worse off than I was this morning, at least."
"That's... good?"
...huh, kind of an underwhelming response. Given Sayaka's testimony on the matter, or even just going off your own brief impression of Madoka from when you met her earlier, you'd have expected her to sound more relieved. Though, you suppose shock might be muting it to some extent.
"Sorry it took so long to let you know." Sayaka continues. "I tried earlier, but you weren't picking up your phone, and you didn't call back, and what the heck was that even about anyways? Seriously, of all the times to go on silent-"
She stops and shakes her head for a moment, seeming to realize she's getting sidetracked. "Forget it, doesn't really matter. Listen, are you alright? Where are you right now? Is Hitomi still with you?"
"I- Hitomi-chan? She's at home, I think..."
"Alright, but what about you?" Sayaka urgently repeats.
"I'm... at the café..."
What, still? It took you almost half the day to get back here; has she seriously just been loitering there all this time?
"So you're both safe then?"
"Yes?"
"And you haven't made a wish?"
"A... a wish? You- I mean, no, but-"
Sayaka sighs in relief, even as you tilt your stalk to one side. Something about this conversation feels extremely... off, to you. Why does Madoka sound so terminally confused? You get why she'd be a bit bewildered at the start of the conversation, but these all seem like pretty sensible questions from where you're standing... er, floating.
"Okay, good." Sayaka says, either ignoring or oblivious to the strangeness of Madoka's tone. "In that case, we're on our- wait, the transfer student isn't still around, right?"
"Transfer student...? You mean Homura-chan?"
Sayaka grimaces. "Yeah, her... guess that doesn't really explain anything though. Listen, a lot's happened since things went south this morning, and I don't know if you even got my message from earlier, so I'll say it again —Don't listen to ANYTHING that Kyubey says, and stay away from the transfer student! In fact, stay away from both of them! He's even worse than I thought, and she tried to kill me!"
"W- what?! How do you- I don't-"
"Trust me, you weren't with us, but there was this huge fight- er, two of them, actually." Sayaka barrels on. "I'm okay, and so is Narumi-san, but now both of our gems are stuck in Ashero- Asha- ugh, you know what I mean, her, and Mami-san is-"
Sayaka pauses, her eyes darting to the tiny witch still hanging from Tira's neck. A dull ache begins to rise in her chest, threatening to crawl up into her throat, but after a moment she swallows it down, and opens her mouth once more.
"Mami-san... turned into a-"
"I'm sorry," Madoka suddenly interrupts, "but I don't really understand... who is this, again?"
Huh?
"Huh?" Sayaka unknowingly echoes, regret giving way to confusion. "Madoka, it's me! I know this isn't my normal phone number, but seriously? Who else could this possibly be?"
"But... you can't be-"
"Hey Madoka, who's the mystery caller?"
Sayaka yanks the phone away from her head as though it just tried to bite her, staring down at the device in shock.
You can't really blame her, because that sounded like her own voice on the other end.
"It's... I don't know? She sounds like you?"
Blinking rapidly, Sayaka shakes herself and raises the phone back up to her ear.
"Madoka, what's going on?" she asks, brow furrowing. "Who are you talking to right now?"
There's a brief shuffling sound on the other end of line.
"Yo! Who's this?"
It's Sayaka's voice again — the "other" her, that is.
"Who's- I'm Sayaka Miki! Madoka's best friend!" Sayaka shouts into the receiver. "Who are YOU?!"
"...pfft. Nice prank, but it'd work better if the real one wasn't sitting right next to her."
The line goes dead.
Silence falls over your group for a few brief seconds, bafflement having seemingly stolen the voices of all involved. Sayaka ends up being the first to find hers again, and-
"What the HELL?!" she all but screams. "There's some sort of- fake me running around with Madoka?!"
"I only heard certain segments of that conversation, but that was indeed rather... bizarre." Tira adds, frowning as she takes back her phone.
You don't immediately chime in yourself, your thoughts on the matter not fully formed enough to share just yet... but your formerly-subsided panic is now rapidly transitioning into a growing sense of unease. Granted, you're a lot less concerned about Madoka making a wish to "fix things" that could potentially kill or write you out of existence now, but only because she didn't even sound like she realized anything was wrong...
And something definitely is wrong.
<Sayaka, which way to that café?>
Still visibly fuming at this latest strangeness, Sayaka is more than happy to direct you back to the business in question, Mitakihara's architecture making it fairly easy for her to get her bearings even from the outskirts of the city proper. It doesn't even take you all that long to get there, no more than five minutes at most. But when you arrive...
"She's not here?" Sayaka mutters, eyes darting around your recreation of the outside world.
Indeed, she's not — this is definitely the right place, but Madoka is nowhere to be seen. The table used for this morning's meeting sits glaringly empty, with no remaining sign of what so recently happened at it, and when you dare dip your barrier low enough in the sky to peek inside the café itself (careful to keep a constant watch for a certain heavily-armed magical girl abruptly teleporting into existence as you do), there's still not a trace of soft pink hair in sight.
"I swear, if that fake me did something to her-" Sayaka starts to seethe, only to cut herself off before she can even finish her sentence. "No, wait, that can't be it, can it? I'd know if she was in actual danger..."
That would stand to reason, assuming you understand how that wish-granted sense of hers even works.
"Perhaps Kaname-san was lying about still being here to begin with?" Tira suggests.
Sayaka shakes her head. "Madoka doesn't lie. Even if she wanted to, she kind of sucks at it. I'm pretty sure the only reason her family doesn't already know about all this magic stuff is because they haven't asked."
"I see." Tira replies, raising a finger to her lips. "In that case, unless she left quite quickly... could she have been referring to a different café?"
Sayaka blinks before perking back up a little. "Yeah- yeah, maybe that's it! There's another one that we go to after school every few days or so. Let's try there!"
You allow Sayaka to guide you back out into the city, directing your barrier essentially on auto-pilot as you continue to silently stew, multiple half-formed theories continually flitting in and out of your thoughts. One in particular is starting to gain a rather uncomfortable amount of evidence, several small, strange details from earlier in the day starting to come together into an uncomfortably well-fitting picture... but you're not going to share it with the girls just yet. At least, not until you've confirmed with your own- er, their own eyes what's actually going on, as that particular idea seems rather ridiculous just to think, and it's not like there aren't other potential explanations for all this...
You grimace internally. Not that any of the ones you can think of would be particularly positive.
Shortly after you set out again, the sun follows suit and begins to set as well, the rays of evening rapidly repainting the sky a brilliant golden-orange. Just as you're beginning to wonder if you're going to make it to this place before night proper falls, Sayaka suddenly straightens.
"Stop!" she announces. "That's it, right down there!"
She stabs her finger down towards your illusory reproduction of a blocky, two-story building, the exterior of which quite honestly seems too plain to properly blend with Mitakihara's overall aesthetic. It doesn't really even look much like a café, not that anyone was asking you. Still, you suppose even Mitakihara has to have at least some more or less "normal" buildings, and you've no reason to think Sayaka doesn't know what she's talking about, so you'll take her word for it.
Unable to see inside from your position in the sky, you start floating closer to the building in question, descending towards it at a cautious diagonal angle — just in time to see Madoka walk right out the front door.
And she's not alone.
You immediately slam on the mental brakes, bringing your barrier to a figuratively-screeching halt as you, Sayaka, and Tira all stare down at your quarry in utter astonishment. A moment's glance is enough to tell you that Madoka clearly failed to take at least one of Sayaka's warnings to heart, as Kyubey is currently sitting on her shoulder, looking just as unflinchingly pleased as always. However, that's hardly the strangest thing you're looking at right now, because not only is there indeed another Sayaka at Madoka's side, but strolling along next to them is-
"Mami/Tomoe-san?!"
Sayaka and Tira cry their shock aloud in tandem, while you just silently shudder. Despite your relative muteness, you're honestly not much less surprised than they are — even though the terrifying magical girl's apparent resurrection honestly only adds further evidence to your own suspicions, especially in tandem with Sayaka's seeming duplication.
You give the trio of girls another once over, scanning for details this time. The three of them look... shockingly normal, at a glance. Mami appears exactly as she did this morning, bar the fact that she has a schoolbag resting on her shoulder — all three of them do, in fact — while the second Sayaka is currently grinning, the tired look that your own has picked up of late utterly absent from her face as she hefts a long, metallic-looking... baseball bat? in one hand and takes an idle swing at the air in front of her. Madoka smiles softly at the both of them, even as Kyubey's swishing tail brushes against her back.
Sayaka — your Sayaka — suddenly hops down from Tira's flying mount, landing on the "air" of the Canvas below in an apparent bid to get an even slightly closer look at the image currently displayed upon it. A few seconds later, Tira descends to do much the same, dispelling her creation entirely in the process.
"It's really her..." Sayaka says almost breathlessly. "But we saw- how can she be- and there's another of-"
She glances over at Candeloro again, twitches, then turns back to you.
"Ash, if this some sort of prank you're playing on us, it's not funny." she grits out.
"Agreed." Tira concurs, her chest feeling tight.
You shake your newly-existent head. <I promise you it's not. What you're seeing right now is exactly what I'm seeing, doppelganger and impossible person included. I don't know if that means they're actually real, but->
Before you can continue that thought any further, you notice Kyubey suddenly glance up in your barrier's direction — followed by Mami, whose gaze seems almost to pierce straight through the outside of your barrier, and laser in directly on you.
...oh fu-
[-] Leave, as quickly as you possibly can. You don't see another Tira at least, and without her help, the Mami clone surely can't get to you up here, right?!
[-] Descend and invite the group to talk... again. You need to know what's going on, and it's better to act first rather than just wait until you get attacked... again. Trying to run just made things worse last time anyways...
[-] Send Sayaka and Tira down as emissaries. It went wrong once, but things were going okay up until you screwed it up, so if you can just... not do that this time, it might work out?
[-] Write in.
AN+Patrons: Well, that took way, way too long. I think I passed the point of "suspense" on this reveal about four or so odd months ago... give or take a year or two. ^_^; Seriously, this wasn't meant to be some long drawn out mystery, and the fact that it ended up being one likely contributed to the time it took, since I knew I'd inevitably be disappointing some of my readers one way or the other. This was what I had planned from the start though, and it's what I'll be going forward with, so hopefully those who had alternative theories aren't so disappointed as to drop this — particularly on this fic's five-year anniversary.
...oh, and this chapter was split in half, so don't worry, there'll be more coming soon. (￣y▽￣)╭
A huge thanks to @Pheonix14, @Warclam, @ScorpioBot, @The Crimson King, @BunnehWyld, Henry Branscombe, That Guy, Nubcaekz, Bertucchi, BlackEagle91, Jordan Juengel, and my seven other Patrons not named here, as well as an extra special thanks to a certain generous patron who wishes to remain unnamed. Each of them receives a cell phone of identical make and model to Tira's, meaning fannnnncy~. Of course, since the world of PMMM is inexplicably still in the age of flip phones so far as I can tell, it may not be up to your standards of fancy, but hey, maybe it's just retro-future chic! 📱
"Ash?"
You swivel around.
"Oh good, you're back." Sayaka says, seeming both slightly annoyed and a little concerned. "What was that about? You just sort of froze in place for like a solid minute, and weren't responding to anything that either of us-"
<Change of plans!> you frantically interrupt. <We need to find Kaname-san, NOW!>
Sayaka and Tira both startle a little, the urgency in your "voice" clearly coming through despite lacking any actual sound.
"I... have no real issue with that, but may we at least know the reason for this rather abrupt change of heart?" Tira asks.
"Same." Sayaka adds, squinting up at you. "Not that I'm not more than okay with you having a sudden crisis of conscience, but what's with the panic?"
You quickly relay your concerns to them, anxiety rising by the second now that you've realized what could potentially happen at any second. It's true that in trying to get her friends back, Madoka could theoretically still end up making a wish that benefits you, but in the state of mind you imagine she's in right now, she could far more easily make one to end you instead... and you'd bet your chances of the former are only going to worsen the longer you can't get in contact with her. Hitomi cautioning her against making a wish at all might be the only reason she hasn't done so already, especially if Kyubey has been actively trying to push her into a contract for the past few hours, as you imagine is very likely the case. Hell, Kyubey doesn't even have to actually know what happened after Mami and Tira entered your barrier, all he has to do is imply that the worst has likely come to pass, and making a wish will seem like a better and better option to a presumably-grieving Madoka by the minute-
"Woah woah woah!" Sayaka cuts in, rapidly waving her hands back and forth. "Let's get something straight here. Madoka would never wish anyone ill, especially not literally! She's... just not that kind of person, alright?"
<You don't know that!>
"I'm her best friend, of course I know that!" Sayaka shoots back.
<Yes, but have you ever seen her in a situation even remotely like this one?> you ask. <Where she's likely stressed out of her mind, has all the reason in the world to believe that one or more of her friends might be dead, and there's undoubtedly an evil little alien rabbit whispering in her ear that she could help, she could fix this, all just by making one small, simple wish?>
"Pardon, did you just imply that Kyubey is an alien-?"
<NOT the time!>
Unlike Tira, Sayaka doesn't immediately react to that particular revelation, and to your surprise seems to push back her initial instinct to immediately defend her friend further. Instead, she quiets, apparently taking a moment to seriously consider your question... and clenching her teeth together when she doesn't like the answer she comes up with.
"...fine." she concedes in a low tone. "I still don't believe that Madoka would ever intentionally hurt someone. Even you, now that she knows you're not just some mindless monster. But you're right that I don't know for sure that she wouldn't make a wish like that, if she felt it was the only way to help her friends."
Sayaka shakes her head as though to clear it, then lets her expression fall back into indignance as she glances up at you again.
"If you're really that concerned about what Madoka might or might not do though, how about we just try calling her again first?"
...
Okay, you admit you kind of forgot that was still an option.
As you abashedly assent to that plan, Tira pulls her phone back out of the purse that you, and seemingly even she forgot she's been carrying around for the past several hours, before passing it over to her fellow magical girl. As Sayaka turns the device's screen back on, you privately note the time again — it's nearly evening, apparently. You still don't understand where all the time went; Madoka's probably been worrying herself to death all day...
Although... maybe it isn't actually that late, and Tira's phone is just broken or something? Because now that you look closer, the time it's currently claiming isn't even the weirdest part about its display. The fact that the sun is only barely hovering over the horizon does seem to bear out the former statistic though, so why-
Sayaka redials Madoka's number, and you shove Tira's potential phone issues to the back of your mind for the moment, trying not to flip back into your previous panic.
The tone rings once... twice...
"Ah- hello?"
The sound of the voice on the other end, carrying a similar, but distinctly different tone from the earlier voicemail message, sends a massive wave of relief crashing through you. Sayaka seems to share the sentiment, as several muscles she'd unconsciously tensed abruptly relax themselves.
"Madoka!" she exclaims.
"Huh? Sayaka... chan?"
"Yeah, it's me." Sayaka confirms, clearly cheered to hear the other girl's voice again. "Thank goodness..."
Not particularly caring about the pleasantries at the moment, you almost take over Sayaka's mouth so you can talk to Madoka directly... and then you think better of it, and refrain. If things have indeed gone as you suspect they might have, or even if not for that matter, Sayaka's likely got a much better chance of getting Madoka to listen than you do. Plus, after the breakdown of this morning's meeting, combined with your memories of another... prior incident, you're starting to suspect you just kind of suck at diplomacy anyways.
"So, uh. I'm alive!" Sayaka says, a tad awkwardly. "And- well, no worse off than I was this morning, at least."
"That's... good?"
...huh, kind of an underwhelming response. Given Sayaka's testimony on the matter, or even just going off your own brief impression of Madoka from when you met her earlier, you'd have expected her to sound more relieved. Though, you suppose shock might be muting it to some extent.
"Sorry it took so long to let you know." Sayaka continues. "I tried earlier, but you weren't picking up your phone, and you didn't call back, and what the heck was that even about anyways? Seriously, of all the times to go on silent-"
She stops and shakes her head for a moment, seeming to realize she's getting sidetracked. "Forget it, doesn't really matter. Listen, are you alright? Where are you right now? Is Hitomi still with you?"
"I- Hitomi-chan? She's at home, I think..."
"Alright, but what about you?" Sayaka urgently repeats.
"I'm... at the café..."
What, still? It took you almost half the day to get back here; has she seriously just been loitering there all this time?
"So you're both safe then?"
"Yes?"
"And you haven't made a wish?"
"A... a wish? You- I mean, no, but-"
Sayaka sighs in relief, even as you tilt your stalk to one side. Something about this conversation feels extremely... off, to you. Why does Madoka sound so terminally confused? You get why she'd be a bit bewildered at the start of the conversation, but these all seem like pretty sensible questions from where you're standing... er, floating.
"Okay, good." Sayaka says, either ignoring or oblivious to the strangeness of Madoka's tone. "In that case, we're on our- wait, the transfer student isn't still around, right?"
"Transfer student...? You mean Homura-chan?"
Sayaka grimaces. "Yeah, her... guess that doesn't really explain anything though. Listen, a lot's happened since things went south this morning, and I don't know if you even got my message from earlier, so I'll say it again —Don't listen to ANYTHING that Kyubey says, and stay away from the transfer student! In fact, stay away from both of them! He's even worse than I thought, and she tried to kill me!"
"W- what?! How do you- I don't-"
"Trust me, you weren't with us, but there was this huge fight- er, two of them, actually." Sayaka barrels on. "I'm okay, and so is Narumi-san, but now both of our gems are stuck in Ashero- Asha- ugh, you know what I mean, her, and Mami-san is-"
Sayaka pauses, her eyes darting to the tiny witch still hanging from Tira's neck. A dull ache begins to rise in her chest, threatening to crawl up into her throat, but after a moment she swallows it down, and opens her mouth once more.
"Mami-san... turned into a-"
"I'm sorry," Madoka suddenly interrupts, "but I don't really understand... who is this, again?"
Huh?
"Huh?" Sayaka unknowingly echoes, regret giving way to confusion. "Madoka, it's me! I know this isn't my normal phone number, but seriously? Who else could this possibly be?"
"But... you can't be-"
"Hey Madoka, who's the mystery caller?"
Sayaka yanks the phone away from her head as though it just tried to bite her, staring down at the device in shock.
You can't really blame her, because that sounded like her own voice on the other end.
"It's... I don't know? She sounds like you?"
Blinking rapidly, Sayaka shakes herself and raises the phone back up to her ear.
"Madoka, what's going on?" she asks, brow furrowing. "Who are you talking to right now?"
There's a brief shuffling sound on the other end of line.
"Yo! Who's this?"
It's Sayaka's voice again — the "other" her, that is.
"Who's- I'm Sayaka Miki! Madoka's best friend!" Sayaka shouts into the receiver. "Who are YOU?!"
"...pfft. Nice prank, but it'd work better if the real one wasn't sitting right next to her."
The line goes dead.
Silence falls over your group for a few brief seconds, bafflement having seemingly stolen the voices of all involved. Sayaka ends up being the first to find hers again, and-
"What the HELL?!" she all but screams. "There's some sort of- fake me running around with Madoka?!"
"I only heard certain segments of that conversation, but that was indeed rather... bizarre." Tira adds, frowning as she takes back her phone.
You don't immediately chime in yourself, your thoughts on the matter not fully formed enough to share just yet... but your formerly-subsided panic is now rapidly transitioning into a growing sense of unease. Granted, you're a lot less concerned about Madoka making a wish to "fix things" that could potentially kill or write you out of existence now, but only because she didn't even sound like she realized anything was wrong...
And something definitely is wrong.
<Sayaka, which way to that café?>
Still visibly fuming at this latest strangeness, Sayaka is more than happy to direct you back to the business in question, Mitakihara's architecture making it fairly easy for her to get her bearings even from the outskirts of the city proper. It doesn't even take you all that long to get there, no more than five minutes at most. But when you arrive...
"She's not here?" Sayaka mutters, eyes darting around your recreation of the outside world.
Indeed, she's not — this is definitely the right place, but Madoka is nowhere to be seen. The table used for this morning's meeting sits glaringly empty, with no remaining sign of what so recently happened at it, and when you dare dip your barrier low enough in the sky to peek inside the café itself (careful to keep a constant watch for a certain heavily-armed magical girl abruptly teleporting into existence as you do), there's still not a trace of soft pink hair in sight.
"I swear, if that fake me did something to her-" Sayaka starts to seethe, only to cut herself off before she can even finish her sentence. "No, wait, that can't be it, can it? I'd know if she was in actual danger..."
That would stand to reason, assuming you understand how that wish-granted sense of hers even works.
"Perhaps Kaname-san was lying about still being here to begin with?" Tira suggests.
Sayaka shakes her head. "Madoka doesn't lie. Even if she wanted to, she kind of sucks at it. I'm pretty sure the only reason her family doesn't already know about all this magic stuff is because they haven't asked."
"I see." Tira replies, raising a finger to her lips. "In that case, unless she left quite quickly... could she have been referring to a different café?"
Sayaka blinks before perking back up a little. "Yeah- yeah, maybe that's it! There's another one that we go to after school every few days or so. Let's try there!"
You allow Sayaka to guide you back out into the city, directing your barrier essentially on auto-pilot as you continue to silently stew, multiple half-formed theories continually flitting in and out of your thoughts. One in particular is starting to gain a rather uncomfortable amount of evidence, several small, strange details from earlier in the day starting to come together into an uncomfortably well-fitting picture... but you're not going to share it with the girls just yet. At least, not until you've confirmed with your own- er, their own eyes what's actually going on, as that particular idea seems rather ridiculous just to think, and it's not like there aren't other potential explanations for all this...
You grimace internally. Not that any of the ones you can think of would be particularly positive.
Shortly after you set out again, the sun follows suit and begins to set as well, the rays of evening rapidly repainting the sky a brilliant golden-orange. Just as you're beginning to wonder if you're going to make it to this place before night proper falls, Sayaka suddenly straightens.
"Stop!" she announces. "That's it, right down there!"
She stabs her finger down towards your illusory reproduction of a blocky, two-story building, the exterior of which quite honestly seems too plain to properly blend with Mitakihara's overall aesthetic. It doesn't really even look much like a café, not that anyone was asking you. Still, you suppose even Mitakihara has to have at least some more or less "normal" buildings, and you've no reason to think Sayaka doesn't know what she's talking about, so you'll take her word for it.
Unable to see inside from your position in the sky, you start floating closer to the building in question, descending towards it at a cautious diagonal angle — just in time to see Madoka walk right out the front door.
And she's not alone.
You immediately slam on the mental brakes, bringing your barrier to a figuratively-screeching halt as you, Sayaka, and Tira all stare down at your quarry in utter astonishment. A moment's glance is enough to tell you that Madoka clearly failed to take at least one of Sayaka's warnings to heart, as Kyubey is currently sitting on her shoulder, looking just as unflinchingly pleased as always. However, that's hardly the strangest thing you're looking at right now, because not only is there indeed another Sayaka at Madoka's side, but strolling along next to them is-
"Mami/Tomoe-san?!"
Sayaka and Tira cry their shock aloud in tandem, while you just silently shudder. Despite your relative muteness, you're honestly not much less surprised than they are — even though the terrifying magical girl's apparent resurrection honestly only adds further evidence to your own suspicions, especially in tandem with Sayaka's seeming duplication.
You give the trio of girls another once over, scanning for details this time. The three of them look... shockingly normal, at a glance. Mami appears exactly as she did this morning, bar the fact that she has a schoolbag resting on her shoulder — all three of them do, in fact — while the second Sayaka is currently grinning, the tired look that your own has picked up of late utterly absent from her face as she hefts a long, metallic-looking... baseball bat? in one hand and takes an idle swing at the air in front of her. Madoka smiles softly at the both of them, even as Kyubey's swishing tail brushes against her back.
Sayaka — your Sayaka — suddenly hops down from Tira's flying mount, landing on the "air" of the Canvas below in an apparent bid to get an even slightly closer look at the image currently displayed upon it. A few seconds later, Tira descends to do much the same, dispelling her creation entirely in the process.
"It's really her..." Sayaka says almost breathlessly. "But we saw- how can she be- and there's another of-"
She glances over at Candeloro again, twitches, then turns back to you.
"Ash, if this some sort of prank you're playing on us, it's not funny." she grits out.
"Agreed." Tira concurs, her chest feeling tight.
You shake your newly-existent head. <I promise you it's not. What you're seeing right now is exactly what I'm seeing, doppelganger and impossible person included. I don't know if that means they're actually real, but->
Before you can continue that thought any further, you notice Kyubey suddenly glance up in your barrier's direction — followed by Mami, whose gaze seems almost to pierce straight through the outside of your barrier, and laser in directly on you.
...oh fu-
[-] Leave, as quickly as you possibly can. You don't see another Tira at least, and without her help, the Mami clone surely can't get to you up here, right?!
[-] Descend and invite the group to talk... again. You need to know what's going on, and it's better to act first rather than just wait until you get attacked... again. Trying to run just made things worse last time anyways...
[-] Send Sayaka and Tira down as emissaries. It went wrong once, but things were going okay up until you screwed it up, so if you can just... not do that this time, it might work out?
[-] Write in.
AN+Patrons: Well, that took way, way too long. I think I passed the point of "suspense" on this reveal about four or so odd months ago... give or take a year or two. ^_^; Seriously, this wasn't meant to be some long drawn out mystery, and the fact that it ended up being one likely contributed to the time it took, since I knew I'd inevitably be disappointing some of my readers one way or the other. This was what I had planned from the start though, and it's what I'll be going forward with, so hopefully those who had alternative theories aren't so disappointed as to drop this — particularly on this fic's five-year anniversary.
...oh, and this chapter was split in half, so don't worry, there'll be more coming soon. (￣y▽￣)╭
A huge thanks to @Pheonix14, @Warclam, @ScorpioBot, @The Crimson King, @BunnehWyld, Henry Branscombe, That Guy, Nubcaekz, Bertucchi, BlackEagle91, Jordan Juengel, and my seven other Patrons not named here, as well as an extra special thanks to a certain generous patron who wishes to remain unnamed. Each of them receives a cell phone of identical make and model to Tira's, meaning fannnnncy~. Of course, since the world of PMMM is inexplicably still in the age of flip phones so far as I can tell, it may not be up to your standards of fancy, but hey, maybe it's just retro-future chic! 📱
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