Outside a public restroom, Yimi pressed her little hands together and crept toward a cricket on the ground, then clapped down.
Caught it.
Because in Yimi's world, eating ranked just below Mama and Grandma in importance, she'd told Sayaka that completing the contract required eating the apple—preferably the whole thing, swallowed completely with nothing left outside her body.
Upon hearing this, Sayaka had made a face that screamed my life is over, wavered with inexplicable anguish, then stumbled her way here. She told Yimi to wait outside and absolutely not come in, but to come warn her if anyone else showed up.
Humans in this world were so strange. She needed to use the bathroom before eating something?
Yimi lifted the cricket toward her mouth.
"THERE'S NO WAY I CAN DO THAT!"
Sayaka's shriek startled Yimi so badly she flinched and let the cricket escape.
She turned in confusion to see Sayaka emerging with a face redder than a tomato, the apple in her hand completely untouched. The little cat tilted her head.
Sayaka pressed one hand down on Yimi's head—with slightly too much force, as if trying to physically stunt her growth right then and there.
"Why is everyone else's so small, but you give ME a whole apple?!" she seethed.
Absolutely impossible. Forget doing it—she couldn't even attempt it. She should've just gone to that Kyubey thing. At least theirs were strawberry-sized.
Yimi shrank under the intensity, tucking her little hands together, genuinely baffled. "One apple—you can totally finish that. Just wait until you're hungry?"
Even back when she was really little, just a snot-nosed kid, she could eat a whole apple. Grandma just wouldn't let her finish it because she worried Yimi would get a stomachache.
"Wait—when you say 'eat,' you mean bite into it?" The realization hit Sayaka.
"What else?" The little cat looked up at her with pure, innocent confusion.
"…I also thought you meant bite into it."
What else would you think? Any normal person sees an apple and thinks take a bite. It was entirely that brat's fault for specifically saying things like "eat the whole thing, don't leave any of it outside your body"—deliberately misleading phrasing. Combined with what the standard Magical Girl transformation actually involved, of course she'd jumped to the wrong conclusion…
She turned toward the sink.
"Now what are you doing?" The little cat watched her, exasperated. Eating one apple shouldn't be this much of an ordeal.
"Washing it."
"The one I gave you is clean!"
"Just drop it!"
Yimi stared at her own little paws, deeply wounded.
She thought the apple was dirty because the cat had touched it?
Apple washed, Sayaka still felt a faint reluctance. She let out a long breath, then made her wish: "Please heal Kamijo Kyosuke's injuries."
Miracle would, to a degree, fulfill Sayaka's wish. Then, based on the nature of her desire and her own aptitude, it would determine her Magical Girl abilities. Yimi hadn't altered this part of the process.
A wish for healing meant Sayaka would possess outstanding regenerative capabilities—the same way Homura Akemi's wish involving time had granted her the power to manipulate it.
After making her wish, Sayaka flipped the apple to what she decided was the cleaner side and started eating. Since she'd been told to finish it all, she didn't even spare the core.
It tasted like an ordinary apple. No rush of warmth flowing through her body or anything like that—but after swallowing the last bite, she definitely felt something. A power.
And Miracle.
Much of the Incubators' own technology was beyond even their full understanding, so Yimi could only work with what they had and combine it with her own abilities.
A cycle that generated mana naturally without needing external replenishment—a something-from-nothing system. That was the Miracle Yimi had created.
And because the Incubators' research showed that Earth's girls were deeply resistant to having their souls separated from their bodies, eating the apple merely linked the mana loop system to Sayaka's soul without extracting it—for her to control and use freely.
Yimi herself was an inexhaustible energy source thanks to the Third Magic, but getting her—someone who'd never even systematically studied Magecraft—to create another inexhaustible energy source was still far too difficult.
Even the first person to master the Third Magic in the TYPE-MOON world had failed to produce a single disciple who learned the same True Magic. That was precisely why the Einzbern family was created, which indirectly gave rise to the Holy Grail Wars.
So how much Sayaka could actually harness still depended on her aptitude. The mana supply was unlimited, but how much she could use at once and how long she needed to recharge—that was a question of whether the vessel's opening was a teapot's spout or a bowl's rim.
Sayaka instinctively pressed her palms together at her chest. A blue gem materialized between them, hovering into existence. At least it was just an ordinary pendant design.
"Is this my Soul Gem? It looks different from Mami-senpai's."
"It's a Mana Gem. Improved version."
Yimi explained: "Your mana is stored inside it. Then it lets you transform. And if things get dangerous, you can also transfer your soul into it—then even if your head comes off you won't die. And you can use mana to heal injuries. And the gem is really hard, so it's not easy to break."
"That sounds creepily like one of Voldemort's Horcruxes… So you're saying my Soul Gem—Mana Gem—is a more advanced version than Mami-senpai's?"
"Mm. Removed the side effects." Yimi lifted her chin, waiting for praise.
Because the system itself could generate energy, there was no risk of corruption turning the user into a Witch.
"Oh, that's great."
What Sayaka understood: the side effect of having to stuff the Soul Gem into "*" to transform had been removed.
She felt a pang of guilt. Mami-senpai and the transfer student had both made that sacrifice to have their wishes granted, and here she was getting this massive upgrade for free.
Guilt or no guilt, she did not want to become that kind of Magical Girl. Thank god she hadn't gone to Kyubey.
"As for the cost—is fighting Witches really all there is?" Sayaka studied the gem in her hand. "I can have a wish granted without paying the same price as the others?"
"The cost is you help me taste-test dishes." The little cat never lost sight of her mission.
"Taste-test? You mean try your new recipes? I feel like I keep getting the better end of this deal." Having tried a bowl of Kyubey soup before, Sayaka didn't consider this a bad thing at all.
This kid was flat-out brilliant. If she remembered right, Yimi had only been studying the Magical Girl contract system for a couple of days before cracking it.
"If Mami-senpai's Soul Gem could be upgraded too, that'd be amazing. Is that possible?"
"Don't know." Yimi wrestled with the urge to suck on her finger, then remembered Sayaka's apparent disgust just now and temporarily corrected the bad habit.
Plenty of complicated things were harder to repair or retrofit than to build from scratch.
"I was being too greedy."
Poor Mami-senpai.
"Kyosuke can leave the hospital tomorrow, right?" Sayaka scooped Yimi into a hug. "Thank you. I promise I'll fulfill my responsibilities as a Magical Girl."
She'd clearly felt Miracle at work the moment she made her wish.
"You should head back and get some sleep too. I'll figure out how this thing works." Sayaka waved at Yimi, then turned and ran toward home.
She'd missed the last bus, but her steps felt so light, as if she could run all the way home just like this.
Yimi counted on her fingers.
That made four Magical Girls now. But she still couldn't cook a Kyubey dish worth eating.
"How did you do it?"
Kyubey, which had been tailing Sayaka this whole time, finally stopped taking Yimi into account and hopped out to ask. "You can control 'Miracle' on your own—I've observed that much. But your methods are beyond my comprehension. If the energy no longer comes from emotions, what's the point of creating Magical Girls?"
Kyubey.
Grab. Neck. Twist right.