"She's a very energetic child, but no matter how you look at it, the energy is a bit too much."
In the first-grade teachers' office at Mitakihara Elementary, the young homeroom teacher was airing her grievances to Tomohisa. "This child likes to speak up without raising her hand. Talking during class is one thing, but she doesn't even keep her voice down."
"When she was made to stand as punishment during break, she deliberately hid behind the door and jumped out to scare the math teacher as revenge. She pushed the chalk box on the lectern off the edge bit by bit. And she asked the kindest-natured home economics teacher if he wanted to become a Magical Girl."
Tomohisa's gaze drifted toward the home economics teacher.
The fifty-something-year-old man offered an embarrassed smile. Sunlight streaming through the window bounced off his shiny balding crown, forcing Tomohisa to look away.
Beyond what had been listed, there were other incidents—like reinterpreting "The Tortoise and the Hare" with the entire class until every student's assignment for that chapter concluded that the bugs bribed the rabbit, which is why the tortoise won. And playing with a lemon during class, then delivering a kitty punch to the math teacher's hand when he reached over to confiscate it.
Too much mischief!
"Her athletics are excellent, though." The PE teacher stepped in to defend her. "She already broke the world record for fourteen-year-olds in the short sprint last time—for both boys and girls."
The record seemed a bit absurd to him, since children of different decades had different nutrition and growth patterns. But that didn't stop him from recognizing raw talent when he saw it.
"..."
He didn't know whether to feel proud or embarrassed.
Tomohisa looked down to find the carefree little cat grinning up at him with her eyes squeezed into crescents. He ruffled her hair with a helpless sigh and took her hand to walk home.
"Green peppers for dinner tonight."
"Mm! Σ(°△°|||)︴"
Dear Mother in another world—the kitty who was just studying the basics of the universe got in trouble at school and is now being punished.
Also triggered AoE splash damage: one cat dragged two other kids into eating green peppers too.
Madoka poked at the food in her bowl, head lowered over her student phone. Technology in this world was only modestly developed, but basic text messaging existed, and she normally used it to keep in touch with Homura. These past two days, though, Homura seemed extremely busy—even a little distant.
"I'm done eating." Yimi walked up to Tomohisa after finishing her meal and dipped her head.
Tomohisa obliged with a pat on the head, completing the post-dinner ritual.
"Me too." Madoka followed after Yimi.
"What are you doing?" Yimi looked at her, confused.
Madoka closed the door and sat down facing her, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. "Things have felt kind of weird lately."
She didn't want to admit that Homura had been a little distant with her.
And of course things were weird. With Walpurgisnacht bearing down, Homura—who considered this timeline's development remarkably ideal... no, more precisely, who didn't want to add any more karmic destiny to Madoka—had to guarantee a flawless outcome. Beyond recruiting other Magical Girls she knew, she also needed to stock up on weapons.
She possessed the formidable power to manipulate time, yet her arsenal consisted almost entirely of external equipment. In one timeline where Sayaka had scorned her, she'd frozen time and raided a yakuza hideout to prove herself, hauling back armfuls of firearms. That was when she'd started using guns.
Madoka eyed the small paw clutching an object. It was a lemon—one Yimi had been fiddling with off and on for a while, and recently started carrying around again.
"What's that?"
"Dangerous. Has to be destroyed." The kitty answered.
"I can't understand when you talk like that. You need to pay more attention in language arts class so your sentences won't be so choppy." Madoka tapped Yimi's forehead with an exasperated smile.
While Yimi's room had been kept reasonably tidy per Tomohisa's instructions, her storage space was actually a total mess—after all, you couldn't organize a pocket dimension by just shuffling things around the way you could a bedroom.
What the storage space actually was, even the kitty didn't fully understand. All she knew was that hot food put in came out still steaming. It should have been a space frozen in time, but a couple of days ago she'd discovered that the catnip inside had somehow doubled from contact with this lemon, nearly filling the space to capacity. She still wanted to bring souvenirs back for her mother and grandmother.
She definitely couldn't just destroy it by force—the 'revision' sealed inside the lemon would be released, and that would make things even more troublesome.
"Is that so?" Madoka stared at the lemon, not looking away. "Speaking of which—if I'm not the one chosen, will you keep contracting Magical Girls?"
"Still need... one more." Yimi sat cross-legged on the bed, puzzling over whether Tomohisa had thrown out the tool she'd just crafted.
"One more... Come to think of it, you originally wanted to contract with me, right? Kyubey also said my aptitude is very high."
"Kitty doesn't understand. There's something, strange about Madoka. Very strong. Probably could become the strongest Magical Girl."
"The strongest?"
Madoka's gaze fell on the lemon in Yimi's hand.
Was this lemon the medium for the final candidate—the same way the cherry tomato Kyubey took had been? What would happen? What had Homura been doing all this time? Being kept in the dark like this felt awful.
That night Madoka had a nightmare. She dreamed of a catastrophic Witch descending on Mitakihara—the same dream she'd had the night before meeting Homura.
The difference was who stood up at the crucial moment. Her always-gentle father loosened his tie: "This ends now. Magical Girl transformation..."
Kind of terrifying.
...
The next day. The usual school routine.
"Morning, Sayaka."
"Morning, Hitomi."
After nearly a week of awkwardness, the two of them seemed to have returned to their old equilibrium. At the very least, Sayaka no longer reacted when she saw Hitomi walking alongside Kyosuke Kamijo. Hitomi and Kyosuke's relationship wasn't exactly smooth sailing either, though—Kyosuke was so focused on re-learning the violin for an upcoming recital that he'd been somewhat neglecting Hitomi.
On Sayaka's end, what had originally been Kyoko aggressively hunting her down had recently done a complete one-eighty—now Sayaka was the one chasing Kyoko, who'd already switched hideouts three times to avoid her.
Three location changes and she still hadn't fled back to Kazamino. Those two were definitely that kind of relationship.
"Homura Akemi? That transfer student? Since when is Madoka so close with her?"
Madoka clasped her hands against her chest, worry in her voice. "She's been really busy with something lately. Is there some kind of problem on the Magical Girl side?"
"Now that you mention it, I think the boss fight is coming up." Sayaka's expression turned serious. She'd been so caught up sparring with Kyoko that she'd nearly forgotten.
"Boss fight?"
"Apparently some super-dreadnought-class Witch that could destroy the world if left unchecked. The transfer student also warned me not to tell you about it... I think? Maybe? Maybe not?"
At the time she'd been so flustered about the embarrassing things she'd said to Homura that she hadn't really caught the specifics.
Sayaka slapped her own cheeks. "Wait, isn't this really bad? I think it's happening any day now. How did I only just remember? Forget what I said—see you, Madoka!"
"..."
A world-ending Witch. Madoka remembered now. In her dream, it had been exactly that kind of thing—the very reason Homura kept resetting.