The 100 Magical Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love Homura

[kamenhero25]

Homura Akemi blinked as she opened her eyes, reflexively channeling magic into them to clear her usually cloudy vision. The sight of her familiar, moonlit hospital room slowly came into focus, long shadows spread out across the floor. It was an infinitely familiar sight, one that never became easier, and never did so much as dent her resolve. She was getting closer. She was sure of it. Last time had been so close. She just needed a little more planning, a little more power. She pushed herself upright and tugged the ribbons holding her braids out, letting her hair fan out behind her. No waiting around. She needed to be ready to leave the instant her paperwork was done in the morning. She would have just left now, but the first couple times she'd tried that, the doctors had panicked over a missing patient. Police had gotten involved. It ended up costing her more time than just finishing the damned paperwork.

"Good evening, Miss Akemi."

Years of emotional discipline and self-control kept Homura from outright drawing a weapon at the unexpected voice, but she still jumped. One of the doctors? Little variances were an unfortunate fact of her powers, but she had never had someone in the room with her when she came back. She spun, squinting into the darkness. "Who's there?"

"I'm sorry to startle you," the voice replied. They did sound like an older man, but the voices and faces of all of the doctors had long since faded into vague blurs in her memory. There was no sound of footsteps, but the figure moved closer, stepping into the moonlight so she could see him properly. "This really is against protocol, but there's been a complication, and it's my job to talk to you."

Homura narrowed her eyes. The figure didn't look like a doctor. In fact, they looked more like a priest, dressed in robes like something she'd see visiting a shrine rather than scrubs or a doctor's coat. His hair was mostly white and his face slightly wrinkled, and he had a pair of glasses balanced on his nose that made him look actually sort of distinguished, or at least respectable. All in all, he wasn't exactly the oddest sight, except for the fact that he had no reason to be in her room, as far as she knew. And for the fact that they had wings. And was floating several inches off the ground. "I see," she said, strongly considering if she should just transform and open fire. "Is this some kind of prank?" As far as she knew, Witches should not be capable of creating a familiar or an illusion capable of this kind of rational behavior. A magical girl might be able to, depending on her personal magic, but she wasn't aware of any illusion or mind magic users currently in Mitakihara. Not unless she'd been dropped into a timeline where Kyoko had her magic back.

"Hey, I can tell you're thinking a mile a minute here, but maybe let me answer before you start plotting my imminent demise," the strange floating man said dryly. "First thing's first." He reached into her robe and fumbled around for a moment, then he pulled something out. Homura tensed up, only for him to tug the object and for it to make a small pop and a squeaky sound as a small spray of confetti popped from the end of the party popper. "Congratulations on making it to one hundred time loops, Miss Akemi. You set this branch of reality's record a little while back, but triple digits is an impressive achievement."

Homura kept her expression neutral, but the urge to cut and run spiked and her soul gem felt heavy on her finger. How did he know? She had been in this timeline for less than five minutes. She had done nothing that could expose herself. It shouldn't be possible. Was she hallucinating? Or dreaming? Time travel was stressful, maybe she was just finally starting to crack. She would need to focus harder if her sense of reality was starting to slip. Did anti-psychotics work on magical girls? That might be an option, if she could acquire them conveniently.

"Hey, didn't I just ask you to give me a sec to finish before you start overthinking things?" the man interrupted her train of thought again. Homura narrowed her eyes and he sighed. "And I'm not reading your mind, either. I'm just much better than any human at reading emotions. Also, yes, I am real, and no, you're not hallucinating."

"Yet you haven't told me who you are," Homura said, not relaxing in the slightest.

The man cleared his throat. "I was getting to that part. Yeesh, kids these days…" He sighed and shook his head. "I am the God of Time. Or a god of time. Look, there's a lot of people in my department and you're probably never gonna meet any of them, so that's good enough, alright."

Homura allowed herself to raise a single eyebrow. "You expect me to believe that you're a god?" She had a very… complicated relationship with faith, but a bumbling middle-aged man was definitely not what she had pictured, even back when she'd still wondered if God would watch over someone like her.

"Hey, you're a magical girl with the power to play jump rope with time and space!" the supposed divinity complained. "I think I deserve at least a little bit of benefit of the doubt here."

Homura made a noncommittal sound. She didn't like giving people the benefit of the doubt. It left her open to disappointment. But if it was a trick, maybe she could get whoever was pulling the strings to slip up and tell her something useful. "Why would a god be interested in me?" she asked cautiously. If he was going to tell her to stop, he was stupider than Sayaka.

"I'm gonna assume you're playing dumb," the God of Time deadpanned. "Sure, sure, keep your secrets." He sighed again. "This is why I don't usually do earthly visits…" He mumbled to himself for a moment, seemingly trying to put his thoughts in order. "Look, the Celestial Bureaucracy up there has a lot to keep track of when it comes to the mortal world, especially when we have people resetting time on a monthly basis and making us redo all the paperwork again."

Homura just stared at him. If he was expecting an apology, he was wasting his time. The loops could end once she figured out the right path to save Madoka.

The God just grumbled again. "Anyway. Your file got switched to my department when you started time traveling, since we're the ones who keep track of that sort of thing. So I'm your personal record keeper. Nice to meet you." Homura blinked, not quite sure what she was supposed to think about that. "Normally, we'd never have to meet, or at least not until you were headed off to the afterlife," he continued. "But I'm afraid that there's been a minor… irregularity in your paperwork."

Homura just stared at him. "What does that even mean?" she finally asked. If she was going to entertain this nonsense, she might as well see where he was going with all of this.

The God of Time awkwardly cleared his throat again and managed to look impressively chagrin. "Well, you see, the beginning of your time loop happens to coincide precisely with the season finale of Above & Below, Heaven's most popular soap opera." Homura gave him a flat look. "And due to the minor instabilities in each loop, the exact plot twist that ends the season is always different." Homura raised an eyebrow and somehow managed to look even less impressed. "And you see, I was watching at my desk while I was filing some paperwork. You know how it is. Or maybe you don't. You kids don't have to suffer through the drudgery of office work just yet."

"Are you going to get to the point?" Homura finally interjected. She glanced over her shoulder, wondering if this was some kind of rambling distraction to let someone sneak in through the window or something.

"Well, yes," the god said. "The plot twist was particularly good this time. The best in twenty loops, easily. I was totally enthralled. And I may have mislabeled just one small, but somewhat significant box on your destiny."

Homura did not like the sound of that at all. "I don't believe in destiny," she snapped, almost reflexively. If destiny was real, then Madoka… She banished the thought before it could even complete itself.

"Destiny doesn't work how you're probably thinking, kid," he said dryly. "It's more… a road map. Or an outline. A series of choices that we predict you're going to make in your life based on what we know about you. We don't get to decide those choices for you, so don't go freaking out about free will or predestination or whatever. We nudge things to keep the world turning, but we're not some divine puppet masters."

Homura wasn't sure if that made things better or worse. She still wasn't sure how much she liked the idea of gods being real after all of the things that she had to deal with. "I see."

And her expression must have slipped, because the God of Time's face shifted to be much more sympathetic. "I know some people aren't thrilled with the system," he admitted. "It means we can't really deal with problems that get really nasty. Gotta respect mortal free will and all that. But think about it. If we had the ability to force the mortal world to bend to our will, would we really be letting something like Kyubey run around and mess with people's lives the way it does? Do you have any idea how much paperwork it generates?"

Homura grimaced. "Paperwork," she repeated.

The deity groaned. "You have absolutely no idea. Back dating things that didn't exist and do now, reconciling entire histories to things that don't exist anymore, rewriting people's entire files to account for their new destinies… If we could get rid of it, we would have ages ago just for the amount of work it makes for us."

Homura didn't respond. She wasn't sure if that was better or worse either, and the lack of clarity in this entire conversation was starting to make her extremely annoyed. "Just get to the point where you tell me what happened to my life and what I need to do to compensate for it." If this set back her progress on Walpurgisnacht, she was going to deliver a strongly worded pipe bomb to the nearest shrine.

The God of Time just nodded. "Alright, alright, I'm getting there." He pinched his nose and pushed his glasses up to rub the bridge like he was getting a headache. "Are you familiar with the concept of a soulmate, Miss Akemi."

Homura blinked. "Vaguely," she admitted. "A perfect romantic partner, usually used as metaphor or a compliment in frivolous romance stories."

"Well, you may not think that it's so frivolous in a moment," the God of Time declared. "Considering that you have one. Or had one." He cleared his throat. "One second, someone from the romance department gave me a memo for this…" He dug around inside his robe again for a moment before he pulled out a set of note cards and cleared his throat. "A companion who will be your ultimate love partner. Someone that, the moment you meet them, a shock runs through your entire body and you fall in love so hard that it hurts. Love from the first moment you make eye contact, with someone who will change your entire life."

Homura's eyes widened just a hair. That could only mean… there was only one person that it could possibly mean. She felt her chest constrict as she rolled his words over in his head. "Wait, what do you mean 'had'?" she interrupted. "If you did anything to Madoka…!" Purple light flashed around her as her magical girl outfit formed and she fought the urge to pull out high explosives in the middle of a hospital.

"Whoa, easy!" The god raised both his hands defensively. "Okay, I worded that pretty badly. You still have a soulmate. And yes, it's exactly who you think it is. The small, really-not-that-bad-at-all mix-up just means that you don't have a soulmate anymore."

Homura felt the tension drop from her body and she slumped back in bed. "What?"

"Well, you see, Dumah and Adriel had been having an on-and-off relationship, but their differing positions in the hierarchy were tearing them apart, and…" He stopped himself. "It was very dramatic and touching, that's all that needs to be said. Anyway, the point is that I was a bit teary-eyed by the time I got done resubmitting all of your paperwork. You know, I have to do that every time you start a new loop. Whoever decided that you're technically a different person when you reset time must have done it just to spite me, let me tell you."

"The point," Homura interjected, a bit of her annoyance slipping into her voice. She wanted to get this conversation over with at some point this loop.

"I may have accidentally written the loop number into the spot where I was supposed to note your number of soulmates," the God of Time finally admitted. "So um, congratulations, Miss Akemi. You are now the first person in this branch of reality to have reached one hundred regressions and to have one hundred soulmates. You'll be the talk of Heaven in the morning, let me tell you."

Homura's facade finally slipped and her mouth dropped open. "One hundred?!" What the fuck was he talking about? She loved one person. One wonderful, beautiful person, who had given her a reason to live. "Are you insane?! Can't you fix it?!"

"Well, taking away soulmates is much harder than giving them out," the God of Time mumbled. "Even if you looped again right now, it wouldn't actually get rid of anyone who was connected to you unless someone from upstairs intervened. And that would mean going through the relationship department and…" He sighed. "Look, just trust me on this. You'll beat Walpurgisnacht faster than I could get your new soulmates retracted. By that point, you might not even want to lose them."

"Having to take care of multiple people is inefficient," Homura tried to deflect. If she had tried to force every one of the Mitakihara magical girls through a loop alive, it would have been a disaster. She had to be realistic. Focused.

"Most of them can take care of themselves," the god interrupted. "I did fill out the forms to make sure that all of your soulmates are at least magical girls, so you don't have to deal with trying to juggle keeping that a secret. A couple are potentials, but we're pretty sure that they'll contract sooner rather than later."

Homura bristled again. Was she supposed to be happy, knowing that more people that she was expected to love would be constantly at risk of death or worse? There had to be a way out of this. "You said I have a choice," she said, forcing herself to calm down. "I can turn them down, even if we develop feelings, right?" People decided not to get together with people they had feelings for all the time. Crushes didn't work out, or relationships were too rocky, despite still caring about each other.

"Well, yes, of course," the God of Time agreed. "But it might not be wise to just start planning something like that right away."

Homura narrowed her eyes again. "And why not?" So far, he seemed to be answering her questions honestly, if constantly getting off on tangents. She would just have to assume that whatever complication he was about to throw in her face was probably true.

"Well, for one, trying to close your heart off to them right away is just going to make you both miserable." Homura felt like she could disagree, but she didn't bother out loud. "And second, because having a soulmate eats up some of your karma and good fortune."

"What?" Homura couldn't keep the confusion out of her voice.

"In a normal circumstance, it means that someone who ends up breaking things off with their soulmate develops a run of bad luck and cosmic misfortune for a while," the deity explained. "It's not pleasant, but it's eventually fine. But you have more soulmates than any one person ever has had or likely ever will have. The amount of misfortune you would take on from rejecting even a handful of them could be… catastrophic."

Homura bristled again. "That's blackmail!" she snapped, her eyes flaming.

"I didn't design the system!" the God of Time countered. "It's a law of reality as much as gravity is!" He huffed. "Look, you could probably survive it, with your particular brand of magic. But do you really want to double your loop count riding out dozens of rejections worth of misfortune, or do you want to give yourself a chance and maybe actually get on with your life and be happy? Who knows? Their strength might even be what helps you finally succeed in saving your first soulmate."

Homura's next complaint died in her throat. What was she even supposed to say to that? "I don't need anyone," she replied, brushing her hair over her shoulder. "I already have my plans. There's no time to spend on wasteful things like romance."

"You're welcome to think that," the god replied evenly. "But I think that you have the potential to meet all of your soulmates before the great Witch descends on this city. And I suspect that you'll be able to make very good use of it."

"I intend to," Homura said. "Is that all that you need to tell me?"

The God of Time sighed. "That's everything," he admitted. "Don't say that I didn't warn you, Homura Akemi. You might find it much harder to shut yourself off from the people who care about you than you think." Then he pulsed faintly with golden light and faded away like he had been nothing but a dream.

Homura scoffed. "Ridiculous," she muttered. Assuming this wasn't someone pulling some kind of prank, it was still an utter waste of time. She only had one month to prepare for Walpurgisnacht again. Even if she would suffer some kind of misfortune for rejecting one of these so-called soulmates, it was far more practically to simply avoid them until after she had dealt with the immediate problems, like Kyubey and the Queen of Witches. Love could wait until Madoka was safe.

She sighed and brushed her hair back again. She could get a few hours of sleep and then get on with things that actually mattered. For all she knew, she would wake up in the morning, having completely forgotten this like the poor joke it was. She laid back and pulled the thin hospital sheet over herself and within moments she was fast asleep again.

--------------------------------------------------​

Much to her displeasure, Homura did not forget the bizarre encounter when she woke up in the morning. Nor did she have any unusual Witches or illusion conjuring magical girls come crashing through her window in an attempt to ambush her while she was distracted. Finishing her discharge paperwork was exactly as tedious as it always was, and soon enough she was back out on the streets of Mitakihara City, ready to begin her tasks for this timeline.

The first tasks were nearly as tedious, but also necessary. An apartment had already been arranged for her, as well as all of her transfer paperwork already sent to Mitakihara Middle School, but she still needed to actually move in. And doing so on her own meant that she at least had the opportunity to set up the furniture the way she liked and get all of her projectors in order. Having something to keep all of her thoughts and plans organized made managing each loop much easier. But it was a bit time consuming, and she had a lot of work to do and limited time to do it in before she was expected to attend school and lose a significant chunk of her day to repeating lessons that she had memorized dozens of timelines ago.

Nine days was still sufficient to take care of most of the initial problems that she was aware of. Losing one to moving in was not the end of the world. And being downtown gave her a chance to move Amy the Cat and pick off a few Incubator bodies. Anything to buy her more time to keep Kyubey away from Madoka.

But one day was all that she could afford. There were Witches to kill and threats to eliminate. Once she did a quick round of the city to search for any unknowns, she cut across the rooftops and made her way toward the city's old industrial district. In most loops, the Bovine Witch would move into one of the old factories around this time. The exact date it arrived was rarely consistent, but it was usually there by the time the Mitakihara Middle School was hosting a field trip to the area. It would die before it could put Madoka in danger.

She hopped across the wide, flat rooftops of the old industrial plants, focusing her soul gem for any signs of her quarry. She felt a pulse from her soul gem and turned, feeling the faint trail of magic. It was here already. Good, that made things simple. She focused on the magical aura and rushing after it, only coming to a stop at the edge of another rooftop. She glanced down, absently noting the presence of several school buses in the parking lot between the factories.

School buses?

Homura's heart skipped a beat. No. No no no, it was too early. The date for the field trip never changed by more than one or two days. There shouldn't be anyone but the workers here. Why were there school buses? Why were there teenagers in Mitakihara Middle School uniforms filing out of the building? No!

The world went grayscale as her shield snapped open and she leaped from the ledge, barreling toward the factory at a dead sprint. She could not fail on her second day. It still wasn't too late. She raced through the familiar hallways of the old factory, following the traces of magic toward her target. She hadn't seen Madoka outside and, knowing Madoka, she would be in the closest possible place to danger, whether she wanted to be or not.

She rounded a corner and felt a massive surge of relief. She could feel the Witch just a little further ahead, but directly in front of her was the person that she really cared about. Madoka was standing in the middle of the hallway, slightly washed out in the gray world of frozen time, with Sayaka standing right at her side. Sayaka was frozen with a hint of frustration on her face, her mouth half open like she was about to speak while Madoka stood next to her with a slightly awkward smile.

Homura breathed out a massive sigh of relief. Okay. This was fine. She could slip past them and deal with the Witch while they made their way out. It shouldn't be able to cause trouble if it was distracted fighting her. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. She was letting herself get too worked up. That first night back had thrown her off. She couldn't allow herself to become distracted.

She set her gaze ahead and marched down the corridor, carefully trying to skirt her way around the pair of ordinary girls who didn't deserve to be dragged into her world. But she couldn't resist letting her eyes drift over to the pair. To Madoka's gentle, friendly smile and Sayaka's endearingly dopey expression of exasperation. Purple eyes met pink and blue for just a moment and then everything changed.

Crack!

It was like lightning was running through her whole body at once. Her back went stiff and she staggered, nearly falling over as her body tried to freeze up mid-step. Unfortunately, freezing in place didn't save her as Madoka and Sayaka moved and suddenly all three of them were on top of each other as they toppled to the ground in a messy pile. It took Homura a split second to even realize what had happened. She glanced down at her arm and nearly groaned. The strange sensation had shocked her so badly that she had lost control of her magic and her shield had snapped shut again.

"Whoa!" Sayaka groaned and rubbed her head. "Sorry, didn't see ya there."

Homura grimaced. This was a problem. "That fault was mine," she replied, pushing herself back to her feet. She could salvage this though. "I wasn't expecting anyone else to be here." She offered a hand to each of the other girls without thinking about it.

Madoka took her hand and Homura felt her cheeks heat up slightly and her heart skip a beat. "Are either of you hurt?" Madoka asked, her voice full of concern.

"I am unharmed," Homura said, trying to maintain her distant tone while Madoka's earnest smile punched straight through her defenses.

"I'm good," Sayaka agreed. "Hey, you're not hurt either, are you?"

Madoka flushed slightly. "No, I'm fine!" she insisted quickly. "I think I landed on top anyway…"

Sayaka chuckled. "Good. Uh…" She glanced back at Homura. "Sorry, I don't think we've met. I'm Sayaka Miki." She shot a wide, guileless smile directly at Homura.

"Madoka Kaname," Madoka added, giving Homura another smile of her own.

That was just unfair. They shouldn't be allowed to just give her those big, innocent smiles like that. She didn't deserve them. Homura felt her heart outright racing. And why was she reacting to Sayaka, of all people? Was she… no, that was completely unfair. An utter disaster. Trying to keep Sayaka alive was a fucking nightmare. She seriously considered stopping time again and just running away. Maybe the two of them would think she was some kind of hallucination. Or at least that she was shy. But they would meet her again in a week anyway, and suddenly running off after leaving them sprawled out on the ground would be a horrible first impression. Bad first impressions tended to make getting Madoka to listen to her much harder. "Homura Akemi," she said, politely nodding her head.

There was a moment of awkward silence as she didn't offer anything more. "So…" Sayaka broke the silence, as she tended to do. "What school ya go to? I don't recognize your uniform. You on a trip here today too?"

Homura once again seriously considered running away. Anything to give her a chance to clear her head. She hated having to improvise, at least when it came to social interactions. "Something like that." At least her magical girl outfit was simple enough that it could be mistake for a school uniform. The last thing she needed was Sayaka deciding she was some kind of weirdo cosplaying otaku. "I just moved here and haven't gotten a new uniform yet."

"Oooh, gotcha." Sayaka nodded safely. "Musta been at some place fancy before this. That's a pretty cool uniform."

Homura had to force herself not to flinch. Only Madoka was supposed to call her cool. "Not really," she deflected as she scrambled for a change of topic. "We should get going. The teachers will be upset if we make them wait too long." This was fine. Time for Plan B. Get Madoka and Sayaka out and then stop time and backtrack. That still worked fine, provided the Witch didn't cause some kind of incident while she was busy.

Sayaka sighed. "Yeah, we got kinda lost," she admitted. "This place is way too big." She shook her head and made a sweeping gesture with her hands. "Lead the way, new girl."

"Oh yes, thank you very much," Madoka added. She absently twiddled her fingers and glanced up at Homura again. It looked like there was a hint of a blush on her cheeks. "Um… your uniform is really cool though. It suits you."

Homura's face flamed and she hastily turned on her heel before either of the other girls could notice. "Thank you," she said quickly. Damn it. She needed to control herself. "The exit is this way."

She made it all of two steps before the universe decided to fuck with her once again. She felt a pulse from her soul gem and the world warped as thick, unnatural shadows and smoke surged down the hallway to engulf them all. Damn it. She'd been too slow. Again. She'd let herself get distracted and now everything was going to be ruined.

"Whoa!" Sayaka nearly fell on her face again as reality twisted around her. "What was that?"

"Smoke?" Madoka pressed her lips together in a worried line. "Is there a fire? We need to find help!"

No, this could still work. She just had to be fast. "This way!" Homura shouted. "The exit should be over here." Please let the exit be where she thought it was.

"What the heck is that?!" Sayaka's voice made Homura flinch. The world twisted again as unnatural cobblestones replaced concrete floors, the walls twisted into a twisting maze of bizarrely covered marble columns, and the ceiling opened up into an impossibly colored sky. Strange groaning sounds filled the air as the smoke coalesced into moving shadows. A single glowing pink eye appeared in the middle of the blobs as jagged tendrils of darkness emerged from their cores, making them look like some kind of alien starfish.

"Sayaka!" Madoka grabbed her friend's hand and yanked her back as the shadowy tendrils lashed out, trying to grab onto her. "What's going on?!"

Homura gritted her teeth and her shield spun as the world went to grayscale once again. Or as gray as it could be when she was seeing red. Her hand went into her shield's storage and drew out a weapon. The sound of shells falling into place as she racked a pump action shotgun was incredibly satisfying. She took a moment to line up the barrel with each of the familiars' glowing eyes and pulled the trigger. The shot froze in midair with each pull of the trigger as Homura moved between the familiars with single-minded focus. "You will not harm them," she muttered to herself as she pulled the trigger the final time.

Her shield snapped shut and both Madoka and Sayaka screamed as the sound of half a dozen gunshots hit them all at once. That was irrelevant though. "We need to go," Homura snapped, shoving her weapon back into her shield and grabbing one of them with each hand and dragging them down the transformed passage.

"Hey! Why aren't you freaking out about this too, new girl?" Sayaka interrupted, though at least she had the good sense to not stop running.

Homura clicked her tongue. It was too late to just act like she didn't know what was going on, wasn't it? "Because I am not surprised," she replied. She gritted her teeth as a trio of new familiars emerged from around a corner. She released her grip and time froze again as she pulled a grenade from her storage and tossed it into the middle of the group before they could lunge. Her two temporary companions both covered their ears as the explosion shredded monsters before they could react. "And you will only be in more danger if you do not listen to me."

"Are you making explosions?" Sayaka interrupted again. "I don't know if that's cool or terrifying."

"It is necessary," Homura snapped. "Now, do not stop running, Sayaka Miki."

"Come on, are you really gonna try to be mysterious about all this?!" Sayaka grumbled, but she did start moving again.

"We can ask questions when we're safe," Madoka interjected, proving once against that Madoka was the smarter of the two, as far as Homura was concerned. Now if she would just stop putting herself between Sayaka and the familiars… Homura would defend them. Neither of them needed to place themselves in danger. She would not allow it.

"We're almost out," Homura said, rather than voicing any of those unhelpful thoughts.

"And then you're going to explain what the hell this is," Sayaka added.

Homura mentally winced. "It seems I have little choice."

 

[kamenhero25]

The Labyrinth gave way to the industrial corridors of the automotive factory again, but Homura didn't let the other girls stop running until she was sure they'd made some distance. She paused and glanced down at her hand, but the reaction from her Soul Gem was already starting to fade. Not go away entirely, but it seemed like the Witch was satisfied to let them run for now. Good, that meant they weren't leading it right to the rest of the class. "You should be safe for the moment," she said, letting their arms drop. "The exit should be straight ahead if you keep following this corridor."

She turned to head back down the passage, but a hand grabbed her sleeve before she could even take a step. "You're not going back there, are you?" Madoka asked, her eyes wide with worry for their rescuer. Homura could be mad, as much as she wanted to tug her arm away and go stop the Witch so Madoka would just be safe.

"Yeah, we need to call someone," Sayaka agreed. "Because there's either a bunch of chemicals makin' people hallucinate, or there's monsters on the loose in the building."

"That won't be necessary," Homura interrupted. "No one you could find would be able to deal with this situation. It would be best for you to forget it entirely and get back to your classmates."

"Miss Akemi…" Madoka frowned and, very notably, did not let go of her sleeve.

"Just call me Homura," Homura said. "I'm not someone who deserves any special attention."

Sayaka groaned and rubbed the back of her head. "Man, you're really trying to play this cool, huh? Like some kinda edgy superhero." Homura's eye twitched and she pointedly ignored the implication. "Cause it still looks like you're not gonna come back with us."

"That would be a suboptimal decision in the current circumstances." Homura grimaced at the familiar, faux-concerned voice, but she schooled her expression before anyone could notice. And a familiar, deceptively cute, vaguely rabbit-like creature emerged from the other end of the corridor. "Leaving a Witch unattended would risk it escaping or being claimed by another magical girl."

"Magical girls?!" Both Madoka and Sayaka blurted the words out in almost perfect sync.

"Kyubey," Homura sighed. Of course it had been here. It had probably been hoping that Madoka would be in enough danger that it could force her into a contract before she knew what she was getting into.

The mascot cocked its head. "So we have met. Intriguing."

Sayaka looked between the two of them with confusion and wide-eyed excitement. "You're a… no, that makes perfect sense, actually." Homura had no idea how that made perfect sense, but she wasn't going to pick a fight with Sayaka over that. "That must be the mascot, right? How could you not have met? Is this like a Sailor Moon thing where the chosen ones already have their powers or something?"

"Not under most circumstances," Kyubey explained. "I am the one responsible for the contracting of new magical girls. This is a very unusual situation."

"It would be, wouldn't it?" Homura replied. She met Kyubey's gaze without actually saying anything more. Good. Let him try to figure it out. Instead, she turned and gave Madoka and Sayaka a very stern look. "You two should still leave. The enemies that magical girls face are dangerous."

"Homura Akemi is correct," Kyubey agreed. "Ordinary humans do not have the capability to confront Witches. You would only get in that way unless you were to become magical girls yourselves."

"Wait, that's an option?!" Sayaka's eyes went wide and Homura started mentally reciting every curse word that she could think of.

Even knowing Kyubey, it was still annoying how quickly he managed to get around to that little offer. "That won't be necessary," she interrupted. She roughly yanked her arm out of Madoka's grip. "An enemy of this caliber is no threat to me." She was sorely tempted to just do away with this Incubator right now. But that would probably make Madoka afraid of her again. She wasn't sure she could handle that right now. "Leave while you still have the chance. I will be able to fight better knowing that there's no one in danger behind me."

"Homura…"

Homura forced herself not to look at what she was sure was a look of worry for her own well-being on Madoka's face. Or the look of innocent, naive wonder on Sayaka's. She didn't have time for this. "Go back to your classmates," she insisted one more time. She reached down and picked up Kyubey by the scruff of its neck. "I'll handle this." Without waiting for them to reply, she turned and marched back into the Witch's Labyrinth. The looks of worry and confusion on their faces were the last thing she saw before the space closed around her again.

"Interesting," Kyubey mused as Homura marched down the twisting road shaped from some poor girl's nightmares. "Wanting to avoid competition is natural for magical girls, but that would be illogical for someone moving into a territory already held by a well-known figure. It is unlikely to be your primary motivation."

Homura scoffed and tossed Kyubey forward, letting her shield rotate and freezing time before it even hit the ground. She drew a pistol out of her shield and aimed directly between the eyes. "What you think is irrelevant." Then she pulled the trigger twice and kept moving. She heard the wet thump of the remains hitting the ground behind her, but she didn't bother to look back.

More of the shadowy familiars emerged from the walls and twisting alleys of the Labyrinth, but they weren't any more of a challenge now than they had been during her exit. And they weren't nearly fast enough to keep up with her pace as she stepped in and out of frozen time.

Nothing stood in her way as she followed the twisting roads into the heart of the Labyrinth, where they opened up into a massive coliseum ringed in twisting, irregular columns. A roar of rage and raw loneliness washed over her as the shadows coalesced and a massive dark minotaur rose up, gripping a massive silver axe in its hands. But Homura stood firm. It has been a good trick, the first couple of times she'd had to deal with this one. Very few people, even other magical girls, would think that the ax was the witch, and the monster was little more than a very large, impressive familiar. Or that it had a lot more tricks than just just smashing wildly.

Unfortunately for the Witch, Homura was not most magical girls. Time froze again and she considered her options. Best to be thorough. This Witch wasn't actually that durable once you realized what you actually had to target to harm it. She drew out a pair of flashbangs and lunged, letting time resume as she flickered past the first pack of familiars. The Witch recoiled and howled again, but Homura was prepared. She tossed the grenades ahead of her as tendrils of shadow lashed out. Then both detonated at once, burning away the dark tendrils and making the Witch recoil in shock as it lost sight of her. That was all the time Homura needed to freeze time again and draw out a pair of pipe bombs. She tossed one behind her, clearing her back of familiars while she shoved the second directly into the center of the shadowy minotaur body.

The air roared as time resumed and both bombs detonated, shredding the familiars and the bovine body. The ax flailed and spun wildly in the air, not used to having to fight on its own. Homura froze time one last time and drew out a heavy magnum pistol. She didn't like wasting harder to get materials, but it was better safe than sorry. She fired twice, and tossed another explosive in for good measure. Pipe bombs were easy to make.

The Witch spun wildly in the opposite direction as one bullet connected, then the other, the magically enhanced rounds tearing into its exposed eye before the bomb consumed what was left. Homura paused for a moment, but then the Labyrinth started to dissolve around her and she allowed her guard to drop as the world returned to normal. Good. One problem solved, a few dozen more left to go. If this was a lucky loop.

Homura groaned and for a moment she just very badly wanted to hug Madoka. She would even take Sayaka at this point. This loop felt like it was fucking with her at this point, and it was making her so tired. Which was not an acceptable thought. She could not waste time with idle thoughts like that. She shook herself and straightened. She still needed to make sure that the two school girls made it back to the bus safely and without interference from a certain Incubator. Then she could worry about taking a brief rest. She sighed and turned back down the now normal hallway. One thing at a time.

--------------------------------------------------​

Madoka Kaname was dreaming. She was sure of that, because she was sure that Mitakihara City wasn't a blasted ruin. She could hear a loud, unearthly cry from above and see… something moving in the thick dark clouds as they roiled and the wind howled. Buildings crumbled and rubble fell into a rising tide of dark water as the storm bore down on the defenseless city. Or almost defenseless. Through the chaos, Madoka could make out a lone figure.

Homura Akemi stood before the storm without flinching, despite the blood dripping from the side of her head. "Homura!" Madoka tried to reach out toward her, but her voice was lost to the raging winds. Was this what magical girls fought? Was that why she'd looked so desperate for them to leave?

"It's too much for her to handle on her own," a familiar voice murmured inside her head. "Madoka, it's not too late. You can still…"

The voice faded into the background as Madoka locked eyes with Homura across the broken gap and she saw a desperate fear behind her beautiful purple gaze.

Madoka Kaname snapped awake in a cold sweat.

Sleep didn't return for her the rest of that very long night. Her head was too full of spinning images of cloud monsters and pretty magical girls who seemed more afraid that she would get hurt than for her own life. And it must have shown on her face, because both of her parents looked at her with obvious concern when she stumbled her way to the kitchen table for breakfast. "Are you feeling alright, honey?" her father asked, gently feeling her forehead. "Did you catch a cold somewhere?"

Madoka blushed a little and shook her head. "No. I just had a bad dream last night. I think I was too tired after the field trip yesterday…"

Her father raised an eyebrow and glanced at her mother. "Are you still asleep, sweetie?" he asked gently. "Your field trip isn't until Tuesday."

Madoka's eyes widened. "W-what?" No, that was impossible. She'd been there. She'd met Homura!

"It's been scheduled that way all semester," her mother added. "Did you dream about that last night too?"

Madoka opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, but couldn't figure out what words to get out. "I…" It didn't feel like it had been a dream, but those monsters… they really were more like something out of a nightmare. "Maybe…" And Homura felt more real than anything ever had in her entire life. It felt like she was making herself dizzy, going back and forth so quickly.

"You must really be looking forward to it," her mother teased. "Just don't make yourself sick, or you might end up missing the whole thing."

Tomohisa chuckled and shook his head. "I'm making pancakes. Hopefully some nice warm food will help you feel a little better."

Madoka blushed again. "Thanks, dad," she mumbled. "I'm gonna wash my face real quick and get ready for school."

"Breakfast will be ready when you get back," her father promised as Madoka hurried off to try to make herself presentable.

--------------------------------------------------​

Breakfast did help her feel a little bit better, but the memories of yesterday and of her ominous dream were still fresh in her mind as she walked to school. It had to be real. It was too strange for her mind to have just made it up.

"Hey, Madoka!"

The pinkette's head snapped up and she saw Sayaka waiting just ahead. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't even realized that she was getting close to the park where they always met before school. "Oh, Sayaka. Good morning!" She tried to wave, but her heart wasn't quite in it.

Sayaka frowned. "Hey, are you feeling okay? Thinking about anything… special?"

Madoka frowned right back, not quite sure if she should bring it up or not. "Um… maybe," she admitted. "You know, I was thinking about… yesterday. And the field trip…"

"You remember!" Sayaka's whole body slumped, like a huge weight had just been taken off her shoulders. "I thought I was going crazy."

"Me too," Madoka admitted. "But… that was real, right?"

Sayaka nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, it has to be." She looked a little amazed as she looked off into the distance. "Magic is real. And so are monsters. And magical girls. Wow…" She shook her head. "And that Homura girl, huh? She was something else."

Madoka turned bright red and hastily looked away. "Y-yeah." She could almost swear that she saw Sayaka blushing a little bit too, but surely she was just imagining that. "She was really brave, I could barely believe it."

"It was so cool!" Sayaka agreed eagerly, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "And we even got to meet her mascot and everything." Then she paused and a frown flickered across her lips again. "Or maybe he wasn't? I'm not the only one who got weird vibes from that, right? She didn't seem to like him very much."

Madoka nodded along. "She did seem a little annoyed…"

Sayaka huffed. "Yeah! You'd think that she'd be a little nicer if he's the one who gave her magical powers or whatever."

"I'm sure she didn't mean it like that," Madoka interrupted. "I mean, she saved us, right? She can't be that bad."

Sayaka sighed. "I know," she said as her shoulders slumped again and the annoyance just fell off her face. "Sorry, I've just been driving myself crazy all morning. Guess I was kinda fixating on her, wasn't I?"

Madoka giggled. "A little," she said shyly. "I don't really blame you though…" She pressed her fingers together and twiddled them nervously. Thinking about Homura kept making her heart race and her head spin. She had never felt like this before.

"She was really cool," Sayaka muttered, half to herself. "What do you think she's up to right now? Probably off fighting monsters or saving more innocent maidens, right?"

Madoka felt her cheeks absolutely burn. "Probably," she agreed, her gaze getting a little distant as she tried to imagine Homura on a much less destroyed rooftop, with her hair streaming dramatically behind her as she faced down a monster to save a princess. A princess in a pink dress.

"Good morning!" Madoka was saved from her own rampant fantasies by the arrival of the last member of their friend group. Hitomi Shizuki smiled politely at her friends. "What are you two so deep in conversation about this morning?"

"Oh, uh…" Sayaka looked at Madoka for help, like Madoka was any better at lying than she was. "Just this cool new magical girl show that I heard about last night!"

"Oh, that does sound like fun," Hitomi said brightly. "We should watch it together sometime."

Sayaka laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of her head. "Sure, if I can find out when it's on." She glanced at Madoka again. "We're gonna have to do that after school though. We'll be in trouble if we're late!"

Sayaka turned and ran off before Hitomi could ask her questions that might make her expand on her hastily crafted story. Hitomi shared a curious glance with Madoka, then shrugged and the two of them hurried to catch up with their friend. But as they hurried down the path, Madoka couldn't help her mind drifting back to Sayaka's original question. Wherever Homura was right now, she really hoped that she was safe.

--------------------------------------------------​

Homura landed lightly on the lawn in front of the Mikuni Manor. Normally, she would be a bit more cautious before she made a move against Oriko Mikuni, if only to avoid any excessive bloodshed. A rash of random disappearances tended to cause more problems than it solved. But if things were moving faster than normal in this timeline, she couldn't risk Mikuni contracting and starting to move against Madoka without her being aware. She needed to know what was going on now. Hopefully she could find out if Oriko was planning anything before she got home from school.

Finding a way inside wasn't particularly difficult, though she took her time to avoid anyone catching a glimpse of her lurking around. The Mikuni manor wasn't in the best repair in most timelines. She could almost always find a window that had a broken latch to slip inside without making a fuss. If worse came to worse, Oriko wouldn't bat an eye if she chucked a rock through the glass, but she preferred to avoid that. She might not like Oriko, but she at least tried not to be cruel, if she could help it. And there were timelines where Oriko either didn't contract, or didn't decide to target Madoka, for whatever reason. It was better not to make enemies when she didn't need to. She already had more than enough of those.

It took her a few minutes to find a window that worked for her, but it creaked open without much fuss. She slipped inside while time froze, just to be safe, but no blaring alarms or unexpected surprises seemed to be waiting for her. The Mikuni house looked more or less exactly the way it always did during her occasional visits: refined, but starting to show its wear through the cracks. Dust and cobwebs were starting to gather in the corners and it was clear that Oriko had stopped bothering to tend to the rooms that she wasn't personally using. With a house this large, Homura couldn't really blame her. It was probably going to take her a while to search the place for anything suspicious as it was.

The first floor revealed very little of interest. The kitchen was stocked with a small amount of food, and the entryway was clean and presentable, but most of it seemed practically abandoned. And, perhaps more importantly, Homura saw no signs of Kirika Kure. No discard sweets packages in the trash or trinkets from the local arcades left idly on end tables. That was a good sign. Kirika made Oriko exponentially more dangerous. She understood the… odd girl's devotion, but she would take not having to deal with her any day of the week.

But the tiger's den was still ahead of her. Homura ascended the grand staircase to the second floor, keeping her eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. It was hardly unheard of for the seeress to set up a few surprises, just in case someone managed to track her activities back to her. Hopefully she hadn't started one of her and Kirika's murderous rampages yet, but she could never be too cautious.

The second floor looked just about the same as the first. Most of the rooms were unused, with dust beginning to gather on stately furniture that had probably sat there for longer than either Oriko or Homura had been alive. Homura was slowly starting to let her guard down, just a bit. All signs were showing that Oriko hadn't contracted yet. The life hadn't been breathed back into her by her mad schemes just yet.

And she almost immediately regretted the thought as she rounded the corner to the residential section of the house. One of the doors was quite obviously propped open, with a band of light spilling out from within. Homura immediately tensed and her shield clicked. She knew Oriko, as much as she hated to admit it. The girl was incredibly meticulous, always having to maintain a perfect image. Leaving the lights on when she left the house wasn't something that she would do by accident. Especially not framed so perfectly. This was practically an invitation for a would be intruder to come inside and investigate.

Homura clicked her tongue. She didn't really have a choice in the matter, but if Oriko thought she was just going to walk headfirst into some kind of trap, she was going to be sorely disappointed. Homura kept time frozen in place as she stepped through the half open door. Inside was a comfortable looking study, with several bookshelves surrounding a desk and a collection of chairs. The light was coming from a very fancy looking lamp that was still glowing softly on the desk.

Homura took her time to search the room, looking for any sort of trap or trigger that might be hidden, or maybe some kind of camera to identify an intruder. But if there was such a thing, it was hidden too thoroughly for her to find any sign of it. Rather than wasting even more magic continuing to check and recheck the room, Homura allowed time to resume its normal flow before she made her way to the desk. Though she almost regretted it when she saw what was on it.

A gift box was sitting right in the middle of the desk, wrapped up with a pretty white bow and topped with a folded envelope. An envelope that had her name on it. Homura felt every alarm bell go off in her head at once and she almost froze time again on instinct. Oriko knew her name. This was a disaster. Clearly, Oriko had contracted early in this timeline. Not impossible, or even unexpected considering the pace of this timeline. But Oriko's visions never seemed to alert her to Homura's existence. Or if they did, they rarely told her enough to stop Homura from intervening. But Oriko had been expecting her. She was half expecting the box to explode if she disturbed it too much.

"Damn it…" Homura strongly considered just freezing time and retreating. But if Oriko was expecting her, then she might not ever get another chance to investigate her this closely. Should she risk the trap to see if the bait was worth it?

She grit her teeth and her shield snapped open again before she snatched up the envelope. She tore the top open and extracted the folded paper from inside. No needles or razor blades hidden in the folds. Just what looked like a letter. Homura frowned as she flipped it open and read.

My Dear Homura,

I apologize for introducing myself like this, but my vision assures me that it's best for both of us if I do so. I don't know what drives you to such intensity, as magnetic as it makes you, but I am certain that it's better to allow you to spread your wings and adjust before I try to insert myself into your life. As much as it pains me to remain apart from you for longer than I must. Please, allow me to offer you one gift that my foresight has seen fit to provide me.

Your goal is not out of reach. Of that, I am certain beyond all doubt. I hope that when we are finally able to walk hand-in-hand, that I can walk with you to that goal. Until then, I hope that the others can comfort you in some way. And please, accept a small token of my sincerity.

Eternally Yours,
Oriko Mikuni

Homura read the letter twice, trying to parse out the hidden meaning underneath. Was this a taunt of some kind? Telling Homura that she was aware of the other magical girls, or potential magical girls, in her life? Or was it some kind of recruitment offer? It wouldn't be the first time that Oriko had decided that Walpurgisnacht was her foe, rather than Kriemhild Gretchen. Those timelines tended to be a pain to manage, but they were also some of the closest that she had ever gotten to actually defeating the living disaster. The harder part in those loops was convincing Madoka that she should allow her friends to fight without her rather than being able to actually defeat the supreme Witch.

She eyed the box curiously. What kind of gift would Oriko even prepare for her? She wasn't sure exactly how precise her visions could be. How much did Oriko actually know about her at the moment? She sighed and tucked the letter into her shield. There was only one way to find out, wasn't there?

Homura tugged the ribbon and let it come unfastened before she flipped the lid off the box. She jumped back, letting the box freeze in time again before anything unfortunately could happen. Then she crept forward, glancing over the top without touching the sides.

Inside the box, sitting in a bed of tissue paper, was a stuffed lizard. It was clearly well-made, not just something cheap that you could pick up at a convenience store, with sleek purple fabric and big button eyes. Small spines made of a different fabric ran down its spine, giving it something of a fierce appearance. Or at least as fierce as a stuffed animal could possibly be.

Homura scoffed. So it was a joke at her expense then. Really, why would she have expected anything else from this damned loop? What an utter waste of time. She was tempted to just leave the thing where it lay, just to let Oriko know what she thought of her little prank. But that would let her know that it had gotten to her, wouldn't it? Though it probably wouldn't be hard to hide a camera or something like that in a stuffed animal, so she didn't even know if it was safe to take. She tentatively picked up the plushie and felt it up for a moment, seeing if she could find any odd lumps that felt like something hidden inside. But short of the button eyes, it seemed as soft and squishy as could be. She might have to do a more thorough check later, but it could stay inside her shield where it wouldn't be transmitting anything for now.

She huffed as she turned on her heel and started making her way back to the open window. This little excursion hadn't been a complete waste of time. At least she knew that Oriko was active and possibly planning something. But she didn't like how it made her feel. It still felt like she'd managed to lose, somehow. And she couldn't afford to waste any time at all right now. She was barely four days into the cycle and Madoka was already aware that magical girls existed. That was nearly a death sentence for the whole loop already. The time she had spent investigating Oriko could have been spent making sure that Kyubey didn't get anywhere near Madoka to start filling her head with lies, or watching for Witches or other magical girls that might put her in danger.

Knowing Kyubey, Mami would probably be aware of her and the powerful potentials soon enough. And while Mami would never put someone in danger deliberately, she would absolutely give Madoka and Sayaka the completely wrong idea about contracting. And the damned Incubator would probably give her the worst possible impression of her possible, if it could get away with it, so she couldn't rely on having a cordial relationship with Mami in this loop either. She had definitely spent way too much time on this adventure and not enough on actually defending Madoka.

The time traveling magical girl sighed. She could do a round near the school and make sure that at least Madoka would be unbothered for the rest of the day. Hopefully, it wasn't too late to make up for lost time.

--------------------------------------------------​

Mami Tomoe methodically nibbled away at her lunch box on the school rooftop. Eating in the classroom tended to get a bit loud, with all of her classmates gathered into little cliques and chatting away their break. Besides, she could meet up with her own friend much easier out on the roof rather than inside.

"Good afternoon, Mami Tomoe," Kyubey said as he hopped down from the fence around the open roof.

"Hello, Kyubey," Mami said, giving him a friendly smile. Just because Kyubey didn't express much didn't mean that she should be rude. "I haven't seen you for a few days. Has everything been alright?"

Kyubey made a small sound that was probably discontent. "I have been a bit preoccupied," he admitted. "And not getting as much work done as I would like."

Mami giggled. It was sort of nice to see that even the usually unflappable mascot wasn't immune to a rough week. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Perhaps, I'm not certain yet," Kyubey replied. "I encountered a new magical girl that I am unfamiliar with yesterday."

Mami raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know it was possible for you to not know a magical girl." How else would she make her contract?

"Neither did I," Kyubey admitted, sounding more annoyed by the thought than she had ever heard before. "Her name is Homura Akemi, and it seems that she doesn't have a very good impression of me. The most likely scenario is that it has something to do with her wish. Perhaps not everything went as planned and she feels like I didn't hold up my end of our contract. I can't be certain."

Mami grimaced, but managed to force the expression off her face in only a moment. "It happens," she said evenly. "Should I be concerned?" She was happy to share part of the city with a fellow magical girl, but she wanted to make sure that they were someone she could trust before she went making any kind of agreements.

"I am also uncertain," Kyubey continued, still sounding a bit displeased at that. "She has been avoiding me, so my knowledge of her personality is incomplete. But my main encounter with her has been witnessing her defending a pair of potential magical girls from a hostile Witch, so she is at least performing her duties admirably."

Mami perked up slightly at that. "You found a pair of new magical girls too? You have been busy." She tried not to get her hopes up. Seeing someone rush into a wish wasn't something that she wanted to push on anyone. But it had been quite a while since there had been a new magical girl in town. She could be a little curious.

Kyubey huffed and stole a bite of her bento. "I am always busy," he said bluntly. "But if you would like me to make introductions, I am perfectly willing to. Perhaps you can gain a better grasp of this new arrival's personality than I have thus far. And if nothing else, the potential new magical girls could benefit from your experience."

Mami smiled again, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "I can only do my best," she deflected.

If Kyubey noticed, he was polite enough not to mention the shift in her tone. "Madoka Kaname and Sayaka Miki are both students at this school, one year below you. I will make introductions as soon as it's convenient."

Mami nodded. "Thank you, Kyubey. That would be very welcome." She stabbed her chopsticks into her lunchbox again. Homura Akemi, Madoka Kaname, and Sayaka Miki… So many new names all at once. She couldn't help but wonder what would happen when they met. She really shouldn't get her hopes up, but it was nice to imagine once in a while. Maybe she would have a partner again. It would be nice to fight alongside someone, at least one more time.

 

[kamenhero25]

This is a list of every canon magical girl who I feel is eligible as a possible member of the Akemi Family (might need to workshop the name). This is not an exhaustive list of exactly who I would like to/am currently planning to include, because there's honestly too many for that and I haven't planned that far ahead. We'll see how far I actual go with this, but it's been attached to my brain like a tumor, so I'll probably at least fuck around with it when I'm feeling like writing something along these lines.

Spoiler: The List

Holy Quintet (5)
1. Madoka Kaname
2. Sayaka Miki
3. Mami Tomoe
4. Kyoko Sakura
5. Mabayu Aki (she's the unofficial sixth member, she counts)

Other Mitakihara Girls (3)
6. Oriko Mikune
7. Kirika Kure
8. Komaki Asano

Hohzuki City Team (5)
9. Matsuri Hinata
10. Chisato Shion
11. Arisa Narumi
12. Haruka Kanade
13. Suzune Amamo (I know she's not on the team, but sorting her here is easier)

Pleiades Saints (7)
14. Kazumi Subaru
15. Kaoru Maki
16. Mirai Wakaba
17. Niko Kanna
18. Saki Asami
19. Satomi Usagi
20. Umika Misaki

Kazamino Team (4)
21. Lina Hitomi
22. Mai Akane
23. Mio Suzuna
24. Miyako Saki

Mikazuki Villa (5)
25. Iroha Tamaki
26. Yachiyo Nanami
27. Tsuruno Yui
28. Sana Futaba
29. Felicia Mitsuki

Momoka's Team (3)
30. Momoka Togame
31. Kaede Akino
32. Rena Minami

Nanaka's Team (4)
33. Nanaka Tokiwa
34. Akira Shinobu
35. Meiyui Chun
36. Kako Natsumi

Azalea Sisters (3)
37. Hazuki Yusa
38. Konoha Shizumi
39. Ayame Mikuri

Daito Apartment Complex (3)
40. Mito Aino
41. Reira Ibuki
42. Sieka Kumi

Wings of the Magius (11)
43. Alina Gray
44. Mifuyu Azusa
45. Tsukasa Amane
46. Tsukuyo Amane
47. Hotori Yuzuki
48. Rion Yuzuki
49. Ikumi Makino
50. Nanashi Kuroe
51. Ryo Midori
52. Shizuku Hozumi
53. Yukika Nanase

Other Kamihama Girls (37)
54. Kanagi Izumi
55. Hinano Miyako
56. Mitama Yakumo
57. Emiri Kisaki
58. Sakurako Hiiragi
59. Rika Ayano
60. Ren Izumi
61. Asuka Tatsuki
62. Sasara Minagi
63. Ria Ami
64. Kokoro Awane
65. Masara Kagami
66. Sayuki Fumino
67. Konomi Haruna
68. Mayu Kozue
69. Himika Mao
70. Manaka Kurumi
71. Ayaka Mariko
72. Karin Misono
73. Asuka Tatsuki
74. Natsuki Utsuho
75. Kanako Yayoi
76. Meguru Hibiki
77. Kush Irina
78. Yuuna Karahu
79. Temari Kira
80. Sae Karino
81. Mikura Komachi
82. Moka Megumi
83. Seira Mihono
84. Rui Mizuki
85. Hanna Sarasa
86. Ashley Taylor
87. Tsumugi Wakana
88. Maria Yuki
89. Hotaru Yura
90. Kagome Satori
91. Yuuna Karahu

Tokime Clan (5)
92. Shizuka Tokime
93. Chiharu Hiroe
94. Sunao Toki
95. Chika Aoba
96. Ryoko Natsu

Promised Blood/Futatsugi Gangs (7)
97. Yuna Kureha
98. Juri Oba
99. Ao Kasane
100. Hikaru Kirari
101. Ranka Chizu
102. Sakuya Suzuka
103. Mitsuru Inami

Neo-Magius (7) (I know they'd still be in the original Wings at this point, but sorting is easier this way)
104. Himena Aika
105. Haguma Izumi
106. Shigure Miyabi
107. San Kagura
108. Jun Kazari
109. Mitsune Miwa
110. Miyuri Yakuri

Folklore of Zero (4)
111. Lavi Himuro
112. Alexandra Kurusu
113. Asahi Miura
114. Urara Yume

Miscellaneous Others (4)
115. Nayuta Satomi
116. Mikoto Sena
117. Livia Medeiros
118. Yozuru Sasame
119. Sumire Yoake
120. Fuka Higure

Spoiler: Qualifications

-Character must be alive (anyone who died before Homura's time loop begins is excluded, as well as anyone who is not born yet). Note, witching out does not necessarily exclude from this qualification if the Witch is still alive.
-Character must be at least 13/in middle school (this excludes Nagisa, Yuma, and a few others).
-Character must not be a mustache twirling psychopath (this excludes Sasa Yuuki, Kagari Hinata, and most of the Kazumi antagonists).
-Anything else that I think makes it impractical to write them into this kind of story.

 

[EclipsingDragonMoon]

Looks great, always love me some Soul Mates when its written well and you write great.

This is a list of every canon magical girl who I feel is eligible as a possible member of the Akemi Family (might need to workshop the name). This is not an exhaustive list of exactly who I would like to/am currently planning to include, because there's honestly too many for that and I haven't planned that far ahead. We'll see how far I actual go with this, but it's been attached to my brain like a tumor, so I'll probably at least fuck around with it when I'm feeling like writing something along these lines.

Spoiler: The List

Holy Quintet (5)
1. Madoka Kaname
2. Sayaka Miki
3. Mami Tomoe
4. Kyoko Sakura
5. Mabayu Aki (she's the unofficial sixth member, she counts)

Other Mitakihara Girls (3)
6. Oriko Mikune
7. Kirika Kure
8. Komaki Asano

Hohzuki City Team (5)
9. Matsuri Hinata
10. Chisato Shion
11. Arisa Narumi
12. Haruka Kanade
13. Suzune Amamo (I know she's not on the team, but sorting her here is easier)

Pleiades Saints (7)
14. Kazumi Subaru
15. Kaoru Maki
16. Mirai Wakaba
17. Niko Kanna
18. Saki Asami
19. Satomi Usagi
20. Umika Misaki

Kazamino Team (4)
21. Lina Hitomi
22. Mai Akane
23. Mio Suzuna
24. Miyako Saki

Mikazuki Villa (5)
25. Iroha Tamaki
26. Yachiyo Nanami
27. Tsuruno Yui
28. Sana Futaba
29. Felicia Mitsuki

Momoka's Team (3)
30. Momoka Togame
31. Kaede Akino
32. Rena Minami

Nanaka's Team (4)
33. Nanaka Tokiwa
34. Akira Shinobu
35. Meiyui Chun
36. Kako Natsumi

Azalea Sisters (3)
37. Hazuki Yusa
38. Konoha Shizumi
39. Ayame Mikuri

Daito Apartment Complex (3)
40. Mito Aino
41. Reira Ibuki
42. Sieka Kumi

Wings of the Magius (11)
43. Alina Gray
44. Mifuyu Azusa
45. Tsukasa Amane
46. Tsukuyo Amane
47. Hotori Yuzuki
48. Rion Yuzuki
49. Ikumi Makino
50. Kuroe Nanashi
51. Ryo Midori
52. Shizuku Hozumi
53. Yukika Nanase

Other Kamihama Girls (37)
54. Kanagi Izumi
55. Hinano Miyako
56. Mitama Yakumo
57. Emiri Kisaki
58. Sakurako Hiiragi
59. Rika Ayano
60. Ren Izumi
61. Asuka Tatsuki
62. Sasara Minagi
63. Ria Ami
64. Kokoro Awane
65. Masara Kagami
66. Sayuki Fumino
67. Konomi Haruna
68. Mayu Kozue
69. Himika Mao
70. Manaka Kurumi
71. Ayaka Mariko
72. Karin Misono
73. Asuka Tatsuki
74. Natsuki Utsuho
75. Kanako Yayoi
76. Meguru Hibiki
77. Kush Irina
78. Yuuna Karahu
79. Temari Kira
80. Sae Karino
81. Mikura Komachi
82. Moka Megumi
83. Seira Mihono
84. Rui Mizuki
85. Hanna Sarasa
86. Ashley Taylor
87. Tsumugi Wakana
88. Maria Yuki
89. Hotaru Yura
90. Kagome Satori
91. Yuuna Karahu

Tokime Clan (5)
92. Shizuka Tokime
93. Chiharu Hiroe
94. Sunao Toki
95. Chika Aoba
96. Ryoko Natsu

Promised Blood/Futatsugi Gangs (7)
97. Yuna Kureha
98. Juri Oba
99. Ao Kasane
100. Hikaru Kirari
101. Ranka Chizu
102. Sakuya Suzuka
103. Mitsuru Inami

Neo-Magius (7) (I know they'd still be in the original Wings at this point, but sorting is easier this way)
104. Himena Aika
105. Haguma Izumi
106. Shigure Miyabi
107. San Kagura
108. Jun Kazari
109. Mitsune Miwa
110. Miyuri Yakuri

Folklore of Zero (4)
111. Lavi Himuro
112. Alexandra Kurusu
113. Asahi Miura
114. Urara Yume

Miscellaneous Others (4)
115. Nayuta Satomi
116. Mikoto Sena
117. Livia Medeiros
118. Yozuru Sasame
119. Sumire Yoake
120. Fuka Higure

Spoiler: Qualifications

-Character must be alive (anyone who died before Homura's time loop begins is excluded, as well as anyone who is not born yet). Note, witching out does not necessarily exclude from this qualification if the Witch is still alive.
-Character must be at least 13/in middle school (this excludes Nagisa, Yuma, and a few others).
-Character must not be a mustache twirling psychopath (this excludes Sasa Yuuki, Kagari Hinata, and most of the Kazumi antagonists).
-Anything else that I think makes it impractical to write them into this kind of story.

Click to shrink...

Looks like a good list, as a hardcore Mabayu X Homura shipper, always glad to see my girl being here.

I'd suggest Kuroe, but unless you've watched the anime and researched into her in Record, she's a bit hard to get a grasp on. But I can easily see her fitting with Homura considering how she latches onto Iroha.

 

[kamenhero25]

Looks like a good list, as a hardcore Mabayu X Homura shipper, always glad to see my girl being here.

I'd suggest Kuroe, but unless you've watched the anime and researched into her in Record, she's a bit hard to get a grasp on. But I can easily see her fitting with Homura considering how she latches onto Iroha.

Click to shrink...

I definitely enjoyed Scene 0, and it may have inspired a couple things about this story.

Kuroe is on the list already! I gave her a last name (Nanashi) but she's grouped under the Wings of the Magius since this references source material, not necessarily their current position.

 

[EclipsingDragonMoon]

I definitely enjoyed Scene 0, and it may have inspired a couple things about this story.

Kuroe is on the list already! I gave her a last name (Nanashi) but she's grouped under the Wings of the Magius since this references source material, not necessarily their current position.

Click to shrink...

Huh, I missed her. And I thought Kuroe was her last name, and its her first name she's to embarrassed to share?

 

[kamenhero25]

Huh, I missed her. And I thought Kuroe was her last name, and its her first name she's to embarrassed to share?

Click to shrink...

It's been a while since I watched the Record anime, but I don't recall it ever specifying.

 

[EclipsingDragonMoon]

It's been a while since I watched the Record anime, but I don't recall it ever specifying.

Click to shrink...

I think it was the game version that specified that. Or her wiki page on Puella Wiki, not sure they added evidence towards it.

Okay checked, and this is the evidence towards it, so its just a theory with no canon statements.

• Although it is unknown whether Kuroe is her given name or her surname, it is more likely to be a surname for two reasons: it is spelled in kanji, and Iroha, a character who uses surnames for most people, refers to her as Kuroe-san.

 

[kamenhero25]

I think it was the game version that specified that. Or her wiki page on Puella Wiki, not sure they added evidence towards it.

Okay checked, and this is the evidence towards it, so its just a theory with no canon statements.

• Although it is unknown whether Kuroe is her given name or her surname, it is more likely to be a surname for two reasons: it is spelled in kanji, and Iroha, a character who uses surnames for most people, refers to her as Kuroe-san.

Click to shrink...

Interesting, but makes sense. I might keep Nanashi as her first name then, since it can be used for a given name as well.

 

[correcthorse666]

This is a list of every canon magical girl who I feel is eligible as a possible member of the Akemi Family (might need to workshop the name). This is not an exhaustive list of exactly who I would like to/am currently planning to include, because there's honestly too many for that and I haven't planned that far ahead. We'll see how far I actual go with this, but it's been attached to my brain like a tumor, so I'll probably at least fuck around with it when I'm feeling like writing something along these lines.

Spoiler: The List

Holy Quintet (5)
1. Madoka Kaname
2. Sayaka Miki
3. Mami Tomoe
4. Kyoko Sakura
5. Mabayu Aki (she's the unofficial sixth member, she counts)

Other Mitakihara Girls (3)
6. Oriko Mikune
7. Kirika Kure
8. Komaki Asano

Hohzuki City Team (5)
9. Matsuri Hinata
10. Chisato Shion
11. Arisa Narumi
12. Haruka Kanade
13. Suzune Amamo (I know she's not on the team, but sorting her here is easier)

Pleiades Saints (7)
14. Kazumi Subaru
15. Kaoru Maki
16. Mirai Wakaba
17. Niko Kanna
18. Saki Asami
19. Satomi Usagi
20. Umika Misaki

Kazamino Team (4)
21. Lina Hitomi
22. Mai Akane
23. Mio Suzuna
24. Miyako Saki

Mikazuki Villa (5)
25. Iroha Tamaki
26. Yachiyo Nanami
27. Tsuruno Yui
28. Sana Futaba
29. Felicia Mitsuki

Momoka's Team (3)
30. Momoka Togame
31. Kaede Akino
32. Rena Minami

Nanaka's Team (4)
33. Nanaka Tokiwa
34. Akira Shinobu
35. Meiyui Chun
36. Kako Natsumi

Azalea Sisters (3)
37. Hazuki Yusa
38. Konoha Shizumi
39. Ayame Mikuri

Daito Apartment Complex (3)
40. Mito Aino
41. Reira Ibuki
42. Sieka Kumi

Wings of the Magius (11)
43. Alina Gray
44. Mifuyu Azusa
45. Tsukasa Amane
46. Tsukuyo Amane
47. Hotori Yuzuki
48. Rion Yuzuki
49. Ikumi Makino
50. Kuroe Nanashi
51. Ryo Midori
52. Shizuku Hozumi
53. Yukika Nanase

Other Kamihama Girls (37)
54. Kanagi Izumi
55. Hinano Miyako
56. Mitama Yakumo
57. Emiri Kisaki
58. Sakurako Hiiragi
59. Rika Ayano
60. Ren Izumi
61. Asuka Tatsuki
62. Sasara Minagi
63. Ria Ami
64. Kokoro Awane
65. Masara Kagami
66. Sayuki Fumino
67. Konomi Haruna
68. Mayu Kozue
69. Himika Mao
70. Manaka Kurumi
71. Ayaka Mariko
72. Karin Misono
73. Asuka Tatsuki
74. Natsuki Utsuho
75. Kanako Yayoi
76. Meguru Hibiki
77. Kush Irina
78. Yuuna Karahu
79. Temari Kira
80. Sae Karino
81. Mikura Komachi
82. Moka Megumi
83. Seira Mihono
84. Rui Mizuki
85. Hanna Sarasa
86. Ashley Taylor
87. Tsumugi Wakana
88. Maria Yuki
89. Hotaru Yura
90. Kagome Satori
91. Yuuna Karahu

Tokime Clan (5)
92. Shizuka Tokime
93. Chiharu Hiroe
94. Sunao Toki
95. Chika Aoba
96. Ryoko Natsu

Promised Blood/Futatsugi Gangs (7)
97. Yuna Kureha
98. Juri Oba
99. Ao Kasane
100. Hikaru Kirari
101. Ranka Chizu
102. Sakuya Suzuka
103. Mitsuru Inami

Neo-Magius (7) (I know they'd still be in the original Wings at this point, but sorting is easier this way)
104. Himena Aika
105. Haguma Izumi
106. Shigure Miyabi
107. San Kagura
108. Jun Kazari
109. Mitsune Miwa
110. Miyuri Yakuri

Folklore of Zero (4)
111. Lavi Himuro
112. Alexandra Kurusu
113. Asahi Miura
114. Urara Yume

Miscellaneous Others (4)
115. Nayuta Satomi
116. Mikoto Sena
117. Livia Medeiros
118. Yozuru Sasame
119. Sumire Yoake
120. Fuka Higure

Spoiler: Qualifications

-Character must be alive (anyone who died before Homura's time loop begins is excluded, as well as anyone who is not born yet). Note, witching out does not necessarily exclude from this qualification if the Witch is still alive.
-Character must be at least 13/in middle school (this excludes Nagisa, Yuma, and a few others).
-Character must not be a mustache twirling psychopath (this excludes Sasa Yuuki, Kagari Hinata, and most of the Kazumi antagonists).
-Anything else that I think makes it impractical to write them into this kind of story.

Click to shrink...

I feel like Fuka probably shouldn't make the list. She witched out well before canon, and I'm pretty sure Sumire gets her before then too.

 

[kamenhero25]

I feel like Fuka probably shouldn't make the list. She witched out well before canon, and I'm pretty sure Sumire gets her before then too.

Click to shrink...

Maybe not, but we don't really know what happened to the Critic Witch, so it could still be around. And people have been wished out of witchhood more than once. Either that or Mirrors shenanigans. I'd rather include the option just for completeness, but yeah, not first on the list of people to get involved.

 

[Endless Sorcerer]

It's always fun when a seer and/or time-traveller starts acting on an event which hasn't yet occurred from the MC's perspective. Very interested in seeing how this progresses.

 

[Worldsoul]

I would like to note that even without Mani almost certainly being a soulmate of Homura's, there's every chance that Mami and Homura hit it off well enough that Mami can be convinced not to encourage Sayaka and Madoka to become Meguca. The reason why Mami is hostile to Homura in canon is because she saw Homura killing an Incubator terminal. If that doesn't happen, then Mami might become far more friendly.

 

[kamenhero25]

It's always fun when a seer and/or time-traveller starts acting on an event which hasn't yet occurred from the MC's perspective. Very interested in seeing how this progresses.

Click to shrink...

I hope that Oriko's little game here is fun. Surely Homura's interpretation of her actions is totally correct and won't cause any long-term awkwardness

I would like to note that even without Mani almost certainly being a soulmate of Homura's, there's every chance that Mami and Homura hit it off well enough that Mami can be convinced not to encourage Sayaka and Madoka to become Meguca. The reason why Mami is hostile to Homura in canon is because she saw Homura killing an Incubator terminal. If that doesn't happen, then Mami might become far more friendly.

Click to shrink...

The chance of them not being soulmates is in the decimals and falling, but you're not wrong.

 

[scapheap]

Spoiler: Qualifications

-Character must be alive (anyone who died before Homura's time loop begins is excluded, as well as anyone who is not born yet). Note, witching out does not necessarily exclude from this qualification if the Witch is still alive.

Click to shrink...

This leave the possibility of Walpurgisnacht(Marguerite or Wasu) being a soul mate and greatly complicating Homura's goals.

 

[kamenhero25]

This leave the possibility of Walpurgisnacht(Marguerite or Wasu) being a soul mate and greatly complicating Homura's goals.

Click to shrink...

Technically it does! A small part of me wondered if it would be funny to have her be girlfriend 100 and her to somehow get wished out of Witch form during the final battle