Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She was never persuasive enough or fast enough to stop the never-ending tragedies. Taking a rocket launcher from her shield, she desperately shot a missile into the side of the Sweet Witch's face. She drew its attention, causing its snakelike form to twist towards her with child-like glee on its clown-like face.

It lunged towards her opening its mouth to devour her, but with the click of her shield, time slowed to a stop allowing her to throw explosive after explosive down the Witch's throat. It was a strategy she had mastered over the unending repeating days to deal with this particular Witch.

A simple matter that made Mami Tomoe's death all the more tragic as she was sure the girl was more than capable of bringing out the firepower necessary to kill it. In fact, she was sure that in many timelines, Mami had slain the Witch on her lonesome through pure firepower…

The body of the Witch exploded over and over again even as it futilely tried to shed its previous body and emerge anew from its mouth, only for Homura to repeat the process of luring it to bite at her to swallow another bomb. The monster’s body swelled grotesquely one final time before a cluster of bombs erupted from within it, annihilating it in its entirety.

With the fight concluded, Homura quickly walked over to where she knew Sayaka and Madoka would have been to the strangely silent pair… The world around them, an arena comprised of a landscape of desserts and candy, started to crack before, finally, the Witch Labyrinth was undone.

The two survivors were displaced in an alleyway not too far off from the hospital. Homura immediately felt the biting feeling of failure in her heart. Sayaka stood there, slightly covered in gore that made Homura glad just for a moment that bodies disappeared when left in a labyrinth… She wasn’t sure if she could have handled the sight.

The girl she had rescued wasn't Madoka but rather her best friend, Sayaka. The girl was still shell-shocked for a moment before her voice came out in sobs, "M...Madoka!" The grief held in her voice was enough to twist even Homura's heart. How could she not sympathize with the girl? How many times had she cried out in the same manner?

Homura felt her mouth go dry, the timeline was already ruined, and she was going to be forced to live through the next month, already preparing for the next attempt. “Sayaka Miki,” Homura began unintentionally, her conscience not allowing her to abandon her…

Sayaka looked at her with a wild look in her eyes, and she snarled, “You! Why… Why did it take you so long to show up?! Because of you… Because of you…” She ascended and marched towards her in a grief-stricken rage. Her voice choked up, cutting off the expected accusation…

The girl stumbled, and Homura stepped forward, catching her, and suddenly the girl embraced her strongly as she began to cry… In response, Homura subtly set up a magical barrier to stop anyone from interrupting or asking questions.

For a moment, Homura felt a swell of indignity towards the accusation itself before it was extinguished… If she had just been a bit more convincing, if he had tried at all to warn Mami about the Witch if she had just dodged the ribbons… Then the both of them would still be alive…

“I’m sorry.” Homura sincerely apologized to the girl, the girl that she was aware was doomed and that she couldn’t save. A girl who made the same mistake over and over, and then died in her own misery… “I’m sorry.” She repeated, this time for her inability to save Sayaka for what is to come.

Sayaka eventually stopped crying, her breath ragged and hard, pulling herself away and holding onto her shoulders in a vice grip, “Why weren’t you there… If you’re such a big superhero that you could swoop in and save me in the last moment…” Homura hesitated for just a moment, and Sayaka snapped, “Answer me!”

Homura averted her eyes, “...I came to warn Mami Tomoe about the Witch. I wasn’t convincing enough for her; instead, she left me tied up at the entrance.” Saying it so plainly made her sick, and she shoved Sayaka off of her, causing Sayaka to stumble backwards and onto the ground…

“Do you understand yet, Sayaka Miki? There’s no such thing as a ‘Hero,’ even a veteran like Mami Tomoe can slip up and lead her friends to their deaths. So you should understand that you shouldn’t become a Magical Girl.” It was cruel to blame Mami, to make her out to be a cautionary tale to try and dissuade the inevitable, but she had to try…

Sayaka looked up at her with gritted teeth, “But you saved me, didn’t you? Even right now, you’re trying to shove me away from being a Magical Girl!” Sayaka scrambled back up on her feet, “Explain that then! What could you possibly gain from- from saving me!”

“Do you think I’m like Mami Tomoe?” Homura’s voice clearly reflected the incredulity she felt, a not insignificant amount of frustration bubbled in her, “I’m not like that at all. In the end, you saw my failure firsthand; I didn’t save Madoka. Even if you delude yourself into thinking I’m a hero, you should at least see that. Heroes don’t exist in this world.”

Sayaka flinched, the reminder of Madoka’s death making her go pale, and her face twisted as if she was going to continue crying, “Fine! Then I wish you could be in a world where Heroes do exist!” Sayaka turned, and started to run as Homura’s eyes widened in panic…

“You-” Homura vanished from the spot she was standing like she never existed, causing Sayaka to turn sharply back, looking for her with a pale expression on her face…Confused and scared, she called out, “Akemi-san?”

“Your wish has surpassed entropy; congratulations Sayaka Miki!” Kyubey appeared, skulking out from the shadows. Sayaka just collapsed to the floor…

She never saw Homura Akemi again.

Chapter Text

Homura was slightly surprised she was able to open her eyes again, fully expecting the poorly worded wish she had accidentally goaded out of Sayaka would have killed her. Yet she did not feel relief, even as she found herself standing in a dim alleyway like the one she stood in previously. It was different; this was not the same place she was just a moment ago.

“Are you there, Kyubey?” She sent out a telepathic message, casting a wide net to see if she could get the alien’s attention anywhere it could be in the nearby area of the city. The lack of a response gave her a sinking feeling in her stomach. Immediately she burst out into a running start, leaping upwards before kicking her foot out into the nearby wall to boost herself even higher upwards so she could get to the roof of the building…

Immediately her heart sunk even further; even the meagre vantage point she had secured herself in the heat of the moment confirmed her worst fears. She was no longer in Mitakihara. But that did not mean the place she was in was wholly unfamiliar to her, even if it had long since faded from her memory…

She descended from the building and untransformed, unwilling to use more magic than necessary for simple scouting and decided to just walk around the new city she found herself in. The many skyscrapers and other commercial buildings, along with the crowded street, gave her a good idea of where exactly she was.

When she passed a newspaper box, she hesitated for a moment, before deciding to pay the small fee to immediately confirm her fears through the path of least resistance. Upon reaching in and taking one, she barely needed to look at the paper to fully understand the dread she was feeling…

She didn’t care much about the actual contents; instead, the date was the thing that stood out the most ‘2004’.She peeked into the newspaper box one last time to make sure she didn’t get an extremely old print as some sort of prank, and sure enough, they were all the same. She was more than half a decade back in time, and according to the title and contents of the newspaper, she was more than certainly in Tokyo. She continued walking, folding the newspaper and dispensing it into a trash bin…

For the first time in a really long time, Homura was truly lost. “What do I do now?” It was quite a safe bet to consider that Sayaka’s wish hadn’t just shifted her through time. “Incubator? Are you there?” Yet she still fruitlessly tried to communicate with the wish granter even if she knew it was getting less and less likely for him to be around.

She eventually came across a bus stop and waited for it to arrive. She proceeded to board it shortly after it arrived… If the Incubator couldn’t hear her due to the distance between her and it at this moment, then surely… It would hear her when she called for it across the city. 

She called for it constantly, even swapping her bus routes watching the bright city pass by yet so lifeless and dull to her eyes. No matter what she called out, she had gotten no answer, simply speaking into the void.

Truthfully speaking, Homura had not felt so alone in a long time. She closed her eyes in bitter frustration, her face twisting finally as she stepped off the final bus she was willing to take. If only she was a bit more gentle with Sayaka- she was a complete idiot. She should have just left the girl to grieve her best friend in peace.

She didn’t bother thinking about whether or not to return to Mitakihara, even if it was there as she remembered it, her friends- Madoka would all be small children. There was no need for her to intervene either; there was seemingly no Incubator which meant no magical girls.

She looked at her soul gem; despite her unease and distress at the situation, her gem was still mostly clear. She wasn’t sure how long that would remain so, especially since the logical conclusion of there being no magical girls was the complete lack of Witches…

“...Tch…” She felt her teeth grit as she resisted her worst impulses that begged her to extend her own life as much as possible for her own goal. As she had a few Grief Seeds on her, she could simply overfill them. While the resulting witch would be too powerful for her to fight effectively, the Familiars it would spawn would be able to create new Witches… As long as they ate people…

She shook her head to clear the disgusting thought from her head. She couldn’t afford to eliminate it as an option, not entirely. If she absolutely had to, she would return to it, but she resolved to save as much magic as she could.

Homura didn’t know how she was going to accomplish it, but she had only one goal while she was here, and that was to return. Whether how long that would take didn’t matter; she already repeated her time loops so often she had lost count. She took a relaxing breath at the thought.

She had to hunt for the supernatural side of this world; she had to have faith that something like that had to exist. The wish Sayaka had used on her was worded very specifically, ‘a world where heroes could exist’. She let out another breath to calm herself…

This had to be a world that needed what Sayaka thought was a ‘hero.’ Or at least she had to hope that the intent behind the wish meant something, as a ‘hero’ to many people could just be a policeman or firefighter.

It was still around midday, as far as she could tell, and by her experience, nothing usually happened until the evening. This is where she ran into her first major issue; she had no idea how to occupy her time. Unless she wished to waste the magical energy necessary to set up a barrier around herself to avoid notice, there were way too many people around to hunt normally.

“Then I suppose I’ll take my time.” She said to herself, inspecting her soul gem in its ring form and began to walk once more through Tokyo. Passing by many stores, offices and restaurants, and ignoring the questioning looks she got for being ‘out of school’ at this hour, she retraced her steps.

Every so often, she would attempt to sense for magic through her soul gem, sending out a radar-like wave through her surroundings as if she was trying to find a Witch. It was expected but still disheartening to simply get nothing back. Yet there wasn’t anything Homura could do otherwise.

So she continued for the next two hours, wandering from place to place, attempting to find any sort of hint of magic in this area of Tokyo. If someone were to observe her, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to think she was wandering around aimlessly, lost in the city… It wouldn’t have been far from the truth.

“...Hhk!” She visibly recoiled suddenly, restraining the urge to pull a weapon out of her shield as she made a surprised hiss at unexpected feedback she had gotten through her sensing…

Just as she was about to give up and focus on something more productive such as where she could possibly stay, she got something. A shudder went down her spine as she felt primal fear of annihilation and wrongness- something with a bit more ‘rage’ than Grief. She could only name it ‘Destruction .’

Her head snapped toward the direction of what she sensed, and she broke off into a run to chase after this only lead she had. Thankfully she could keep up a quick and expedient pace due to her nature as a magical girl… If there truly were no magical girls in this world, the only person that could protect people in this scenario was… Homura herself. 

The location the energy originated at was a museum, and by the time she was steadily approaching it, a large black cloud gathered over it that was concentrated with the same strange energy. Strangely she could sense there was something wrong with a bus outside of the museum…

Approaching it cautiously, Homura finally transformed and dispensed out, after a small amount of hesitation, a pistol from her shield- a Glock 19, just in case. Peeking into the door made her eyes narrow… “Are these… People?”

Everyone within was turned to stone, frozen as if they had no chance to react to whatever had caught them. Shaking her head, she backed away from the bus and entered the building. Rushing through the entrance, she immediately recognized that this was a museum hosting European art and the like, suits of armour in displays along with sculptures, and a few paintings even Homura recognized…

That’s when she felt it, a blinding sense of magical light- yet not quite what she was familiar with washed over her senses even when she wasn’t actively looking for it… “I-impossible…” It wasn’t the same, it definitely wasn’t- but it was very similar to what she felt when she beheld Madoka’s transformed form when she was about to destroy Walpurgisnacht.

Yet, instead of the usual dread she felt, she felt utter relief. She wasn’t in a world barren of magic. There was a chance she could go back home. The relief was enough to almost drive her to tears for just the chance that she might not be stuck here for the rest of her rather short life.

But she quickly regained herself, as the museum began to come alive… “A Witch? No…” It was something similar, at least in its ability to create ‘Familiars,’ but this was clearly not a barrier. As one of the suits of armour came alive and approached her, she shot it, the bullet passing straight through and doing nothing to deter it. Seeing how slow it was, Homura decided to test it to see if held any unpleasant surprises…


It clumsily rushed forward, and slowly brought down its sword upon her…Only for Homura to easily sidestep around the weapon and then send an arcing kick toward its torso, denting its chest and sending it tumbling to the ground. Yet, it was clearly not defeated… But it was basically helpless against her.

That was good; it meant that these things would not impede her from joining with the main sources of the energy she could sense. She continued rushing through the halls attempting to track the source of the energy using her keen ability to track she had developed travelling through the endless maze. 

This wasn’t too dissimilar to running through a Witch’s Labyrinth, quite easier actually, as it was a building constructed with humans in mind, just with added monsters roaming the hallways. She found more and more people frozen solid in stone; she forced herself to move on without dwelling on them, especially as the museum was still coming alive…

Rounding around a corner, she saw a long white-haired man in a red bodysuit and a strange cape in front of two girls, one with orange hair in a black crop top and skirt and another with black hair in a white dress. Homura approached quickly, attempting to introduce herself…

Until the two of them rushed down the hallway with an “Uwaaah!!!” the two cried out; Homura heard the rush of water and also started to run at the same time needing to sprint to keep up with the two.

“Who are you?!” The girl with orange hair yelled, seeing that a sudden third person was added to their group.

“...I am Homura Akemi…” Homura tried to sound clear and concise while managing this unreasonable pace away from the rushing water… Where did this even come from?!

“It’s nice to meet you, I’m Cure White!” The girl with black hair greeted nicely, looking at her at the side only to pale at the sight behind her… A shadow loomed over the three, and a massive wave swept them down the hallway.

The three of them slammed into a wall roughly, and got up in the relatively shallow water before… A large snake-like creature emerged from the waist-high water.

“ZAKENNA!” Its voice boomed, roaring as it did so, preparing to charge and bite at them. Grimacing as its body intensified the pressure held against her by the water, Homura grabbed a flaregun from her shield and shot it into its face… “ Zakenna?!” It flinched backwards as the projectile exploded in red light, causing it to thrash, the waves sweeping the trio off their feet and down the hallway.

As they were sent through the hallway, her companion in black began freaking out as Zakenna charged after them with a repeated ‘I can’t believe it’. Homura grit her teeth, not liking the helplessness of fighting such a large sea creature in water…

Taking out a stun grenade Homura threw it into the monster’s face immediately, it rang out with a deafening ‘ BANG,’ causing the two girls with her to flinch, and the water dissipated, dispensing them onto the floor. Zakenna seemingly retreated after the last attack. 

Thoroughly soaked, the three got up from their position on the ground. “You’re Cure Black, correct?” Homura asked the other girl calmly, making sure she got all the facts…

“That’s what you’re concerned about right now?!” Cure Black replied incredulously as she got up from the ground. But she cautiously nodded “Um… Who are you?”

Homura looked at her, “Did you not hear my introduction?” She tried to clarify, “My name is Homura Akemi…”

Cure Black shook her head, “Not that! What’s with the shield, and those things you brought out of it?!”

Before they could continue, the man in the red bodysuit and cape announced his presence several floors upward, visibly annoyed at being unnoticed. “Enough! The time for our final showdown is now.”

He leaped down, and with a flare of his magic, a fog began to manifest in the museum, along with the statues of the people being lifted and summoned towards a targeted point, swirling around until it created a tornado of debris- made of people.

“Oh no! The people who were turned into statues!” Cure White called out in shock as the statues kept getting sucked into the tornado the man had summoned. The tornado was sent down towards them…

“Look out!” Homura yelled out, rushing to the side of the room and getting away from it, Cure White and Cure Black doing likewise. Cure White and Cure Black did a neat flip, while Homura was forced into a combat roll away from it.

“Be careful; if you mindlessly attack the statues and destroy them, you know what will happen to their original forms, right?” The man mocked them smugly, from where he stood. Homura felt a bit of relief at the implication that everyone turned to stone wasn’t already dead, honestly. 

“You coward…!” The duo of Black and White called out in response, “He’s taken everyone hostage…” Homura muttered with a grimace. That limited her arsenal pretty firmly; she couldn’t exactly try detonating an explosive on him with these statues around.

“Beat him up-mepo!” Another voice from Black’s direction called out, “If you beat him, his dark power will vanish-mepo!” It reinforced as the tornado assailed the duo, the man obviously finding them more of a threat than Homura at the moment.

The man charged forward, “If you can!” he growled out and, blurring in speed Homura could barely track, appeared directly in front of Nagisa. She barely had time to get her arms up to block a hit that sent her sliding along the floor. 

He then assailed Cure White with a kick, which she thankfully blocked. Considering her options, she didn’t exactly trust shooting a firearm at such an erratic target fighting with what she hoped were new allies, so she also decided to engage in close-quarters combat as Cure Black re-entered the battle.

Cure Black dived to sweep his legs under from him, causing him to jump high in the air and behind Cure White. That’s when Homura struck, taking out a golf club from her shield and enhancing it with her magic to strike him at the side of his head, only for him to raise an arm and block it…

“Another one?” He muttered as if just noticing her for the first time. He suddenly reached out and grabbed her arm tightly, and then threw her across the room. Homura twisted in the air so that her back would be the thing to hit the wall instead of her face and slammed into it with a crash.

Cure Black and Cure White were quick to exploit the opening in his defence, suddenly the both were able to throw a series of kicks and punches toward him that he had to slap away or block before he summoned his tornado towards him, causing the two to back away cautiously.

Homura raised herself from the ground and got back into the battle as the man hooked around the tornado to deliver a devastating kick into Cure Black, sending her flying into a nearby wall.

Her reinforced golf club held tightly in her hands, she charged towards the man once more before rapidly needing to disengage due to the tornado suddenly arriving at his position. He neatly lunged around it and sent out a punch toward her, causing Homura to duck under it and slam her golf club into his leg. 

“Insolent…” He sneered and struck out with the same leg into her chest, sending the wind out of her and throwing her backwards again along the ground. Cure White suffered the same fate, being quickly overwhelmed by the man.

Homura once more got up, her teeth gritting as she used her golf club like a crutch to stand up again. “It’s impossible… He’s so fast, and I can’t track his movements…” Cure Black muttered.  “And that tornado is in the way…” Cure White finished.

It was looking rather hopeless; Homura had to agree. She couldn’t exactly risk using her normal arsenal against him without potentially causing some of the civilian casualties they were trying to avoid… She was tempted to freeze time and utilize more of her precious magic to get through this somehow- but could she be certain her guns would be enough?

“Close your eyes and feel it in your heart-mipo” This time, it came from Cure White… Homura was now sure that they had some sort of companion… Hopefully, it would be more benign than Kyubey was; at least, it seemed quite a bit more actively helpful.

Seeing them try to follow its advice and grasp each other’s hands, Homura decided that she had to at least reasonably cover them just in case and prepared to stop time if anything went wrong…

“Black Thunder”//”White Thunder!” The two called out with raised palms before they were quite literally struck with black-and-white lightning into their beckoning hands, and started to glow a brilliant gold. “Our beautiful souls shall crush your evil heart!” The two intoned.

“You fools! Don’t you realize if you fire now, you’ll hit the statues too?” The man echoed Homura’s concerns in a panicked voice- wasn’t this too risky? But she had decided to stand back and observe for now. It was out of her hands anyway; she wasn’t going to risk touching them after they seemed charged with that electricity.


“Pretty Cure Marble Screw!” They called out and aimed their palms at the man hidden behind the tornado, and an energy beam of black and white erupted from them… Before, it twisted inwards on each other, creating a screw-like pattern toward the tornado and their target behind it. 

It pierced the tornado effortlessly, dissipating it and sending the statues flying outwards as the laser continued unabated to the shocked form of their enemy. He tried to dodge, only for the laser to bend upwards after they shouted out, “We will not let you escape!”

The man let out an ‘Impossible!” before the laser fully smashed him into the glass ceiling of the museum in a blinding bright white light that caused Homura to advert her eyes. She could barely hear the man’s scream in pain over the attack… And it was over.

Homura blinked slightly as the whole world, which was unnoticed by her until this moment, lost its purple hue, and turned back to normal with none of the damage the fight had caused, and the people left uninjured albeit temporarily unconscious. The remnants of the power fled in small star-like forms muttering apologies.

Not wanting to be caught in public in her magical girl outfit, Homura untransformed back into her Mitakihara Middle School clothing. While normally she would have been wary to do so next to two unknowns (and powerful ones at that), she knew they wouldn’t confront her violently next to all these people they risked to save. Besides, even she would hesitate to be so paranoid after fighting alongside someone.

“Um, Akemi-san!” Cure White called out to her with a cheerful smile on her face “Thanks for helping us!” She gave a small bow. 

Cure Black nodded sharing the sentiment, “Are you a Pretty Cure as well?” The openness of it all was pretty jarring as if she had somehow managed to befriend Mami and Sayaka at the same time…

“I don’t think she is-mipo.” Answered a feminine high-pitched voice from Cure White’s… Phone case? Something attached to it anyway. She assumed they were simply invisible or hidden before, but it was clear whatever they had with them was attached to their costumes.

The one from Cure Black’s spoke up as well, “There were only the two of us-mepo… I can sense that she’s completely different than a Pretty Cure-mepo!” This one had a male high-pitched voice. 

Homura nodded in their direction, “I’m not a Pretty Cure. However, I am a ‘Magical Girl’... I have never heard of a Pretty Cure before.” Before she could continue their conversation several of unconscious people started to make noises indicating they were waking up…

“Uwahh! Hurry, White we need to change!” Black proclaimed messily flailing slightly as she was suddenly reminded about her surroundings.

“Ah, right!” Her partner likewise widened her eyes in recognition and hurried it along, the two with a spark of light changed back into their red blazer with a blue bowtie and a blue plaid skirt. For a moment, Homura found she didn’t recognize the two in front of her at all…

“Oh! Kashiwada-san!” The girl with black hair exclaimed, causing the other to look at her with surprise, “Ah I forgot about her!” The two ran off down the hall completely forgetting about Homura…

She sighed, they must have been on a field trip regardless and judging from the filled bus outside it must have been time for them to leave anyway. Luckily their school seemed to have an emblem so she could just look it up online later in an internet cafe.

Homura walked out the same way she came in, this time stopping to admire some of the art in the hallway and how everything was restored after the strange-looking man was defeated. “Everything was really fixed…” She muttered to herself.

That was good, that meant their enemy could only seemingly cause damage to the public if they won. The two Pretty Cure seemed more than strong enough to deal with the threat on their own. Homura had no illusion she changed much of how the fight would have gone with her meagre inclusion.

Now that she had a grasp on the two’s combat ability she might be able to bring out a gun or an explosive during the next fight. But she was hesitant to do so, it was obvious to her that despite their apparent skill in martial arts that the two weren’t combat veterans… Bringing out a gun suddenly might spook them, and she already had enough of Sayaka complaining about how loud and annoying her bombs were in close quarters she didn’t need to hear from anyone else.

She inspected her Soul Gem, luckily her magic use hadn’t been all that intensive it was near the same level it was before her combat with the Sweets Witch. If she could limit herself to not use her time stop outside of a few emergencies…
She needed to find an alternative to using them quickly, or she needs to have an efficient way to harvest them after overfilling them. If she could make an ally in those two, their ‘Marble Screw’ should be more than enough… But she had no idea how powerful these Witches could become if she kept rehatching them. It couldn’t be relied upon.

It pained her to not have a concrete plan of action, but she had to ignore it for now. She succeeded in her short-term mission of finding the local magical girls- or in this case Pretty Cure. Now that she knew their faces and had an important lead of where they went to school she could approach them at her leisure… Now she needed to think of where she was going to stay. 

Homura sighed as she left the museum finally after collecting her thoughts. She had plenty of money, that wasn’t the problem. She had stolen more than enough from the Yakuza- more out of completion's sake than anything else- that she had more than she knew what to do with.

The problem was that nobody was going to take a fourteen-year-old, especially one with no family or valid ID seriously looking for an apartment to live in. Securing somewhere abandoned to live in also wouldn’t be worth the magic, as would attempting to break in and steal an apartment.

A hotel would be out of the question as well, it was more likely she’d get uncomfortable questions about where her guardians were if she tried. They’d also likely get suspicious if she succeeded and nobody came for her afterwards… This was a frustrating problem.

“...To think I would have to sacrifice housing as well…” She muttered to herself, suddenly having a new respect for Kyoko. It was intimidating to recognize that she wouldn’t have a building to house herself in. It was just one of the many things she took for granted.

Shaking her head she resigned herself to the fact that she was most likely going to have to join the homeless population of Tokyo. Of course, being a young girl she was sure that would resort to more potentially uncomfortable situations- the most important being that she might get questioned by police or she might need to waste magic defending herself. She couldn’t even use an internet cafe…

So instead, Homura had to get a little bit more creative with how she was going to establish herself a safe place to sleep. She needed to find a large enough building that wasn’t close to any other large buildings that would spot her on the roof, yet short enough that she wouldn’t be terrorized by the wind and the cold.

She sighed again, recognizing she was going to need to scout the city even longer than before to just try to find this location. Maybe she could get lucky and find an alternative, but she doubted it. If she was a bit more… ‘Womanly’ like Mami Tomoe maybe she could have faked her age.

She shook her head to remove all the absurd thoughts within it, along with a small (just a small) feeling of inadequacy. This gave her an opportunity to thoroughly familiarize herself with Tokyo, it was best she didn’t waste it.

Briefly, she stopped at an internet cafe on her journey to make a few general searches on the internet. She paid a small fee to gain access to the establishment for the next few hours. Homura needed to look up the schools in and around Tokyo to find where Cure White and Cure Black went after all…

More than that, however, Homura needed to do something mindless to pass the time until it would be safe for her to scout the roofs of buildings without being caught. She had a feeling it would be bad if she was caught, she couldn’t afford the optimistic outcome of becoming a public ‘superhero’ or the much more cynical reality of being hunted for an experiment or something.

Luckily it didn’t take long for her to find where her targets went to school. Verone Academy was rather large and prestigious. It had a Junior and Senior High section. She wrote down where it was, and its nearby streets on a notepad to make sure she didn’t forget.

“I should head towards there later…” She mumbled to herself. It seemed to be close to a residential district firmly in the Nerima Ward. Presumably both Cure White and Cure Black lived there. Even if they didn’t it would still be advantageous to base herself near their school.

Her work finished, she began idly searching around the internet mindlessly. She started to read the local news blankly, before trying to swap to something more interesting. Unfortunately, due to the time period being 2004, the internet was still rather primitive… In an annoying fashion. “Tsk…”

She got up and headed outside, she would have a lot more entertainment at a library than trying to find something on the old clunky internet. She’d likely be able to stay in one until nine… Hopefully, she’d find a good book.  
She held back a curse, she really was reduced to visiting internet cafes and staying in the library to simply wait until she could move freely under the constant anxiety of her soul gem…

“...Just what did you want from me, Sayaka Miki?”

Chapter Text

Homura awoke from her phone silently vibrating off the mat she was sleeping on, the only thing illuminating the area due to the tarp covering her. The time reflected 4:30 AM. Long before the sun would earnestly illuminate her current position. The black tarp she used gave her cover from any curious eyes in the distance would make her extremely obvious once people started to get up and inspected this roof with any scrutiny.

Transforming into her magical girl outfit, she took out her shield and put the… ‘Camping equipment’ back into it. Swiftly she descended off the roof and into a nearby alleyway. She did not feel particularly rested from her attempt to sleep on the roof, but that was unfortunately true even in her apartment. Still, the lack of comfort had clearly taken its toll…

Her body ached from effectively sleeping on the ground and being exposed to the elements… She had never gone camping before, let alone done something so extreme as try to live outside of her home and was totally unprepared for the reality of it. The closest thing was forgoing sleep entirely. But the knowledge that she didn’t have a safe place to sleep or regain herself in was… In its own way something that made her anxious beyond the discomfort. 

She closed her eyes, still weary from her restless sleep and a not-insignificant amount of guilt that suddenly crawled up her spine. Was this how Kyoko lived like? Unbidden the times she had visited Kyoko in wherever she had held herself in one timeline or another swirled in her head. She had always planned to surrender her apartment to the girl and leave Mitakihara when it was all over, originally it was simply due to the simplicity- Homura wouldn’t have needed it when she left after all…

But now… Homura felt a twinge in her chest at the thought that Kyoko was living like this, or forced to break into places… She couldn’t really do anything for the girl, especially at the moment… But she felt resolved to give her apartment to her instead of it being part of a whim. The sudden pit in her stomach wouldn’t go away until she made that vow to herself.

Focusing on her current predicament, which didn’t really make her feel better but was much more productive, Homura sighed… It was probably Verone Academy’s day off and it wouldn’t be worth her time to visit the school. She had no idea where the two lived, nor even their names.

She couldn’t even use her magic as freely as she was used to, or spend her time hunting for Witches. Time seemed to slow to an absolute crawl with all this free time she simply could not fill. While she could remember a time when this was true for the majority of her days it was back before she was a magical girl- when she was a sickly girl in the hospital. That was so long ago from her perspective it felt like an entirely different life.   

She sighed, and started to move herself out into the streets, she had no desire to eat any of the MREs she had stolen from the JSDF. She had no reason to be stingy or hasty with her meals with such a lack of urgency in her life… So instead she started to search for a convenience store hoping to find one that was open twenty-four hours a day. 

Being that it was Tokyo it wasn’t that hard to eventually come across one, Mitakihara was much the same as she knew from the many late-night hours she spent patrolling the city. She walked in with a sluggish gait, and immediately beelined to the sandwich section ignoring the clerk’s only slightly tired ‘Good morning!’.

She had long since stopped wearing her school uniform, wearing a plain sweater and skirt. It allowed her to store more things in her pockets, the most important being disposable cash. While she was sure some of her money was invalid, being minted after 2004 she doubted people would be able to tell at a glance.

Purchasing one of their more appetizing and ‘safe’ sounding sandwiches (she didn’t entirely trust the ones that had eggs or egg products in them to be fresh at this hour) from their selection she quickly made her way out. Locating a place to sit on a nearby bench at a bus stop Homura slowly ate her breakfast for the day.

Already, she found herself missing Madoka. No, that was incorrect- she always missed Madoka. She forcibly closed her eyes in grief, to think she would fail so quickly and in such a devastating fashion. Remembering the blood splattered over Sayaka’s body-

She no longer felt like eating, a cold sweat building at the back of her neck… She continued anyway, needing to distract herself with something else- and she could already hear the snarling rebuke Kyoko would have given her for throwing it away.

Homura was starting to realize a brutal truth about herself the longer she stood in this time. That despite everything, the constant tragedy and repetitive interactions within it- she couldn’t live without the endless maze. She had clear goals to strive towards… 

Here Homura had nothing, she didn’t even if she could go home. If that was the case, she wondered if she could really go on living. She really felt as though she didn’t want to, but that would be throwing away Madoka’s sacrifice to save her so many times.

It was extremely difficult to keep feeling optimistic about her situation, to be hopeful that these Pretty Cure had a solution to her problems. Really, hope in general had been hard to come by ever since she had lost track of how many times she had traversed the endless maze. Now that Sayaka had sent her into an entirely new reality…

She subconsciously rose a hand to strike through the locks of her hair, trying to focus away from such a grim topic. “Even if all that’s true… I can’t afford to give up.” It was much too early to give into her own circling thoughts, attempting to tear at her heart like starving vultures.

She had to search for it, a miracle that could bring her back to Mitakihara- to Madoka. Even if she had to somehow create it herself. Steeling herself, Homura mentally prepared herself for a day where she did nothing at all- something she hadn’t done in what felt like years…

She sighed as she looked at the time, it would at least be another four hours until the library opened… Lacking anything to do, Homura decided that she was instead going to scout out Verone Academy in person. While it was a pretty pointless endeavour considering the two people she wanted to meet there wouldn’t be there…

It had some small value as a target to see with her own eyes, and to map the route with her own feet… It wasn’t as if she had anything else to do. Afterwards, she would have to find something to occupy her time with, maybe memorizing the nearby neighbourhoods to better navigate the area when she returned to pass the time until the library opened.

She felt as though this new monotony would be something she’d need to get used to…

Several hours later she left the library with a sigh of annoyance. Even though she had read quite a bit before everything, and had to have read many textbooks and admittedly dubiously legal materials in her quest to defeat Walpurgisnacht… It was quite clear that she lacked an honest enjoyment in reading. Instead, she often found herself wandering back to the same topics she thought of this morning…

“I should look for a place to shower…” Homura muttered to herself, trying to give herself a goal to work towards. Her mind immediately went to a public swimming pool. It’d need to be indoors, it was still quite chilly outside… Who knows, maybe she’d find a little enjoyment in the activity.

It was then that she felt it again, the strange malevolent energy brushing against her magically attuned senses. She was much less shocked and disturbed this time, it was familiar enough yet- still uncomfortable. She ran off once more, this time trying to look as if she was merely a middle schooler out for a jog instead of desperately sprinting to the scene previously…

She wondered if those two she had met before were the only ‘Pretty Cure’ in the metropolis or if she was likely to meet more Pretty Cure the longer she stayed in Tokyo. She’d prefer it if those two were the only ones nearby at least, she would hate to need to build rapport with several different groups.

Luckily it wasn’t too far away from her current position, strangely however despite the fact she could sense the power there didn’t seem to be any active combat she could hear at this distance, but all the same, she could sense it was actively moving more toward her than further away… Seeing the streets suspiciously empty, Homura transformed and suppressed the pain in her lungs and the aches in her legs to sprint even faster at an inhuman speed.

When she rounded the corner she saw the untransformed version of Cure White sprinting away from something as if chased… Then immediately afterwards the same man from yesterday appeared right in front of her. Sucking in a seething breath Homura’s shield clicked and its gears rotated… Time stood still.

The man had to have been toying with Cure White, she knew that logically. But she couldn’t afford to risk Cure White’s life on the arrogance and cruelty of an unknown. She didn’t see the girl’s partner anywhere and had to come to the conclusion that they were separated…

Arranging herself in between the two, Homura took out a projectile taser and shot it directly at him on its highest setting. Discarding it, she took out a smoke bomb and a stun grenade- aiming to detonate the first on the ground between them and then the latter on her enemy's face. She jumped backwards, coming side to side with the stilled Cure White as Time Resumed…

The stun grenade sounded out with a loud BANG, surprising the girl she knew as Cure White and causing her to suddenly whimper in fright… Homura suppressed a grimace, if that’s how she reacted to that then she wondered how she’d handle the guns she’d likely need to bring out. A short scream came from the cloud as the man reacted to both the taser and the flashbang…

“A-Akemi-san?” She exclaimed in surprise, looking shocked at her appearance. Yet there was definitely a grateful look of relief in her tone and face. Homura wondered if she’d still be relieved if she knew that Homura only intervened because she needed her…

“Can you transform?” Homura asked curtly, yet already suspected the answer. There would be no reason for the girl to have fled if she could have fought… Already she was taking out a Type 89 from her shield, ignoring the sudden wary look in the girls' eyes as she did so.

She shook her head no, “I could only transform if Misumi-san is there with me-” Before they could continue, the man Homura had attempted to viciously stun into submission retaliated with a red bolt of energy…

Homura quickly shoved the girl out of the way with her body, toppling her to the sidewalk as she took the hit on her shield- where it promptly exploded sending her toppling backwards until she could regain herself in a roll.

She grimaced, her left hand and arm were at the very least broken from that single attack. She dulled the pain she felt and raised her gun in the man’s direction sending off a spray of bullets at him. Homura  “Go! I’ll hold him off!”

The man simply flourished out his hands and with a thunderous blast of wind from his magic aura, the bullets refracted outwards peppering the nearby construction area. He then rushed over to her in a blur, sending a downward punch towards her scalp with a thunderous “Damn interloper!”

Pushing her magic through her body, Homura could do nothing but raise her shield to block the strike dropping her gun to support her arm with the other, and when it connected it rang out like a gong. Homura could not only hear, but feel the snapping of bones throughout her arm, and felt her whole form buckle under the weight of the strike…

Despite this all, Homura leveraged her left leg and hooked her right one upwards, using the fiendish weight this man put behind his strike to add more speed into her rotation to deliver a powerful kick into his side causing him to let out a gasp of air and stumble a few feet. 

The man brought out both his hands, sparks of lightning coming off of them as a warning towards the nature of his next attack… Her shield’s gears started to turn, just as he shouted “DIE!” it clicked once more… Time had frozen.

She took a glance at where ‘Cure White’ stood, and she had frozen likely to protest leaving her. She tsked, she couldn’t freely use explosives like this as she’d like… Instead, she had to carefully toss one of her pipebombs at the man’s chest directly, and another at his feet.

Afterwards, she ran towards Cure White, diving towards the girl who had just gotten back up after she knocked her over the first time… Before they connected, time resumed and she was knocked over with an ‘Oof!’.

Meanwhile, the strange man in the red bodysuit and cape barely had time to mutter a “What-” Before he found himself in the epicentre of a large explosion, slamming through the concrete barriers surrounding the construction sight and audibly hitting something within.

“Hurry up and get out of here…” Homura urged once more in a sterner tone to the girl in this brief moment of respite, refusing to let her guard down. There was no way that explosion did much more than inconvenience that monster.

The girl shook her head, “I can’t just leave you to face him alone Akemi-san!” She still looked afraid but determined to help her. The being in her phone case reacted in silent awe “Honoka-mipo…”

Homura honestly was feeling a familiar frustrated dread. “How can I protect you if you’re going to stand in the middle of the battlefield?!” She hissed out finally fully standing up and tensed, ready for the next assault.

“Yes, if you keep going on like you are you will both perish.” The man said emerging from the hole in the wall, barely looking injured from Homura’s bombing attack. “If you give me the Prism Stones I’ll consider sparing both of your lives!”

Honoka stepped forward, “Never! I’d never consider giving the Prism Stones to someone like you!” She said spirited, the brief fight between Homura and him doing nothing but strengthening her resolve to oppose him.

Homura interjected a sharp comment of her own, “Why are they so important to you?” She was attempting to stall for time and to collect information in the same breath.
“It’s simple, the Prism Stones will secure the Dark King’s eternal existence. His eternal existence is the Dark Zone’s eternal existence, which is my own.” He ignored Honoka and focused entirely on Homura’s question… Before suddenly he smirked. “You are not like the Pretty Cure, I could tell.”

He continued, “You should know already that your situation is completely hopeless, you lack the power to defeat me. While Cure White steadfastly denied my generous offer I’ll give you a special chance: deliver me the Prism Stone from her and I’ll spare you my wrath.”

A part of her was quite touched when she glanced at Honoka and saw that she had an expectant glance of her own- reflecting a firm belief that Homura wouldn’t betray her. It was naive, too trusting Homura chided in her own head… Yet, she felt her fist tighten in unexpected fury at the thought!

“Don’t think so lightly of me…!” Homura hissed out in outrage and a small amount of disgust- disgust that she had briefly thought of the idea in the first place. Even as an intellectual exercise… No, Homura did not think she was truly capable of truly betraying this girl after she committed to protecting her. Not until she had exhausted every option.

Heroism was something she thought was entirely foolish because it got people killed. People she cared about killed, over and over and over and over! The word was like a nightmare for her, how many times had she seen Madoka killed due to Heroism? But on the other side of the coin, how many times did it leave her inspired in all that tragedy- Even if she wasn’t a hero, even if she was taking up an ill-fitting role as his enemy…!

“Don’t think I’d betray an ally for the petty ambitions of a pitiful man…” She rebuked him harshly, yet her voice was steady and controlled as if she spoke a calm fact to his face.

Immediately he snarled back, “You dare call the Dark King’s eternal existence… Petty?! You dare call me pitiful?!” His aura visibly bubbled with pure fury, as if this last piece of mockery was one piece too much for him to bare… ”I’ll destroy you!”

“Hold it right there!” The civilian form of Cure Black finally appeared, breathing heavily as if she had run all the way here as fast as she could. Surprisingly, the man seemed to regain his composure at the sight of her…

“Finally, the both of you are together! Hurry up and transform, I’ll defeat both the Pretty Cure and this interloper at full strength!” In either a twisted desire to prove himself or a warped sense of honour, he patiently waited for the two to finally transform.
The duo wasted no time in accomplishing just that, swiping cards into their phone-like objects and a mighty shout “ Dual Aurora Wave!” With a blinding light splitting the sky- the power washed over her due to her proximity… Yet, she wasn’t harmed.

“The messenger of light, Cure Black!” Cure Black finished, now clad in her transformation, ”The messenger of light, Cure White!” Continued Cure White, likewise… The two then spoke in tandem, “Together we are Pretty Cure!”

“Servants of the Dark Power…” Cure White began, pointing outwards toward the man, Cure Black continuing, “Return to the darkness from whence you came!” Pointing outwards herself.

Homura felt a wave of nostalgia wash over her, remembering the times Madoka and Mami had tried to get them to do things like that… She refused to feel embarrassed by those moments, remembering them fondly as a team bonding exercise back when the timelines allowed for such moments… Here though, this was just a bit exasperating. Though Homura refused to judge yet, the elaborate transformation might be completely necessary.    

The relief of having these two combat-ready was almost enough to send her to the floor, already her body was weary and beaten from her brief combat with this monster. Especially as she saw them both charge to engage with him, Homura couldn’t let herself be outshined so utterly… So she ran in as well even as her body disagreed with the move.

Black arrived at him first, sending a straight punch toward his chest that he knocked aside, White following it up with a lunging kick towards his head that he threatened to grab… Homura flanked wide left and struck him in the back of the head suddenly with a hammering fist attempting to stun him…

His head moved an inch forward due to the blow allowing White’s kick to connect sending him sprawling into the construction zone. The trio rushed after him, easily jumping over the fencing and other barricades that were meant to keep people out.

Upon seeing them enter it, he immediately telekinetically lifted an excavator and threw it at the trio, causing them to split up, Black yelling “Uwaahh! Look out!” as she and White neatly dodged by doing a neat jump backwards while Homura had to desperately dive out of the way and roll.

Swiftly taking out a Remington 870 shotgun out of her shield, Homura aimed it at Dark King’s servant and started to enhance the bullets with her magic… Before unloading as much as she could at his general direction to suppress him. She could at least do this much!

Having fought Homura long enough and been exposed to her guns before, the man merely attempted to shield himself as he has done several times before… Only for the bullets to pierce his defense with an explosive force, staggering him backwards with every shell shot at him.

Cure Black and Cure White swiftly descended upon him, jumping into the air and attacking him with a lunging kick in tandem that smashed into his chest and sent him flying backwards across the construction zone where he landed on a pile of girders with a crash.

Homura swiftly reloaded her shotgun as she moved up the construction zone alongside the Pretty Cure. “Be careful!” She suddenly warned, spotting the girders the man was in start to shift…

Due to her warning, the two stopped in time to bend to the side to avoid being skewered by the makeshift projectile the enemy had thrown at them, and then slapped away two more. Homura herself also simply sidestepped around the one aimed at her, used to such attacks from various Witches.

Unfortunately, their distraction with the girders allowed him to throw another red ball of energy at them landing directly upon Cure Black’s defending crossed arms- exploding and sending her sprawling into a concrete barrier…

“Black!” Cure White shouted out, before she had the man sprint extremely fast toward her and arm-check her into the distance where she smashed into a pile of gravel.

Gritting her teeth, Homura aimed her gun at his face and shot him once again, but this time he seemed mostly unaffected by the blast his defences adapted. His leg swept out in an arc and smashed into Homura’s side knocking the wind out of her and causing her to drop her gun as she went flying and crashing into a crater in the ground.

“Is that all you’re capable of?!” He said with an enraged look on his face, raising up his arms he began wrenching the many different pieces of construction equipment and concrete telekinetically off the ground and threw them at his slowly recovering opponents at great speed!
Homura being used to dodging random pieces of industry through her many tries against Walpurgisnacht managed to mostly dodge the barrage through pure instinct, dive-rolling through a small hole in the attack pattern.

Cure White and Cure Black weren’t so lucky, Black being hit in the chest by a wheelbarrow, and White being hit with a concrete barrier. To their credit, they both recovered pretty quickly. Homura was pretty amazed at how durable the two Pretty Cure seemed to be. Sure, Homura wasn’t the most ‘combat-focused’ magical girl, her power mainly being in her shield but even Kyoko would have been pretty injured taking a direct hit…

“You are all just hypocrites who can’t even protect your own lives!” The man sneered out as he rushed Homura once more, grabbing her and throwing her across the construction zone towards Black- who luckily caught her instead of letting her just crash into them…

He then rushed at her, Black dropping Homura onto the ground to defend herself from a straight punch that sent her reeling backwards several feet. He then had to dodge to the side as White kicked at him, before jumping over her grabbing her by her right arm and throwing her painfully towards the ground with such force a massive amount of smoke and dust obscured their forms.

“You all only exist for the Dark King to destroy! I’ll prove that right now!” The man’s hands stretched out, and bright electrical arcs started to spark off his hands- the power of Destruction swelled…

Then, a massive aura blasted out from where the two Pretty Cure were thrown! “Black Thunder”//”White Thunder!” The two called out with raised palms before they were struck with black-and-white lightning into their beckoning hands, and started to shine in a golden light. Even as their enemy charged up all the power in his meagre form, the Pretty Cure’s aura pushed his back with a vengeance “Our beautiful souls shall crush your evil heart!”

“Pretty Cure Marble Screw!” They called out and aimed their palms at the man, and the attack was released like an unstoppable cannon shot travelling toward their arrogant target… The force was so great that the laser pushed the two backward into the sand a few feet.

The attack twisted until it looked like its titular name, like a beautiful flare it illuminated the makeshift arena they were in as the white and black lightning drilled towards the man… But he wasn’t out yet, as he released his own attack to counter with lightning against lightning that crashed against each other with a screech and a crack…

“Impossible! It’s impossible for me to lose against the likes of you…!” The man seethed and raged as if this whole combat was nothing but a humiliation… As if responding to his anger his lightning pushed harder against the black-and-white drill pressing against him…!

“I won’t let you!” Cure Black yelled out, and suddenly her hand tightened against Cure White’s own- and in response the drill-like lightning the Pretty Cure created reinvigorated itself, swelling in power like an overwhelming torrent crashing through their enemies defense slowly- and then suddenly all at once!

“No! Why is this-” He didn’t even have time to finish his sentence before he was enveloped entirely in a complete flash of burning light his voice trailing off into a pained scream… As the attack dissipated, there was nothing left but a rapidly disappearing black cloud and a gem falling upon the ground. 

After that, the two Pretty Cure looked like they were about to fall over due to exhaustion, breathing heavily with even Cure White sinking to the floor. Homura wasn’t that better, she was just much better at pretending she was fine.

“Is it over?” White asked Black in an almost pitiful tone, exhaustion was clearly affecting her both from the battle in general and the final attack.

Black looked at her with an exhausted expression in return, “Yeah I think so…”
“No… We- that person…” White covered her face in grief, confusing Homura for a moment before she realized she was grieving over their fallen foe. Admittedly, Homura had assumed he died during his museum appearance, and hadn’t thought how these two would react…

“He was a bad man whose goal was the destruction of everything and everyone from what I could tell… You shouldn’t mourn such a person.” Homura responded softly trying to comfort the girl the only way she knew how.

Their two magic cellphone transformation devices flew off of them and revealed themselves as two plush-like creatures- Homura had to hold back her instincts to shoot them. She was trying really hard to give them the benefit of the doubt.

The yellow one spoke words of comfort first, “Don’t worry-mepo. He just returned to the darkness from whence he came-mepo.” That sounded a lot like dying to Homura, but she wasn’t going to interject.

“He will never be able to return in that form again-mipo” The pink one finished… Despite everything, Homura wasn’t assured. This really did sound like they just killed him, yet she held her tongue… If it helped these two come to terms with what happened she wasn’t going to dispute it.

Homura picked up the gem their enemy had dropped, it disintegrated in her hand revealing a heart-shaped emerald-coloured gem. “During the fight, he kept talking about the Prism Stones… Is this what he was talking about?”

She showed off the gem in her hand to the four in front of her. It would have been quite a coincidence if they were unrelated things… Immediately the two plush-like animals brightened at the sight! “That’s a Prism Stone! Yes, that’s right, Akemi-san!”

Unconsciously, Homura had her hand clasped around it already deciding to use it as leverage. While it felt extremely unlikely, it was possible that she wasn’t among allies after all… “That’s right, you all know who I am but I don’t know who you are, or what’s even going on.” Her eyes narrowed, “I want to hear an explanation, and to discuss the terms of our alliance…”

  

Chapter Text

Immediately the two girls lost their transformation, sheepish expressions breaking through their exhaustion. Nagisa and Honoka both felt a little bit terrible at the fact that they hadn’t been able to properly introduce themselves all this time!

“Ah, we didn’t get to introduce ourselves back at the museum! I’m Nagisa Misumi…” Nagisa trailed off awkwardly laughing nervously in the face of Homura’s flat- almost cold expression on her face.

Honoka tried to muster up a small smile, still shaken up by Pisard… Returning to whence he came, “I’m Honoka Yukishiro… Um, thanks for saving me Akemi-san!” She managed to awkwardly shuffle herself up to give a bow in thanks.

The yellow plush-like form of Mepple puffed up, “And I’m Mepple, the Chosen Hero of the Garden of Light-mepo!” He announced proudly.

The pink one smiled kindly, “Thank you for helping us Akemi-san!-mipo. My name’s Mipple, and I’m the Princess of the Garden of Light-mipo…” Despite both of their grand titles, it was clear that did this nothing to really illuminate Homura’s understanding…

Homura closed her eyes for a moment, “I see, You’re welcome, Yukishiro-san… Mipple-san.” She awkwardly included the stuffed animal-looking creature, attempting to remain cordial despite her instincts.

She held her tongue, unable to express her true feelings to dissuade any notion she was acting in a selfless manner- Homura needed them for her own ends… It made her uncomfortable to keep the impression that she was doing anything else, but she set that aside. She needed them to be cooperative.

“Akemi-san, would you be willing to hear the explanation at my house? It’s close, and the explanation would be quite long…” Honoka offered, though it was clear that it was also for herself as she was still clearly exhausted and obviously wanted to leave this place.

Nagisa chimed in as well, “It’s much better than sticking around in this construction site!” She added with a bit of forced cheer, though only a bit. She was mostly relieved the fighting was over.

Homura slowly nodded, “...That is acceptable.” She needed to recollect the various guns she had discarded previously anyway, and she always meant to scout out where the two of them lived. It would likely make them more cooperative regardless.

Nobody had asked for the stone itself yet, which Homura felt was odd. Perhaps in their own way, they were trying to appease her… Or they were very naive. Either being the case was likely at least in the short term more than helpful for her.

The two beings from the ‘Garden of Light’ transformed into phone cases once more as the group started to make their way to Honoka’s house. Curiously once again the landscape was reverted to what it was previously, the only evidence for the fight being the firearms Homura quickly picked up…

“Um… How do I put this…” Nagisa started picking at her cheek with one of her fingers as she watched Homura load the last of the guns into her shield before detransforming, “Are you some sort of government agent, Akemi-san?”

Homura shook her head immediately trying to dispel that idea, unable to hide a small amount of incredulity, “No?” She couldn’t erase the questioning tone the word took… But the more she thought about it, the more she supposed it made sense for her to think that…

She sighed inwardly, “I don’t have much in the way of offensive magic, so instead I utilize firearms and… Explosives. I enhance the weapons with my magic to make them more effective.” Homura tried to be more explanatory than blunt, but it came out the same.

“Huh.” Nagisa simply replied, awkwardly… “So… Where did you get those?” She was trying to make small talk, not really meaning anything. It was just the most immediate thing to come to mind.

Homura knew the question would be brought up, having had this exact conversation an exhausting amount of times when she was able to have any sort of cordial relationship with the other magical girls in Mitakihara. She decided to try to tell a blunted version of the truth, “I usually get my supplies from the yakuza, however, I did take some weapons from a JSDF base…”

“You stole from the army, Akemi-san?” Honoka exclaimed in surprise and slight alarm. Of course, Homura had to get the weapons from somewhere…

Nagisa hurried to try to disarm an argument before it could seemingly start, “Well, that’s bad- but the JSDF and its weapons exist to defend Japan, right? Akemi-san is using them to defend Japan! That’s the important bit…”
Homura slowly nodded, “I have only ever stolen weapons to protect other people. If it wasn’t necessary I wouldn’t have done it.” While her primary target was always Madoka, Homura tried her best to make sure civilians never got killed by Witches as well. Realistically, her goal to protect Madoka had her at least aim to defend the entirety of Mitakihara from Walpurgisnacht even if her goal was inherently just selfishly protecting one girl.

“I guess… That makes sense.” Honoka reluctantly agreed with the sentiments and dropped the issue causing Nagisa to sigh in relief. The trio of girls now awkwardly walking in silence to Honoka’s house.

Homura couldn’t help but think wryly that this had gone better than she could have hoped. She could only think that her assistance in the previous two battles had given her this much leeway. Unfortunately, she doubted she could reuse this tactic on Sayaka Miki- the girl even during the times they had allied together had often been suspicious of her.

It didn’t take long for Homura to tell that Honoka’s family had to have quite a bit of wealth as they entered a residential district that felt unfamiliar even to her eyes. Large walled compounds containing rather large traditional Japanese houses.

Getting into Honoka’s they were greeted with the aesthetic majesty of traditional Japanese architecture. It was like a traditional Japanese mansion, albeit only holding one floor. There was a healthy amount of greenery with various small trees, and a small field. Homura, who had been in Mitakihara for much of her life hadn’t seen much in the way of these traditional houses at all and was a bit stuck in a small amount of admiration…

Which was broken by a bark of a dog, which was suddenly let outside by an elderly woman in a kimono and short hair. Honoka brightened at the sight of her dog, “Chuutaro!” She called out, bending down along with Nagisa to pet him.

“I see you found Honoka, Nagisa-san.” Came the gentle voice of the old woman, whom Homura presumed was Honoka’s grandmother. “And who is this? Another friend of yours, Honoka?”

“Ah, this is Homura Akemi-san! We met her during our field trip to the museum, right Misumi-san?” Honoka explained her presence, and well lied without lying. They did meet during that time after all.

Nagisa caught on, following up “That’s right! She happened to stumble upon Yukishiro-san and I guess we decided to hang out a little…”

Homura politely bowed in her direction, “It’s nice to meet you.” She said softly, yet stiffly. She wasn’t used to speaking at length with adults, the closest being when she was called upon by the teacher or the brief times she met Madoka’s or even more rarely Sayaka or even Hitomi’s parents.

“Oh my, how polite! My name is Sanae, it’s good to meet you too Homura-san.” She greeted her back gently with a small smile on her face. “It’s good that Honoka is making so many new friends.”

Looking slightly bashful, Honoka interjected, “We’ll be going to my room now…” She tried to disengage from the current predicament she found herself in, feeling slightly embarrassed.

Sanae fortunately for Honoka, didn’t decide to continue her light teasing of her granddaughter and instead said “I’ll go make some tea for everyone then,” as she turned and re-entered the massive Yukishiro residence.

Honoka led Nagisa and Homura to her room, making them walk through a short hallway. “It’s authentic on the inside too…” Homura near silently commented, wondering what it would be like to live in a place like this.

Honoka hearing her comment responded cheerfully, “It’s been in our family since before the World War. While it’s been repaired a few times it’s the same building it used to be a hundred years ago.”

“Sure beats my apartment.” Nagisa joked, also getting into a similar appreciation for the architecture Homura had found herself into. Despite visiting several times already, Nagisa wasn’t sure she would fully rid herself of her amazement at Honoka’s place.

Honoka’s room was rather spacious, holding a rather large bed with a pink-white square quilt pattern blanket covering it, a large desk with many books, an office chair and a bookcase at the back of the room in the corner.

Homura waited for the two to seat themselves before taking one herself on the office chair, “I would like to hear the rest of the explanation I was promised.” She wasted no time getting to business

“Well… It’s really unbelievable!” Nagisa said suddenly, laughing nervously “I don’t know much- all I know is that some really bad guys annihilated the Garden of Light- which is like the world Mepple and Mipple come from and if we don’t stop them they’ll come here too.”

Honoka nodded, “That man, Pisard was part of those forces. He seemed to be a follower of someone he called the Dark King…”

Mepple and Mipple reappeared plopping themselves down on the bed more than willing to help out with this discussion. Mepple went first, “Pisard was a creation from the Dark Zone, so the Dark King must be their leader-mepo!”

Mepple and Mipple gave context to Homura, explaining to her that the Garden of Light used to be a place full of life, where the flowers always bloomed and the sun was always shining. Then the Dark Zone attacked, stealing five of the seven Prism Stones, and their mission handed to them by the Queen and the Elders: to guard the last two on the Garden of Rainbows- Earth.

“That is why the Legendary Guardians, Pretty Cure came into being-mipo. Honoka and Nagisa aren’t just protecting us as Pretty Cure but everything-mipo! If the Dark Zone captures all the Prism Stones there will be nothing left of the Garden of Light, and they’ll come from the Garden of Rainbows and every other world-mipo…” The information was… Concerning, especially so to Homura who hadn’t been aware of there being parallel worlds until now and that even if she accomplished everything and saved Madoka… Some being from an alternate dimension could just undo everything and kill everyone regardless.

“That’s unacceptable.” Homura silently fumed with a grimace. Yet, there was also a small amount of relief. This wasn’t a waste of time or a maddening prison she was put in by Sayaka Miki… There was a clear goal, and a target to go after that would in the end protect Madoka and everyone else…

This all left Homura unsatisfied, however. Despite the explanation being somewhat helpful for her to understand what exactly was going on here, she needed to know more than that. “Why do they want the Prism Stones?” She probed…

“The Prism Stones are extremely powerful-mepo!” Mepple answered immediately, “They used to protect the Garden of Light in its entirety-mepo!” Trying to get across how powerful the stones were.

Before they could continue they were briefly interrupted by Honoka’s grandmother bringing in the tea, and some accompanying snacks into the room causing the two to suddenly hide back into their phone forms, and Honoka to hurry and intercept her at the door…

After that, Mipple talked about the stones themselves, “The Prism Stones hold the Power of Creation inside of them-mipo… If all seven of them are collected we could restore the Garden of Light to how it was previously-mipo.”

Homura decided to stop beating around the bush at this point, while she wasn’t unsympathetic to their plight… “I need to make a Wish.” She began gravely, “I desperately need to make one to save someone, could the Prism Stones grant me that?”

The two looked at each other for a moment, thinking before they hesitantly nodded. Mipple spoke, “The Prism Stones contain the power of a miracle-mipo. I don’t think there’s much it can’t do-mipo.

“We’d need to talk to either the Guardian of the Stones or the Elders to make sure-mepo. But I think as long as it’s mostly reasonable it should be possible-mepo…” They seemed to be a bit hesitant about continuing but…

“Akemi-san, you aren’t trying to raise the dead are you-mepo?” The yellow plush looked at her a bit concerned, and this elicited a small gasp from the silently listening human companions Homura mostly forgot about during her talk…

Homura shook her head, “No, nothing like that…” Well, Madoka would be alive again when she went back in time back in her reality anyway. This caused both of them to relax- maybe death was the one thing they weren’t confident the Power of Creation could reverse…

It was strange, especially so that picking up the teacup Honoka’s grandmother left for them filled Homura with so much nostalgia and despair in equal measure. The horrific way Mami had died filled her mind's eye, along with the thought that Madoka must have died just as terribly.

For a brief moment, she felt like telling them all that she was from another world entirely… But she knew from experience that expressing something like that- even in a world full of magic brought nothing but trouble.

It didn’t matter in the end, if she was asked she would give a truthful response. If they thought she was insane or lying that wouldn’t matter as long as she was able to make that Wish to return home. Even if they reneged on it later, as long as she gathered enough information on how to utilize it to make that one Wish that was all that mattered…

Instead, Homura brought up another topic “If that Pisard had one of the Prism Stones, then it stands to reason that there are at least four others that hold onto them.” She handed the stone over to the two fairies.

This seemed to pop the morose aura like a bubble as Nagisa suddenly responded with an aggravated, “I can’t believe it! Four more! That strange guy was more than enough for me…”

Honoka tried to disarm the girl, “It could be worse… It has to just be that many and their Zakenna since Pisard didn’t seem to have anyone with him…”

The discussion seemed to immediately bring to mind the Prism Stone they had, “What do we do with the one we captured?” Honoka asked looking at the green heart-shaped gem on her bed. Nagisa reluctantly looked interested as well…

“Oh that’s easy, we put it in the Prism Hopeish-mipo.” Mipple answered confidently… “Prism Hopeish?” Honoka parroted… “It’s a very important artifact that the Queen gave us in order to protect the Prism Stones-mipo.”

“So they will be safe if we put it in this ‘Prism Hopeish’?” Nagisa followed through with the questioning…

Mipple nodded, “The Stone Guardian is supposed to protect them using it-mipo.” She affirmed positively.

“So where is the Prism Hopeish?” Honoka asked, looking at Mipple… Suspiciously at the same time, Mipple started to back away on the bed.

“When we left the Garden of Light I thought Mepple had it on him-mipo.” Mipple answered, turning to look at Mepple. “Right, Mepple?” Mepple looked away…

“Mepple, take out the Prism Hopeish-mipo!” Mipple asked strongly causing Mepple to flinch away…

Homura sighed, “...It’s lost isn’t it.” Her tone holding a lot more disappointment than she meant to have causing Mepple to flinch and then silently nod… This caused Homura to sigh again.

“Um… When I entered the Garden of Rainbows… The shock made me accidentally… Drop it-mepo.” Mepple slowly admitted to the audience around him as it became obvious what happened.

“I can’t believe this-mipo!” Mipple raged in response, and this again caused Homura to sigh again. She felt a headache start to manifest on her forehead… If this wasn’t evidence they weren’t like Kyubey she didn’t know what would be…

“Did you drop it in Japan?” Homura couldn’t believe she was asking this, but it was possible it was vital… And so if necessary she’d go to Hokkaido, Kyushu or even Okinawa to go get it.

“Um, I think so-mepo…” Mepple nodded embarrassed at the questioning. “I dropped it over a body of water surrounded by trees…” So it was some sort of lake, but that described literally every lake in Japan with how vague it was…

“Why don’t we go to the library tomorrow sometime afternoon and see if we can pin it down?” Honoka asked with a small smile on her face. She meant to go there anyway, but didn’t find the time for it while she was with Nagisa.

Nagisa sighed at the fact that she was actually going to the library on one of her days off, but didn’t object “That sounds good to me, I guess.”

Homura nodded, she had no issue going to the library. It’d also make her constant presence there less suspicious to any curious people to give her the veneer of normalcy. They all decided on a time over the course of a minute, after that was done Homura stood up, “If that’s all, then I will take my leave.”

“I should get going soon too before my parents get mad at me for being out so long.” Nagisa sighed, she wanted to hang out a little longer, especially after that whole fight with Pisard…

Homura left Honoka’s home swiftly after, seeing little reason to stay around after exhausting productive conversation. Despite the time they spent together, Honoka and Nagisa didn’t know what to make of Homura Akemi and the feeling was mutually exchanged. Yet, both likewise held hope for their future partnership together.

Chapter Text

As soon as Honoka’s home was out of sight, Homura grimaced. While it looked like she was able to disguise the extent of her injuries during the meeting with the two girls, it definitely didn’t mean that they had suddenly vanished. Even the simple act of walking was painful, yet Homura was easily capable of smoothing her features back into her stoic mask. This was only a reminder of how she needed to adapt to this new world.

Pisard was unlike any opponent Homura had ever faced before, managing to hit with the strength of a Witch while having beyond the maneuverability and speed of most Magical Girls Homura knew of. Not to mention his strange magic… Perhaps the best descriptor she could understand

She had never managed to completely block out the feeling of pain to the extent Sayaka Miki was able to do. She had no desire to learn it either, if only due to the perhaps irrational fear that the same madness that seemed to affect Sayaka would haunt her as well. Beyond that, Homura lacked the regeneration Sayaka had that made it so effective.

Normally she’d have just regenerated her wounds but she had already used up more magic than she’d have liked in the fight with Pisard… Cure Black and Cure White were strong. Strong enough to fight that man on mostly equal terms together, to the point that multiple times Homura wondered if she was getting in the way. She had to completely reevaluate her strategy in combat going forward.

She had been allied with the ‘Pretty Cure’ for two battles so far, and she can confidently say both Cure Black and Cure White were melee fighters of impressive skill… They just lacked the experience and confidence to back that skill up… Unfortunately, this meant that Homura couldn’t easily bring out her arsenal effectively.

“Mami Tomoe would have come up with some sort of combat cue.” The thought was unexpectedly painful, causing Homura to stop and look at the sky. How long had it been since the two of them were on friendly terms, let alone be on the same team?

Perhaps it was because of the alliance she had just made with Honoka and Nagisa, but she felt an overwhelming feeling of wistful nostalgia come over her. She was never enough for Mami, at least compared to Madoka’s companionship. If only Mami was as strong as she let others perceive herself to be.

She couldn’t deny that the times that she had worked together with Mami Tomoe, usually with Madoka or at least Sayaka they made for an effective team. It was a shame that it never lasted… Yet, maybe in this situation, those timelines weren’t a complete waste after all. Unbidden a weary sardonic expression showed itself on Homura’s face…

It was painfully ironic, or maybe it was just sad that despite her own insistence that she didn’t need to rely on anyone… She was once more forced to not only rely on what she learned from Mami Tomoe but these two girls. Maybe she was making a mistake attempting to work with them, but for now, it was at least better to keep an eye on them and the best place to do it would be as allies.

She ignored her own treacherous mind that asserted that she wouldn’t accomplish much of anything by herself. That the enemies she was facing here were beyond what she could ever hope to overcome alone.

Shaking her head to clear these thoughts, Homura prepared for another long evening and perhaps an even longer night. She sighed at her own hesitation to simply break into an empty apartment or even continue to search for a dilapidated building. It was simply too risky, and the last thing Homura wanted was the police trying to get involved…

She’d have to use her magic constantly to discreetly enter and leave the building to avoid that. Too risky, too wasteful. With a long-suffering sigh, Homura went towards a convenience store to purchase ramen to serve as a hot meal. Her taste in the cheap dish being cultivated through many diplomatic overtures toward Kyoko Sakura.

Though she never appreciated the food the same way the redhead did, she could respect its filling efficiency and how available it was. Unfortunately, the broth and the noodles would do nothing to quiet her mind, silently seething at her lethargy and lack of action. Years upon years of habit screamed at her to hunt for either Witches or Kyubey, to be proactive against this new threat, or to do anything… Even now while she was trying to simply eat she felt wound like a spring.

Yeah… It was definitely going to be another long night.

The following day would see Homura once again waking up once more with an uncomfortable pain in her spine. Today she had to meet with her two new allies to find the lost ‘Prism Hopish’. The time they had decided upon was shortly after noon, everyone was in agreement that they wanted to if possible get this done today.

Checking her phone, Homura sighed as she could see that she had several hours before she could meet up with the two girls and the two… Fairies. Keeping an eye on her soul gem she couldn’t justify cleaning herself using magic…
So she decided that she was going to go find an indoor pool. It would allow her to brush up on her endurance swimming and diving just in case Mepple happened to drop the Prism Hopeish in the lake. Beyond that, she was aware that these places had showers and she could clean herself up.

It was at least an excuse to do something. She didn’t really know how to handle her free time anymore. Not for the first time, Homura wondered how difficult it would be to create a good enough forgery to get into a school. While she didn’t necessarily enjoy it, it’d at least give herself something to do for most of the day.

At the very least she knew what she was going to be doing until she met two girls and their companions.

A few hours later and feeling relatively refreshed Homura strode towards the library, stopping short of entering it… As coincidentally the two she was coming to meet were also approaching from the opposite direction.

“Hey, Akemi-san!” Nagisa called over to her waving an arm cheerfully in greeting before speeding up her step to meet her at the door.

Honoka trailing slightly behind her in a more subdued pace greeted her, “Good afternoon, Akemi-san.”

“...Good afternoon, N-” She stopped herself, suppressing her habit to call others by their full name to establish distance. “Misumi-san, Yukishiro-san.” Homura hesitatingly replied.

It was one of the things she was sure about and had constantly thought over in her restless sleep the previous night. She couldn’t afford to treat the situation the same as her time loop. She needed to ally with the two, and unfortunately, that meant she needed to be at least not disliked.

Homura entered into the library with the other two following behind her, Nagisa sighing as she did so, “And it was such a nice day out too…” She whined a little bit as if she was resigning herself to a terrible fate.

Honoka giggled a bit at her antics, “Don’t worry, Misumi-san, I’m sure we’ll find where the Prism Hopeish is quickly.” She stepped up beside Homura, “Right, Akemi-san?” She asked with an optimistic tint…

“What you should really concern yourself with is the hike afterward,” Homura replied dryly making the two slightly blink as if they hadn’t considered it until just then. Homura suppressed a sigh of her own, “Just hope it’s nearby.”

Nagisa gave a nervous laugh in response, rubbing in the back of her head “I don’t think my parents would let me go all the way to Hokkaido!” It was phrased as a joking statement, but the anxiety was real. It really could be possible that the Prism Hopish was completely out of reach.

Homura nodded as if it were a serious statement, “I understand. If it’s like that I will retrieve it on my own if necessary. We just need to locate it.” It wouldn’t be that difficult, though she would likely need either Mepple or Mipple to assist her assuming they had any way to detect it.

“It can’t be that far away from here-mepo…” Mepple couldn’t help but reply, poutingly causing Nagisa to suddenly try to hush him in the public area, and nervously play it off to the other people in the library. Luckily enough to Nagisa’s open relief nobody was nearby to overhear him…

With that, the group swiftly made their way over to the geography section of the library and began to fish out around a dozen books between them. It was strangely nostalgic for Homura, making her remember a similar search she had done in her search for the most accurate maps she could find on the Mitakihara region so she could better plan for Walpurgisnacht.

Laying out the books across the table, Homura spoke up first hesitant to interact with the beings that kind of reminded her of Kyubey, “When you were falling from the Garden of Light, did you know when you dropped it prior to landing I assume here in Tokyo?”

Mepple who was contained in his phone-like form, face scrunched up in thought at the question made a ‘hmm’ sound, “It’s hard to remember what was happening at that point-mepo…” But hastily adding afterwards as Mipple glared at him from her place in Honoka’s hand, “But it couldn’t have been too long before I met Nagisa-mepo! I definitely remember holding onto it for most of the journey- I think-mepo…”

“You think-mipo!” Mipple replied scathingly, causing Honoka to try to placate her with a hand motion to calm her down and to lower her tone of voice. Even if it was doubtful their cover would be blown it’d be embarrassing to look like they were playing with toys in the library.

“This is good news, this means that we only need to look at the lakes nearby Tokyo instead of the entirety of Japan,” Honoka exclaimed with a reproachful tone that luckily seemed to work on mollifying Mipple for now.

That didn’t really cut into much of their book pile, only a few of them being specific catalogues of regions but it let them set some to the side confidently without needing to work at all yet. “If eliminating these books is going to be as easy as this then we’ll figure this out in no time!” Nagisa said confidently with a grin.

This confidence did not last, as the three slowly paged through the books guided by Mepple’s vague description showing him a round lake and getting inconclusive responses like, “Mmmm, that could be it… But it also could not be-mepo…” That started to erode the patience of the three girls, and of course Mipple.

“This is starting to become… Unreasonable.” Homura eventually commented closing her eyes to try and stop the upcoming headache from forming in vain. It would have been one thing if they were able to eliminate more of the lakes they had shown but so far…

Honoka’s smile was slightly strained, “Mepple you know we can’t investigate all of these lakes, right?” As if she was gently trying to get Mepple to be more decisive upon the picks he was shown.

“If even Yukishiro-san is like this it’s hopeless…” Nagisa muttered to herself, resigned to the fact that they might actually be here for several hours at the rate they were going.

Mepple tried defending himself, “It just means the right ones haven’t been shown to me yet-mepo! I’m sure I’ll remember it if I see it-mepo.”

Unsurprisingly it didn’t seem to inspire confidence in the group. Homura especially was beginning to think that it might be prudent to suggest a backup plan that didn’t utilize the Prism Hopish for storing the Prism Stones soon.

“How about this one, Mepple?” Nagisa brought out another similar-looking lake surrounded by forests. Mepple hesitated in giving an answer once again, making the same unsure thinking noises as when he saw the last ones…

Like a dam bursting, Mipple finally shouted at him “Hurry up and remember which one it is already-mipo!” Startling the girls, and causing several nearby individuals to look at the trio disapprovingly at them. Due to their surprise and attempt to cover a book referring to the lakes of Yamanashi Prefecture was opened…

“Ah, it's that one-mepo!” Mepple exclaimed excitedly, but thankfully for the three girls a quieter. This quickly made Honoka and Nagisa visibly ecstatic for finally finding the correct one…

But before they could celebrate Homura narrowed her eyes, “This really is the correct one, right? You aren’t just choosing it because you got scolded?” It seemed a bit too convenient that the immediate next one shown was the one Mepple decided was the one.

Mepple shook his head confidently, “No, I remember it’s definitely this one-mepo! It has to be this one-mepo!” The fact that he maintained his confidence in this pick was somewhat mollifying to Homura as it didn’t seem like Mepple was anywhere close to being good at hiding his emotions…

“It’s close enough that I think I can convince my parents to let me hike over there easily.” Nagisa said after reading the section about ‘Mt. Kappa Calabash Pond’, causing Honoka and Homura to lean in to inspect the text as well.

Honoka smiled, leaning back “Thank goodness, I don’t know how I would have convinced my grandmother if it was further than this…”

Homura began to collect all the books but the Yamanashi Atlas that contained the section on the Mt. Kappa Calabash Pond to put back where they found them. “Ah, let me help you Akemi-san!” Nagisa spoke up as Homura began to stack a comical amount of books up to carry back.

As they split it amongst themselves and went back to the geography section of the library, Honoka simply took the single book up to the front desk with the intention of borrowing the book for the day. It was possible they might need it during their journey after all.

Coming back together, the three planned out the next logical step in their journey, “We need to take the bus down to the public hiking trail connection in Yamanashi… Luckily it's not too far away from Tokyo so it won’t take too long. Would you guys want to meet up at the Koizumi Bus Station in like an hour or two?” Nagisa asked her two companions, confident that she could make the deadline even if she had to bug her mom for an hour.

Honoka nodded, “I don’t think I’ll face any issues getting there. How about you, Akemi-san?” Moving to face the stoic girl she questioned her, more to include her more than anything else.

 
“It wouldn’t be an issue,” Homura cooly assured the two. After all, it wasn’t like she had anything else on her schedule but this. If they were going to do the hike tomorrow she’d have to awkwardly go back inside the library or find some other activity to engage with until the next day.

 
Walking the length of a steep path up a mountainside with a thick tree coverage surrounding them and shading the trio stopped to admire the scenery, and to take a small break from ascending the incline. The lake still seemed to be some distance away, though none of the girls were entirely sure.

“So… Akemi-san, where are you from?” Nagisa spoke lightly, trying to get to know the girl a bit more. They were going to be likely hanging out a lot due to this ‘Precure Stuff’ and Homura was already pretty mysterious… She could see Honoka turn away from the scenery towards them to listen.

Homura frowned, “Why do you want to know?” Her voice was dismissive and cold- enough to make Nagisa flinch a bit. Her narrowed eyes and static face made it hard to know what she was thinking…

Honoka put placating hands upwards “I also want to learn more about you, Akemi-san…” She hesitated, wondering if this was enough to cross the girl’s boundaries “Is that… Not okay?”

“I see…” Homura replied evenly, closing her eyes “A few weeks ago I was in the hospital.” It wasn’t a lie, a technical truth that she had relied upon for many timelines that spilled out of her mouth automatically.

Relaxing, a bit Nagisa couldn’t help but ask the follow-up question, “Really, for what?” Realizing that she might be actually overstepping her boundaries with that she quickly added “Um, not that you need to tell me if you don’t want to, that is!” She nervously added with an awkward pitch to her voice and rubbed the back of her head with one hand.

Homura was tempted to lie, but it felt unnecessary “I was having heart surgery-” before she was able to continue she was cut off.

“Oh no!” Honoka gasped looking at her with intense worry suddenly on her features. Nagisa was much more verbose, “Are you sure you should be climbing up a mountain with us?! Shouldn’t you be resting?!” She looked visibly panicked as if she had messed something up really bad.

A twinge of sudden guilt hit Homura, and her eyes softened “Don’t worry, when I… Awoke my magic powers I cured my heart. I should have made that clear…” She tried to assuage the two’s fears as best as she could.

“Thank goodness… I’m glad you’re better Akemi-san.” Honoka spoke with a relieved tone of voice and a bright smile.

Nagisa gave an awkward laugh, “Of course you were fine! I should have known better than to think you’d have gone up all this way- plus all those crazy moves you pulled yesterday!” It was clear that she felt a little bit silly for reacting so strongly.

It was a bit awkward after that, and Homura clearly had no intention to break the silence during the rest period. It was an unexpectedly heavy topic to have unintentionally brought up so suddenly.

“Um… When we met you, you were in a school uniform, right Akemi-san? Where are you attending?” Honoka wasn’t knowledgeable about all the schools in Tokyo- and she doubted anyone was but she never saw the type Homura wore that day in the museum.

Homura rose her hand and flipped her hair, “It doesn’t matter, I won’t be attending there…” She said it with finality, but with both Nagisa and Honoka giving her a confused glance she forced herself to speak another half-truth “Due to my previous health condition I did not need to attend this year. I decided to focus on my duty as a Magical Girl instead.”

“Wow… You’re incredible Akemi-san!” Nagisa spoke in a humbled and slightly awed tone… “I don’t think I ever could…” She felt a little bit of shame creep up at how seriously Homura was taking things in comparison, “I love lacrosse, and I love hanging out with my friends at school- I don’t think I ever could give it up like you.”

Honoka frowned, “But aren’t you worried about what this might do to your future, Akemi-san? School is an important stepping stone towards the rest of your life…”

Homura could only shake her head, “I’m not making a great sacrifice, I simply lack the same responsibilities the two of you have.” She paused for a moment, “As for my future…”

The way she left the word hanging, the way Homura’s eyes seemed to hold a certain bitter emptiness unsettled the two girls. As if despite being only feet apart, a great chasm divided them so far away.

“That was never a concern,” Homura said it with such finality that they had to let the topic drop, or maybe they were just too afraid to ask any more questions, intimidated by the sudden perceived distance. “Are you two ready to go?”

Nagisa and Honoka couldn’t help but see that this whole time, even though they were walking up a mountain path that Homura didn’t even look slightly fatigued.

Snapping out of it, Nagisa quickly replied, “Y-yeah. Are you ready Yukishiro-san?” She nervously looked over at the other girl.

Honoka’s posture went rigid for a moment in surprise, before covering it with a slightly less obvious “Yes, let’s go then…”

The trio kept walking up the trail, slightly slower than Homura as the two reflected on the odd interaction they just had. Not for the first time the duo were forced to wonder… Who exactly was Homura?
 

They came to a clearing at the top of the path, revealing a breathtaking sight. The circular lake surrounded by trees seemed to sparkle like a gem bringing gasps of audible awe from both Nagisa and Honoka…

“We made it!” Nagisa cheered pumping her fists, “Isn’t this incredible, Yukishiro-san, Akemi-san!” She seemed really excited, especially now they were here.

“It’s very beautiful,” Honoka agreed nodding along, “It’s a shame we can’t take a picture…” Neither girl had thought to bring a camera along- the trip was rather hastily planned after all…

“Would you like to?” Homura spoke up suddenly, it was easily within her power to grant this small desire. It’d only waste a marginal amount of magic bringing the camera from her shield.

“Really? That’d be awesome, Akemi-san!” Nagisa spoke up with excitement, and then reacted with confusion as Homura transformed, “Why did you transform?”

“I can store things into my shield… I collected a lot of things over time.” Homura replied slightly evasively, as she retracted a camera and a stand going through the process to set it up. In earlier timelines, she was convinced that since Walpurgisnacht lacked a barrier then it might be possible to collect photos of it to help with her analysis… Between the storm and it being a Witch, it didn’t work out.

As she steadied it, and was about to motion them to take the picture together Honoka interjected, “Akemi-san aren’t you going to take the picture with us?” She looked expectant- as did Nagisa.

Transforming out of her magical girl outfit, Homura set a timer for thirty seconds and awkwardly walked over to them, being on the left side of Nagisa- with Honoka on her right. Nagisa stook out two peace signs, while Honoka gave a small but bright smile, Homura just sort of stood there until the flash went off.

The three of them checked the quality of the photo, and seeing it was satisfactory and getting Homura to say she’d get them a copy printed later, Homura put it back in her shield and the trio went on their way.

Nagisa took out Mepple’s case and opened it waking him up, “Hey, Mepple… Do you sense where it is yet?” Shaking him out of his drowsiness by reminding him of why they were there in the first place.

Putting on a concentrated look, he gave an attempt “Hmm…. You might need to get closer to the river for me to feel anything-mepo” Nagisa gave an unamused look, and then peered over the side “That sounds too convenient-” and the edge she was standing on collapsed causing her to grab the closest thing to her for stability… Which happened to be Honoka pulling her with her causing the two to shout in panic.

Homura was already in motion back in her magical girl form and with the whirl of the clockwork in her shield time ceased to progress. She leaped off the edge of the path, and slid down the sloped cliffside to the ground. Pushing magic into her legs she jumped up with immense power, and unfroze time, collecting the two in the air latching them with each of her arms in a move that was only possible to her enhance strength.

She landed smoothly on the ground, letting go of them as soon as she did so making the two stumble- Honoka even falling over at how sudden it was. Homura flipped her hair out of habit- and to hide her irritation “Let’s not repeat that again.”

“Woah… That was really dangerous, huh! Um, thanks Akemi-san…” Nagisa said sheepishly, “You okay, Yukishiro-san?” She said with a bit of trepidation, she had literally dragged the girl down after all.

“Somehow…” Honoka smiled it off, “Thanks for saving us, Akemi-san.” She got up and bowed a bit, causing Nagisa to do the same suddenly embarrassed that she didn’t think to do so beforehand.

“It was nothing…” Homura looked a bit uncomfortable at the gratitude, “When we come back up the trail we’ll need to be especially careful.” As much as it was kind of foolish for Nagisa to step on the edge like that, a large chunk of it collapsed entirely. It was likely the entire way up would be at least slightly perilous.

Cheekily, Nagisa looked at Mepple in his case, “Alright, how about now?” She said with a bit of a deadpan voice now that they were ‘much closer’. Mepple could only shake his head, “Not here either-mepo…”

With a sigh, the group moved toward the river leading to the lake itself and began walking alongside it. Honoka stopped and squinted into the distance “Hmm, what’s that in the water?”

“It looks like some kind of log…” Nagisa commented the obvious before cluing in, “Oh no! A bear cub is stuck on it…” The rapid current bringing it forward was about to have it smash into the rapids in the water…

Nagisa sprinted off without thinking, leaving a bemused Homura and a concerned Honoka to lightly chase after her. Jumped on a series of rocks in the lake making a pathway to intercept the log in a pretty clumsy fashion.

“Misumi-san that’s dangerous!” Honoka shouted after her, and Nagisa agreed, calling back “Yes this is… Really… Really dangerous!”

Homura once again sprinted into action, chasing after her deftly leaping from rock to rock. She wasn’t fast enough to stop Nagisa from leaping and grabbing onto the log…“

“Um, this might be a bad time to mention swimming is my only weakness!” Nagisa cried out as she was now also- helplessly drifting holding onto the log towards the rocks.

“...This is getting ridiculous…” Homura could only grit her teeth in frustration as she dived after her, barely able to get to the log in time herself and trying to do the impossible task of saving flailing Nagisa and the struggling bear cub at the same time.

 
In the end, the bear cub was saved and even brought back to its mother and Nagisa was unhurt which solved everything but the soaking wet, and now thoroughly irritated Homura’s mood. “You couldn’t even have lasted a few minutes…” Homura said it evenly like always did- but the criticism was cutting. Perhaps more from the lack of open anger. 

“I know, I know I’m sorry…” Nagisa actually felt bad, and part of it was that she was aware she put herself in danger and made others worry- the other was that she seemed to get the unflappable Homura actually mad at her.

Honoka also complained a bit, “I can’t believe you’d do something so reckless… Without even knowing how to swim…” For a moment there she was really scared for Nagisa…

Homura sighed, and resisted the urge to rub her forehead, “Just don’t do it again… If you have to save every animal in danger you come across- why not just transform into Pretty Cure?”

Nagisa paused, before laughing awkwardly at herself “Yeah that would have made a lot more sense! Sorry, I wasn’t thinking I just saw them in trouble and went off on my own…”

“Misumi-san…” Honoka looked at her with a slightly new light, to think this new friend of hers was like this… It was admirable how brave she was, and Honoka couldn’t fault her for wanting to save the bear cub… She smiled “Next time I’ll be there to help you, and we can both save them as Pretty Cure.”

“Yukishiro-san…” Nagisa was slightly touched by the sentiment and happy that her friend was forgiving her so quickly…

Homura warily sighed, and then wryly thought that at the very least the two seemed to get along very well. As irritating as the last two events were back to back it probably said something that this dynamic was much more functional than any other three-person team outside of maybe the early timelines with Mami and Madoka has gone so far. 

“And besides, we’ll have Akemi-san to come rescue us if we get stuck trying to save them!” Honoka said it lightly as a joke, causing Nagisa to break out in a short laugh dispelling any remnant tension.

“How funny,” Homura said unamused, this caused Nagisa to laugh harder and Honoka to break out into a small giggle. Homura glared at the two of them for a small amount before letting it go with a sigh… “Let’s look for the Prism Hopish.”

The group aimlessly started to look around, going off nothing but Mepple’s vague remarks that it ‘should be around here somewhere’. Homura herself even tried to sense it using her Soul Gem but came back with nothing…

“Are you sure it’s here, Mepple?” Nagisa finally got annoyed enough to ask it directly as Mepple failed to sense anything. “It has to be here-mepo…”

“If it’s not here… We’re going to have words-mipo.” Mipple for the first time in a while spoke up, obviously irritated and frustrated with needing to do this whole adventure in the first place.

“Ah, good morning Mipple! Did you sleep well?” Honoka asked her friend with a smile, both sparing Mepple more of her rage and trying to placate her friend.

Mipple brightened up a bit, giving the girl a small smile “I did, thank you for asking Honoka-mipo… Why are the two of them wet?” 

Tuning out the conversation, Homura tried once more to sense for it using her Soul Gem… Homura snapped her head towards the forest- as she did so a large crash sounded out dispersing the birds.

“Transform into Pretty Cure!” Homura warned sharply, looking at both Honoka and Nagisa who had wandered over wondering what she was looking at.

“Huh?” Nagisa replied before the crashes got louder and louder, Mepple spoke up then already being out to sense for the Prism Hopish, “I sense it too-mepo! Transform into Pretty Cure-mepo!” 

That seemed to get the girls out of their stupor and begin their transformation sequence with a “Dual Aurora Wave!” and with a large shockwave of light emanating from their position.

When it was over, Cure White and Cure Black were standing ready with Homura to receive this next enemy that was crashing through the forest, knocking trees out of its way in a blind rampage towards them. “Get ready to dodge.” Homura warned, perhaps unnecessarily- but the two were very new to this.

Finally smashing through the forest and into the clearing they were in was a giant of a man who dwarfed them in size with a massive extremely muscular body, with long arms akin to an ape dressed akin to a classic ‘strongman’ stereotype in a white shirt and white pants with red suspenders… Riding an even more massive bear-like creature with massive teeth…

It leaped and jumped in front of them crashing upon the ground and sending up a dust cloud. “N-no way…” Nagisa muttered as she and Honoka stared up at the massive monster and the muscle man in shock and not a small amount of terror…

The man glared at them from the top of his mount, “There you are… Zakenna!” Not one for talking he ordered the beast to attack…And it charged forward like a bullet train barely giving the three any time to dodge at all.

Preserving its momentum the man and the beast went off into the distance crashing into a large boulder and shattering it apart before ascending up a steep part of the mountain in its blind charge.

“That bear was the same as the one you gave that cub to.” Homura calmly analyzed, and once again wondered exactly what a ‘Zakenna’ was. Was it some sort of evil spirit that possessed literally anything? 

“No way…!” Honoka looked a bit demoralized at the news, obviously being unwilling to hurt the animal.

“We can’t hurt it! They took that little guy’s mom hostage… What do we do!?” Nagisa panicked a little bit at the news.  

Privately, Homura wondered if this is where the partnership between her and the other two would end. If it came down to it, she wouldn’t hesitate to kill an animal for her goals even if it felt distasteful.

Mipple spoke up suddenly, “You can use Pretty Cure Rainbow Therapy-mipo!” bringing their attention to the two fairies.

“Its power will purify anyone who has been led astray by the Dark Power-mepo!” Mepple collaborated with Mipple to give them a solution to the current problem at hand.

“Tch, if you’re going to do that then I’ll distract them as you learn your new technique.” Homura could tell they wouldn’t have enough time before the muscle man came back on his steed to run them down again.

She could hear him, crashing through the mountains, then ripping through the trees as circled around back towards their location- and then suddenly nothing. Her shield clicked, gears turned as time froze to a complete stop.

Reaching into her shield she pulled out a Desert Eagle, once a prestige weapon for some no-name yakuza she never bothered to remember the name of that she owned countless copies of due to her resupply missions during the time loops…

Sprinting across the clearing, away from the two Pretty Cure and the lake and more towards the forest to the right, she looked up to the sky to see the muscled man and the possessed bear once more airborne- but frozen in time his side exposed to her now.

Aiming for his center mass- Homura’s magic flared enhancing the bullets as much as she could and pulled the trigger- and the .50 Action Express was ejected out of the barrel of the gun with a familiar almost deafening sound. She watched as the bullet travelled through the stopped time and froze before hitting his body. Taking her time she unloaded the magazine into him…

She put away the gun, and took out another stun grenade in preparation… Time resumed with another click.

“Gyah?!” The muscled giant, not expecting to be suddenly attacked out of nowhere let out a shocked grunt as the bullets hit him like a shockwave sending him tumbling over and uncontrolled towards the ground with a loud heavy crash.

Knowing that her bullets didn’t even break his skin, Homura threw her stun grenade at him as he slowly lumbered to his feet not even bothering to move as the thing hit him dead in the face… And exploded with a sound that left Homura’s ears rining…

Instead of being stunned it just seemed to make him angry, charging blindly toward Homura with a warcry and outstretched arms, “RAAAAAAHHHHHHH! I’ll smash you!”

His speed was incredible for his size, surprising Homura almost enough to make a fatal mistake as he almost closed the distance before she leaped desperately out of the way into a roll, quickly getting back on her feet. An MG 42 neatly appeared into her hands, a theft she gained from ransacking an illegal weapon collection stockpile holding a suspicious amount of weapons originating from Nazi Germany.

Enhancing the ammo held within the drum, she fired unloading the contents of the gun into the Muscle Man’s back as she ran to the side, the bullets doing little more than visibly bouncing off of his body. “Gyahaha, how weak!” He smiled menacingly and triumphantly as he mocked with his hoarse-sounding voice.

“My turn now!” He charged forward and immediately let out a massive punch toward Homura’s face that she was sure would have turned her head into a fine mist. Hurriedly she brought her shield up and poured as much magic as she could into summoning a small purple barrier in front of it… The barrier visibly cracked, and the shock of the punch shook through her whole body sending her stumbling backwards and losing her MG.

She could not beat this man. Homura realized that fact nearly instantly, summoning a purple ball of magic and throwing it at his face and watching it ineffectively detonate off of it as she did so. He was insanely tough, she was sure her trick with the Desert Eagle only worked out of pure surprise…

She tried to reach toward her shield for another gun, but was forced to raise it once more as he rushed her down again, throwing another massive punch toward her torso… Aborting her attempt to free another gun she attempted to block once more with her shield- summoning the second barrier this fight… But this time, he got through it smashing it and into her shield sending her flying backwards and skipping across the ground.

“Akemi-san!” Both Pretty Cures cried out in alarm, her shield clicked and whirled- and time slowed to a stop, and Homura controlled her violent rolling from the strike she was just given. She had underestimated him, she was still considering things as if she were in her own world.

No, this man and Pisard before him were nothing like magical girls and Witches. She took out an AT4 recoilless rifle from her shield, enhanced the rocket and fired it at the Muscled Man, before dismissing it and taking out another one and firing it until there were ten rockets about to hit his frame.

Luckily her body seemed to be mostly intact, at most she felt a small fracture in her arm that she could already feel slowly healing through her magic. She frowned and looked at her soul gem, it was getting dimmer faster than she’d like.

She made her way to Cure White and Cure Black and unfroze time, watching as the Muscle Man’s victorious look turned to confusion before he suddenly and violently exploded as the rockets made contact with his body. As he was hopefully indepsoed Homura made her appearance known…

“I don’t think I can buy much more time.” Homura admitted, causing Nagisa and Honoka to jump…

The two nodded resolutely, Cure White speaking up first, “We had some trouble with Zakenna possessing the mother… But she looks to be stunned looking at her cub.” True enough, the monster was stuck in a conflicted state, unable to strike its own child.

“This is the best chance we’ll have to cast it… Let’s go, White!” Cure Black called out, grabbing her hand and raising her other to the sky, “Black Pulsar!” Cure White nodded, and rose her own hand to the sky likewise, “White Pulsar!” A brilliant white orb surrounded them, almost engulfing Homura with how close she stood and whiting her vision- before things began to mix into a rainbow of colours.

Cure White began the incantation, “One that is cursed by the Dark Power…” Cure Black finished it “We shall now break the chains that bind you!” A brilliant display of holy power- the Light of Creation to counteract the Darkness of Destruction built up.

The two tightened their grip on each other’s hands, before calling out in unison “Pretty Cure Rainbow Therapy!” and the power was unleashed in a wave, purging the darkness as rainbow-coloured light swirled around them before centralizing on top of the Zakenna…

And then Homura’s own Soul Gem, “What-” She gasped and held at her hand in shock instead of pain- thinking for a moment that she might have been betrayed by her two allies at the most inopportune moment… Only for her to feel the corruption in her Soul Gem be purified, an odd warm feeling going through her body as if to reassure her… Which honestly unsettled her more.

When the light receded, her Soul Gem held a pure shine and Zakenna was expelled from the body of the bear and ran off with a slew of apologies in its wake as it fled for its life in small star-like pieces. Homura had honestly completely forgotten the battle at this point, mesmerized by the ability the Pretty Cure had just displayed.

“It purified my Soul Gem…” She couldn’t help but mutter to herself, looking upon its new pristine shine.That was impossible, she would know- she had searched exhaustively in her world to confirm rumours she had heard that promised what had just happened to her. A way to beat the cruel system of Magical Girls and Witches.

And these two had just casually done it as a basic part of their powers. It made Homura want to laugh at just a few moments ago she was actually concerned about how she might conserve magic through this entire crisis… It couldn’t possibly be this simple, there was no way it was this simple- this innocent. There had to be something- some sort of consequence. Miracles don’t exist- not for cheap anyway.

“GRAH!” The muscled man charged at the group once more breaking Homura from her thoughts and reminding her of the angry giant trying to kill them. The three jumped backwards as he punched a hole into the ground with his fist… The two Pretty Cure looking like they were ready to flee at the sight of him regaining their courage just as fast…

Cure Black trembled with rage, righteous fury naked on her features “You turned that little guy’s mother into a Zakenna without a thought… I’ll never forgive you!” and with that she grabbed Cure White’s hand who was completely in agreement with the sentiment.

They rose their hands to the sky, and the Power of Creation swirled around them once more, “Black Thunder!” “White Thunder!” and a crack of black and white lightning lanced into Cure Black’s and Cure White’s hands- dangerously splitting around yet Homura knew it wasn’t dangerous- not to her.

The Muscled Man confused, stood there simply watching them charge up their attack- and Homura realized… Their foe for all his strength, lacked any semblance of that strength in his brain.

“Our beautiful souls…” White began, ”Shall crush your evil heart!” and Black finished, tightening their grip as electricity spat and discharged in the air around them- yet seemed to bend around Homura who stood nearby… “Pretty Cure Marble Screw!”

The lightning twisted among each other, creating a pillar of lancing light rocketing towards the Muscled Man with a great ferocity pushing back White and Black- and causing Homura to shield her eyes. It was all the man could do to bring his arms up to try to block the attack, and terrifyingly for a moment despite the splendour and rage of the technique… He held, sliding back a few feet.

Until inevitably he was swept away, carried by the beam grinding into him like a drill backwards into the distance, crashing into trees and then finally into one of the walls of the mountain in an awe-inspiring display of firepower that Homura could only think Mami at her best could hope to replicate… Or a dark part of her mind, Madoka’s doomed encounters with Walpurgisnacht.     

They stood still, prepared to face him once more- a part of them wondering if even that wasn’t enough to at least knock him out then nothing would… But as moments tricked by, it became clear…

“We won!” Cure Black cheered brightly raising two arms up in celebration, Cure White bringing a tired one up as well in the moment- more out of respect for Nagisa’s enthusiasm than anything else. To underline their victory, the scenery repaired itself as the Power of Creation reset the damage done by the Power of Destruction.

Homura sighed heavily, “We still need to search for the Prism Hopish…” A sense of exhaustion was in her body, especially her arm for using the barrier technique and blocking that man’s monstrous strength.

“Ah… Yeah…” Nagisa’s enthusiasm popped almost comedically quickly like a balloon as they were about to just go back to what they were doing: aimlessly searching for the Prism Hopish they had no idea was located.

“Wait-mepo! I sense it-mepo!” Mepple called out suddenly, bringing everyone to a sudden stop to crowd toward him. “The battle must have knocked it closer to us-mepo! It’s…” He stretched his head out slightly out of the case looking around sharply before looking into the forest, “That way-mepo!”

The trio quickly went the way Mepple pointed out in a rush, mostly from the adrenaline from the fight making them jog instead of otherwise walking to the location. “There it is-mipo!” Mipple suddenly called out excited…

And true enough, half buried in the dirt tilted upward looking like an abandoned makeup accessory or fancy jewelry box was the Prism Hopish… It was then finally, that Nagisa with earnest shouted out in joy- and nobody was there to burst her bubble.

Chapter Text

Nagisa was dead tired, though some of that was her own fault with her reckless actions… A lot of it was the stress of her new situation. She was completely out of her element, so much so that she couldn’t believe it. Everything was happening so fast, she got magical powers forcing her to fight bad guys trying to destroy the universe or something.

She slouched over at her desk, idly looking at the ‘Pretty Cure Planner’, the Guardian of the Stones had given them after his rather brief and pretty anti-climatic appearance after all the trouble they went through to find the Prism Hopish. “...What is this a video game?” She sighed slouching further into her desk…

That new big guy was really scary, and so was knowing that they had no problems using innocent animals in their plans. She already knew that they didn’t have qualms about hurting people but, there didn’t seem to be a standard they wouldn’t sink to. Despite everything Homura engaged him on her own…

Nagisa sighed, feeling a bit inadequate and even a bit embarrassed. She felt almost like a rookie lacrosse player again- just with a lot more open danger. Wait, “That didn’t make sense at all!” She exclaimed to herself, only realizing a moment later she spoke aloud.

“Are you alright, Nagisa-mepo?” Mepple likely still riding high off their recent success was awake still, longer than most times she had seen him manage it so far. It was pretty impressive for all the scanning they had him do… Then again, he did seem to pass out during that a lot too.

Nagisa sat up straighter in her chair and stretched with both of her arms over her head before bringing Mepple into one hand and setting him on to the desk. “Hey, Mepple what do you think about Akemi-san?”

Mepple’s face frowned as he hummed in a serious thinking expression, “That girl is definitely experienced-mepo. She’s not a Pretty Cure, but she still has impressive magical powers.  I’ve never heard of anything like this before, but um… I’ve never exactly been to the Garden of Rainbows before either-mepo.”

The Champion of the Garden of Light looked at Nagisa curiously, “Have you ever heard of anything like this before, Nagisa-mepo?” Nagisa did a double take at that, thinking at first it was a joke- but realized that Mepple was asking genuinely.

At first, Nagisa thought about just laughing it off, but… “Mmmm, I’ve never heard of anything… Sure there are people who claim to have magic powers, like spirit mediums or people who believe stuff has magic powers like tarot cards… But the real thing is well… Unbelievable.”

Nagisa leaned down to look at Mepple skeptically, “Are you sure that Akemi-san isn’t a Pretty Cure? I know she fights with um, modern weapons-” And wasn’t that really freaky, Nagisa hadn’t seen a gun in real life before and now she could confidently say she saw more than enough for one lifetime, “But she’s also really skilled in close quarters, and she has her own little magic blasts.”

Mepple looked a bit annoyed at being questioned on that matter, “No, Akemi-san definitely isn’t a Pretty Cure-mepo! Her power is completely different than the Power of Creation that fuels your transformation-mepo.”

Mepple looked hesitant finally speaking, “Akemi-san’s magic for the most part is strange- featureless-mepo… For a brief moment, I swore Akemi-san’s magic had something dark in it, different than the Power of Destruction but still gave me the creeps-mepo.”

“No way… You don’t think that Akemi-san might actually be a bad guy do you?” Nagisa was shocked, uncertainty held in her voice. The more she thought about it the more that it seemed unbelievable- Homura had been trying her best to help them all this time, and even tried to be friendly in her own way during the hiking trip… Was that all a lie?

Mepple to her relief shook his head confidently, “I don’t think so-mepo! She was able to stay within your Rainbow Therapy spell-mepo. If she was evil then she would have been purified right then-mepo.” He spoke confidently, and Nagisa couldn’t find anything wrong with that logic- it rescued that bear after all.

“Thank goodness…” Nagisa sighed in relief, but now she kind of felt bad for thinking that Homura might be some sort of spy… But still this didn’t really satisfy her, she was left with so many questions…

Who exactly was Homura Akemi?

 
Honoka wasn’t too sure what to make of her new friend Homura Akemi, other than she was really mysterious. But she was sure that Homura was a good person, nobody would go out of their way to help other people as much as she did if they were bad.

It was why she was confident she wanted to be friends with Nagisa despite their differences as well. Nagisa wouldn’t hesitate to help someone in trouble, and that was admirable.

It actually was a bit of a blow to her ego honestly, Honoka felt a little bit inadequate next to Homura’s resolve and Nagisa’s bravery. Nodding to herself determined, she was going to do her best to support both of them. She didn’t know how to do that for Homura yet…

But Nagisa seems like she would appreciate her friends cheering for her in the stands. Which meant finding Homura… “Huh?!” Honoka expressed surprise as the girl came into view turning a street corner.

Wasn’t that a bit too convenient? Still, she thanked her good fortune mentally with a fast gait, “Akemi-san!” She cheerfully greeted her new friend, getting the now expected nearly flat stare back.

“Yukishiro-san,” Homura greeted back cooly, “I was searching for you.” Which certainly explained things, Honoka only realized how strange it was that Homura was on her route home at this moment…

Honoka smiled, “What a good coincidence, I was about to go looking for you too!” Not that she had any idea how she was going to accomplish that… She flushed in embarrassment, shifting slightly “Not that I know where you live…”

Homura’s eyebrows rose a small amount in surprise- it was such a subtle tell that Honoka almost missed it entirely. “I see…” Homura then handed a sealed envelope to her causing Honoka’s eyes to go wide for a moment…

Did this mean-

“I had the photos printed out, I assumed you and Misumi-san desired a copy.” Homura explained, and Honoka let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding… Her time around Nagisa even for this short period had really warped her perception on girls giving other girls envelopes!

Honoka coughed into her hand before accepting it with a gentle smile on her face, “Thank you Akemi-san, I’ll make sure Nagisa gets a copy…” She hoped she hid her sudden awkwardness…

Homura merely inclined her head in acknowledgement, before moving on “Did you have something you wished to speak with me about?” Her tone held a smidge of weariness, as if she was expecting something…

“Misumi-san and Verone’s lacrosse team is going to be competing against Otagaku Junior High, would you be able to come to cheer her on?”  She asked softly, hoping she could try to bridge that gap closer between the three girls.

Homura’s mouth slightly quirked, and her eyes narrowed a bit in… Bemusement? “You’re inviting me to watch a lacrosse game?” She phrased it as if it was an alien concept to her…

Honoka frowned, “You don’t want to?” Homura didn’t seem like the type that was incredibly into sports- maybe she was bothering her…

The Akemi shook her head, “That’s not it…” Her eyes reflected something weary- and even a bit wistful, “I’ve just never been invited to something like this before.” She paused for a moment, “Is it fine for someone not associated with either school to show up?”

Honoka nodded, “It should be fine, it’s held in a public stadium… I doubt you’ll be the only girl showing up to watch not enrolled in either schools…” Homura seemed… Lonely to her. Maybe that’s what she could support her with…

With a pleased tone in her voice, Honoka informed her of just where and when the game would take place as the two began to walk together. Afterwards, they entered a companionable silence…

As they approached closer towards Honoka’s house, she turned slightly and hoping to hide her sudden shyness “Would you like to visit for tea, Akemi-san?”

Homura closed her eyes for a few moments longer than necessary, before giving her answer “I have a prior arrangement today.” She rejected it, and looked away slightly, “Perhaps next time.”

Honoka stopped at the entrance to her home’s enclosure, “Oh… Yes, let’s do it next time.” Watching the other girl leave without another word Honoka could only sigh. Maybe the one who was lonely was her.

Homura truly didn’t have anything pressing, let alone a previous arrangement. The excuse was sad as it was laughable. As soon as she was out of sight she activated her shield to stop time, neatly transforming into her familiar magical garb.

With a well-practiced gait, she ran and leaped onto a roof, and lept to the next and so on. Every so often she would unfreeze time, only for a moment so that any who saw her thought she was just a passing illusion. She had no destination in mind, that too was frustrating. Her hands clenched painfully and her teeth grit.

Eventually, she decided to stop the pointless waste of magical power and stop at a park- her transformation unravelling and revealing her ‘civilian’ clothes underneath. The picturesque location with a beautifully maintained garden, stalwart and well groomed trees and a small fountain did nothing but underline the sickening disparity between herself and this reality.

She did not belong here.

She reached up to her head in frustration, sliding her hand through her hair. She idly stood around before an expression of self-mockery came onto her face, “Sayaka should be the one here… Perhaps Mami.”

That was the crux of the issue, and the anxiety in her heart choked up into her throat. She sat down on a nearby bench, almost collapsing into it- only her instincts and years of ingrained discipline stopped her from meaninglessly throwing herself into the seat.

Madoka and Mami were dead, ripped apart- and here she was considering to just drink tea and watch a lacrosse game like it didn’t even happen. Her hands began to shake a small amount, and her self-disgust churned her stomach painfully.

Sayaka was probably dead now too, she couldn’t delude herself into thinking that the foolish, stubborn and oh so frustrating- but well-meaning, reliable and brave girl would have recovered.

If she was here then she might have, a traitorous thought entered her head more often… And Homura bitterly couldn’t let it go. It would have been the best of both worlds for the two of them, Sayaka would have actually been able to be the hero she desired to be with no risk to her soul gem due to the duo’s impossible purifying magic…

And Homura would have been able to keep working on the only thing she desired, the only thing she worked toward for years upon years of memories that blended into each other to save the girl who cared about her even when nobody else did.

The promise that seemed so easy to carry back when she was in the same reality weighed like an anchor on her soul. “How pathetic… It’s only been a few days.” She hissed at herself.

Instead of emboldening herself, Homura felt an unsettling coldness that she couldn’t force away. If only she could really trick herself into believing this conflict against the Dark King was truly necessary to save Madoka.

If only she wasn’t confronted with things that made her remember them; Madoka, Mami, Sayaka, Kyoko… It wouldn’t be so hard. To think the punishment for her latest failure would be so extreme.

An emptiness- not quite resolve- gave her enough energy to get out of the bench, she could give justifications for indulging in Nagisa’s or Honoka’s attempts to connect with her as trust building and teamwork exercise- she could give absolutely nothing for moping on a bench.

This had to amount to something, she had to believe in the miracle she was promised until the very end. Everything depended on it, this was the most important obstacle in her maze to be overcome.

She would just need to endure it, as she always had.

Lacrosse was a sport that Homura hadn’t actually been exposed to that much, she knew it was somewhat popular but it wasn’t like she could have played any sports before she became a magical girl. Afterwards, such frivolous activities vanished from her mind completely- she had only gotten good at the gym activities due to coincidence and pure repetition.

She sat by Honoka, not really knowing what to expect. She had only entered a stadium once before due to a witch hiding itself in it- but she doubted that counted towards ‘experience’.

Her well trained eyes could easily spot Nagisa from this distance, who seemed shocked at the appearance of both of them- hopefully appreciatively. A male voice broke her from her thoughts…

“Yukishiro-san” A tall man dressed in the same school uniform as Honoka called out with a wave towards her, walking up the steps to join them at the top of the stadium’s seating. It was the least crowded spot. “Ah, who’s this? I don’t recognize her from our school.”

“Fujimura-kun!” Honoka responded cheerfully, before rolling out a technical truth “Oh, this is Akemi-san- I met her during our class’s field trip to the museum.” He made an understanding sound before properly greeting Homura.

“It’s good to meet you, Akemi-san, my name is Shougo Fujimura” He bowed his head a bit in greeting… And Homura sighed inwardly- and unfairly compared him to Hitomi immediately- the normal friend without any powers she was going to need to interact with.

But she was very good at being polite and nodded her head back, “It’s nice to meet you, Fujimura-san.” 

Taking a seat next to Honoka, Fujimura expressed a bit of curiosity about her presence “So why did you come to see the game? Was it just to hang out with Yukishiro-san?”

Honoka answered the question for her, “We’re here to support Misumi-san, she’s om the lacrosse team.”

“The girl that seems to have a rather large fan club.” Homura clarified, barely audible over another ‘Nagisa, Fight On!’ cheer,  though unnecessarily as Fujimura seemed to understand who they were talking about immediately.

“Oh! I heard about her, she’s pretty amazing for only being a second year and already being a top player.” He remarked earnestly with a small smile, “I’m surprised! I didn’t think you’d end up befriending someone like her.”

Homura was completely out of the loop, Nagisa was an ace player? She thought back to Nagisa getting swept away in the museum, the various debacles she got herself into during the hiking trip and everything else…

Was she really seeing a warped reflection of Nagisa this whole time? Maybe a bit uncharitably Homura had slotted her as someone rather clumsy.

While Homura was thinking on that, Honoka answered Fujimura “Friends? Well, we have a kind of mysterious relationship!” The way she worded that made Homura raise her eyebrows- but Fujimura seemed to take it in good fun at face value after Honoka giggled causing him to laugh as well.

As the game went on, and Honoka and Fujimura mostly chatted to one another- occasionally politely involving her Homura came to the conclusion… That Fujimura reminded her of a more fortunate Nakazawa. Easy-going and friendly, but also a bit clueless.

Nagisa on the other hand, if a bit unfortunate played exactly how Homura expected her to play. The girl seemed distracted and ended up fumbling the ball every time it was in her possession. She struggled to catch it when it was passed to her, often bouncing it off the side of her lacrosse stick, and when she did have the ball she either missed the net or hit the metal frame… Until they inevitably lost the game.

Of course, it wasn’t solely Nagisa’s fault, it looked like the Verone lacrosse team was expecting to use her as a crutch to win the game entirely. They should have realized Nagisa was playing a weak game and changed their strategy to make up for it instead of doubling down on it.

But that implies Nagisa really was an ace and this really was an off day and not something Homura should have expected…

Fujimura left them quickly after the game ended to catch up with his other friends, leaving Honoka and Homura sitting there. “Was this abnormal?” Homura decided to ask Honoka.

Honoka nodded, “She’s usually a great player! I wonder what happened today…” She sounded a bit concerned, and Homura struggled to care about her performance in the game but decided that maybe it needed to be addressed.

“Maybe she was distracted because we were here.” Homura offered her thoughts, “She looked pretty shocked to see us, after all.” She added after a thought. Shaking her head, she decided she couldn’t sit there theorizing about a matter that she had very little investment in “We should simply talk to her about it.”

Honoka nodded resolutely, “You’re right… Something’s bothering me about this…” With that, she ran off while Homura was sitting on the bench and very reluctantly got up to follow after her.

What was she even doing? Homura sighed a small amount, before running after them.

Nagisa slouched her shoulders morosely, “That was terrible. I totally let everyone down there.” The fact that nobody really said anything about it was the worst part, honestly. She really messed up and it was during one of the times it counted the most.

Seeing Homura and Honoka with him really threw her off her game that badly. She didn’t know what their relations were- and while she doubted Homura even knew him she couldn’t say the same for Honoka. Were they dating? Or just friends…

She felt really aggravated at herself, why couldn’t she have had those feelings AFTER the match instead of during it! “I just need to do better tomorrow.” She told herself, but it felt unconvincing.

“Misumi-san!” She heard Honoka call out to her, causing her to shift her gaze from the sidewalk up at her rapidly approaching form. Despite being one of the causes of her performance, Nagisa was actually a bit touched that she came all this way to see her on the other side of the stadium.

“Yukishiro-san… And Akemi-san?!” She noticed the other girl trailing after Honoka in a much more lethargic pace to get to her location.

Before Honoka could respond, Homura decided to immediately dig into the root of the matter, “I didn’t think you were that clumsy.” She idly commented which caused Nagisa to flinch a little bit and Honoka to frown at Homura’s direction.

Nagisa laughed it off, rubbing the back of her head. That stung but she was literally asking for it a few moments ago, “Y-Yeah, I must have had an off day today!” She gave another nervous laugh…

Honoka softly spoke up, “Did something happen, Misumi-san? You didn’t seem like your usual self today.” Her concern was evident, and it made Nagisa feel kinda bad.

Nagisa tried to waive her off, “It’s really nothing!” Honoka didn’t really look convinced at that, but let the matter drop. Homura’s flat face didn’t really ever tell her anything, so who knows what they were thinking.

“Oh… Then we’ll come cheer you on tomorrow as well then.” Honoka assured Nagisa of their presence, Homura reluctantly nodded with the sentiment.

Nagisa had mixed feelings about that, “Ah, you’re coming tomorrow as well… Um, don’t force yourselves to come, I’ll feel bad.” She really was just spouting off lame excuses to see if they’d back down.

“You’re not forcing us to come at all, right Akemi-san?” Honoka looked over at their mostly silent companion who nodded again.

“If I did not want to be there, I wouldn’t have shown up.” Homura concurred, which was a bit touching as well kind of. In a weird ‘Akemi-san is indirectly saying she doesn’t mind hanging out with me’ kind of way.

Nagisa fiddled with the hem of her skirt, “Then um, that person you were with today…” and she immediately clamped up. She almost really spilled the beans there in her rush through this conversation!

Honoka looked confused… But Homura did not, her eyes narrowed a bit at Nagisa as if she recognized what she was getting at… Nagisa once again cursed at her big mouth.

“You have a crush on that boy we were sitting with, don’t you.” Homura spoke like a hammer crashing through the strange conversation and directly hitting the nail on the head…

“Ahhh! I don’t believe it! How did you figure it out…” Nagisa tousled her hair in frustration as she was nearly instantly found out by a girl who had by all appearances literally just met her crush! Was she acting THAT weird during the game?!

Homura looked at her flatly with a frown, “Then go confess to him.” This caused Nagisa to let out a sound of disbelief and a gasp from Honoka at how undelicately Homura was handling this.

“W-What?!” Nagisa stumbled over her words, “I couldn’t do that…” She hated the whine in her voice.

“...Misumi-san I didn’t know you knew Fujimura-kun…” Honoka interjected trying to fish for more information.

“Um well,” Nagisa would rather have this conversation than the other one, leaning against the nearby wall of the stadium, even if it was uncomfortable. “I wouldn’t say we know each other…” She gave a nervous laugh.

Homura sighed, and with a bit of an incredulous tone she asked “Have you ever even had a conversation with him? He didn’t seem to know you when we talked to him.”  

Nagisa wilted a bit, “Well, not really…” She sighed again, it was pretty humiliating to express that out loud. Honoka smiled and seemed ready to say something but as she opened her mouth Homura interrupted them.

“Then you should give up those feelings.” Homura coldly interjected shocking the both of them starkly. “You haven’t even had a conversation with this man, yet you’re claiming to like him.”

“Akemi-san!” Honoka spoke more out of shock than anything else, trying to stop her from saying anything more.

Nagisa got angry, she was already really angry for losing the match and this just put fuel to the fire, “Yeah well, what would you even know! Why should I give them up!”

Homura rose her hand and flicked her long black hair backwards, and her words were cold as they were merciless “You’re Pretty Cure. Your mission is to fight the Dark King and to stop him from annihilating all of existence. I understand that both of you are new to the lifestyle of a Magical Girl. I don’t demand you abandon your everyday life entirely…”

But she stared down Nagisa with a cold glare, “But I definitely won’t tolerate any of this idiocy again- no this is worse. You don’t even know him, and I don’t want you distracted while we’re trying to save the world.”

“E-even so…” Nagisa tried to get a word of protest in, trying desperately to defend her own crush.

Homura cut her off, “Even if by some miracle you began to date Shougo Fujimura, you would just be putting him in more danger as he’d always be with you, you’d have to disappear on him constantly to fight as well. Tell me, have you been attacked in the school yet?” 

There was a few moments of silence and a sense of tension in the air. It wasn’t as if Nagisa wasn’t aware that the bad guys could attack at any time… Pisard even disguised himself as a teacher once to get into the school itself to attack her… Nagisa was on the verge of tears.

“That’s cruel, Akemi-san…” Honoka looked and sounded upset, feeling as though what Homura did was really unfair.

“I don’t make an exception for myself either.” Homura refuted evenly, “I have someone I love more than anything else in the world but I put that aside completely for my responsibility… Take this to heart: Kindness can lead to even greater tragedy.” 

“You don’t know anything, Akemi-san!” Nagisa said before sprinting off, leaving Honoka and Homura standing where they were.

Homura sighed tiredly, and with frustration coloring her voice she flipped her hair and began to walk away,  “Have your love story after we’re done saving the world”
 

Chapter Text

Nagisa managed to stop crying by the time she got home, wiping her face with her handkerchief to try to clean herself up. She didn’t want to do anything but go to bed, and leave this whole day behind her. “Who does that Akemi think she is…” She muttered angrily to herself bitterly.

For a moment she tried to manifest that the girl was just jealous or trying to get Fujimura for herself before that image deflated completely in her exhausted mind. She just couldn’t imagine Homura liking anyone.

She shuffled slowly toward the door to her family’s apartment not truly wanting to be back home yet, but at the same time having no energy to just go off on her own somewhere else. Plus… She didn’t have much allowance money left, and she just knew she was going to spend it all on ice cream or something.

With only a moment of hesitation she opened the door and entered her apartment, “I’m home,” She called out blander than she meant, getting a distracted ‘Welcome back’ from her mother… Who turned to look at her face, and then frowned.

“Nagisa, what happened? Are you okay?” Rie Misumi was many things- maybe a bit abrasive at times and a bit busy with housework but she wasn’t blind. She could tell that Nagisa was upset.

Nagisa frowned and tried to think up an excuse that didn’t involve the actual truth “I um,” she found it immediately, “I lost the game really badly for everyone… I guess I’m just a bit upset I fumbled!” She tried to laugh it off but didn’t really have the energy.

Her mother looked at her a bit concerned as Nagisa hadn’t reacted so badly before- but quickly adapted “Well, you’re not out yet, aren’t you? Isn’t there another game tomorrow to redeem yourself in?” She told her softly and reassuringly, “I’m sure your team doesn’t blame you for what happened.”

Nagisa tried to give her mom a big smile in return to make her stop worrying about her, “Y-yeah. I know, I just need to try my best tomorrow and not make the same mistakes!” She tried to be convincing, and with a held in sigh of relief she saw it worked.

“That’s the spirit Nagisa! Now make sure you don’t forget your homework while you’re feeling motivated.” She ended with a bit of a teasing joke to her that Nagisa forced herself to laugh at.

Excusing herself, Nagisa went to her room and made sure to not slam the door in her emotive state and collapsed on her bed. She sunk into her small collection of stuffed animals on her bed, and just tried to stop thinking about it.

“...Nagisa-mepo…” Mepple hesitantly spoke up, having awoken during the argument, but didn’t think Nagisa was in a state to really want to communicate. Not that he really knew what to say anyway…

Nagisa opened her eyes, and then gave a deep sigh, “Hey, Mepple… Do you think what Akemi-san said was right?” She could only really ask Mepple- since outside of her parents she didn’t really know anyone else who was in a relationship and of course, nobody else would know about her being Pretty Cure.

“Of course not-mepo! …Is what I want to say, but I understand a bit of where Akemi-san is coming from-mepo…” Mepple answered her tentatively transforming into his regular plush form and sitting near her head next to a large bear plush.

Mepple normally would have teased her, or maybe placated her in a normal conversation around this topic where they could both have fun passing verbal shots at one another… But this was serious, so he needed to give serious advice… “Remember when I said you shouldn’t let anyone know you were Pretty Cure-mepo? It was to help protect the people you know and your family from the Dark Zone-mepo…” Mepple waited for a sign of acknowledgement from Nagisa, just in case she forgot.

Mepple decided to let her know the unfortunate reality of her situation, “Unfortunately, it seems that they’re vaguely aware of your identities, Pisard even attacked you in your school- it's very possible that in the future they might use your friends and family as hostages against you for the Prism Stones-mepo. I can definitely see why Akemi-san wouldn’t want you to open yourself up to that risk-mepo.”

Nagisa frowned, “But I like him, I haven’t liked anyone before now…” She knew she was being selfish, that it sounded unreasonable to her own ears. “You and Mipple make us accommodate your relationship, why can’t we do the same…?” She knew already that the comparison didn’t work, Mepple and Mipple were what allowed them to transform into Pretty Cure- it made them safer to be together instead of apart…

It wasn’t fair.

“I’m sorry, Nagisa-mepo… I won’t tell you not to follow your feelings, I just understand Akemi-san’s reasoning-mepo.” Mepple didn’t think anyone had a right to stop another from following their heart- and if Nagisa’s said that she wanted to get into a relationship then Mepple wouldn’t stop her. After all, he tried in his own (albeit teasing way) to encourage her before.

But of course, the real issue wasn’t what anyone had said, it was Nagisa herself. Nagisa was upset because the words spoken to her were convincing. They made sense, she wasn’t a normal girl anymore- she was Cure Black with all the dangers and responsibilities that entails.

Immediately everything clicked into place, she knew what she had to do. Yeah, everything would be fine tomorrow. With that in mind, Nagisa relaxed deeply into her bed until she was loudly called by her mother to help with some chores… With a groan, she got out of bed.

The next day Nagisa arrived at the tournament with the rest of the lacrosse team as per usual… Only for the vice-principal to set them aside and begin rambling on about how their performance yesterday was ‘unacceptable’ and losing would be a ‘black mark on Verone’s prestigious history’

Rina who was nearby waited until he was just out of earshot before loudly commenting, “Just because he’s the vice-principal he thinks he has the authority to just be a huge jerk.”

Some of the more nearby members of the lacrosse club gave a short laugh at the comment, nobody really appreciating the needless effort to berate them right before the game. It was the complete opposite of a motivational speech. Still, the revelry died down when they actually saw their opponents… 

Kakutokandai Junior High really sent their best for this part of the lacrosse tournament, every one of their members seemed built like a brick house. Even her friends Rina and Shiho looked pretty demoralized at the sight of them, luckily their captain Yumiko was able to revitalize the group.

Then the game actually started, and Nagisa was immediately in action. Running across the field to get into a forward position that she could easily use to get to the net, she almost immediately got thrown a pass from Yumiko who stole it from her counterpart in Kakutokandai.

Catching it, Nagisa immediately lunged forward in a sprint and then jumped and hooked her lacrosse stick around their defensive player and like a speeding bullet the ball passed right through the goalie’s guard and straight into the net.

Nagisa halfheartedly smiled as her team cheered, unfortunately for these girls, Nagisa had a lot of stress she wanted to blow off. Yeah, she was in top form today she could feel it.

The game progressed similarly to that, Kakutokandai had briefly underestimated the Verone lacrosse club due to their overwhelming physical superiority and how they underperformed the previous day. They were completely unprepared for Verone’s massive comeback in the tournament…

But that wasn’t the most difficult thing that Nagisa planned to do this day, and really the only reason she was able to focus on the game was that she was trying her hardest not to think about it.

So when her team and school cheered her on along with the rest of the lacrosse club, Nagisa could only halfheartedly celebrate with them. As she was getting ready to leave, her friends Rina and Shiho stopped her…

“You’re ditching us already, Nagisa?” Rina asked casually stopping her as Nagisa was trying to sneak away. Not that she truly minded but Nagisa was acting kind of weird these last two days.

“You really won’t celebrate longer, longer?” Shiho looked up at her confused wondering if something was wrong.

Nagisa rubbed the back of her head, “Well, I actually have something I need to do… I’ll see all of you girls later!” Without giving them time to react she ran off leaving Shiho and Rina standing there.

“Nagisa’s become weird!” Shiho gave an unserious overdramatic wail of alarm at seeing her friend once again run off.

Rina shrugged, “Maybe it’s boy troubles? Or maybe one of those girls finally got lucky.” The two walked back to their team just in time to hear Yumiko invite everyone out to the convenience store for some drinks.

Nagisa took the same exit she took out yesterday, half expecting Homura and Honoka to be there already, but of course, it’d take some time. That was good, it gave her some time to gather her thoughts and say what she needed to say.

If they were even here anyway, Nagisa didn’t exactly check which made her grimace at her own tunnel vision during the game. She decided to just wait around, relaxing against the wall of the stadium and sure enough Honoka and Homura came to see her.

There was still a bit of tension in the air from yesterday that Honoka broke through with a casual grace “Congratulations on your victory, Misumi-san!”

Nagisa felt a bit bashful picking at her face, “Oh, well… Thank you. I couldn’t let my team down twice in a row…”  She trailed off awkwardly looking between the two girls. Homura simply stared her down not saying anything, while Honoka looked vaguely confused at the sudden silence.

Looking a bit pensive, Nagisa spoke up “Listen, I gave it a lot of thought and… I don’t think I can be Pretty Cure anymore.” It was too hard, it was dangerous and as something she was becoming more aware of it asked her to sacrifice large portions of her regular life…

Honoka gasped, “Oh no… B-but Misumi-san without you there is no Pretty Cure… What about the Garden of Light? Mepple and Mipple?” She sounded a bit desperate in trying to keep them together, after all being Pretty Cure was the main reason they were friends.

“I’m sure you and Homura will be able to figure something out,” Nagisa said, handing off Mepple’s case to Honoka, with false bravado- even though she thought this was for the best she felt like it was wrong somehow…

“So that’s it then- you’re just running away!” Honoka became upset suddenly, unable to hold back her emotions as Nagisa started to unilaterally quit. “I can’t believe you…”

Nagisa flinched slightly before her own emotions flared cutting her off, “I didn’t ask to become Pretty Cure! I just want my normal everyday life back instead of fighting all the time, worrying about bad guys… I don’t want everything I do to be messed up due to some bad luck!”

Honoka got more incensed, “Does that mean you consider our meeting and friendship was due to bad luck?!” Nagisa stepped back- but her eyes hardened in a glare and was about to say something she’d regret-

“Enough.” Her voice wasn’t her usual cold and harsh tone- holding only a weary exhaustion that pierced the conversation, stopping the two in their tracks “I won’t force Nagisa Misumi to fight, and we should respect her choice.”

Giving one last look to the two, before turning and walking away “Since you can no longer be Pretty Cure, I suppose our partnership is over. Thank you for your work up until now.” Without another word she left them…

Honoka bit her lip, looking between the two before turning and running off on her own. Nagisa reached out her hand as if she wanted to stop them, but lowered it. This was the right decision, right? For some reason, it didn’t feel like it was… “I can’t believe this…” 
 

Homura sat in a cafe with a coffee in front of her and Honoka seated across the table with a cup of tea. This kind of scene brought a painful sort of pseudo-nostalgia to her mind- was it possible to feel nostalgic about an event that repeated endlessly? That was a question she had no answer to.  

“Why… Why did you let Nagisa quit without saying anything?” Honoka spoke up suddenly after the two had basked in tense silence for several minutes. Homura delayed answering for a few moments taking off the lid of her coffee cup and then starting to mix in sugar and a small amount of milk.

There was no reason to lie, “I don’t want people to risk their lives fighting.” Homura eventually settled on, almost solemnly. “I can’t stop people from fighting if… They’re already destined to do so. But I’d never demand someone fight or work together with me if they truly didn’t wish to.”

It was a tragedy in her eyes, that young girls even in this dimension needed to fight for their lives or face oblivion. Things were less inherently cruel, but the burden was just as heavy- or perhaps heavier for them. The whole world was at stake, no worse- it was multiple worlds.

Homura related a small amount to their struggle, after all, if she didn’t stop Madoka from contracting- she quickly spoke up to distract herself, a practiced statement coming from her lips that applied all the same “If she couldn’t deal with such a small hurdle then she wasn’t ready to exist in this ‘world’.” 

Honoka’s hands clenched under the table they were sitting at painfully, her face twisting into a sort of shocked understanding “You-you can’t! You can’t just take all the burden on yourself… That isn’t fair…” She trailed off not really knowing what to say.

“Don’t misunderstand me, I am doing everything for selfish reasons.” Homura deflected, a bit uncomfortable with the direction of this conversation “I ultimately only desire the chance to grant myself a miracle. To get that goal I would do anything, even something terrible… It’s only a coincidence my goal lines up-” 

Honoka interjected frowning heavily, “You’re contradicting yourself- why would you care so much about people risking their lives if the only thing that matters is your goal.” Homura instinctively averted her gaze in response…

A bit of self-mockery entered Homura’s voice, “...Yes, I suppose I am contradictory.” She closed her eyes even as she felt a small spike in her chest, “Even so, I know I am capable of terrible things.” She was just weak.

Sentimentality got in the way- and even she wasn’t so unfeeling that she could just… Remove familiar faces when they became obstacles. She had accepted that she couldn’t save everyone and even that was a tough pill to swallow… But it was worth it if at least Madoka survived. Everything would be worth it.

Mipple mumbled from where her case form was clipped to Honoka’s backpack, slowly opening fully to reveal her  “Akemi-san mipo… I’m sorry, the ones who should have been fighting this whole time was us-mipo… If only we didn’t lose the Prism Stones to the Dark King-mipo!” She sounded like she was going to be brought to tears.

Honoka looked around sharply to see if anyone had heard her, only for Homura to speak up “I created a small barrier around us, they can speak as much as they want.” True enough even the nearby patrons of the establishment didn’t react to Mipple’s sudden voice.

Mepple finally spoke up finally being awoken by the commotion with a despondent tone, his case held in Honoka’s hand opening and revealing his face  “I feel like this is my fault-mepo. All the weight of the responsibilities came crashing down all at once- I should have done something-mepo.”

Homura took a sip of her coffee calmly, which didn’t sit well with Honoka… “How can you just sit there so calmly… Akemi-san aren’t you worried about fighting the Dark Zone on your own?” The question almost felt a bit absurd to Homura- enough to make her mentally scoff.

“I’ve always fought alone before this.” She deflected, before deciding to move the conversation forward before Honoka or the two denizens from the Garden of Light questioned her on her background, “More importantly what are you going to do now? We no longer need to associate with each other as our alliance for all intents and purposes is over.”

Mepple spoke up suddenly, “Well we have to convince Nagisa to keep being a Pretty Cure-mepo! I can’t believe she would quit so easily- I believe in her-mepo!” Mepple heatedly spoke up strongly

Honoka was hesitant, she didn’t really know what she was going to do. She wanted to keep being Pretty Cure- and more than that wanted to keep being friends with Nagisa. But she wondered if those things were possible… They were so different- and Nagisa suddenly quitting…

“I… Don’t know. But I know I want to keep seeing you Akemi-san!” Honoka suddenly spoke out strongly, “It was for a short time but… I thought that we were on the road to becoming friends together- I don’t want to believe our partnership was so shallow… Unless you don’t want me to” She trailed off with a hint of pain.

Homura felt more uncomfortable of this development, the only person that she regularly had any sort of understanding with was Kyoko- and the painful distance between herself and Madoka. Sentimentality rose in her chest- “I see… Then do what you want.”

Homura set long since cooled coffee aside, “You should go to those who cherish you, Honoka Yukishiro. I imagine your grandmother must be wondering where you are by now.” 

“Oh no I lost track of time!” Honoka slightly panicked and gathered her things after she looked at the nearby clock. “Um, goodbye Akemi-san… Next time let’s have tea at my house!” She awkwardly said her farewell and left- her untouched tea sitting where Honoka placed it when they first sat down.

After she was sure Honoka had left, Homura rested a palm on her face and slouched over the table. “This is a disaster.” She didn’t know how she was going to possibly fight the rest of the Dark Zone’s theoretical forces, or the obvious overwhelming danger the Dark King likely represented on her own.

Had she doomed the world through her own haphazard advice? The thought was harrowing as it always was when she accidentally destablized another with her words… Other people were like glass, all too fragile under pressure. All Homura could take as a minor victory was that she didn’t have an accidental hand in the girl’s death… ‘Yet’, she added warily.

She wasn’t a stranger to making alliances, early on in the time loops she had allied with Mami believing in the girl’s magical strength- but never being able to support her weak spirit on her own. As she closed herself off soon the only person who she could rely on was Kyoko…

But one thing was constant, even during the early timelines… These alliances never lasted, and inevitably ended in tragedy. This was why it was a mistake to rely upon anyone else, and perhaps much like Kyoko’s own inability to keep to her selfish philosophy… Homura too struggled with keeping her own standards.

Getting up suddenly, as images of her friends- and most prominently Madoka began to haunt her she decided that she was going to patrol the city. It was pointless, but she needed to do something- even if that was idly traveling across the cityscape on her own.

Feeling a twinge in her chest, she considered… Maybe Mami and her weren’t so different after all…

It didn’t take long for the Dark Zone to make their next move, in fact the breakup of Pretty Cure couldn’t have happned at a worse time. They hadn’t acted in a few days, which felt very uncharacteristic after the near constant assault Pisard had delivered upon the girls before Homura’s arrival.

It was inevitable that they would attack very soon, at least it was obvious to Homura’s own view of the situation. So Homura wasn’t surprised when she felt the Power of Destruction make her soul shudder nearby… This also confirmed something to her.

The Dark King was aware of the general area of the Pretty Cure- or former Pretty Cure in this case were at all times. Not enough to precisely hunt down their families, but enough that they always seemed to appear nearby.

The sun had almost set when their enemy had appeared causing the hazy supernatural distortion of the world the Power of Destruction brought with it to reflect a mixture of bright misty purple clouds in the sky centered around the stadium that held the lacrosse tournament.

Homura had arrived effectively instantly at the epicenter of the effect, her time stop allowing her intercept whatever monster the Dark Zone had released before it could rampage trying to get the attention of the Pretty Cure.

Standing there with a bit of a confused and dull look on his face was the musclebound ‘Strongman’ that had faced them earlier. His rough and almost wheezing voice came out as a growl, “Huh?! Weren’t they… Supposed to be here?” He scratched his head looking around at the empty stadium.

Homura then walked into the open from where she hid in the shadows of the stadium, causing the humanoid creature to turn and look at her- his scowl turning into a cruel grin at the sight. His body tensed in anticipation for battle, before being confused…

“Where are the Pretty Cure!” He bellowed angrily, stepping forward threateningly as he did so cracking the earth beneath his feet. He took a cautious look around checking for any obvious ambush in the stadium…

Homura decided to enlighten him, “There will be no Pretty Cure today… But you’ll see that I’m more than enough for you.” She didn’t need to rely on anyone, and she’d prove it right here. She reached for her shield, but refrained from brining anything out just yet.

The giant looked contemplative for moment before settling on a satisfied grin, “Fine… We’ll settle the score, and then…” He smashed a closed fist into his other palm, “Then I, Gekidrago will crush those Pretty Cure!”

Discarding the need for Zakenna, Gekidrago charged at Homura personally- likely saving Zakenna for the Pretty Cure or completely forgetting about the monster entirely in his eagerness… His muscles bulged grotesquely as he prepared to swing a charging punch with all his might… “UGAA!!!”

The last battle had shown the brute was a very durable and physically strong opponent… But he luckily seemed to lack the versatility and magic his predecessor had- along with the intellect. Homura’s shield clicked…

Appearing where Homura once stood was a fuel truck, Gekidrago unable to stop his momentum closed into it with a sudden sound of screeching metal before a violent detonation blew apart the truck breaking apart the nearby wall and seating area of the stadium, Gekidrago found himself being knocked backwards onto his back, spotting Homura standing where he originally was a moment ago…

Only for a sudden barrage of missiles to strike him before he could recover, creating a massive fiery explosion upon his body and blanketing the area with smoke… “Ugaaa!!” Gekidrago charged out of the cloud, his scorched and bruised body from the assault didn’t seem to slow him down.

Homura brought out a machine gun as she began to run across the field in a curved arc, her mind mentally recognizing it as an M2 Browning, her magic whisping through the mechanisms of the firearm and suddenly it bulked up slightly- gained a silver sheen, engravings and crusted gems on its body as she enchanted the gun and its bullets.

Enchanting wasn’t a magic she was unfamiliar with, she used it liberally on her explosives and along with enhancing the firepower of her guns… But she hadn’t done it to this extent in a very long time, a relic when she had focused on partnering with Mami- it simply wasn’t efficient in most scenarios.

Her gun gave a satisfying click, before with a brilliant purple flash came from its muzzle before a barrage of magical bullets slammed into Gekidrago’s front, slowing his charge as he suddenly had to shield himself with his arms. His natural armor only protected him so much, as black and purplish welts appeared on his skin along with shallow cuts…

Gekidrago reached down into the soil of the stadium with one of his large hands before “GRAHHH!” With a shout of effort he threw a torrent of dirt at Homura’s direction at dangerous speeds causing her to dive away where it smashed a small crater into the far stadium wall from the force.

“My turn now!” Within moments he was upon her fists raised above his head like hammers ready to smash her into a fine paste into the floor. Yet, Homura had vanished again and where her body once was were a pile of explosives- that promptly exploded into his body sending him stumbling back- only for the bullets from Homura’s enchanted gun to slam straight into exposed back… “GUAHH!!” 

Homura breathed in and out as her rifle ran out of ammo- becoming permamently useless to her and dismissed into her shield. She reached out her hand, and her soul gem flared and balls of purple energy flew from her outstretched hand and crashed into his absurdly durable frame. She felt like she would have killed Pisard at least twice over at this point!

Gritting her teeth she was forced to suddenly lunge backwards as Gekidrago’s impressively fast form finally closed the distance with her, his fist coming dangerously close to her head and crashing into the ground behind her.

Out of desperation for simply anything to work against this musclebound freak Homura put as much magic as she could safely collect around her soul gem, channeling it into a much larger purple ball, and extended her hand out towards Gekidrago’s torso…

Unexpectedly it took on a multi-colored rainbow aura and slammed into his sternum with a violent drilling force before it detonated with a white flash. Gekidrago let out a surprised and staggered grunt as he fell to one of his knees from the blow, blood coming from one of his lips… But then suddenly his right arm clasped around Homura’s his fingers parting around her shield that refused to bend.

“Got you…!” He grinned, the force immediately pulverizing the bones and tearing the muscle in the limb making Homura gasp a bit in pain… Narrowing her eyes she summoned a vehicle out of her shield above them…

Gekidrago widened his eyes as he was suddenly in the shade, and rapidly descending upon him was the massive wheels and yellow frame of a four hundred ton mining dump truck. Dropping Homura he went to raise his arms to either defend himself or catch it…

But Homura wasn’t going to simply let him do that, magically manipulating that strange power around her soul gem once more- though she could feel it was vastly depleted she scrounged up the thin remnants and threw the charged shot of magic trailing with a brilliant rainbow aura like a comet striking him in the side…

Gekidrago stumbled, his tensed form crumbling and his arms instinctively moving to protect his side the truck smashed into his body- and of course would soon crush Homura- only for the whirling and clicking of gears to sound out from her shield and the world freezing in place.

Her soul gem was heavily depleted, and she instinctively knew that whatever she just used to strike Gekidrago had been used up. She could not afford to fight here anymore… So she had to make sure that this stalemate counted towards Gekidrago as well.

She might not have the Marble Screw attack the Pretty Cure duo had, but she definitely had more than enough explosives. She jumped over the bucket of the massive truck, and haphazardly dumped a small armies worth of bombs onto the machine. With that done she made a speedy retreat before she could no longer sustain her time stop. 

Gekidrago barely got a “Gwuh…” out before being smashed into the ground by the massive weight of the machine- and when it began to tremble as he tried to push it off of him it detonated in a massive explosion that could be seen across the city- if it weren’t for the strange isolating effects of the Power of Destruction.

Eventually, a tall bald man in a robe would blast the machine off of him with a brutal gust of air, glaring at the unconscious form member of the Dark Five “The Dark King will not take your failure lightly this time, Gekidrago.”

In the next moment they were gone, and as the purple hue of the Power of Destruction vanished from the Garden of Rainbows- so did the evidence of battle even occurring leaving nothing but an empty stadium.

Chapter Text

Gekidrago was never one to stay down for long, especially not in the presence of the Dark King. That was one of his redeeming qualities, along with his strength it almost enough to make up for his stupidity. Almost.

The Dark King was furious, the rattling of his massive chains that tied him to the dark ashen rock of the landscape trembled with unrestrained rage, “Gekidrago!”

The Dark King leaned forward, his massive towering size trembling the earth as he moved, the volcano his titanic form was contained in cracking and shuddering further. “You come back to me defeated, but not even to the Pretty Cure!” The titan’s burning red eyes narrowed.

Gekidrago bowed- as much as the man could anyway, his face a trembling mix of impotent fury and fear as he was confronted with the Dark King’s direct menace. Silence that the Dark King didn’t take well at all.

“Even you cannot defend your failure… Fine then.” The Dark King rose one of his titanic arms, brandishing a hand outwards toward Gekidrago, “I will not tolerate useless creations! If you cannot deliver me the Prism Stones then I’ll create something else that will!” With a mighty bellow, the Power of Destruction began to consolidate around the Dark King’s hand…

“D-Dark King!” Gekidrago rumbled out in shock- and perhaps as a plea for his life. Ilkubo chose this time to step in, confidently stepping ahead of Gekidrago as if to shield him physically from his wrath… Of course, Ilkubo would simply teleport out of the way if the Dark King’s wrath could not be subdued but it was the thought that counted.

“What is the meaning of this Ilkubo?” The Dark King reluctantly lowered his arm, curious as to what his most valuable subordinate had to gain from interrupting him. Ilkubo looked confident, but a bead of sweat dripping from the side of his head betrayed his own intimidation…

With a narrowed glare he sent back at Gekidrago’s cowardly form, causing the beast of a man to let out a surprised ‘Uga!’, Ilkubo spoke up, “I think Gekidrago still has use, this new ally of the Pretty Cure is… Unnatural. She is nothing like the Legendary Warriors, and more importantly, seems to be utilizing the primitive weaponry of this Garden of Rainbow’s soldiers.”

The Dark King stilled for a moment before retracting back to its full standing height looking upon them as if they were ants, “You believe this Garden of Rainbows might create their own Pretty Cure?”

“No, from what I could tell the energy in the Garden of Rainbows was nothing like the Garden of Light’s, it’s too weak to naturally create something like this… But when I watched the tail end of Gekidrago’s battle I observed her teleporting.” Ilkubo frowned angrily “I suspected this when Pisard reported the girl bringing out weapons from her shield. There’s only one individual I know of that can warp space to that extent.”

“Wisdom!” The Dark King’s massive hands clenched in fury at the name, being one of the few fairies from the Garden of Light that had escaped their assault. The Guardian of the Stones and his Prism Hopish had erased the presence of Pisard’s stone.

Ilkubo nodded, “I believe Gekidrago is uniquely suited towards figuring out this… Pseudo-Cure’s abilities and the extent of the Pretty Cure’s abilities. Both Kiriya and Poisony would have perished in a similar battle.”

Calming down the Dark King settled upon just glaring on Gekidrago’s form, “I see… Gekidrago! You are to seek to destroy this new Pseudo-Cure and to claim the Prism Stones! Think of ways to use Zakenna, and do not fail so utterly again.” The Dark King’s booming voice still held rage, but it was cold- promising the cruelties of what was to come if he had failed.

With a wordless dismissal the two servants of the Dark King walked away from his sight- but never his awareness. As they were constructed from the Dark King, they could never escape him.

Ilkubo looked at Gekidrago with a frown, “Approach them with more caution, or you will regret it.” Despite his words, Gekidrago shrugged them off as if he didn’t hear him at all, stomping away from him, already holding a cruel grin in anticipation for the next battle.

“This time… I’ll crush them…” Gekidrago muttered to himself, idly smashing apart a piece of the rock formation of the area the Dark Five claimed as their ‘base’ on his exit.

Perhaps it was a mistake to save him, but Ilkubo banished the thought. The others needed more information- and would benefit from it the most. If Gekidrago were to die it was best he did so in a manner that would prepare Poisony to take his place.

“...As long as I find Wisdom, it won’t matter how many of the Dark Five fall.” Ilkubo spoke to himself, wrenching his attention away from the dilemma of the Pretty Cure and their new ally to focus on the much more important task of locating the Guardian of the Stones and his Prism Hopish.

Wisdom had no idea of what to make of the Pretty Cure’s ally Homura Akemi. Nagisa and Honoka were chosen by and had great compatibility with Mepple and Mipple respectively to the point that it dispelled doubt in his mind about them not being the fated warriors in their first meeting.

Floating in a bubble between dimensional space, Wisdom had plenty of time to think as he hid out of possible reach from the Dark Zone. The more he thought about it the more troublesome this arrangement could end up being. He thought back to their only meeting so far.

As the green Prism Stone was slotted into the Prism Hopish, Wisdom appeared standing upon it, flourishing up a set of lights to represent the stones. His theatrical flair must have looked pretty humorous to these humans that were several times his size “You collected the Prism Stones?” He asked them gently, almost whimsically. 

The one he knew as Honoka responded hesitantly, “Um, Yes…” It seemed as though the two Pretty Cure were a bit mesmerized by his flashy entrance. 

“Are you the Guardian of the Stones, then?” Homura spoke up suddenly, and that put Wisdom on the back foot. He was only aware of the Pretty Cure due to their connection to the Power of Light- this other girl…

He frowned “Who are you?” There was nothing like this in the Legend of the Pretty Cure, or at least he was pretty sure. It was hard to understand the Elder sometimes, and the Queen didn’t say anything about this either.

“She’s the Pretty Cure’s new ally-mipo!”, “That’s right-mepo!” Mipple and Mepple gave their support towards their new ally with a friendly cheer that was infectious. If the Princess and the Champion thought that then Wisdom had no choice but to agree.

“I am Homura Akemi,” and she kneeled down towards him with a narrowed eye, “And I want to know what can the Prism Stones actually do. Are they actually capable of granting wishes?”

Wisdom brought a hand obscured by his oversized robe to his face rubbing it in thought, “In a sense, yes the Prism Stones are capable of many things when they’re all together. I’d go so far as to say there is a very small list of what they cannot do at full power.”

He gave a sad frown, “Which is why it’s very important that they’re kept out of the Dark King’s hands, with them all he would have ultimate absolute power. Nothing could stand against him if he had all the Prism Stones.”

A bit of him found this questioning suspicious, “Why do you ask, little girl?” He ignored Nagisa in the background mouthing ‘little girl’ with an incredulous expression.

“It was agreed upon that I would be able to make a wish in exchange for my cooperation. Do not worry, I have no interest in taking the stones for myself.”

“I-I see… Well, I have a gift for the Pretty Cure…”

Even now, Wisdom questioned whether or not it was the correct choice to not intervene and try to argue against this strange inclusion into the legendary Pretty Cure’s duo. He shook it off, it made no sense! Why would a servant of the Dark King masquerade as an active ally to the Pretty Cure and assist them in finding the Prism Hopish?

Yet he couldn’t shake off the feeling there was something unsettling about the nature of the Akemi’s energy. He just needed to believe in the Pretty Cure, and of course the Princess and the Champion. That was all he was capable of doing.

He was sure everything was fine and the Pretty Cure were going to deliver the next Prism Stone from a defeated denizen of the Dark Zone any day now… Though it sure felt like they were taking their time… “If only they used my card more often!”

He sighed to himself dismally, picking up some spare manga he had managed to sequester away before needing to hide from the Dark Zone. He really missed going outside.

Chapter Text

Nagisa couldn’t exactly avoid going to school the next day, she wasn’t someone who really skipped class (not that her parents would ever let her get away with that!) but she definitely wasn’t looking forward to how awkward it was going to be going to class with Honoka there. Instinctively she looked around for Mipple after noticing his case form was not attached to her bag…

Before she sighed “Right, he’s with Yukishiro-san.” She shook her head, “I better head off to school.” She gave a halfhearted goodbye to her mom on her way out, unsure she was even heard over the sound of the… Washing machine? Drier? One of the two in the laundry room as she thought about Mepple.

They didn’t get to spend that long together, she knew that in her head. But now that she didn’t have Mepple around, that time felt way longer. Did she make the right decision? As much as she griped about it, Nagisa never hated being Cure Black- it was scary sometimes but…

She liked helping people. To be honest, saving the world or whatever wasn’t really on her mind at all until she had it spelled out for her yesterday. Sure the Dark Zone guys were causing problems in specific areas but it felt unbelievable that the Earth could be destroyed.

“Even now it’s completely unbelievable…” She mumbled to herself, before trying to shove the thoughts of Pretty Cure and the Dark Zone away from her mind, into a deep hole she’d never have to unbury. She wasn’t going to be Cure Black anymore! All Nagisa had to worry about was training for the next lacrosse match!

Very reluctantly she added studying to the list of worries as well. But that wasn’t a problem anymore! All she had to do was ask Honoka to share her notes or something-... Ah, wait. That wasn’t an option anymore, was it?

They were only really friends because of Pretty Cure, and now that she wasn’t… Well, Nagisa felt like they wouldn’t be friends anymore. They were too different, weren’t they? Still, she felt something uncomfortable in her stomach when she thought about it.

Well she shouldn’t be relying on other people for her school work anyway! Or at least that’s what she wanted to say with confidence, but Nagisa really didn’t think she could back that up. It would be really nice to stay friends with Honoka, huh.

If only she wasn’t so angry about her leaving Pretty Cure yesterday… She begrudgingly had to appreciate Homura for stopping them early. Nagisa really was about to say some stuff she was ashamed of even really thinking, that she’d feel a lot more terrible after saying.

“Hey, Nagisa!”/”Naggiiissaaa!” Her two friends Rina and Shiho stood near the entrance of the school calling out to her, waving her over. Nagisa smiled and ran over to greet the two with her own wave.

“Rina, Shiho!” Nagisa cheerfully greeted, “Were you two waiting for me?” While not really strange, it happened rarely enough that it was quite a pleasant surprise. Usually she met the two in the classroom.

“You were acting pretty weird the other day- well for the last few days really, really, really weird! Shiho exaggerated, the slightly short girl looked at Nagisa with a bit of concern. After all, Nagisa didn’t even seem too happy when she won them the game.

Rina, always the most at least outwardly composed compared to Nagisa’s and Shiho’s common antics nudged Shiho on the side to get her to stop while she was ahead with an easy smile, “We thought you needed some cheering up! Well…” She scratched at her face a little bit, “What we want to say is…”

“Hang in there, Nagisa!” Shiho cheered on loudly, it said something about how often the trio were rambunctious that it barely brought them any attention from all the other students walking into the school.

Rina agreed with the sentiment with a bit of mirth, “Hang in there, Nagisa!” She joined in with Shiho’s cheer, uncaring about curious onlookers.

“You guys…!” Nagisa whispered astonished as she was slightly moved from the display, and a bit embarrassed of course. But Nagisa was for all the student body thought she was really cool and handsome with the constant love letters a girl who wore her heart on her sleeve.

Shiho and Rina moved to the side wordlessly inviting Nagisa to walk with them, Rina continued “I’m sure when you’re ready you’ll tell us what’s got you down in the dumps, Nagisa. But just know we’re supporting you.”

Nagisa stepped forward, and suddenly wondered what she was feeling all depressed about! She grinned, “Don’t worry, I’ll be a lot more energetic today! Come on, let’s get to class!” It was a place she normally didn’t really want to go to- but right now she didn’t mind at all!

“Woah! Nagisa wait up!” Shiho called out and rushed behind her along with Rina, before they broke out into an easy laugh at the sudden chase.

That enthusiasm of her’s ended as soon as she spotted Honoka in the classroom, filling Nagisa with an awkward unease. When she turned to look at her, Nagisa averted her eyes and went to her seat. “I can’t believe this.” She unconsciously sighed out.

Shiho and Rina from their adjacent seats looked at her curiously, before at each other and shrugging as their homeroom teacher Yoshimi Takenouchi walked in. Whatever it was, it was going to have to wait until lunch- unless they wanted to get told off.

 The trio began to eat lunch peacefully on a balcony outcropping of the building’s roof, sitting in the shade of the brick fencing that stopped anyone from easily falling over. It was usually a pretty relaxing and serene place, allowing for a substantial amount of privacy as well due to the lack of foot traffic in the area.

“Gyah! I can’t wait anymore!” Shiho shouted, quickly devouring her sandwich, almost choking before thumping her chest while clearing her throat, “Ahem, Nagisa! Tell me already what’s going on! Tell me… Tell me…!” Shiho approached her with every word, the out-of-the-loop feeling finally getting to her.

Rina and Nagisa both looked both perturbed, (Nagisa understandably more so) as Shiho attempted to drag it out of her. Rina decided to break the ice first, “Is there something wrong between you and Yukishiro-san?”

“Wh-what?” Nagisa tried to play it off, and as always was extremely unconvincing, “There’s nothing wrong! Nothing wrong at all!” She tried to laugh it off, trailing off into silence at the deadpan reactions from her friends.

“For like the last like, two weeks you guys were hanging out constantly. But you haven’t even acknowledged her today outside of sighing or looking depressed.” Rina countered flatly, in a tone akin to as if Nagisa had just tried to convince her the moon was made of cheese.

Shiho nodded vigorously, before looking at her seriously “Don’t tell me you were using the smartest girl in class for her notes or something Nagisa and now you feel bad.” The tone was more joking than serious- but there was a hint of accusation. It was no secret that Nagisa was really popular- and really bad at scholastic subjects. Nagisa normally wouldn’t have done such a thing, but if she did it’d explain why she’d be in the dumps.

Of course, Nagisa was immediately offended- but was tempted to use it as an out to avoid trying to get into the sticky situation of telling them a hint of the truth… But this was an easy lie to investigate and Honoka wasn’t likely to follow along if she judged her principles right- let alone as likely angry as she was at her at the moment. With everything said and done, Nagisa basically had to tell them the truth- albeit minus the Pretty Cure stuff which was going to make this… Pretty hard.

“Fine, fine.” Nagisa was a bit annoyed and frustrated, putting aside her lunch “So, basically, I agreed to do something with Yukishrio-san. It was like, a group project, um. Once in a lifetime thing, but I began to realize that maybe I wasn’t cut out for it. The responsibility seemed too big.” She was venting now, but she couldn’t really help it.

Nagisa continued, “I didn’t hate doing it, I guess I kinda liked it- but when another girl reminded me of the stakes and amount of effort I had to put in I kinda… Felt like I couldn’t do it. Plus, like I’d have to give up like, romance for it and stuff.” She rambled on, tagging that last bit on the end.

Rina and Shiho looked uncomprehending, mostly because they couldn’t imagine anything Nagisa and Honoka could have gotten up to that would have been some sort of massive commitment.

“So did you quit then, huh?” Shiho looked at her understanding, which she sort of did! If she followed along what Nagisa was saying as the plot of a movie then it all lined up. She was obviously hiding stuff, but Shiho assumed it was because of a good reason- she trusted Nagisa.

Nagisa nodded but sighed, “I don’t know if it really was the best decision. I feel angry about the stuff that was asked about me of course. I’m still ticked off right now!” Nagisa gave a bit of an aggravated yell, to underline it before quickly quieting down, “But on the other hand, it was really important- um not just to Yukishiro but myself and some other friends I made. I feel like I was being really selfish I guess.”

“You don’t wanna do it because you’re interested in someone, huh?” Rina said knowingly, of course, it wasn’t hard to tell Nagisa had a crush on someone, even if she didn’t know exactly who yet. Nagisa sucked at hiding anything, the whole team probably already knew.

Nagisa blushed red like a cherry tomato, nodding her head up and down. She gave herself some time to compose herself, “Well… Kinda! I guess!” She didn’t have any energy to laugh it off like usual, and felt a bit morose “Of course, it’s not like I even ever talked to them.”

“What?! No way…” Shiho said in dismay, wanting some juicy details on Nagisa’s dating life only to hear it hadn’t even begun.

“Yeah… But also I don’t want to be undatable forever!” Nagisa exclaimed vigorously, “So what if I can’t talk to him right now, that’ll change right? Right?” She menaced them a little at the end to get them to agree with her as she spoke frantically.

“Y-yeah, definitely Nagisa!” Rina answered as Shiho frantically nodded with placating expressions both not willing to chance making a joke at her expense at the moment.

Shiho then put a thinking expression on her face, “Hey, hey, hey… If you’re not going to even go out and try dating him at the moment, what’s the issue? Surely whatever project you were working on wouldn’t have taken your whole school year!”

“Yeah, why not quit when you’re ready to talk to this mystery boy.” Rina said shrugging as she ate some more of her lunch, “It sounded like you were being super reluctant to admit you were having a good time doing whatever it was you were doing and made a typical Nagisa decision to impulsively walk away.”

Nagisa pouted, and immediately complained about the label “What do you mean typical?” She can’t remember too many times that she had done something similar…

“Well, maybe you should think over your project over more and whether or not you really want to stop doing it… It sounded really important to you! I know if I had the chance to direct something I wouldn’t want to give it up for the world!” Shiho seemed to click with something Nagisa had said, relating to Nagisa’s ‘project’ (being Pretty Cure) with her own dream job of being a movie director.

Nagisa huffed, “Well, maybe I’ll think about it a little more. No promises though! I definitely made up my mind!” She glowered at them daring them to say otherwise, Shiho just laughed- and soon after so did Rina.

Nagisa returned to her lunch with a bit more petulance than usual.

Honoka might have sounded resolved about how she was going to fix everything, but the task at hand was very daunting. She didn’t have many friends as it was, she was respected in her club for sure! But she didn’t often really hang out with any of the members, what she did with Nagisa was unique in her ‘circle’.

How was she exactly going to solve this problem? A part of her was still angry that Nagisa had given up so easily, but she tried to look at it from Nagisa’s perspective. Honoka herself wasn’t interested in dating, not yet anyway. Maybe if she had someone like that she would have been just as upset as her when Homura said those things.

The worst part about it was that she suspected that Homura was hard on them specifically to get them to quit so she could carry the burden herself- plus she held herself to those same harsh standards… She couldn’t logically say that they were wrong, other than the fact that FujiP was her childhood friend and might be targeted regardless?

But being childhood friends wasn’t the same as dating, they didn’t really hang out outside of school since they were children after all, he had to focus on soccer and had plenty of other friends vying for his attention. The logic was unfortunately very sound, he would be in a lot of danger he otherwise wouldn’t be in if he was dating Nagisa.

People easily could have died in the Museum Attack, Pisard took hostages out of all of their classmates as soon as he could. Before that, he took their teacher hostage… Gekidrago didn’t seem like the type that thought up plans so far, but he didn’t need to. If he suddenly attacked Nagisa while she was out with FujiP then he’d be likely…

Honoka didn’t like to think about it. She was just thankful that the Dark Zone didn’t seem to know where they lived, them finding the school was bad enough as it was. They just had to be good enough no matter what underhanded tactic they tried… But part of being ‘good enough’ she felt was lowering the risks as far as they could as possible.

She looked down at the words she prepared in her notebook she planned to tell Nagisa, trying to puzzle through the situation like it was a math problem to be solved… She ripped out the page and crumpled it up, shaking her head again.

“That one sounded like a speech.” She huffed out, both amused and frustrated at her own antics. She looked up at the clock on the wall of the classroom. It was almost time for lunch to end.

Just as she thought that Nagisa walked into the room and they locked eyes with one another briefly. Nagisa averted hers just as fast as she did so this morning. It was aggravating… But hopefully, Honoka would have something she would be willing to listen to soon- she had the whole rest of the school day and their clubs to do it!

…

In the end however, it was hopeless. Honoka had nothing, at least nothing that sounded like it wasn’t at best a used car salesman-like pitch. She was just being selfish, Nagisa was right to want to quit being Pretty Cure. It was dangerous, and it impeded on her school life.

Honoka didn’t think that she would be able to walk away from it personally, not after being aware of what was at stake. Plus, Mipple and Mepple were now dear friends to her and she had to do everything she could to recover their home.

As she exited the school building, she stopped and gave a forlorn look toward Verone’s lacrosse field. She couldn’t quite see it from where she was, but she could hear the game being played. She felt a temptation to walk over and watch them as it ended but suppressed it.

She decided to just walk home, she felt a bit bad doing that. She really was just all talk back there…

“Hey, wait up!” Nagisa called out to her suddenly, her hair dripping a bit from sweat and wearing her jersey. She breathed heavily both from the dash over and the intense practice she had just left.

Honoka blinked rapidly at her in surprise, “Misumi-san? Um, did you need something from me?” As soon as she began to wonder if Nagisa had accidentally left something at her house she saw Nagisa slightly flinch and regretted her word choice.

“Um, well…” Nagisa rubbed the back of her head, “I know maybe I shouldn’t expect this but… Would it be fine if we continued being friends, maybe?” Nagisa held a bit of trepidation in her voice. It was fun, hanging out with a new person all the time and doing new things…

But… “Are we able to? We hung out a lot and travelled together because of Pretty Cure. Can we keep doing that without us having that?” Honoka couldn’t keep a hint of bitterness out of her voice, about how quickly she was left behind. She really wanted to keep being friends, but would it work without Pretty Cure guiding them together?

Nagisa was brought up short, as it was a question that was haunting her as well. “I don’t know…” She lowered her head, not being able to promise that she would be able to keep things the same on her own initiative. Without Mepple and Mipple to bring them together… “But we had fun together, right? So if we just hung out more- we won’t need Pretty Cure to keep being friends!”

Honoka suddenly got angry, “And what if you decide you suddenly don’t want to deal with me anymore like you did Mepple?!” Maybe she was more hurt about Nagisa quitting than she thought…

Nagisa flinched back, but couldn’t say anything in her own defence. What really could she say? She literally dumped Mepple on Honoka with no warning. She was sure they were furious and hurt over her sudden decision. 

Honoka suddenly turned and ran off, and Nagisa let her go. She could have caught up to her, even as tired out as she was from practice but… What good would that have done? She felt a bit like a jerk.

Rapidly, Nagisa changed her mind, she couldn’t let things stay like this! Sure she didn’t want to be Pretty Cure anymore but she needed to express her reasons at least to both Honoka and Mepple properly.

“Hey, wait up!” Nagisa hefted her bag over her shoulder more securely and began to sprint after Honoka- who had a substantial lead at this point.

Honoka was not a member of a sports club, and soon had to stop somewhere nearby and ended up finding refuge in a park nearby the school- the same one those sleazy guys had hit on them (very poorly) back when they were still facing Pisard. She immediately found a bench to sit down to recover her stamina, both physical and emotional covering her face with her hands.

“That didn’t seem to go too well-mepo.” Mepple commented unnecessarily from his (hopefully temporarily) place on Honoka’s bag. He seemed understanding at why things didn’t work out, he was holding in shouting at Nagisa- if only because he understood where she was coming from. Still was pretty rude to just dump him off on Honoka though.

Mipple tried to reassure both Honoka and Mepple, “T-there’s always tomorrow-mipo! I’m sure everything will work out-mipo!” The Princess couldn’t really believe it herself how quickly things deteriorated.

Honoka was panting from the run she had just done suddenly, wiping some tears from her eyes as she did so. “Let’s stop. It wouldn’t be right to pressure Misumi-san. It’s better we’re not friends, she’ll be in less danger.”

“Honoka-mipo…” Mipple spoke sadly, closing her eyes as she did so… Before suddenly her eyes widened, “I sense it-mipo… A force of darkness nearby-mipo!” Immediately, Honoka snapped into action, standing up and looking around her surroundings- but it did not take long for her enemy to show himself.

It was then with footsteps that rang out through the earth, and the screeching of a chainlink fence being torn apart by an uncaring giant that Gekidrago appeared with a vicious smile, his shadow looming over her. His cruel raspy voice breaking the silence, “Only one of you?”

He gave a curious look around and confirmed that the street was entirely deserted. Neither Homura or Nagisa was nearby- Honoka was defenceless. “Good. Good!” He was jubilant, “Hand over the Prism Stones, or I’ll crush you! ZAKENNA!”

Learning from his mistake the previous time, and following the absolute order he was given to make use of it he summoned Zakenna- and it manifested into a nearby tree. It grew a warped wicked smile etched into its trunk, and enlargened unnaturally until it uprooted itself onto wooden tendrils that served as legs.

“Never-ugh!” Honoka couldn’t even finish verbally defying him before Zakenna’s tendrils sought her out- the wood curling around her several like a rope and then squeezing her in a vice. It gave a menacing cry, saying the only word it could in menacing glee ‘Zakennnaa!’

“Honoka-mepo!”/”Honoka-mipo!” Both fairies yelled out in alarm and concern for their friend now effectively helpless against both Zakenna and Gekidrago. In response, Zakenna crushed Honoka tighter in its grip, threatening to squeeze the life out of her causing her to yelp out in pain.

Gekidrago glared down upon her, reaching out and grabbing Mepple delicately between two of his fingers- his case still almost bending from the force. “Where is the other one? The one you took from Pisard!” He asked furiously.

Honoka again tried to defy him, flinching all the while “We’ll… Never tell you!” In response, Zakenna once again tightened its grip with a menacing creaking noise as Gekidrago looked angrier- after all it didn’t want to face it’s masters anger.

“It’s in the Prism Hopish-mepo!” Mepple broke immediately under this pressure, unable to bare one of the their friends getting their life literally squeezed out of them.

In response to that, Zakenna loosened its grip a small amount, and Gekidrago turned his head and leaned an ear towards Mepple, visually interested in what he had to say, making a grumbling noise of acknowledgement. “Where is… The Prism Hopish.” He asked with anticipation.

“Well you see…” Mepple began, and Gekidrago leaned in further, “We don’t know-mepo!” And immediately Gekidrago scowled and squeezed the offending creature in his hand before relaxing back to his gentle (for him anyway) hold, Zakenna doing the same to Honoka.

Gekidrago glared down upon them, a dangerous glint in his eyes “Fine then! I’ll smash you and then Ilkubo-”

That was as far as he got before a large stone hit him in the side of the head causing him to suddenly flinch- and due to his very gentle and delicate hold on Mepple to avoid destroying the Prism Stone in his tail loosened his grip enough that the being was able to transform… And escape, leaping from his hand…

“Misumi-san?!” Honoka said shocked… And true enough, Nagisa Misumi still in her orange jersey, breathing heavily stood at the end of the street barely in Honoka’s obstructed vision… And tried to warn her away- there was no way Nagisa could rescue her in this situation! But it was too late…

Nagisa, holding her lacrosse stick breathed in deeply once before she charged forward with a mantra, “I can’t believe this, I can’t believe this!” She kept repeating to herself as she made one of the most dangerous lacrosse plays of her life! “Get away from my friends you… Unbelievably huge freak!”

Gekidrago stumbled over his own body, his massive frame stopping him from agilely turning to grab at Mepple- and also suffering from indecision at the consequences of potentially destroying a Prism Stone by accidentally hitting Mepple. Wracking his brain, he tried to find an answer to Nagisa’s desperate… But the creature of Darkness had no issue deciding what to do.

“ZAKENNAAA!!!” With a battle cry of its own, the possessed tree sent out its rotting branches out down toward Nagisa, their ends sharpened into wicked-looking spears- Honoka took in a sharpened breath in fear for her friend…

Only for the brutal sound of a chainsaw to sound out, and a freakishly long ruby-encrusted and gold-plated chainsaw with an ornate series of engravings intercept the spear-like branches before they could ever reach their target. Zakenna winced, flinching backwards with a cry of ‘Zakennaaaa!’

Homura had finally arrived, yet she was visibly different from the last time either of the two saw her, her stoic mask breaking into a pained grimace at her sudden movement, her right arm held in a sling from her previous battle, and her right with a buckler on her forearm- and a rather out of place looking chainsaw in her hand. 

“Go!” Homura had called out towards her, but Nagisa hadn’t needed any encouragement. Much like the time when she recklessly risked her life to save that bear cub not too long ago Nagisa found herself risking it once again for Mepple! Regaining himself, Gekidrago blindly swung a hand out towards her as if to slap her away or catch her as Mepple hit the ground…

Nagisa dived under it sweeping her lacrosse stick in an expert fashion, scooping up Mepple from the ground before he even knew what was happening as Nagisa put herself into a recovery roll as if she was about to continue running with a ball in a lacrosse game… Just in time to avoid Gekidrago’s incoming fist attempting to pulverize her into the pavement.

Homura understood, however, that having the two girls in their ordinary civilian ‘forms’ was as good as letting them die. Even as she heavily grimaced at the amount of grief she was spending in these battles, her shield clicked and its gears turned… And the world froze.

She had already gambled that Nagisa would have been able to acquire Mepple without dying to Gekidrago, and now she had to decide which of the girls to prioritize. It was clear to her, that in some fashion their inherent combat ability seeped into their untransformed states- there was no way Nagisa would have neatly dodged that attack otherwise with that instinctive-looking dodge.

The choice, in the end, was obvious, Honoka couldn’t even move and was at the immediate mercy of the ‘Zakenna’. So again, Homura had to gamble that Nagisa would be able to somehow manage.

With grit teeth, she appeared in front of the restrained Honoka, and time unfroze- and with a revving of its engine, the chainsaw blades fell down upon the root ‘ropes’ crushing her body… Splinters of wood flew out causing Honoka to flinch- and soon she was flinching due to the scream of ‘ZAKENNNAAAAA!’ as the demon reacted to the pain.

Quickly, Honoka scrambled her way towards her bag and grabbed Mipple from her place on the ground, and sprinted towards Nagisa, “Misumi-san!” She called out instinctively, reaching out with a hand.

Nagisa had fallen over herself, lunging backwards before scrambling to her feet to avoid Gekidrago’s careful sweeping hands trying to delicately aim for her instead of the prize in her lacrosse stick. Before Gekidrago could try to once again, and a lot less controlled through his anger and frustration attempt to turn her into a smear into the ground…

A familiar chainsaw was thrown across the battlefield at his face, and he instinctively blocked with both of his massive arms, “Ugaa!” He roared in sudden surprise- and fury as things were rapidly turned around on him.

“Yukishiro-san!” Nagisa called out- and the two clasped their hands with an audible echo through the area… The wind seemed to pick up, billowing around the two along with the gathering of immense power- “Dual Aurora Wave!” And with an immediate flash of golden light around an aura of rainbow colours the two that stood there were Cure White and Cure Black!

Gekidrago didn’t hesitate a second, maybe not even recognizing that the two had transformed at all and punched with all his might towards the duo… Only for Cure White to neatly slide under the strike, suddenly grab his arm while thrusting out with the other towards his body… And with an effortlessly sweep redirected all his force into flipping him over onto his back.

“UGAA!” He yelped both in surprise and pain as his own overwhelming power was used against him. The two Legendary Warriors took up poses between each other before pointing accusing fingers at him.

“Disrupting the peace and tainting nature!” Cure White began solemnly but sternly, and Cure Black continued where she left off, “Not to mention bullying my friends while they were helpless…”

“Both are unforgivable!” They declared as one, determination shining in their eyes as their personal feelings mixed with their inherited instincts as the legendary Pretty Cure. In this moment, Homura rejoined them jumping to avoid a sweeping attack from the ‘Dead Tree Zakenna’’s roots.

“Then can I expect you to deal with Gekidrago?” She asked lowly, her body and magic- not to mention explosive arsenal were not up for another bout with the musclebound monster.

“Akemi-san…” Cure Black trailed off, a complicated expression on her face- and one of gratitude for simply accepting her presence on the battlefield as easily as she did… Then nodded with a confident smile, “Yeah, we got this, right Cure White?!”

Cure White couldn’t help but give her own smile in return, “What happened to quitting, hm Cure Black?” She couldn’t help but lightly tease.

“I guess being a hero came naturally to me!” Cure Black laughed- and then rushed to move her arms to block as Gekidrago punched her straight in the torso as they were distracted sending her flying backwards and White calling out her name in alarm.

Homura brought a flamethrower out of storage, a seldom useful piece of equipment that she had only utilized against the Rose Garden Witch in early loops on the off chance that Mami had overlooked its presence before she replaced it with more effective bombs. She steadfastly tried to ignore Nagisa getting punched through a nearby fence- she looked mostly fine anyway.

Instead, she started to set Zakenna on fire with a burning sound of pressurized gas escaping from the tip of her flamethrower as it whined the only word it could say in response- “Zaaakeennaaaaaaaaa!” 

Cure White was the perfect combatant to face Gekidrago, her nimble fighting style made his dangerous and powerful straight punches and sweeping swing with his extremely long arms look slow and easy to dodge as she ducked and weaved between his blows cleaving up the ground all around her with the force.

Then, she leaped upwards as Gekidrago attacked once more with a long straight punch attempting to smash her head in and landed on his outstretched arm. Using his limb as a beam she quickly lunged a few steps to his uncomprehending eyes and sent a sweeping kick straight to his face that sent Gekidrago flinching backwards…

“Ugaahhh!” Gekidrago reacted in pain and rage before swiping at Cure White with his other fist, making her do a massive acrobatic flip backwards at the same time Cure Black came charging back into the fight…

The two then rushed at the slightly disoriented member of the Dark Five, and leaped high in the air and then sent out a double flying kick into his chest, sending Gekidrago on the back foot…

Not satisfied with that, Cure Black immediately charged forward and delivered into his frame a barrage of punches into his stomach, and leaped upward to punch at his face staggering him again.

Gekidrago, angrily dug his feet into the ground and with a warcry threw another punch at the duo only for Cure White to deflect it with a chop of her hand, sending his arm wide, allowing her to send a straight kick into his sternum.

Both girls twirled on one foot and sent a devastating lunging roundhouse kick simultaneously into his chest, finally toppling the behemoth over groaning in pain… And in a smooth motion, they grasped each other’s hand and the thrumming Power of Creation flared out with the crackle of electricity…

“Black Thunder!” “White Thunder!” They called out, and once more the black and white lightning of their signature technique responded to their call, lancing into their free beckoning outstretched hands.

“Our beautiful souls…” White began, ”Shall crush your evil heart!” and Black finished, their mantra being an unskippable part of the spell they instinctively repeated with all their heart. Their hands tightened as the power surged inside of them, and it was unleashed onto Gekidrago’s slowly standing form mercilessly and without warning.

Like a lance of light, the white and black ‘screw’ drilled into Gekidrago, sliding Black and White back centimetres from the force of their own power. Not having good footing or being prepared for the spell as he was last time, Gekidrago quickly lost against the attack his footing slipping and being sent into the distance audibly crashing through trees, and a shed before going out of view.

Zakenna, seeing its master destroyed and being constantly torched by fire the entire combat by Homura who easily dodged any weak attack the monster tried to bring out finally gave up, and exploded into many pieces of ‘Zakenna’ begging for forgiveness as it dissipated into the air as it ran away.

Soon it was just the three of them standing in the small park Honoka came to rest in not too long ago.

“Did you regret your decision after all, Nagisa Misumi,” Homura asked, her tone sounding rhetorical and cold with her face an unreadable flat mask, and her hair billowing in the air around them…

Despite Gekidrago vanishing, a tight tension still remained in the air.

Chapter Text

“Uh, beyond that are you alright Akemi-san?!” Nagisa sidestepped the question in her concern after she got a good look at her standoffish (hopefully still) friend. There were a lot more important things to worry about than rehashing their conversation at the moment!

Honoka brushed herself off idly getting, luckily seeming mostly unharmed from her own ordeal. She wondered if that was part of their… Powerset. She supposed it didn’t matter as long as they weren’t hurt.

“Oh no… Akemi-san! Were you fighting on your own when we couldn’t transform into Pretty Cure?” Honoka said painfully, an undercut of guilt manifesting under her voice… But whatever she was feeling was nothing compared to Nagisa who felt like she just got punched in the gut.

Homura frowned, unwarranted pride churned within her chest and frustration finally boiled over “And what exactly was I supposed to do?” Her voice was low and cutting, causing Honoka to flinch away.

Nagisa stepped in, waving her hands in front of her  “Hey, we don’t mean it like that… We’re just worried about you! Sure we haven’t known each other for that long but… We’re not so cold that we won’t worry when you get hurt.”

Homura felt a bit of guilt creep into her chest, along with a small amount of shame. She was supposed to be their senior as a magical girl, but all she had managed so far was to drive them further away. “I see, in that case, I’m sorry Yukishiro-san. I’m unused to the friendly dynamic that’s been established…”

Looking over toward Nagisa, Homura bowed her head slightly in apology as well “I owe you an apology as well Misumi-san… I shouldn’t have tried to dictate your personal life. It was similar to a tragedy…” She paused slightly, “One of my friends went through but I understand now that circumstances are much different.”

“Oh… It’s alright Akemi… Actually, why don’t we call each other by our first names from now on? I think it’ll make us closer friends!” Honoka said this brightly with a smile, trying to encourage Homura and Nagisa to make their friendship less artificial feeling.

Nagisa smiled a bit sheepishly at the apology and the recommendation from Honoka, “You didn’t need to apologize so formally, don’t worry about it… I was kind of being childish myself… And yeah it was getting weird hanging out with you guys and hearing ‘Misumi-san’ all the time.”

Mepple and Mipple who were watching from the sidelines finally gave a grand cheer, “I knew you could do it Nagisa-mepo!” and an “I’m so glad everyone made up with each other-mipo!” From the two fairies respectfully.

Homura felt a bit sickened, even if her apology was genuine what mattered was that this was clearly going to influence Nagisa towards becoming Cure Black for her own benefit. Even her injured appearance felt as though it was manipulation- vividly she could remember similar ploys from the Incubator…

Before she could stop herself Homura kept speaking, “Still… I would recommend that you return to your regular everyday life.” Her objection was weak and indecisive because it had to be. She was just assuaging her own guilt- her need for the two to stay as Pretty Cure.

Mepple made a strangled objection sound before his mouth was covered by Mipple, allowing Nagisa some time to think of an answer without interruption. “...Listen, Homura I think I get what you’re trying to say and I appreciate it… But there’s no way I’d ever be happy knowing my friends were out there fighting… Plus…” Nagisa started to laugh awkwardly rubbing the back of her head, “Fighting alongside you guys feels like the most natural thing in the world for me.”

Homura sighed both in exasperation and in painful relief, “I see, That’s… Good. To tell the truth, I would struggle without you.” She summoned her soul gem into her hand and showed it to them cautiously, “This is the source of my magic, as you can see it is partially filled with darkness. When it is filled completely I will… No longer be able to use magic.”

Homura decided to spare the group from the horror of her affliction, they already had much on top of their shoulders… They didn’t need to be burdened by troubles Homura was more than capable of carrying. It was irrelevant to them anyway.

“I see… You’ve described it as ‘darkness’ so… Does that mean we can purify it with Rainbow Therapy?” Honoka inspected the gem closely bringing a close eye to its contents having never seen an egg-like gem like this before or the swirling darkness inside a jewel.

Nagisa wasn’t as quick on the uptake, “Huh? Why would it work? Is Homura’s rock sick or something?” She instinctively leaned in alongside Honoka to get a better look at the gem, before giving a surprised flinch as Mepple and Mipple climbed up her back- which had her bonk Honoka’s head with her own causing the two to react with a small exclamation of pain.

”Sorry! Agh! You two, what are you doing?!” Nagisa reached back and collected the two unrepentant fairies.

Mepple blew his tongue out at her, before inspecting Homura’s gem “I was just interested in what you were looking at-mepo. Wasn’t my fault your hard head damaged Honoka’s-mepo.” Nagisa was about to explode at his cheeky remarks before Mipple spoke up next.

“I think Homura’s gem really is sick-mipo… It feels almost similar to the Power of Destruction- but less potent and more… Creepy-mipo.” Mipple sounded really concerned about Homura.

Nagisa starting to grasp this might actually be a serious problem, “Wait so like, Homura’s gem is filling up with creepy evil stuff and it's the source of her magic? Alright, Homura, who gave you this thing? It’s obviously super suspicious!”
Honoka nodded, “It might be better to get rid of it if it's something like that, we can figure out something else for you to keep fighting with us.” She concluded as if it was the most logical option.

Homura gave a wry smile and felt foolishly naive that she could escape this conversation. Still, she had to quickly come up with a story they’d understand… With a tired voice she began, “Getting rid of it would unfortunately kill me.”

Ignoring her shocked audience, she continued “I had a… Companion named Kyubey not too different looking than your own plush-like friends, he approached me when I needed him the most and he offered me a wish which I used to try and save someone. The price was that I had to fight monsters and to do that he extracted and crystallized my soul into this gem. Upon expending my magic it would build corruption that would inevitably in time kill me…”

The more she spoke the paler and paler her audience became, Honoka covered her mouth with her hands in horror, while Nagisa felt her teeth grit. The idea that a being looking harmless and cute like Mepple and Mipple had wandered into Homura’s life to offer her the wonders of being a magical girl and an adventure like in TV Shows… But then ripping her soul out and giving her a preset limit before she died was too cruel.

“Thats… Awful.” Honoka spoke breaking the group out of their shocked state, the icy feeling of Homura’s words refused to leave. The fact that she was certain that she was going to die, how she wasn’t even bothered by the reality. It was tragic.

Nagisa panicked, almost dropping the two fairies “S-shouldn’t you be more careful with that? And die?! That’s way too messed up! Where is this Kyubey, we gotta stop him before he hurts more people!”

Mepple nodded, “There’s no way we can let something like this stand-mepo! This must be a plot from the Dark King-mepo!” He vigorously moved his arms and legs around trying to squirm out of Nagisa’s grasp to go on a tiny rampage to find the imposter fairy.

“There’s no need for that, Kyubey won’t be a problem… Besides, if it wasn’t for him I would have likely died already.” Homura interrupted this before it could progress any further, trying to blunt it by pointing out a ‘good thing’ the contract she took had, “I had a fatal heart condition even the corrective surgery couldn’t fix. I wouldn’t be surprised if I was reaching the end of my expiration date when he asked for my wish.”

She raised a hand up to silence further arguing, “But now you understand the situation… Why I need the both of you. Your ‘Rainbow Therapy’ cleanses the darkness in my gem, and while I do have alternative… ‘Containers’ on me for the corruption those are in very limited supply. I request that at the end of every battle if it's possible you cast it on me… I apologize for trying to misdirect away from my… ‘Condition’.”

“Um, yeah… No problem Homura! We’ll cleanse your gem in a moment, right Honoka?” Nagisa looked over at her partner with determination  

Honoka nodded gravely, “Right!” and the two clasped their hands once more…

 
Any joy the reconciliation between the three of them had initially brought was crushed under the weight of Homura’s ‘condition’. The three of them flew into an uncomfortable and heavy silence occasionally broken by awkward attempts at conversation.

‘Why don’t we get some ice cream’ was eventually said by Nagisa during one of these sad attempts, and the two others were quick to agree, Honoka out of a shared sentiment with Nagisa and Homura out of a lack of reasons to refuse. As if they were futilely attempting to run away from the reality foisted upon them as if it was as simple as walking away from the spot they had heard the information they could distance themselves from their emotions.

But draped over them like a cloak it followed the group to the point it started to affect Homura’s own mood. She looked down at the table in front of her cursing herself once more. She had messed up, she hadn’t expected Mepple and Mipple to be able to sense the corruption in her Soul Gem and had explained more than she meant to.

The three of them were now deep in a commercial area of the city eating ice cream in a small booth, which actually seemed to lift the spirits of the Pretty Cure duo. It brought an amusing idea to maybe attempt it with Sayaka or perhaps more realistically Kyoko when they were particularly upset with her. It seemed rather effective.

“...Hey Homura, uh… What do you do outside of magical girl stuff?” Nagisa smiled in a friendly manner, “You already know I do lacrosse, Honoka likes books and stuff. But you’ve never revealed what your hobby is.”

Homura remained silent for a few moments, desperately trying to come up with a satisfactory answer. She, of course, failed- she couldn’t even think of something believable. She tried to answer it regardless, “I suppose it would be learning. I spend a lot of my time at the library studying.”

An awkward look appeared on Nagisa’s face before she visually willed herself to move on from Homura’s answer. “I see, well… Maybe you two could help me study for my next test~!” Nagisa pivoted to self-deprecating humour and gave a short laugh.

Honoka giggled, “I wouldn’t have a problem with it, would you Homura?” She turned toward her with an expectant gaze. Homura was slightly flattered that they had decided that she must have been academically gifted without much evidence.

“I-hm… I don’t see why not.” Homura was surprised at how strange it felt to actually accept one of these requests instead of being the one tutored in the early timelines. Every time she was asked by her classmates in Mitakihara to teach them she had rejected it due to how much of a waste of time it would have been.

“Ah, another thing… Where do you live, Homura?” Honoka asked easily, an innocent question that Homura again didn’t have a good answer to. Nagisa, mid spoonful of her ice cream looked at her with interest beckoning her to speak.

A strange uneasy feeling filled her chest, and Homura tried to shrug off any worry that these girls would judge her for homelessness and her useless pride. There was really no reason to hide it, it was better they both knew her situation so they could coordinate better as magical girls.

She had already taken so long thinking about it that the two were looking at her with renewed concern, and Homura poorly tried to hide it by eating her rapidly melting ice cream and then spoke, “I’m homeless-”

“WHAT?!” The two erupted, not caring that some people were now staring at them Nagisa having stood up reluctantly descending back into her seat, “This whole time? This is… Homura you’re going to make me cry.”

It was almost laughable how tragic Homura’s situation seemed to be, from the hospital with a terminal illness to getting their soul ripped out of them with corruption that would eventually kill them without cleansing on top of homelessness… It would seem unbelievable if the worst part wasn’t confirmed by Mepple and Mipple.

“That’s… So awful.” Honoka’s face started to crumple at the revelation and was visibly trying to keep themselves together. The lack of reaction Homura had to her own circumstances and her lack of understanding exactly why they were reacting like this made it even sadder.

Mepple and Mipple from their phone-like disguise also stifled crying, which only really served to stress Homura out further. It was better (or at least she was trying to convince herself) that she trusted them with things like this so it didn’t come back to haunt her… But sometimes she forgot she wasn’t talking to someone like Kyoko or Mami who wouldn’t react like this.

“...Sorry.” She apologized, because what else could she really do in this situation? “With my magic reserves restored, I should be able to rent a hotel room for the foreseeable future.” The implication being that she’d use her magic to ensure she got a room in the first place.

Suddenly Homura found herself glomped by the now very teary girls, the day’s emotional cascade coming out at once into Homura’s shirt. Having instinctively tensed up, Homura forced herself to relax… Awkwardly and slowly she tried to return the hug.

“Don’t worry about that Homura…! We’ll figure something out, right Nagisa?” Honoka said very weepily rubbing Homura’s back as if she were the one who needed to be comforted.

Nagisa could only respond with a blubbering “Yesh” before becoming mostly unintelligible between being muffled into Homura’s shirt and the crying. Her strength was unfortunately impressive, enough to make Homura doubt she could remove her without hurting her.

The building exasperated migraine in her head aside, Homura started to regret answering Honoka’s question. If they reacted like this to more benign information, then Homura had to ensure they never knew the ‘actual truth’ about Soul Gems and the realities a magical girl like herself faced. It would only hurt them further.

Homura awkwardly patted Nagisa on the back trying to get the girl to stop crying, in a way things were amusingly ironic- after all she used to be the one who cried all the time.

It didn’t take long for Nagisa and Honoka to drag Homura off somewhere else, the two Pretty Cure wanting to cement their bond with Homura- and more importantly, didn’t want her to just run off to who knows where. On top of that, both of them were somewhat aware that Homura didn’t really know how to handle friendship from her rather awkward behaviour. The attempt to hide her condition had made it obvious to the two that Homura was someone who if she was allowed to do so shoulder everything on her own.

Obviously, that wasn’t going to be allowed so both Honoka and Nagisa began to scheme a little so Homura couldn’t just saunter off and hide like a sick cat. It would also give them both more time to think about how exactly they could try to help Homura at all. They couldn’t do anything about her soul gem- but the two might be able to do something about Homura’s current living situation.

Nagisa arbitrarily decided to drag Honoka and Homura to the Tako Cafe- a food truck owned by Akane Fujita an alumni of Verone Academy and a previous member of the school's Lacrosse Club. Nagisa couldn’t help but talk up the mobile restaurant as they approached.

Even Homura had to admit that it had a very cozy atmosphere, the small yellow truck was in its own way rather cute, and the way it was conveniently next to some park benches in a scenic area between a shopping center and a nearby park made everything picture-esque. 

“I invited Honoka to this place the other day, um before we started to fight. I swear the takoyaki is the best in the city!” Nagisa sang her praises, though perhaps a bit too loudly as she was surprised by a chuckle from within the food truck.

Akane was a plain, but reliable-looking adult with long brown hair and a red bandanna wrapped around her head. She held a confident grin as she greeted Nagisa and Honoka, “I’m glad I have your loyalty Nagisa, you’re already one of my favourite customers! I see you’ve brought Honoka again… Ah, who’s this?” She noticed Homura at the end, not recognizing her from Nagisa’s usual friend group.

“Ah, this is my new friend Homura Akemi, the girl I talked about that we met during the trip to the museum.” Nagisa quickly introduced Homura to her, trying to hide her embarrassment at being heard and keeping her dignity.
Homura nodded in her direction, a wry smile on her lips “I’m Homura Akemi, it’s nice to meet you Fujita-san. I’ve heard that you make the greatest takoyaki in the city, it’d be a shame to miss out.”

Akane gave a laugh, followed shortly after by Honoka’s giggles at Nagisa’s expense who looked at them dumbfounded before rubbing the back of her hair and joining in- it was pretty funny- especially since the rib on her was given in a rather deadpan tone. It just wasn’t something anyone expected.

“I’ll throw in an extra order of takoyaki on the house for that one, also just call me Akane I don’t care about stuffy formalities.” The restaurant owner responded, picking up a nearby pencil to write down their order by muscle memory.

Nagisa immediately started to order, “Alright, then get us three-” She started to dig into her pockets for her wallet only for Homura to step in and pay for it with her own money. “Ah- you don’t need to do that Homura!”

Homura shook her head, “It’s the least I can do to apologize, both for our earlier… Disagreement, and my teasing.” Nagisa looked a little uncomfortable, after all, she was assuming Homura was kinda poor but she was never one that had a strong will against free stuff.

Honoka shook her head in exasperation watching Nagisa fold like that with a small amused smile at the byplay, “You’re quite the gentlewoman, Homura.” She teased and then giggled as Homura brushed back her long hair in a dramatic flourish.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Homura countered though a small smile on her face betrayed her. A bit of nostalgia shined through on her face, as she remembered a happier time with Sayaka and Madoka.

“Well, I guess three takoyaki as Homura’s treat!” Nagisa laughed off lamely, giving a shrug at Honoka’s exasperation. It wasn’t really her place to tell Homura what to do with her money.

Akane looked amused, “Alright, coming right up. You two should bring your friend around more often! You guys are quickly becoming my favorite customers y’know.” She grinned as she moved over to the various kitchen tools inside the truck, preparing the takoyaki with swift and experienced grace.

Homura looked surprisingly interested, “I used to have a friend who enjoyed places like this, though it has been a very long time since I’ve shared takoyaki with anyone.” Kyoko had mainly favoured ramen, burger joints and snacks like taiyaki and pocky- she assumed it was deliberate targets for who she could dine and dash or shoplift from easily.

“What’s your favourite food, Homura?” Honoka asked looking over at her curiously, it was really easy to tell what Nagisa’s apparent favourite was after all. Someone like Homura seemed like she would have a refined or rare taste…!

Homura had to disappoint her though, “I suppose… It would have to be tea and cake, it is the most nostalgic.” It was refined of course, but it wasn’t anything particularly special. After all…

“I also like tea and sweets! Though I prefer crepes to cake… Next time I’ll drag you there as well since Nagisa showed you the Tako Cafe.” Honoka seemed glad that she found another person who shared her sweet tooth and desire for tea.

“I see… That’s fine with me?” Homura didn’t mean to phrase it as a question honestly, she was only used to Madoka and to a lesser extent Mami wanting to actively invite her to things. Usually, she refused outright, because of how tight the schedule containing Kyubey and eliminating various threats that would affect Madoka’s survival… But that wasn’t an issue here.

Luckily for Homura, neither girl seemed to notice especially as Akane handed out the food to Nagisa and Honoka’s open hands, ‘Thank you very much!’ coming from both- even the rather impolite Nagisa as they were handed their takoyaki.

Homura followed them to sit on a nearby park bench to snack on the food, really she wasn’t even all that hungry after the ice cream but she had picked up many habits from Kyoko over the years of teaming up with the girl over the timeloop- and one of them was an inherent dislike of wasting food. Plus some of her best memories were over bonding over some food or another with whatever partnership or team she ended up in.

That’s not to say that they would be eating them for long, Homura watched in fascination as Nagisa devoured her takoyaki immediately, stuffing most of them into her mouth like a chipmunk. “Incredible.” Homura’s dry reaction came out.

Nagisa muttered something back that was incomprehensible, but the intent was probably somewhat rude. Honoka immediately admonished her with a stern frown, “Don’t talk with your mouth full Nagisa!”

Homura started to munch on her own, and her eyes widened at the incredible taste- was this perhaps magic?! She shook her head slightly to remove herself from that absurd thought, no this had to be pure skill. “You’re right, this might just be the best takoyaki in Tokyo.”

Nagisa swallowed her food with an audible gulp and gave a confident grin, “See! I told you this place was great! If only I had more money, then I’d eat here every day of my life!” At the declaration of undying loyalty that may or may not have been serious, Homura could only do one thing…

She offered the extra takoyaki she won by amusing Akane to Nagisa, “Such loyalty should be awarded.” The truth also was that Homura felt kind of bad still about basically unintentionally bullying Nagisa out of Pretty Cure, and this was one of the few methods of apology she knew of.

“R-really?!” Nagisa snatched them up with a happy look on her face, “You’re the best Homura!” Though at Honoka’s suddenly flat and expectant face, Nagisa reluctantly continued “Of course I’ll split them with Honoka of course!” She laughed nervously- Honoka can be surprisingly scary when she gets going.

Soon they had all finished their meal, though Homura wasn’t entirely sure if it could be counted as one instead of a snack food… She supposed it didn’t matter in the end and decided to focus on something more important. It’s been two or so hours since school ended for the two Pretty Cure… “Isn’t it getting quite late, and neither of you seemed to have informed your guardians that you’d be going anywhere…”

Nagisa immediately palmed her face, “Oh god, my mom’s going to kill me… I’m so stupid.” She bemoaned her misfortune immediately and with great dread of a teenager who didn’t want to have their allowance reduced or lectured.

“Ah! Well, we should use the park’s payphone! I completely forgot after everything that happened today.” Honoka was a lot more calm, and Homura privately thought it was because Honoka was likely trusted a lot more to be on her own than Nagisa could be.

Homura watched bemused as Honoka confidently led Nagisa to the payphone with Nagisa exaggeratedly slouching her posture on her way over, to call their respective guardians- Honoka again without much worry and Nagisa exaggerating how spooked she was until she just called normally. Despite the windup, nothing seemed to happen.

Nagisa gave a big thumbs up as she returned with Honoka, “Luckily my mom thinks Honoka is a really good influence on me and told me to use this opportunity to help study! No way we’re doing that though.” She dismissed it out of hand.

Both Homura and Honoka frowned at the dismissal of education, suddenly Honoka smiled a bit deviously, “Hey Homura, didn’t we say that we’d help Nagisa with her studies earlier?”

Homura nodded, “I do, I think we should get started immediately… For her own good.” It would be what Mami would do, surely. That was the only reason she was doing this, not because it was kinda funny to tease Nagisa. Definitely.

Nagisa stepped back, “I can’t believe it…! My own friends betraying me!” She looked around to run, only to find herself flanked by both Honoka and Homura, who began to direct her toward the direction of Honoka’s home. It was for her own good, really! “I can’t believe it!” Nagisa shouted out again as she was effectively dragged off.

The study session held in Honoka’s room was going rather smoothly, well as smoothly as it could with an anti-social time traveller, a girl who got conscripted into the study session, and a genius who easily soaked information like a sponge. Which is to say it was going remarkably well mostly due to Honoka’s natural aptitude for teaching and Nagisa being a good sport. 

Homura’s specialty overall was mathematics, she eclipsed both girls on an extreme level when it came to math, though was lesser to Honoka in science and let her take the lead in most other subjects. The only time Homura really spoke up on other subjects was on some questions about applied chemistry that she learned about the hard way, and correcting a bit of English grammar.

Unfortunately, this meant that Homura was effectively helping both Honoka and Nagisa with their math homework as Homura turned into a pseudo-teacher with her experience. It was here that Homura realized that Mitakihara had some absurd standards when it came to math specifically and that her attempts to mathematically defeat Walpurgisnacht probably eliminated the need for her to study for math again.

Of course, knowing a lot of stuff and knowing how to teach it was another matter entirely- though it helped that both Honoka and Homura were extremely patient people, Nagisa was obviously not someone who was particularly gifted with book smarts. Though that didn’t mean Nagisa wasn’t trying…

“Maybe it would be best if one of us created study notes for Nagisa, it’s impossible to have her learn everything in one day. If she just memorized these formula structures then all she would need to do is utilize the calculator…” Homura muttered to herself, not meaning for either girl to hear her…

Honoka’s expression immediately brightened, “That’s a great idea Homura! One of the things I’ve noticed is that Nagisa. Doesn’t. Take. Any. Notes.” She sternly looked at Nagisa who simply looked back sheepish, “after a certain point in class, and they just… Become doodles or end halfway. If she had something like that I feel like her grades would vastly improve!”

Homura softened the blow toward Nagisa though, not wanting to let teasing go too far or leave it like they thought Nagisa was dumb,  “Some people have more difficulties in a standard classroom or paying attention… I think Nagisa just needs a little help to stay on top of her studies… Plus both of you are Pretty Cure now, it can be hard to manage your duties as magical girls and your duty to your schooling.”

Honoka also nodded at this point, greatly softening toward Nagisa “I was just trying to tease you, the truth is that I’ve also been struggling a little with my studies too. I’m glad the both of you are here to help me focus…”

They both heard a giggle from Nagisa, who finally broke into a laugh rubbing the back of her head, “It’s not that serious guys! I just slack off a bit. Still thanks for um, being considerate I guess.” She flushed a bit in embarrassment, used to friendly ribbing from her other friends who would just call her pretty dumb without mercy if they bothered to set up a study session.

With that, a new spark seemed to be lit in the study session, though the two started to become acutely aware that Homura seemed to be on top of everything. The fact that she didn’t need help with literally anything was a bit sad to both girls who either wanted to see her open up a bit more or for them to potentially show off a little.

Finally, though the large Homura-sized elephant in the room needed to be addressed: what were they going to do about the fact that Homura was a homeless youth? What could they do even?

Honoka put down some tea she was sipping down, and looked over at Homura “Homura… I’ve been thinking on it, um… Would you want to move in with me? I can ask my grandmother, we live in a pretty big place and we have a spare bedroom…”

Nagisa made a choking noise as Honoka just went out and said it without beating around the bush, coughing a bit on her own tea… “Ahem, I mean I can ask if you could stay a bit at my place, but like… You’d need to be stashed under my bed or something!” Nagisa gave a bit of a laugh, her family’s apartment being as small as it was would realistically mean Homura sleeping on the floor in Nagisa’s room or on the couch if her parents accepted at all.

Homura began to refuse, her pride rallied against this kind of charity being offered to her- but realism and the simple crushing despondence that not having a secure living space hurriedly squashed such a useless feeling… Still, “...I- I don’t want to impose on either of you. I know we’re getting along now, but it wasn’t too long ago I nearly chased you both away.”

She closed her eyes in thought, “I’m not the most… Personable person, in fact, I’m aware that that I have a habit of messing up my friendships. It might be best for me to keep my distance.” She couldn’t simply embrace that weakness like Mami Tomoe did so many times, not with so much at stake.

“I won't let you shoulder that alone!” Nagisa suddenly shouted her expression clashing between anger and concern, “That’d be impossible for me! No way, we’re comrades- no beyond that we’re friends! No way I’m going to let you just shove me away because you’re afraid of what, hurting me? We can just make up.” Nagisa shook her head like it was crazy talk.

Honoka nodded, “I don’t have many close friends, and I’ll probably mess up a lot too… But I think as long as we can just talk it out you don’t have to worry about any of that… Besides, wouldn’t it be best if you lived with one of us just in case the Dark Zone attacked us?” Honoka mixed both emotional and logical arguments together to try to convince Homura, knowing her practicality alone would tempt her.

And it did, it really did. The truth was that Homura was rather lonely, she had been looking into ways to try to sneak herself into Verone Academy in her many escapades to the library as soon as she identified the school the Pretty Cure went to. Beyond that, it really would make much more sense to live close by to both of the girls as the enemy was directly targeting them…

But could she really trust these two? Homura thought about it before snorting to herself, she trusted Kyoko to live with her and she was obviously just objectively more dangerous than these two. With that in mind, she just sighed heavily “Do what you want.”

Both girls looked at each other, cheered on by their ‘victory’. Now, how exactly would they manage to convince their respective parents and grandparent about this…

Chapter Text

Homura was well aware that she was not a normal girl, her single-minded dedication to her goal at the expense of everything else was something she was acutely self-aware of. She was used to working constantly, she desired that state of affairs seeing things that diverted her from her chosen path as ‘distractions’. Even now as she sat and drank tea with Nagisa and Honoka she struggled not to see them as ‘distractions’ to her goal.

How terrible of her. She hid her building frown by drinking from the tea in front of her and attempted to bring up some sort of conversation… She redoubled her efforts to focus upon them, subtly shaking herself out of her strange mood.

“Are you guys free tomorrow?” Nagisa lazily looked up at the two of them, her homework mostly finished and having long since stopped paying attention to it. Honoka looked up in thought trying to remember if she had any responsibilities while Homura felt a small dry smile appear on her face attempting to brush away her previous thoughts.

“I’m always free,” Homura responded, seeing inherent humor in the question though it was perhaps a bit hysteric with the frustration. She buried it with anticipation, forcing herself to be interested in whatever she had to say. Anything would be better than another day of stewing in her own frigid feelings by herself.

Honoka smiled brightly suddenly, “Other than doing some shopping I think I’m free, what do you want to do Nagisa?”

“I just thought it would be kinda fitting to go to Angel Land since that’s where we became Pretty Cure.” Nagisa said with sudden interest, “Plus I think it’s a waste that we haven’t really relaxed!”

“...Are we not relaxing right now?” Homura questioned looking at the tea and snacks on the table. As far as she was concerned this was the high luxury relaxation experience. Nagisa disagreed, violently shaking her head and standing up suddenly pointing a finger at her notebook…!

“Anything to do with studying isn’t ‘relaxing’! I can’t believe this… You guys really are nerds- I mean, studious.” Nagisa sighed before sitting back down with a wry expression on her face, “So? How about it?”

Honoka decided to let it slide this time, nodding “I’d be fine with that, how about you Homura?” She looked over, though she asked the question to be polite… As Homura had indicated, it was probably difficult to keep themselves occupied.

“I don’t mind going, I haven’t been to many amusement parks.” Homura struggled to remember the last time she went to one, and found a memory where she went with Madoka on a bit of a date in one of the early timelines.

Nagisa looked cheery at the answers “Great! So when should we meet up?” Studying quickly forgotten the girl now focused on the escapades they were going to get up to. The group quickly started to iron out the details of their next trip together- this time more confident of their friendship…

Homura felt conflicted at the developments, having wanted to eventually iron out a plan to deal with Gekidrago for good, but she also didn’t want to ruin the reverie. She could read between the lines here, as she could many other times with the people she knew in Mitakihara: they wanted to forget even for a little while the danger and strife they now lived in to be normal girls. Was it so wrong to want to do that? Homura didn’t think so, and she didn’t want to ruin it by bringing up strategy.

“Say, Homura, do you have any favorite kinds of rides?” Nagisa casually asked with interest, tuning her back into the conversation they were having.

“...I’ve always liked Ferris wheels,” She said with a small, perhaps indulgent smile. She could let them have their fun for a little while… And it was true. She had an affinity for heights, after all, it only made sense that she enjoyed such a thing.

“Maybe we can get to it at the end? It’ll need to be late, I remember it being pretty popular…” Honoka spoke thinking aloud, but then quickly added “It’d also add a bit of romance ending things on a Ferris wheel.”

“R-Romance?!” Nagisa suddenly sputtered much to Homura’s confusion as she started to turn a bit red. Steam almost came out of her head at the implications of such a word, causing Honoka to giggle…

“It’s not likely that Fuji-P would be there you know?” She teased her friend a little, assuming that Nagisa was getting caught up in her imagination with her crush and Nagisa started to laugh rubbing the back of her head unable to form words to defend herself.

But Homura quirked an eyebrow at the whole situation, she felt as though there was something else entirely the two were missing here. But it wasn’t really any of her business and she could be wrong, so she decided to dismiss the suspicion…

Nagisa seemed to just be kind of was like that about the people she liked after all.

The strange conversation petered off, and eventually, it got to the point where Nagisa had to go. (Much to the dismay of Mepple and Mipple, who over the course of their study session had been their normal lovey-dovey selves) The girl stood up, and reluctance was obvious in her body, that the day felt too important to just anti-climatically end, where they finally actually became real friends and got to know each other. But that was the nature of time…

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.” She said to the duo with a smile before she walked away hoping that the next day would be a lot less dramatic. Honoka calling her own goodbye out to her as she left.

Looking over to Honoka with a small frown, Homura asked the million yen question “Do you think your grandmother would really let a random homeless girl stay in her home?”

To her credit, Honoka didn’t hesitate for a moment “I hope so.” She gave a reassuring grin to Homura before standing up, offering Homura a hand to help her to her feet as well… Homura reluctantly took it and the two walked off toward the main living area of the Yukishiro home (though Homura mentally struggled not to add ‘estate’).

…

They found Honoka’s grandmother Sanae in the courtyard watching their dog Chuutaro running around freely. She was placing the ladle back in its place with the rain collector barrel, having just finished watering some of the more greedy plants. 

“Oh, Honoka, you have an unusually serious face.” Honoka’s grandmother immediately detected as they exited the house, her small smile turning into a frown, “What’s wrong?” Her grandmother asked kindly, urging Honoka to speak.

“...Well, how do I say this?” Honoka delayed answering with an awkward smile plastered on her face, obviously afraid that her grandmother would say no to her request. She regained herself and her honest determination quickly, “My new friend Homura doesn’t have anywhere to stay, so I was wondering if she could stay with us for a while, maybe…”

“Oh, Honoka.” Sanae raised a hand to her cheek in slight shock, looking over to Homura with a new gentleness, “Do you have nowhere else to stay? Any family?”

Homura shook her head, “As far as I am aware I have no relatives. I… Do not think this is necessary.” She decided to hurriedly deny help, not wishing to impose so much unnecessarily. “I have been doing fine on my own.”

This was the wrong thing to say, Sanae gained a frown on her face, “Even if that is true you can’t sustain yourself like that forever.” She looked pensive for a moment, looking between Honoka and Homura, before finally she smiled and walked toward the house “I suppose we’ll have to prepare the guest room for you, unless you want to room with Honoka?”

Honoka looked surprised, “Huh?” Before a bright smile came upon her face, “Isn’t this great Homura! I said everything would be alright!” She looked pretty proud of herself at the moment, dragging Homura with them.

“But why go this far for me?” Homura was completely bewildered, though let herself be dragged along. Unused to the idea of adults actually being of much assistance or being anything but potential obstacles or Witch victims… It was strange and slightly unsettling to be assisted by one.

Sanae made a small humming noise before answering, “You’re an important friend of Honoka’s… You might have your own circumstances or problems, and I hope one day you will confide them in me but my instincts tell me that you’re a good child, Homura.”

Cynically, Homura wondered if she would still think that if she knew just how terrible she could be. She closed her eyes, pushing the thoughts of the inevitable end of most Timelines from her mind before she felt ill. “I see.”

“Of course, if you’re going to stay here we’re going to need to see about getting you into school…” Sanae mused to herself, before looking at Homura wryly “Do you have your birth certificate? No, you wouldn’t…. I’ll take care of it.”

It probably wouldn’t have been that difficult for Homura to have taken care of on her own. There was entire criminal enterprises built around fake identification. She already knew a little about how to hack her way into school computers to ensure she ended up in the same class and to hurry her transfer to Mitakihara. But she generally felt demotivated so she never looked into attempting to do such things here.

Her new room was quickly revealed to her, but at the moment it was filled with boxes- filled with Honoka’s old things (apparently from her embarrassed muttering it’s mostly older birthday gifts from her extremely wealthy parents she grew out of) and a few things from Honoka’s parents.

They only partially got through that, Homura awkwardly assisting still feeling like an intruding guest which only increased as Sanae and Honoka began to reminisce over several items from within the room. They would only get through a few of the boxes, moving them to the shed behind the house before they would need to stop.

Sanae decided to put a halt to it when it started to get darker outside, not wanting anyone to injure themselves on the way to the shed.

“Honoka, why don’t you show Homura to the bath. Ah, she should borrow some of your clothes as well.” Sanae kindly instructed, having decided that while Homura was surprisingly clean for a homeless girl would likely appreciate a real bath.

And it was completely true, Homura did indeed want one. There was only so much ‘public pool showering’ one could stand before they wished to have the luxury of a real household shower. So when Honoka replied with a cheerful ‘alright’ Homura numbly let herself be directed away.

It didn’t take long for Honoka to notice how tense Homura really was over this situation, having her quirk a look over at her, “Homura… What’s wrong?” She asked with a bit concern. Rooting her feet into the ground, Homura finally spoke what was in her mind.

“I don’t belong here. I’m not supposed… To be here.” Homura admitted everything but nothing, an extreme undercurrent of restlessness undercut her voice. As if she wanted to do anything but this, playing house with a new friend. As if she simply wanted her life back the way it was. Back in the maze. Back with Madoka.

Honoka looked a bit discouraged but put a smile on her face “Don’t worry Homura, I’m sure you’ll get used to living with us!” She said it all with an understanding tone and with saint-like patience.

She didn’t respond.

The next morning, breakfast within the Yukishiro was a bit awkward. Or perhaps ‘subdued’ was the correct word, neither Honoka or her grandmother Sanae were the types to fill the air with much small talk, while Homura at her nature was a socially avoidant individual. Homura herself had very little experience socializing in these environments outside of the few early timelines where she’d be invited to Madoka’s house.

“Do you two have any plans today?” Sanae kindly asked the two, “It should be a day off from school for you Honoka.”

Honoka happily nodded, “We’re going to Angel Land with Nagisa. You said you wanted to go on the Ferris Wheel, right Homura?” She looked over at her friend, trying to include her into the conversation.

“I look forward to it.” Homura reaffirmed with a small smile. While she would prefer to start planning on how they would eliminate their enemies, she understood that time needed to be set aside for each other. It wasn’t as if she hated doing things like this. There were times when she fantasized about such outings with the others, especially Madoka.

“I can’t wait to meet with Nagisa.” Honoka’s quiet enthusiasm was out in full force due to the combination of helping Homura with her homelessness and that despite everything that happened everyone was able to remain friends and plan an adhoc trip.

Sanae gave a large smile to her granddaughter, “I hope you’ll have lots of fun.” She was glad that Honoka had found close friends she was willing to bring home (though one in a more unexpected manner) and seemed to be enjoying herself and coming out of her shell.

It didn’t take long for them to finish their breakfast, and after cleaning up Honoka and Homura were left with little to do as they waited for their time to meet. Not having many academic subjects to speak about, and Homura being likely uninterested in talking about favourite scientists or chemistry…

The two went outside to play with Chuutaro in Honoka’s large yard. 

“Have you ever played with a dog before, Homura?” Honoka asked, holding a rubber cone dog toy. Chuutaro politely standing in front of her tilting his head eagerly waiting for it to be thrown.

Homura shook her head, “No, I’ve been more of a cat person.” She spoke with a bit of irony, remembering all the trouble that Amy had caused her. It was the closest thing to Homura ever having any sort of pet.

“Alright, then I’ll teach you! It’s easy first you just throw and Chuutaro should just bring it back. It’s best to sometimes walk after him to give more expectation for him to bring it back, though sometimes Chuutaro wants to be chased…” Honoka started to explain the intricacies of her dog and Homura tried to ignore how absurd her life had become.

After the explanation, Homura awkwardly took the toy from Honoka “Alright, let’s play Chuutaro…” And finally, Chuutaro was allowed to actually chase after the toy after waiting for several minutes.

The first few times Chuutaro brought it back to Honoka, and rarely Homura to be tossed again, but eventually, Chuutaro got bored and decided to run around with them and after a bit of urging Homura decided to humour Honoka and chase after him.

It became immediately apparent that Homura had vastly outclassed Honoka in physical ability and stamina. Homura was able to cheat and train her body over a long period of time, and Honoka well… Outside of being a Pretty Cure was a nerd who liked reading and science. It was no contest.

Pretty soon they had to take a break with Honoka a bit more worn out than she initially intended. While Honoka was recovering herself sitting on one of the steps, breathing a bit heavily “You’re hard to keep up with, Homura.” She smiled with a teasing voice.

“I had to do a lot of physical activity.” Homura lightly flipped her hair, combing it back into place where it was made messy from the amount of movement she had to do.

Chuutaro’s barks brought attention towards the entrance to the compound that encased the Yukishiro household… “Nagisa!” Honoka called out waving at the girl and making her way toward the entrance, Homura trailing after her.

“Honoka, Homura! Are you two ready to go?” The girl smiled widely as she walked over. Homura nodded and Honoka replied with a simple ‘of course!’.

“Mepple!”, “Mipple!” The two Fairies awakened from within Honoka and Nagisa’s pockets and transformed into their plush-like bodies onto the floor in front of them, calling out to each other and getting a bit lovey-dovy.

Homura slightly pitied them, “We’ll be going into public and they won’t be able to speak or visit each other much. We should put some time aside so Mepple and Mipple can also enjoy themselves…”

“H-Homura, I’m touched-mepo! Nagisa, you should learn from Homura she’s so cool and kind- unlike you of course maybe your Fuj-” Mepple almost looked driven to tears before he turned and started to ‘lecture’ Nagisa a bit snidely,

 Nagisa glared at him, “Maybe I can use Mepple for lacrosse practice while Mipple watches?”

“No you’re actually super cool and kind, haha-mepo~” Mepple immediately backtracked, byplaying into their comedic bit that Homura was unsure was purposeful or not.

Ignoring them, Mipple looked very happy at Homura’s suggestion “That’s wonderful to suggest, Homura-mipo! Mepple and I haven’t gotten much time together-mipo. How would we do that though-mipo?”

Honoka put a finger on her chin, looking up in thought… “Why doesn’t Nagisa have a sleepover here? That way we can all have fun.” She looked expectantly at Nagisa who having quickly let grow of her grudge on Mepple simply shrugged.

“I guess I can ask my parents when I get back home.” Nagisa didn’t promise anything, lamenting internally at her own bad grades which made it pretty hard to convince her mom to let her get away with things.

…

Angel Land’s large entrance, with its name painted in gold blocky letters on an arch, with an angel blowing on a horn crowning it’s center came into view. It was a bit busy, but luckily there never seemed to be a big line to get in.

“...So yeah, Odajima-san really must hate me. Like she keeps just glaring at me sometimes.” Nagisa groused, having finished various stories about her awkward encounters with an upperclassman named Yuka Odajima.

“That’s not true… I think. Odajima-san never has anything bad to say about anyone when she was in the Chemistry club.” Honoka sighed out, having gotten used to Nagisa’s little complex about Yuka’s ‘dislike’.

Homura frowned, “Maybe she sees you as rivals. You’re also really good at sports.” She also tried to give a more positive spin on things, even if Yuka’s behavior was pretty odd. Of course, Homura was unaware of her hypocrisy.

“Would you want to join the Chemistry Club when you enroll, Homura? I’ve started to make some friends there and I think with your help we’ll win in the next science fair!” Honoka diverted toward a different topic instead of hearing Nagisa be morose over a girl maybe not liking her.

Nagisa immediately squawked a rushed, “No way! We need more ace players on the lacrosse club! Homura you’re incredibly fit, we need you on the team!”

“Considering Yuka Odajima was allowed to be in every club there doesn’t seem to be anything stopping me from joining both.” Homura decided, causing Nagisa and Honoka to look at her with surprise…

“You sure about that? Wouldn’t it be pretty hard to meet the expectations of both clubs?” Nagisa asked her pretty seriously, not really wanting Homura to join if she wasn’t going to take lacrosse seriously.

Homura smiled, “If it’s too much I can always quit one I dislike more than the other.” And that was that, the logic wasn’t really questionable at the moment until they really saw how it’d work out when she was at Verone.

The trio ceased their discussion as they approached the booth and got their admissions into Angel Land. Revealing its interior more clearly was surprisingly pretty impressive for a small-ish park. It had two rather big roller coasters, a marry go round, bumper cars, classic tea cup ride, and of course the ferris wheel that towered over Angel Land. The expected overpriced food stalls were also around selling very unhealthy items.

Basically a kid’s dream.

“Ooh, let’s go on the teacup ride!” Honoka immediately decided what they were going on first, gently dragging Nagisa and Homura over.

Homura awkwardly sat between Nagisa and Honoka when they got on the ride. “I’ve never rode in one of these before…”

Honoka looked a bit surprised, but nodded “It’s simple, the ride will rotate us around and let us spin the teacup using the central plate here.”

“Huh, don’t worry Homura, we'll make sure you experience all the rides here!” Nagisa exclaimed with a big smile, though Homura could already tell that Nagisa already was going to do that anyway. Nagisa gave a little cheeky smile when she noticed her stare.

Soon enough the ride started, and the trio began spinning their tea cup, Nagisa and Honoka cheering as they did so. Homura merely gave a small smile as they did so. Inevitably, though between Homura not knowing when to quit, and Nagisa being competitive they decided to put the ride to its limits with how fast they could spin it…

Leading to the obvious results of a quite dizzy Nagisa and Honoka, and Homura calmly guiding them off the ride. Holding them steady when it looked like they were going to fall over, or into each other comically. They looked almost drunk.

“Urk, that was a bad idea…” Nagisa complained, swirls almost visible in her eyes holding onto the railing as she got off.  Honoka almost fell after her, “You two got too intense… It wasn’t a competition…”

After recovering on a bench for a little while, Nagisa and Honoka would show Homura their favorite rides, such as Angel Land’s big roller coaster and going to the bumper cars to mess around a little bit.

Before they knew it several hours had passed by, and they were sitting in a ferris wheel booth, the city skyline coming into view. Honoka and Nagisa were quite tired from the excursion, having very much enjoyed their more stress relieving day after non-stop drama with the Forces of Darkness.

“I had fun today.” Homura spoke up suddenly, it wasn’t often that she got invited and actually get to participate in these kind of things. It reminded her that she really was just supposed to be like them, a window to a different reality where she wasn’t Homura Akemi.

Honoka and Nagisa looked happy at the admission, smiling at each other with an exclamation of accomplishment much to Homura’s confusion.

“We’re glad. We thought you didn’t really have any fun with us, and you uh just tolerate us for being Pretty Cure.” Nagisa admitted with a smile, “So I’m really happy. I feel like we can be true friends now like this.”

Honoka nodded, though she looked a bit smug “I knew as soon as I had Homura playing with Chuutaro that she wasn’t just putting up with me.”

“That’s cheating.” Nagisa joked back with a short laugh, and while Homura felt like she should be a little bit annoyed that she was being tested like that…

“...You two are incredible.” Homura looked away, suddenly shy at how much attention they must have given her. The word ‘friend’ meant a lot to her, it shocked her heart a little bit. Yes, she could really understand Mami Tomoe right now. After being so lonely, it was impossible to be cold to people so genuine, so openly trying to be your friend.

For the first time since she arrived, Homura had found herself not regarding her visit to this world as some sort of curse. She felt more at ease, “...I guess that isn’t so bad.”

Maybe she could learn something here.

Chapter Text

The trio alongside the two plush-like fairies were heading towards Nagisa’s home, said girl having used a pay phone to ask her mother whether it would be fine for her to have a sleepover at Honoka’s… But it ended up being flipped, instead apparently Nagisa’s mom wanted to host Honoka and Homura for the night and get to know Nagisa’s new friends…

With an impromptu sleepover was now firmly in the cards, they had to go to Nagisa’s apartment which complicated things in allowing Mepple and Mipple the freedom to do what they wished. It’d likely be impossible for them to play around or get any alone time. 

“I guess this is just how things worked out-mipo.” Mipple sulked a little, having looked forward to some time with Mepple.

Mepple let out an angry ‘hmph!’, “I can’t believe Nagisa got us stuck going to her place-mepo!” He was taking it a lot less well…

“Yeah, well… I guess I should have expected mom to do this, sorry.” Nagisa visibly swallowed her initial response and annoyance to give some patience towards Mepple.

Homura felt apologetic, she understood just how painful it could be when you couldn’t adequately be with someone you loved. Sometimes she yearned for those moments when it was just Madoka and herself enjoying each other's company. Even if it might be one sided that was enough for her…

“I should be able to form a barrier that should dampen sound easily enough.” Homura revealed. Barriers were one of the few magics she was good at, though that too was nothing to brag about. She had witnessed Mami, Kyoko and even Sayaka with the limited time she was able to be a magical girl form some sort of barrier successfully. It was part of the bare necessities she learned so police wouldn’t investigate every time she fired one of her weapons.

Speaking softly, Homura continued “At least that way they can express themselves…”

Honoka giggled in response, “You’re pretty kind Homura. Isn’t that great Mipple, Mepple?” She looked between the two Fairies held in their phone forms in Honoka and Nagisa’s hands respectfully.

“Homura you big softy! Now look what you’ve done! We’ll never get any peace…!” Nagisa nudged her a little with her shoulder with a big grin as Mepple and Mipple turned to Homura with giant happy grins, tears almost falling from their eyes…

“Homuraaaa-meeepooo! You really are my savior-mepo!” Mepple poofed out of his phone form and into his more ‘plushy’ form waving his arms up and down in joy, “Isn’t this great Mipple-mepo!”

Mipple also transformed, plopping her pink body next to Mepple’s yellow “Now we can talk freely in Nagisa’s room-mipo! We can get as lovey-dovey as we want-mipo! Mepplee-mipo!” Mipple hugged Mepple…

“Mipple-mepo!” Mepple hugged Mipple… The two started to mantra each other’s name in that hug as the trio watched over them, and of course up and down the street to make sure nobody could spot the two interdimensional aliens.

Homura had tensed up a bit from Nagisa touching her and manually destressed her muscles, “I think it’s fine to let them be selfish at least for a little while. You will understand when you’re that close with someone else.”

This caused everyone to stop, Nagisa and Honoka both looking at each other shocked, before they leaned over to her. “You like someone Homura? Are you dating?!”

“...Unfortunately it didn’t work out. I don’t think she would like the current me anyway.” Homura seemed a bit more uncomfortable as she was pressed for further details, a small bitter expression came on her face.

Nagisa stopped her, “Wait, you’re like um gay?” She hurriedly added, “Not that I have any problems with that! Some of our classmates are like that I think- yeah. Ahahahaha” She started to sweat as she felt like she might have insulted Homura with her blunt question- really Nagisa hadn’t really thought about this kind of thing despite the amount of love letters she got from the girls in her school…

“Oh… ” Honoka looked between her friends, things felt a bit awkward now… “Maybe it’s a bit rude to ask that Nagisa…”

Homura shook her head and didn’t stop forcing Nagisa out of her stupor and rush to keep up, “It’s fine. Yes, I’ve only felt attracted to women. I’ll be very disappointed if that changes anything between us.” The cool casualness of which she said it clashed with the undercurrent of the words- it was clear that Homura was unlikely to tolerate discrimination and stay on friendly terms…

“Oh-oh no it doesn’t change anything at all, right Honoka?!” Nagisa rushed to try and reassure Homura that it didn’t change anything- and it really didn’t. Sure she found her fangirls kind of offputting- but that wasn’t because of their feelings it was- well… Most of them didn’t even know her! This was different.

Honoka nodded her head clearly, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with loving someone even if they’re the same gender. Some of the most intelligent scientists and inventors were gay! Like Alan Turing, one of the fathers of modern computer science…” She seemed a bit unprepared for the current conversation and defaulted toward scientific trivia- she never expected to have a discussion about sexuality on a walk to Nagisa’s place!

Homura remained silent, and soon even Nagisa’s nervous laughter wasn’t enough to clear the awkwardness. Things were unexpectedly heavy over such an innocent question- but really they should have expected it. Nagisa thought things made sense! Homura was like this because she went through a sorta traumatic experience being hospitalized and well, probably got dumped or something.

Honoka meanwhile started to think a more sad thought. If you start dating in the hospital then it was easy to come to a depressing conclusion that maybe… The person that Homura liked had passed away- that could explain why Homura was so closed off. She won’t pry- this was Homura’s story, and she could tell them when she was ready and it was her right to keep some things to herself.

Nagisa lived in a brick four floor ‘L’ shaped brick apartment building with outdoor balconies. It was pretty conveniently located, making it pretty unnecessary for them to need to take a bus anywhere as everything was (broadly speaking) in acceptable walking distance especially for someone as athletic as Nagisa. What wasn’t well, she usually took the train.

“You know, I was pretty jealous of you Honoka. You have all that space, but my place is extremely cramped!” Nagisa didn’t care that much, it was more or less just something to bring up and keep the weird silence away while they walked toward the entrance of the apartment building.

Honoka looked surprised, “Really? I didn’t think it was anything special.” She seemed a bit clueless like she didn’t live in what felt like a traditional Japanese estate.

“...We’re going to need to deal with Gekidrago.” Homura interrupted, the tone shift of conversation almost causing Nagisa to trip over herself and into the glass doors of the apartment lobby.

Catching herself, and throwing open the doors Nagisa sighed, “Is that what we’re going to be talking about tonight?” She didn’t quite whine, but it was a near thing.

“Well, we had to talk about it eventually.” Honoka said with a small smile, “I think Homura is just trying to set your expectations…”

Homura nodded as Nagisa guided them into the lobby, and called down an elevator. “We likely could have defeated him in our last battle, however it seems that the kinetic force of your attack forces him out of the way before he is destroyed and he’s able to sacrifice Zakenna to save himself… So I came up with several strategies to potentially destroy him and gain our next Prism Stone.”

“Yeah… Yeah, we should be proactive. We can’t let another incident like at the Museum happen where they take our classmates hostage or something.” Nagisa nodded, and then with a ‘ding’ the elevator arrived cutting their conversation.

Hurriedly Nagisa decided to speak up, “It should only be my mom and my brother. I think dad should be still working. Mom’s not strict or anything, but it’d make my life easier if you really talk up about how you help me with schoolwork.”

“I see… So she’d trust having you out with us at odd hours with the idea that we’d be studying.” Homura nodded in understanding, getting the point. She wasn’t used to having to work around parents that were very present in the lives of their children- even Madoka’s family was very lenient on her coming and goings (much to Homura’s own chagrin, as it was unlikely Madoka would get in nearly as much trouble with strict parents).

Honoka did however point out the obvious: “We’re going to need to keep doing our study sessions together and increase your average then. Else it’ll be a pretty short lived ‘excuse’.”

“Don’t kid me, we were going to end up doing that anyway.” Nagisa waved off the teasing as she led them down the hall to her apartment’s door with a dry expression. There was no way that when she was hanging out with such big nerds as Honoka and Homura that they weren’t going to try to drag her into the ‘fun’ of studying.

Opening the door with a little energy, Nagisa called out “I’m home!” And the expected response from the kitchen from her mom came, “Welcome back!” As the trio began to take off their footwear, Nagisa’s mom came to greet them properly.

A black haired woman in an orange long-sleeved shirt and blue coveralls approached them, “So you’re the two who have taken it upon yourselves to improve Nagisa’s grades, huh?” She joked “I have to say I was really surprised to hear Nagisa made friends like you, most of her’s are like Shiho.”

“Come on… It’s not like I’m just with a bunch of dummies.” Nagisa got a little bit riled up feeling the need to defend herself and her friend. Only for her mom to interrupt her.

“But it’s not like your group likes studying.” She countered with a smile, “I can’t imagine you being dragged out by Shiho or Rina to hit up the books. Ah, enough about them though, I’m sure Nagisa already told you but I’m Rie, Nagisa’s mother.”

Honoka gave a small polite smile, “I’m Honoka Yukishiro, your daughter helped me out many times and I already consider her a close friend of mine. Thank you for having me over.” She gave a small bow.

“My name is Homura Akemi, I’ve only come to know Nagisa recently but she seems to be a loyal friend. Thank you for having me.” Homura also politely bowed a bit.

Rie rubbed Nagisa’s hair roughly, “Where did you find these two?! Nagisa you could learn a thing or two from them!” She gave a laugh as Nagisa lost her patience and ducked out of the way, thoroughly embarrassed. Rie would then head back to the kitchen, “I’ll call you three out for dinner in an hour, I hope everyone likes curry.”

Nagisa started to physically drag her friends to her room, going passed the living room as she did so. Her brother, Ryouta feigned disinterest over Homura and Honoka though had been clearly listening into the conversation from his place on the couch. Still, he knew better than to press Nagisa’s buttons at the moment, so flipped his interest back to the television.

Nagisa’s bedroom wasn’t too small, but it certainty wasn’t ‘big’. It reminded Homura of her own bedroom in her apartment in Mitakihara, compact and functional. But Nagisa had clearly made it her own with posters, furniture, and just in general had clutter that oozed personality. From the rabbit covers, and heart carpet… It was like a mixture of Sayaka’s bedroom (and she had to strain to remember what that looked like) and Madoka’s.

“I was expecting more of a mess.” Homura bluntly stated, causing Nagisa to collapse face first into her bed with a groan. It was way too clean for the kind of image Nagisa presented- a mostly disorganized kind of individual.

Honoka nodded, “I wasn’t expecting you to have so many cute stuffed animals.” Another thing that caused Nagisa to let out a pained noise. Like she was just punched in the heart.

“...Yeah, I also like stuff like this. Get it over with, I can take it.” Nagisa flopped over, waving a hand at herself.

Homura gave a small kind smile, “There’s nothing wrong with being true to yourself.” She set herself down on a big pink cushion to relax and only felt a little ridiculous doing so.

“I like the style of your room Nagisa! It’s very… Warm, I think.” Honoka complimented, and Nagisa felt her ego swell a bit. The girl laughed embarrassed and rubbed the back of her head.

“Thanks, I guess. So- hey, why don’t we do uh, a strategy meeting! You know, but for our Pretty Cure stuff.” Regaining momentum, Nagisa hurriedly brought them back to focus on the important topic at hand sitting properly on her bedside.

Honoka plopped herself down on Nagisa’s bed as well, which made it feel even more ridiculous with Homura on the floor. But that was their seating arrangement, and Homura was going to need to live with it.

“Yes, let’s do so.” Homura nodded solemnly, “As you know your opponents usually take a wounding hit, being sent away from your ultimate attack. This seems to be an oversight in the power of your abilities, and while it seems to always extremely injure your opponent it also seems to assist them in escaping. The kinetic force of your attack throws them further away before it can purify them.”

Honoka nodded, “I see what you’re saying… I originally thought that our abilities' effectiveness was kind of random when Pisard… Returned to where he came, but it seemed really apparent that no matter how hard we hit Gekidrago he seemed to just fly off and come back…”

“So what do we do about it?” Nagisa didn’t really notice it, but she did agree that it’d be awesome if they could win without fighting the same guy over and over again in their battle of attrition.

Homura’s mouth thinned, “Well, it’s a deceptively simple problem. All we have to do is pin down an enemy into the ground with your attack. Doing that is another story entirely.”

“How about a trap?” Honoka suggested with a smile, “Gekidrago seems very simpleminded, I doubt he’d question falling into a large hole or being lured into a… Quarry! Or something…” Of course, they’d need to find a location like that or make a big hole themselves somehow.

Homura looked at the two of them, a bit satisfied that the conversation was moving in a direction she wished “This might sound unpleasant but we may have to either see if we can use your increased strength in your transformations to make some sort of large pitfall trap or we’ll need to go on another expedition out to an area like a quarry.”

Nagisa didn’t look too convinced though, “I know he seems a bit dimwitted but surely even that guy would realize something is up, right? I also feel like we won’t be fighting him at a convenient place or time…” 

“Yes, so we need to consider how we may be able to defeat him in one go if we don’t get lucky. When I fought him on my own I was able to eventually defeat him by crushing him under enough weight and explosives… So another strategy I had thought up was that we wear him down physically before crushing him under something heavy.” Homura lectured, and looked at them expectantly.

“Oh! Then we could blast him with our Marble Screw attack! But isn’t there still a chance that we’d just fling him again?” Nagisa caught on before she seemed to think of something, “I don’t know if its possible but in lacrosse sometimes I have to jump to get an angle to pass or score a goal. Maybe we can leap and fire our Marble Screw down on him at the same time?”

Honoka looked a bit pensive, “I think we should practice for a bit if we want to try that. We’ve only ever done it on solid ground- I wouldn’t want to try it only for it not to work or something goes wrong.”

“On that note, we really need to start scheduling training. Both of you seem to be gifted with an innate grasp of martial arts, but you lack confidence and experience to utilize your skills properly. I also need to improve my own abilities and adapt to the fact that my weapons are unlikely to be enough. We should schedule ourselves at least twice a week, hopefully more.” Homura suddenly had a day planner in her hands, and pushed it toward Nagisa and Honoka.

“It’s like a study planner… I guess we should write down when we’re busy first, days where we want to take off and relax, when we want to study and when we want to practice with our powers…” Honoka searched around Nagisa’s room before she found a blue pen next to a notebook on the floor.

Honoka went first, writing down mostly her club activities but also included her upcoming birthday and a handful of days where she made previous arrangements with her grandmother. She handed it off to Nagisa, who grumbled but quickly wrote down her expected obligations in the lacrosse team and so on.

“I understand that this is difficult. That I am forcing you to remove time from your everyday lives, interrupting you from being able to connect with your other friends and opportunities- but this is the sacrifice we need to make as magical girls. As the only people who can deal with the Dark King.” Homura reminded them, trying to instill a renewed sense of responsibility.

Nagisa waved it off, “I’m more upset about the studying then anything else. I understand the need to practice, it’s just like lacrosse… But fighting. It’s pretty unbelievable still, but I get it you want to ensure we do all we can to win right? I’m not a stranger to that sentiment at all! I always want to win!”

“I like that we’re taking steps like this, it makes the task feel less daunting- like we’re not just waiting for the next attack! I like your proactive attitude.” Honoka complimented Homura with a smile.

Before Homura could respond, Nagisa’s mother Rie called for them to the dinner table causing the trio to get up and leave the room. An extra chain had to be serviced for everyone sitting at the dinner table, leaving it a bit awkward for them all to crowd around it.

“Oh, so you’re Nagisa’s new friends? I hope you all had fun at the theme park.” A man with a genial smile in a simple light blue dress shirt greeted them, “I’m Nagisa’s father Takashi! It’s nice to meet the two of you.”

As the two started to try and politely introduce themselves again, Takashi waived off the pleasantries and instead Takashi seemed more interested in building up small talk “So how did you two meet her? Nagisa save you from any trouble?” He joked around with good humor.

“Yeah, how did Nagisa attract such smart looking people? Usually she’s around complete airheads like herself.” Ryouta rudely interjected with a teasing smile at Nagisa, successfully riling the girl up.

“I’ll show you-!” Just as Nagisa was about to get up and show her brother exactly how she felt about being called an airhead…

“No roughhousing at the table!”  Rie’s voice came from the kitchen as if sensing the disturbance from the table without needing to do so, causing Nagisa to sit back down muttering to herself. With the disturbance clear the two girls finally answered the question.

“You could say that! I guess you could say Nagisa helped me with someone who was picking on me.” Honoka said a convincing half-truth, Pisard was picking on her that one time and Nagisa did come to the rescue.

Homura gave a half-smile “I guess it’s more that we shared interests and it happened to work out this way. I’ll be transferring into Verone soon so I imagine Nagisa will be a great help.” She spoke diplomatically, not wanting to embellish as she only knew Nagisa for a relatively short amount of time.

Simple dinner table smalltalk began, mostly based around Honoka’s lead where they figured out that Takashi was an office worker who often worked pretty late into the evening and Rie was a mostly stay at home mother. Honoka revealed details about her own club and her academic abilities (and quite a bit of scientific trivia when prompted). Homura mostly didn’t have anything to share, there wasn’t much for her to.   

Rie set the table and finally sat down, and eventually brought it up, “Akemi-san, are we intimidating you? You haven’t seemed to participate much in conversation.” She seemed a bit concerned about being a poor host.

“Ahahaha, I’m sure she’s a bit shy, right Akemi-san?” Takashi covered for her with a kind smile, as if he could naturally get along with most people.

Homura shook her head, “I apologize… I’m adapting to new circumstances at the moment and I’ve never been the most extroverted.”

Nagisa nodded, “She’s the girl um, I told you about that got out of the hospital.” She covered for Homura the only way she knew how, trying to pave over the awkwardness.

Rie looked a bit shocked, “Well, congratulations Akemi-san!” And thus dinner continued as normal, with all hidden tension or awkwardness disappearing as everyone started to think they were on the same footing.

After the dinner concluded, Honoka, Homura and Nagisa would help Takeshi take out some of the bedding usually used for camping and setting out a blow up mattress and a sleeping mat out on the floor of Nagisa’s room. 

Not too soon after that it became Ryouta’s bedtime, and thus the girls were allowed to claim the television. Of course, Homura had zero known preference when prompted (which was kind of expected by now), Honoka and Nagisa simply played rock-paper-scissors to see who would decide what to watch…

Honoka won, so they ended up watching a documentary about the development of agriculture in Japan… Much to Nagisa’s dismay. The film didn’t really do anything for Homura either, why bother watching a documentary when you could more accurately get the information in a book with deeper insight on the subject?

Eventually, Nagisa too was forced to go to bed as her parents likewise started to head to their own bedroom. Homura then finally brought up, “It’s time for me to fulfill my promise Mepple and Mipple.”

“Ah, right! Here you go, we put them to sleep but they should wake up if you poke them a bit.” Nagisa handed Mepple to Homura.

Honoka had a little bit of a worried look on her face, “Probably do it more gently than what you’re imagining Nagisa did.” She whispered with a giggle.

“Of course.” Homura didn’t quite smirk but it was a near thing, and she walked over to the balcony… Transforming  into her magical girl outfit, Homura leaped onto the roof of the apartment building.

Opening the phone-like containers that housed the two plush-like fairies Homura inspected the two seriously. Their sleeping faces made them cute, likable even, and she could already tell they had more than enough emotion that they weren’t related to the Incubators… But what did it mean then, that the ‘legendary warriors’ were two young girls?

She poked them, causing them to flinch a little and mutter something in their sleep- even get a little visibly annoyed before they snapped awake suddenly.

“Where- oh, Homura-mepo!” Mepple woke up completely, and took over nudging Mipple awake. Who was also slightly disoriented to the change of environment. The two looked up at Homura slightly…

Homura looked away, “This is the only spot I could think of where you two could have some privacy. I’ll come and collect you in a half an hour or an hour- or longer it doesn’t concern me.”

“How nice of you-mepo! But we won’t take that long, our bodies get really tired in the human world-mepo.” Mepple explained to her, sounding a little bit sad at the end but still extremely grateful.

Mipple nodded, “The thought is enough for me-mipo! Is there anything we can do for you in return-mipo?” The pink fairy looked up at her with wide eyes…

Homura leaned on the stone barrier that framed the roof of the building thinking about the question for a moment. Hesitating on what to say next, Homura sighed looking at the two. “If one of you was in trouble would you do everything possible to save the other, even if it meant giving up on everything else?”

It was a really hard question to simply drop on the two fairies suddenly, and they looked up at her curiously and concerned… Mipple spoke up first, her face turning upset “That’s a pretty mean question-mipo. I have my responsibilities as the princess but-mipo… I think I could keep going as long as I had Mepple-mipo. That was always a possibility, but I have faith we can save everyone-mipo!”

Mepple nodded resolute, “I’d save Mipple-mepo, I don’t know if I could sacrifice anyone to do it but I think I’d do as much as I could to save Mipple-mepo.”

Homura looked more tired at the admissions, “...I see. What if that included your friends, Nagisa and Honoka? Or perhaps myself. What if not all of us made it in the end? Humor me, please.”

“...I wouldn’t want something like that-mepo.” Mepple spoke up upset, looking sad at the thought. “Things wouldn’t be the same without Nagisa or Honoka-mepo. I would never give up on my friends, so I’ll just have to save all of them-mepo!”

“Is it wrong to do that then? I suppose it has to be.” Homura accepted it a small wry smile appearing on her face, “Thank you for consulting with me.”

Mipple looked up at Homura with some worry, a small hand reassuringly trying to rest on the back of her leg “Did this happen to you-mipo?” 

“I’m just trying to figure out how to be a hero.” Homura muttered, stepping up onto the ledge and leaping down back onto Nagisa’s room balcony ending the conversation before it could begin. 

Chapter Text

Despite some awkwardness and the somber mood she had delved in, Homura was satisfied with the day. She was confident that everyone had more or less mended their relationships with one another. It was a source of great stress on her, but thankfully both Nagisa and Honoka seemed… ‘Easygoing’ if she had to give a term for it, quick to forgive and held a hidden maturity that encouraged the two to reconcile despite their differences. It was a breath of fresh air for her.

They were back to small-talk, speaking once more about random subjects such as when Nagisa and Honoka first met and became Pretty Cure or their day to day lives at Verone to try and prepare Homura for when she joined them at school…

“So, Homura, do you have any experience playing any sport? I won’t mind teaching you how to play lacrosse, I’m sure you’ll be an amazing player!” Nagisa excitedly exclaimed as Homura took a seat on a cushion at Nagisa’s low table. Nagisa seemed to have taken it upon herself to lay out a large collection of junk food for them in a display of hospitality.

Taking a polite chip from a bag on the table, something she hadn’t eaten much before at all unless Kyoko offered (a rare thing, usually when the girl was out of pocky), Homura answered “No, I’ve only played a handful of sports such as volleyball or tennis. Truthfully I am only interested because you’ll be there.”

Nagisa looked a bit touched, a big smile went on her face as she began to chuckle “Hahaha! Well thanks! I’m sure you’ll find it to be lots of fun, plus there’s a lot of cool people in the lacrosse club! I’ll make sure of it!”

Homura gave her a small smile in return, “I’m sure you will.” A small part of herself that she’d never admit was that she got anxious when she wasn’t on the move every once in a while.

It had long since dulled, but the elation of being able to move freely when she was released from the hospital (and the true freedom of movement she gained with her wish), paired with the much more immediate constant pressure to keep moving from one objective to another had made a sedentary and calm lifestyle… Unpalatable. With the lack of a means to hunt down their enemies Homura was hoping participating in a sport would work as a supplement and to admittedly look over her own poor mental health.

Honoka though seemed a bit concerned, “Are you sure about trying to join in the science club as well? You seemed confident in knowing your limits and there is precedent with Odajima-san but…”

“I am very confident in my academic skills, especially when it comes to chemistry.” Homura wryly responded, “I don’t foresee any problems.” How difficult could it be compared to making pipebombs?

“Speaking of problems, Nagisa, I prepared this for you.” Homura suddenly had a collection of thin sheets in her hands. “It is a study guide and notes for mathematics. I formatted it based on one I had received in the past and it should cover most of the material I envision your class will cover based on what you have shown me so far.”

Both Nagisa and Honoka were stunned, looking at her with shocked looks and almost a bit of an exasperated air… “A-already?” Nagisa stuttered, “Didn’t we just finish that study session!”

Even Honoka looked a bit concerned “I’m… Impressed by your work ethic?” She trailed off questioningly, wondering where Homura had the opportunity to sleep and complete the study guide in the same night.

Shaking herself free from that madness, Nagisa quickly changed the subject “Thanks, I guess. Well, we should go to sleep soon. Not that I don’t appreciate your gift, it’s just hard to get energetic about studying and so late as well…”

Homura looked at the time on the alarm clock in Nagisa’s room, “I see. I have no intention of making you use it right now, but hopefully you’ll find it useful in the future.”

“Homura why don’t you get Mepple and Mipple while I help Nagisa set up the sleeping arrangements in her room.” Honoka eyed the pile of bedding that was just dumped in the corner to sort out ‘later’ and ‘later’ was rapidly approaching.

“...They’ve likely started to fall back asleep by now.” Homura nodded, gaining a grasp by now how long the two could remain active under their own power. It must be stifling to be forced to be how they are in Nagisa and Honoka’s care and fully reliant on them. They were pretty resilient for being willing to put up with it as much as they have been. Or maybe they were a bit too care free.

Sure enough as Homura scaled to the roof once more she could see that they were fast asleep in their cases. Fortunately their cases seemed to mostly protect them from the elements, but she couldn’t think sleeping on a building would be too comfortable. So she scooped them up into her hands and descended back through Nagisa’s window (much more carefully, as it was rather precarious holding the two).

Like always she doubted she would get much sleep, but she had plenty to think about. Chief among them was to consider the implications of what could be useful in this reality to assist in her goal to save Madoka from what she learned so far.

The following morning held little of consequence. The trio of girls having left shortly after a rushed breakfast as Nagisa’s father was called early for his work.

Finding an isolated area to practice their powers was a bit more complicated than it sounded. Homura was used to simply trespassing and utilizing disused parking garages or the mostly abandoned industrial area of Mitakihara but there wasn’t really anything like that in the metropolis that was the Tokyo area.

Taking a seat in a cafe booth, they were brainstorming locations they knew of that might fit. Homura had coffee, while Nagisa and Honoka had tea (though Nagisa’s was much sweeter).

“You know for superhero shows they usually use an abandoned quarry for battles and stuff like this. We could try doing that, it’s a classic.” Nagisa being the tomboy of the group and having a younger brother immediately thought of an example from TV.

Honoka shook her head, “I doubt they’re that abandoned in real life. I’m worried they’d have security cameras or guards around to stop people from trespassing… Plus if we got caught there, there's…” She looked like she ate a lemon, “We already embarrass ourselves a lot in school with Mepple and Mipple’s antics, imagine if they called my grandma or your parents to pick us up from a random quarry…”

“We’re thinking too complicated. Your powers seem to repair what it destroys, so maybe we can just use a space the lacrosse or science club uses outside the school. Do you two have anything like that?” Homura interrogated, causing the two other girls to squint in deep thought for several seconds…

Before Nagisa got an idea, “Aha! Verone partners with a lodge not too far away for the sake of training camps. From what I remember there were no security cameras or anything, and it's like deserted when it’s not used by schools. I’m sure we can look them up online to see if anyone’s using it at the moment.”

“That might be our best hope if we don’t want to go far away and spend our day hiking again.” Honoka gave reference to the unspoken option of just returning to the wilderness. It wasn’t anything the trio really wanted to do, being pretty far away both by bus and the hike itself…

Homura nodded “We will go to a nearby internet cafe to check Nagisa’s suggestion… Hiking for a spot will remain our final option, if nothing else it will allow us to train our stamina.”

This kind of information gathering they were doing was quite natural to Homura, so it was somewhat amusing and intellectually stimulating to see Nagisa and Honoka learn it over time. Honoka seemed like a natural with her studious nature. It reminded her of the time she spent gathering everything she could to understand Walpurgisnacht’s approach and to predict its movements through the weather data, among other things.

Nagisa looked over at Homura curiously, “So, you seem experienced with this kind of thing. Where did you train your powers?” Maybe it could give them another idea for a back up after all.

“I didn’t get much of a chance to really practice that much on my own, but when I did so it was in an abandoned parking garage… My power doesn’t reset things like it does for you,” Homura grimaced at the unintentional irony of her statement, oh yes did things reset… “So I had to clumsily learn by beating up barrels with a blunt object. I learned everything else more or less through trial and error.”

Honoka hummed, “I’ve been suspecting this for a while now… But did you have a team before us, Homura?” It was an innocent statement, but it hurt to remember the beginning of the journey.

Homura held in a grimace, “...I don’t work well with others. As you’ve already experienced, I am not the most diplomatic person.” She dodged the question like a coward, she had no interest in grappling with the idea of confronting the past. Not when it could still be changed.

She stood up suddenly, ending the conversation. “Let’s go.”

Nagisa and Honoka looked at each other, Nagisa furiously whispered “You can’t ask something like that, Homura is obviously a tragic figure....” As much as they wanted to get to know her more there was boundaries they couldn’t cross so soon.

“How was I supposed to know… Oh no, you don’t think her previous team…” Honoka trailed off in horror.

Nagisa sighed silently as she got up, not answering the question. It was kind of obvious to her that Homura was part of this secret world of magical girls that they just came to know existed way before them. There was just Homura here, if she had a team there was no way they’d not actively stop the Dark Zone- That girl Homura compared her to was probably dead. And so was everyone else.

Nagisa felt herself getting cold at the thought, truthfully she wasn’t fully enthused at being Cure Black and she didn’t feel like she was a hero. But the thought that Homura would keep going without them kept her grounded. Homura was physically weaker, she would break her body to keep fighting- and eventually Nagisa feared her spirit.

That couldn’t happen. So they had to shape up and be heroes even if they were a bit shabby.

The group silently walked to a neighboring internet cafe, only having been seated in the cafe due to the rules of not having drinks inside.

The internet cafe had private booths, so it was convenient as well to talk about magical girl activity without looking like maniacs or little kids. It had a crummy little computer that was much too slow for Homura’s liking who began to become mentally exasperated at the small inconveniences of the past. Still, this was firmly within the era where everyone and everything attempted to have a website attached to it.

While using the internet in 2004 was an exercise in some frustration, it was enough to get passable information on when its operating hours were. As far as they knew it would be abandoned until Verone used it sometime later this year. They resolved to check it out physically sometime soon, both to make sure it wasn’t being used (never believe everything you read on the internet was a core tenet of using the internet after all) and to check if there was any sort of security system in it.

“Are you two comfortable with the fact that we’ll effectively be breaking into someone else’s private property for our own gain?” Homura questioned the two, breaking the silence that had dominated since the previous topic.

Nagisa hummed, “...I guess. Like it’s not like we’re stealing anything, and we’re trying to protect the earth so I haven’t been sweating the small stuff. We’ve technically trespassed a bunch already, right?”

Honoka nodded alongside her friend “Normally it’d bother me but if we didn’t take our… Magical Girl training seriously” She blushed a bit as she said something kind of embarrassing, “We’d be very irresponsible.”

Homura looked relieved hearing this, “I was hoping this was the case and you weren’t acting without considering our actions. Being a magical girl means that we will have to bend the rules of regular society- we are separated from everyone else. We cannot allow ourselves to be restrained by the law or decorum.”

“Like how you use your guns and bombs” Nagisa looked enlightened as Homura let them peek into some of her mindset.

Homura looked up from the computer and turned to face the two, “Exactly like that. But I have a feeling that very soon my weapons will be insufficient, and that is where you two come in.”

“Huh?” Honoka tilted her head, as far as she could tell Homura was doing quite well during their last few fights.

Nagisa scratched the back of her head, “I’m not going to lie Homura, I don’t really get what you’re saying.”

Homura didn’t sigh but it was a near thing, “I only have so many bombs, in fact I used a good portion of them already and they don’t seem to damage Gekidrago as much as I would wish. A stronger or at least more durable opponent likely will not find them as inconveniencing… However when I was fighting Gekidrago I found that I was able to utilize what I think are remnants of your power residing in my Soul Gem.”

Honoka blinks, “So our power lingers in your soul? Is that safe?” She was immediately concerned, it would be horrible if something went wrong.

“As far as I know there are no side effects outside of being able to utilize it for an attack… My Soul Gem acts somewhat like a ‘container’, so I suppose it is doing its role. Regardless, it was very effective against Gekidrago, so I will have to utilize it…” Homura hesitated, but decided to continue after seeing their reactions, “We should also make sure it’s safe and what I can do with it.”

Nagisa frowned, “You really treat your own safety like an afterthought sometimes, it’s getting concerning.” She gave a side eye to Honoka.

“You need to take care of yourself more, Homura…” Honoka cautiously brought up the topic.

Homura’s face twisted in frustration, “We need to use everything to our advantage or we’ll die. Regardless of our feelings on things or risk. What’s the alternative? That we stop using Rainbow Therapy? My soul will corrupt and I’ll die anyway.” She spoke bitterly, trying to push the urgency in beating the Dark Zone.

That brought the two girls up short as the helplessness of the situation weighed on them. They already started to use Rainbow Therapy to clean up Homura’s soul, and she already had to use whatever remaining power in it to win against their enemies… What could they do if there was a long term effect?  

“Besides, I don’t think your power is capable of inadvertently killing someone. It seems like it’s supposed to do the opposite.” Homura reminded them firmly, it was one of the reasons she was largely not that concerned with it. All the evidence pointed it towards being something entirely beneficial.

Nagisa sighed, “I guess you’re right, sorry… But this is your soul we’re talking about. If something goes wrong then…”

Honoka gave a serious look towards them, “Then we’ll fix it. We just have to observe Homura while we’re training and then we can make a firm decision whether or not we need to change our strategies."

Homura frowned, “Do what you want. Just don’t be surprised if there’s no alternative strategy to find.”

Nagisa and Honoka started to digest what Homura was saying and her mood… There was an odd hostility, or maybe ‘prickly-ness’ coming from Homura. Maybe from reminding her of her previous team from before.

“Alright… How about we move on and do something else? Maybe we can go get some crepes, how about that?” Nagisa suggested a new activity to try and bury the current atmosphere.

“Y-yeah, let’s do that.” Honoka agreed uncomfortable with the previous tone of the conversation.

“Tomorrow we will go to the lodge and begin our training. The faster we’re prepared the faster we can deal with Gekidrago.” Homura stood up with them and tolerated their attempt to relax, but it was clear that her patience was starting to get thin.

Honoka and Nagisa locked eyes again as they left, concern for their friend evident in their eyes. Just what was up with Homura that made her so desperate to win so quickly and firmly? Her reluctance to relax? How did she end up like this…