Chapter Text
Infinite shelves with infinite books surrounded her view wherever she looked.
She could not make out anything else. For a moment, Homura thought that this was the afterlife, maybe she should just accept that she couldn't do, that she wasn't strong enough to save Madoka.
The last loop was especially damaging to her her self esteem. Not only did two random people got dragged into the labyrinth and die, but even Sayaka and Madoka perished due to the Familiars.
But then, she heard footsteps approaching her along with something hitting the ground. Homura looked over where the noise came from, and she took a step back at figure she beheld.
What is she? She feels like...she feels like she could just destroy Walpurgisnacht with just a flick of her hand...
The woman who was approaching her wore a sweeping strapless light pink ball gown with a yellow sash-like accessory draped around the skirt. She also had some weird metallic horseshoe-shapped object that levitated around her head.
"Who are you? What do you want from me?" Homura asked. She tried to stop time, but it didn't seem to work.
"How presumptuous! You haven't even introduced yourself, yet you expect to do so? Thankfully, you caught me in a good enough mood for me to excuse that attitude of yours. Very well, my name is Featherine Augustus Aurora, you may call me Augustus Aurora, as for what I want, I have taken an interest in your story."
"What do you mean 'my story'?"
"Precisely what I meant. Your story in the game between, Lady Lambdadelta, and my former Miko, was never finished after they left the game running indefinitely. They since started a new game, and I doubt they'll even remember your game."
Homura growled. Was my whole life, Madoka's suffering, and everything in Mitakihara just a game to these beings?
"I don't need your help or help from anyone like you!"
"Don't push your luck. I can be lenient at time, but such cases are rare to last, especially with someone of your additude," admonished Featherine with a frown.
This snapped Homura back somewhat. She didn't need to make an enemy of this being, if anything she'd need her help to save Madoka. All of this was for Madoka's well being...
"Understood, I apologize. Could you tell me more about yourself please and the nature of everything including this 'game'?"
"My nature is that of the closed circle, if that helps you any, as for the game...I am afraid that revealing too much to a piece can take the fun away. That being said, I will say this: It was very rude of my former Miko and her friend to abandon that game without ending it. One should know how a story should end, or come up with various ends a story could have, and even having not planned for an end, one should always strive to end it.
"However, just leaving the story alone without an ending is just disrespectful for the story itself. Thus I have taken the liberty to help you complete your story, with a few pieces I took from another game."
Homura tried to wrap her mind around what she was hearing, but nothing made sense.
What does she mean by taking pieces from another game?
"And how will you complete my 'story'?" she asked agitated. "Even with help—unless they to are Magical Girls—I doubt that I'll be able to defeat Walpurgisnacht. The situation would still be bleak even with help."
Featherine frowned, but at this time it was not directed at her. "You are quite correct in describing your situation against Walpurgisnacht as bleak. And even with Walpurgisnacht defeated there is nothing that could continue to guarantee your future.
"Fortunately for you I want this game to have a satisfying and a happy end and there to be no loose threads hanging on the side. At the moment I want a story with a happy ending after many years of suffering."
She was pondering into the vast library around her. "Very well then, some rules will be rewritten," she got out a calligraphy brush and some paper.
"First, Grief Seeds will now be more efficient, thus less will be needed to clean the darkness from a Soul Gem. Second, Kaname Madoka Karmic potential will start to decrease immediately after the death of Walpurgisnacht, so Lady Lambdadelta's piece will no longer be interested in her. Third, the me on the game board will have something which will be able to help you recover your lost memories."
It all felt weird. It almost felt like everything was always like how Featherine said it was, but that wasn't the case, Homura had more than enough experience to know the ins and outs of being a Magical Girl.
"There, now that we're done, I will be sending you on your way. I told you all this all, for it would be unfair for a central piece to not know, and because the other pieces have already figured it out. Do work on your additude, if we are to meet at another date in the future," she finished sternly.
She was back in her apartment, the day she will go to school. That, by itself, was not normal; she always reset to the hospital even when she cut the the timeline short by traveling back early.
For now she'll just chalk it up to the Featherine being.
Thus, she did her usual introduction in school, warned Madoka, chased away the Incubator and went to check on the mall to eliminate the Witch there.
Unfortunately, by the time she arrived, Mami had already taken care of it, what further caused her some distress was the fact that the two people in the previous loop were also there, along with another girl.
They then started to talk to Mami, who invited them to her place, Homura decided to follow them and waited outside to see what decisions they made.
She was ready to deal with them in any way if they decided to become Magical Girls, thankfully, they didn't seem to have sold their lives away.
And the purple haired one even advised the other two against making a contract with the Incubator, so hopefully Homura would not have to worry about them anymore in this loop.
Nevertheless, she also decided to personally want them against making a contract, just to be on the safer side.
That proved to be far more troublesome and surprising than she expected it to be, she never expected that this would be how she met someone who had gone through loops before.
Her first impression of the blue haired girl, Frederica Bernkastel, as she referred to herself was fairly negative.
Homura didn't like that that girl managed to figure out that she was also looping, she also didn't like how that girl went about telling her, it was like she was trying to get under her skin.
Of the other one, she had more positive things to say about the purple haired girl. She seemed to understand just what the Incubator was offering them, and she even warned her friends against the contract, that alone made Homura like the girl more.
Homura had less to say about the short blonde one, she barely interacted when Homura shown up, and she didn't talk much before that.
Nonetheless, she could tell that the girl could be dangerous. Her looks at the blue haired girl were very similar to the ones that Mikuni's little puppet constantly sent Mikuni's way.
She didn't like that fact the blonde girl reminded Homura of someone Homura so hated, but she would remain neutral on her till she knew her better.
So, she for the rest of the day she did her usual routine, which was killing Witches and making sure that the Incubator couldn't make a contract with Madoka.
She returned late at night to her apartment, and promptly fell into the bed while she thought about tomorrow might hold for her.
Maybe...maybe there's finally someone here who understands what...what I had to go through...maybe...
She couldn't finish whatever she was going to think as she felt sleep overtake her. Homura surrendered to the impulse with a small smile.
Homura was already back home just after school left out, and it didn't take long for the ones she invited to also arrive.
The blue haired girl entered first, she looked a bit taken aback by the projectors that Homura sat up, but the suprise didn't last long on her face.
Behind her were the two other girls, the long purple haired one with a hat on her head, and the short blonde haired one.
Homura stared at them and then motioned for them to take a seat on her couch opposite of her. The blonde haired one was by far the most suspicious and wary of her.
The other two seemed to be far more at ease with her, especially the blue haired girl.
"You can also loop?!" she started the conversation.
The long blue haired girl raised her eyebrows. "No introduction? It feels weird to refer to you as just black haired Magical Girl in my head."
"Akemi Homura, now answer my question!"
"It's good to meet you, Homura," said the blue haired girl with a smirk, as she ignored what she said. "I am Furude Rika, and these are my friends, Furude Hanyu, and Hojo Satoko."
She indicated first to the purple haired girl and then to the short blonde haired one.
Homura glared at the girl, Rika in response.
Rika seemed to become more serious after that. "Yes, I can go to another Fragment, and I have been to quite a lot of them for the rest of my life."
"Fragment?" muttered Homura with confusion.
"What the world you travel to are called," elaborated Hanyu.
Homura didn't quite know what to make of the purple haired girl, she seemed to quite knowledgeable about what being a Magical Girl meant, which was usually not a good thing, but she personally didn't seem to be one, and she was against Satoko and Rika contracting.
She also got a weird feeling from her, almost like she was somehow magical, yet not at the same time.
"Why did you want to talk to me?" asked Homura.
"Hanyu already explained what will happen to us if we are to accept the contact," said Rika. "We just want to hear more about it from you."
"What did she explain?" asked Homura.
The blonde girl, Satoko, was the one to respond. "She said that those Soul Gems and Grief Seeds were one and the same."
Homura stared at her in the eyes. "That's...correct. Soul Gems naturally develop into Grief Seeds with accumulated grief."
"And what becomes of the Magical Girl?" asked Rika.
"They turn into what they hunted, Witches."
Rika looked at her seriously. "And what are your goals?"
"Just one goal, protect a person from contracting."
Rika seemed to appreciate this. "And can you tell us how many time have you looped, if that's not too much? And how much time we have?"
Homura glared at her, but she ultimately relented. "I have looped a little over 90 times, each loop is around 6 weeks long. However, this loop started with around 5 weeks remaining."
Rika looked to be thinking, as if she was calculating how much time she spent in loops. "That's over 11 years."
"Yes," was Homura curt response to that.
"How familiar are you with the rules of this loop?" Rika asked.
"Rules...?"
Rika straightened up. "Yes, rules, I have observed in my loops, that there a few loose rules in every Fragment."
"How do these rules work?" Homura asked curiously, she never thought that they may be rules for time loops.
It was Hanyu who answered her question. "It's not technically correct to say that these rules are rules, they should be called consistent similarities in almost all Fragments."
Homura glanced at her. She is talking like she was also in loops...
"Yes," she answered slowly, "there are some things which rarely ever change."
"Would you mind enlighten us about them?" asked Rika
Homura hummed as she thought about it. I did plan on telling them this anyway, so it makes little difference if I do it now...
"First, if Miki Sayaka—"
"Who?" Satoko cut her off.
Homura threw a look at the girl. "The blue haired girl you ran into in the previous loop."
Satoko nodded, and Homura continued. "If she contracts, then there is a 98% chance that she turns into a Witch in a month.
"Second, telling Magical Girls about what they become has almost always causes the girl who was told this to snap, and either turn into a Witch or try to kill other Magical Girls. There are other things, but those two are the most important at the moment."
Rika nodded. "Well, is there anything that you want us to help you with?"
Homura raised her eyebrows, she was still not totally convinced that she should trust these people, but against her better judgement, she divulged. "I want you to be friendly to the girl who rescued you three. That way it would be easier to manipulate her in regards to Madoka."
"Madoka?" asked Rika.
"She's the short pink haired girl you saw in the last loop. I want you to stay as close to Tomoe Mami to make sure she's not able to convince Madoka to contract."
"You're asking us to manipulate the person who saved our lives yesterday," said Satoko with disapproving look.
"Yes, that is what I am asking of you. If you can't help me there, then you can't help me in any way."
Satoko went to respond, but Rika butted in before she could say anything. "Is there truly nothing else that we can help you with?"
"No one, I must do everything else by myself."
"What about your friends? Couldn't they help you?" asked Satoko. Rika nodded along to that question.
Homura answered back quickly, "I don't have any friends. The only one I have is Madoka, and I am not involving her in this!"
Rika frowned. "What about Tomoe Mami? She's an experienced Magical Girl."
"She is unstable, too unstable. If she learns the truth about Magical Girls turning into Witches, then she will aim to mercy kill all Magical Girls in the vicinity."
Rika nodded in understanding. "In that case, why do you not try to make her understand you, I had dealt with someone unstable and it will be easier to do things with her at your side."
"No she's too attached to Kyubey, and to answer your question, she would never listen to me. The only uses she may have is for in roughly one month from now. She will never protect Madoka from the contract."
"You talk about this Madoka a lot," muttered Rika, "is she the only you care about?"
There was a bit of dissapontment in her tone. Homura glared at her. "Yes, Madoka is the only person that matters. Ideally Miki Sayaka should also not contract, but she not as important as Madoka, so her contracting isn't an end all be all."
Satoko bristled at that, she went to say something but Rika quickly put her hand on her shoulder, this visibly calmed down the blonde haired girl.
"And how exactly are you protecting this friend of yours?" asked Rika.
"I eliminate threats to her life, which includes making sure she doesn't contact."
Rika's expression turned serious. "Do you also eliminate other people, not just Witches?"
Homura looked her in the eyes before she replied, "Yes, I have already eliminated two Magical Girls who were a threat to Madoka's life."
She had taken care of Mikuni and that freak puppet of hers six days ago, so if for some reason her new starting point was one day before transferring to school, then she would not have to worry about either of them anymore.
There was gasp from Satoko a she stared at Homura with wide and fearful eyes.
Rika let out a deep sigh then leaned forward. "Have you thought about getting help from others in this quest of yours? You must surely realize that you can't do everything by yourself?"
"I do not have any one than I could relly on, and I am not enlisting help from anyone else, only I can do this, and only Madoka is important."
"In that case, I don't think we can work together with someone like you."
"Pity," muttered Homura with a glare.
"You're right, it is a pity," Rika said, then she stood up. "We are leaving, I wish you a good day."
The girl next to her, Satoko, stood up and followed Rika to the door.
"You are coming, Hanyu?" Rika questioned the girl who still remained seated.
Hanyu looked up at her. "I will talk some more with Homura-San, if that's okay with you, Rika?"
The blue haired girl looked a bit taken aback, but she nodded and soon left along with Satoko.
"Why didn't you join your friends?" Homura questioned.
Hanyu took a few seconds to respond. "Because I want to help you."
Homura looked Hanyu critically in the eyes before she sighed. "Why do you want to help me?"
Hanyu replied, "Let's just say that I would not like to leave someone alone who is stuck in a loop like how Rika was, especially given that we ate living in the same city."
"Furude Rika didn't seem to view it that way!"
"Rika doesn't like the fact that she sees the worst or herself in you," explained Hanyu, apologetically.
Homura gritted her teeth. "Well, I also don't like that I see some of myself in that naïve girl."
Hanyu frowned at that comment. "Rika means well, but..."
"I don't care, just don't get in my way, or else!"
"Homura-san, we—I am not trying to be enemies with you."
"If you get in my way to save Madoka, then you will be my enemy," Homura declared.
"In that case we don't need to be. I don't want to harm you or your friend, Homura-san."
Homura glared at her, but didn't respond to what she said.
"Homura-san, I understand that you're most likely really stressed from this whole situation, including us, but I am not your enemy, and neither is Rika. We don't need to be enemies, I understand how you might feel now but—"
Homura cut her off. "You don't understand how I feel at all! And unlike that friend you can't even claim to understand what it's like to live in loops, all you know is—"
Hanyu's eyes turned serious then she was the one who interrupted her, "Do you think Rika was the only one traveling through the various Fragments, I was always with her, always by hee side."
Homura's eyes flashed with irritation. "Don't tell me that you're just going the repeat the same thing about friendship? Or maybe you will say that I should never kill to defend Madoka?!"
Hanyu shook her head. "I am not going to either of those things. Despite your similar circumstances, you are your own person with her own experiences. Your situation is not the same as that of Rika's. As for telling you against murder...that would hypocritical of me to do."
This seemed to calm Homura down somewhat. "Fine, what do you want to talk about then?"
"There are a few things, but let's start with the most pressing. Mami-san called the creature that grants these Magical Girl powers, Kyubey, but the correct name would be Incubator, wouldn't it?"
Just how does she know that?!
"...yes, how do you know that? And what exactly do you know about it?"
The girl opposite of her grimaced when Homura confirmed her question. Then she reached up to her hat and took it off, and then Homura saw it, horns protruding out of her head.
Homura's eyes widened.
Those horns, they reminded me of that Featherine being's horseshoe like object around her head...is this what Featherine meant by herself on the board?
If so, then are the other those pieces that Featherine mentioned?
"The Incubator is not the only non native being on this planet, as for what I know...it's pretty minimal," Hanyu said as put back on her hat.
"Hanyu-san, does the name Featherine mean anything to you?" she suddenly asked, it was really a spur of the moment question, but Homura needed as much information about that entity as she could.
Hanyu tilted her head in confusion. "Featherine...? Something about it seems...familiar, but I can't really recall it."
Homura gritted her teeth. Of course, it couldn't be that easy! Why would it be? And what exactly would I even gain from the piece that Featherine mentioned? Some restored memories? What memories?
"It doesn't matter," muttered Homura with a bite in her voice.
Hanyu looked to be still trying to make sense of what Homura asked of her, but she then shook her head. "Right. Can you tell me why you, in particular, don't like Rika?'
Homura raised her eyebrows. "Why?"
"I just want to know what you think about her, I still want you two to work together in this, even if you can't stand each other at the moment."
Homura took a deep breath as she launched into a tirade, "Fine! Just when I thought that I could talk with someone lile me! Just when I thought that someone could help me!
"It all turns into just another 'trust your friends'! As if I hadn't done plenty of time, as if I hadn't told them my nature plenty of time! They never trust me, the only one who ever does is Madoka!"
She slammed her hands down on the table in anger, breaking it in half.
She took a few deep breaths to compose herself. I got too emotional, and too attached to the thought that there may be someone out there who could understand what I had gone through.
It doesn't matter anyway. It doesn't matter, just like how neither Tomoe Mami and Miki Sayaka matter, all that matters is Madoka! I let myself be sidetracked enough with Furude Rika just because she was also a looper. I will never do that mistake again!
In the meantime, Hanyu looked at her with sadness and concern, then the horned girl sighed.
And everything started to blurted around her vision, then she found herself in a weird floating island of some kind surrounded by crystal shards. Hanyu was also there, she was wearing some sort of Miko clothes, though.
"Where are we?" Homura asked. It kind of feels similar to that library...
"This is the Sea of Fragments, here I can see every Fragment that a person has lived in and their experiences in it." As Hanyu said that around a ninety of those crystals started to surround her.
Homura glared at her. "I am not showing my earlier loops to you!"
Hanyu looked her in the eyes. "I am not asking you to. What I am offering is for you to take a closer look, I will not see anything unless you want me to."
This seemed to calm down Homura somewhat as she sighed out loud. "...very well, if that's the case, I would like to take a closer look at the previous loop."
Hanyu beckoned with her hand, and one of the crystals floated down to her, she took a step towards it, and then she was engulfed in bright light.
And she then saw the events of the last loop from her own perspective once again.
"I now see, the timeline reset as soon as the blonde haired girl, Satoko, died," she said to Hanyu once she processed everything.
"Did you?" muttered the horned girl.
Homura looked her in the eyes. "Yes, do you think that's important?"
She frowned. "The fact that you transported to another Fragment immediately is...concerning...I should also probably mention that Satoko also started to loop.
"So the fact, that both you and Rika looped right after she looped is truly concerning, and we don't know why Satoko started to loop."
Homura looked curious about something. "I am now curious about something; how do you all loop?"
Hanyu looked over her. "They loop by dying, is that different from how you do?"
Homura flinched a bit at that, she began to feel some sympathy for the blue haired girl; however, she soon crushed those feelings.
She didn't need to feel sympathetic for her anymore, unlike her, she got out of her loop.
"Yes, it's a bit different," she replied to Hanyu. Then she transformed and showed her shield to the girl.
"I use this shield to go back in time," she added.
Hanyu nodded as she examined the shield closely. "Auau, I think I am starting to understand how you your looping works.
"You go back by twisting the clock in the shield, but there is a point that you always go back to."
Homura sighed. "That's correct, I always return to the day after my heart surgery."
Hanyu blinked at her in confusion, before she smiled at her. "Okay, I am glad that you're opening up to me and talking about your experiences Homura."
"You're useful to me, but going over things like this seems...so familiar for some reason, I guess it bringing up good memories..." muttered Homura as she watched the events of the previous loop.
Hanyu tilted her head. "It does?"
"I don't know why, but..."—she shook her head—"nevermind, it doesn't matter."
Hanyu frowned. "Do you want to take a closer at some of your earlier Fragments?"
"How does time pass here? I wouldn't want to waste my time here."
"That depends mostly on my power, but at the moment 1 hour here is roughly 5 seconds out there."
"In that case, let's," said Homura.
Thus, they started to make their way through the various loops till Homura stumbled upon something in one of here earlier loops.
"Who...is..." muttered Homura as she stared at the Fragment.
Hanyu walked closer to her. "May I?"
Homura looked uncertain but she acquiesced, and soon Hanyu saw who Homura was talking about.
It was a girl with messy green hair and violet eyes, she looked a around the same age as Homura, maybe a bit older, but she was at Homura's place for some reason.
"You truly don't know her?" asked Hanyu as she stepped back from the Fragment.
"No...I don't," said an obviously distressed Homura.
Hanyu frowned at that. "How about I allow you to take a closer look at the Fragments then, maybe you can learn who she was from them? I think we should start with the older ones."
The black haired girl toom a deep breath. "Let's do that."
20 of Homura's earlier Fragments gathered infront of the girl in question, and she reached out into the first.