Chapter Text
Homura was feeling tired, more than tired. Ever since Loop 87, Madoka had started to become colder towards her.
Madoka...
Madoka...
She tried not to have tears come to her eyes as she reflected back on the past 20 loops.
Her once best friend didn't even stand up for her, as Sayaka and Mami tried to kill her in the last loop. Kyoko, her once fairly reliable ally, too, started to be more hostile to her as the loops progressed.
Whereas once she would have been able to convince her with just stating Walpurgisnacht would come Mitakihara, now she needed to buy her alliance with food, and that only worked 3 times out of 10.
She had long since given up on convincing Sayaka and Mami, but it still hurt to see her former friend and former mentor hate her so much that they try to kill her.
No, I can't think like that! Miki Sayaka and Tomoe Mami are now my enemies, no matter what they were to me once upon a time, she put on her mask as she went to rewound time once more.
The shield opened up and the clock twisted backwards. And she soon found herself back in the past.
"Welcome my dear guest, it's a pleasure to meet you," she heard a soft almost melancholic voice, and her eyes instantly widened as she tried to get out of her hospital bed.
But she stumbled to the ground as she somehow was standing in some sort of strange platforms with blue pillars around her. She turned to look towards the voice and she cringed back when she saw whom it came from.
In the middle of the platform stood an old long and thin "man" who had a outrageously long nose, pointed ears, and bulging, bloodshot eyes.
He also wore and expensive look suit, and he wore white gloves on his hands. Something about the room also unsettled her, it felt like there was supposed to be some sound, but all there was, was eerie silence.
"Who are you?! Where am I?!" she asked as she took up a defensive position and tried to stop time.
However, nothing seemed to have happened; the man then simply took one step towards her before he responded, "My Velvet Room is a place that exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. It is a room that only those who are bound by a contract can enter. You may call me Igor, I am the master of the Velvet Room."
Her mind instantly focused on one single thing in what he said. "Contract? I signed no contract with you!"
Also between mind and matter? Is this some sort of labyrinth? But, I don't sense a Witch here... Homura thought to herself.
He regarded her with an indifferent expression. "Not all contacts are penned on paper, some are forged in hearts of man."
She took a step back as she tried to process what he just said. "So, what does this contract of yours entail? And what do you get out of this?"
"The contract simply states that you choose your fate of your own free will, as for my role...we'll get to that later.
"But, now I have a test for you, can you state your name?"
What? Why wouldn't I be able to do that? My name is...is....
My name...What is it...?
It's...it's...
Suddenly a memory flashes in her mind, it was that of a certain familiar pink haired girl. "Homura, that's a really exciting and cool name."
This snapped her back to the present and she turned towards Igor. "Akemi Homura, that's my name."
"Well done, not many can remember their identities, while in this domain. I'll grant you a gift for having such a strong will. The power to call upon the different selves that exist within you.
"Now, I have wasted quite a bit of your time already, so I'll return you back to your sleep."
Sleep began to overtake her, and she tried to yell and ask a question from Igor, but she soon found herself where all her time loops start from: her bed the Hospital.
She shook her head, dismissing the whole thing as weird dream, and soon got to work. After all, she had no time to spare, Madoka still needed to be saved.
She checked out of the hospital and went to do her usual stuff: Checking on Madoka, killing Witches around the area, and stealing guns, ammo, and high class explosives from the Yakuza and JDF, also dealing with the Incubator.
The first thing on her list lead to quite a suprise as when she went to Kaname house.
So, this is a Naoki timeline, she thought to herself as saw Naoki playing with Tatsuya on the ground in the house.
Naoki living with Madoka and her family was pretty rare thing. The last time she saw him was on Loop 62, if she remembered correctly. But, even before that she only ever encountered him four times.
In the past loops where he was present, he turned out to be one of her biggest allies in not letting Madoka contract with the Incubator.
Homura hoped that he would still be as reliable as he was back then. She went to leave to deal with a Witch which drew Madoka into its labyrinth a few times in past loops.
She kept a keen eye on the house for a few more minutes and to he shock she found something even more shocking that Naoki.
She found...
...
...
...
...
...
Homura rubbed her head. What am I still doing here? she had no time to waste, she needed to deal with a few Witches.
So, she went to a nearby labyrinth, once she entered it something felt different, not wrong, but very different. But, she had no time to dwel on that, so she went straight to the Witch; focused on dealing with it first before she investigated what made her feel different.
As she was fighting the Witch, she was not fast enough to pause time, as the Witch managed to knock her gun out of her hand.
Homura grimaced at that and went to retrieve another gun from her shields storage space, however, before her hand could even go to the shield, a card appeared in the palm of her hand.
I am thou...thou art I...
The time has come. Open thine eyes and call forth what is whitin!
It was like massive bomb had exploded inside her head. Her hand flew up to her head from the pain of the headache.
She was barely able to dodge the Witch's attack. She stared at the card in her hand, and felt for some reason that she needed to crush it.
"Per...so...na!"
A massive figured erupted behind in a bright blue glow. The light blasted away the Witch for a moment allowing Homura to steal a glance at the figure behind her.
It had the appearance of a Nutcracker. Except it was female and wore all purple. Its blocky appearance contrasted heavily with even the labyrinth around it.
From the sea of thy soul, I cometh.
I am Clara, henceforth, we shall be bound in our quest to save thy love.
Homura didn't have enough to process thsi as the Witch once again tried to knock her to the side.
She felt some sort of compulsion to direct the weird Nutcracker, "Zionga!" she shouted and electricity erupted from the figure behind, it soon struck the Witch, and the Witch and it fell to the ground.
Homura quickly stopped time, and laid down a few bombs around the Witch. After that she ignited them, and watched as the Witch died to them.
She took a few deep breaths as the labyrinth disappeared around her. She glanced down at her soul gem, expecting to be quite dark form all of that new magic she used.
But to her suprise it looked like it barely darkened, Could this be...my final trump card against Walpurgisnacht? With this could I actually kill it?
Homura went to bed, after a very full day of stealing from the Yakuza, dealing with other Witches and killing the bodies of the Incubator.
She found herself once again in the same platform where this Loop began. Homura was now certain this that was no strange dream.
Igor was also still standing there in the middle of the platform. She took a step towards him as she asked, "You're the one who granted me that power?!"
"The ability to the tane one's Shadow exists within the hearts of all man," was his strange reply to her straightforward question.
Homura's face twisted into a sneer as clenched fists, and stared him in his eyes. She was feeling he was not going to give any good answers to her questions.
"That being said, you would be correct that I granted you the ability to summon multiple Personas," said Igor.
"And that is the thing that I summoned I assume ?"
"Correct. The Persona is the side of you that shows itself when you face the world. Think of it as the self suffused with divine love, or the self capable of demonic cruelty. People live their lives by wearing different masks. You, though, have a different power as well due to my gift, the power of the Wild Card, with it you will be able to wield multiple Personas; you will have the ability to summon the various selves that exist within you."
She reluctantly nooded along to this. Okay, that is a far better anwser than his previous one. Still, this power...why should I have it? It ought to belong to someone like Madoka.
"And what do you get out of this? I don't expect you to just help me out of the goodness of your heart..."
Igor's expression didn't change as he anwsered, "My role is to help my guests to reach the end of their journeys. The satisfaction of seeing my guests overcome their hurdles is more than enough for me."
There was still some suspicious in Homura's eyes, but she sighed as she reluctantly asked, "And how will you help me exactly?"
"By helping you give birth to new Personas. In short, I will fuse together two or more Personas to create a stronger one."
"And how would I be able to obtain more Personas, because at the moment I only have one."
Igor's crossed his arms over his chest. "Once you defeat an enemy with your Persona, the cards of possibility will appear before you."
He must have noticed her confused expression as he clarified, "It will be easier to understand once you personally experience it.
"Now, I mustn't keep you here any longer, next time we meet you will come here of your own accord."
It didn't take long for Homura to notice that the Witch population of Mitakihara was declining very swiftly.
Mami was not consistent over the loops on which Witch she'd go after, but the amount of Witches that were killed far exceeded the amount that she'd normally manage.
So, she wasn't that suprised when she saw a group of three people leave from a where Witch's labyrinth once was with one of the group's members holding a grief seed.
What her, though, was the fact that two of the group's members were boys, and not girls. Furthermore, the fact that Naoki was the one who was leading the group was her biggest suprise.
The one girl in the group not being a Magical Girl was also a pretty big one. Nevertheless, she did notice something about them, with her Persona she was able to sense them from far away, even from the other side of the town she could still sense them after just seeing them that one leave that labyrinth.
She then rushed to make sure that Amy didn't get by a car. On the way there she noticed that Naoki was also in the area; she didn't dwell much in it as she reasoned she was not going to run into him any case.
However, when arrived to the spot, she was meet with a sight; Naoki was there holding the kitten up in the air.
He must have noticed how fast she ran to the cat, because he turned towards her and asked, "Is this kitty yours?"
She stiffened as he addressed her. "No...it's a pet to a friend of mine's."
"Well, that's great. My cousin quite fond of him, and it'd make her happy to know that she has an owner."
Once again she stiffened at what he said. Something in her screamed to say something, so she finally did, "Akemi Homura..."—he looked at her curiously—"...that is my name, I am looking after her for my friend, however, some time ago she got out of my house, and I have been searching all over the city for her; your cousin, if she's as fond of her as you think she is, then she she can come and see her..."
All of this was not technically a lie, Madoka at some point asked her to look after Amy, however, it felt wrong to say that.
"I'll relay that message to her, in was nice meeting you Akemi-san," he said as he handed her Amy, "my name's, Kaname Naoki."
"You can just call me Homura, Kaname-san."
"In that case, you can also just call me Naoki," he said back to her.
It has been a week since she ran into Naoki, during that time she transferred into Mitakihara Middle School, did her normal routine there, and she did everything else she did normally in previous loops, though she kept a close eye on the little group of Naoki and his friends.
She also figured out what Igor meant with the cards of possibility, and has been using his fusion services ever since, even with her suspicious about him, she couldn't that he for certain created stronger Personas.
However, even with all that her next Witch hunt didn't as she planned, as ran into a familiar group while she was hunting a Witch.
"Akemi-san?" muttered a confused Naoki in the labyrinth.
The tall boy who was with Naoki looked between him and her. "You know this girl, Naoki?"
Naoki glanced back at him, "Eh...we met yesterday near the central park, I think...I am not really familiar with the area."
The brown haired girl's eyes lit up as she asked, "Hey, Akemi-san, you're a Persona user, right? Would you like to join us?"
"Alice! Don't just ask her without first introducing yourself," the tall boy said in a loud voice
"I would like to think this all over, if you don't mind?" Homura said nonpulsed.
"No worries, right guys?" Naoki asked the other who nodded along.
She frowned, while she replied, "Then, would one of you lend me your phone number, so that I'll be able to contact you, if I want to join?"
Naoki fumbled with his phone a bit before he listed out his number.
Alice looked around the labyrinth. "Hey, so, why don't you watch us fight the boss Shadow? That way you can see how we operate."
"Is that fine with the two of you?"
Naoki nodded and Takashi followed along.
In there they proceeded to engage the Witch, somehow, Naoki knew the Witch's weaknesses, and they were able to target that weakness with their Personas.
That ability would be quite helpful, at the moment I am basically relying on random chance of my attacks being effective against the Witches, but with that I would have far better chance against even Walpurgisnacht.
Soon the Witch was dead with the Grief Seed dropping to the ground. Naoki went to pick it up and pocketed it.
"Man, I am still trying to wrap my head around this whole supernatural business, now I am not saying that I don't find it fun, but it still a bit confusing." said Toudou with a grin on her face while the labyrinth disappeared.
"I mean it's kinda good that the supernatural world is built like this; I once played a game called called 'Innocent Sin Online' and in there Rumors shaped reality, in comparison this is far more manageable," said Kido in serious tone.
"Yeah, just imagine, if rumors somehow had an affect on reality; Bielefeld would exist then!" exclaimed Naoki.
The three other people in group looked a little confused. "What on earth is Bielefeld?" asked a puzzled Toudou.
This Naoki is far more expressive than the others were, noted Homura in her head as she made her way to her apartment.
Two days later she sent them a message asking for a meeting at a Café where she and Madoka often met.
A half an hour later they showed up with a suprise addition to their roster, a familiar sight to her, Mitakihara Middle School's student council President.
She raised an eyebrow at him before she turned to look at the others.
"I see you picked up someone else as well." murmured Homura as they sat down next to her in the Café.
The boy in question then proceeded to introduce himself to her, Homura, however, wasn't paying that much attention to him; she didn't need to as she knew quite a lot already about him.
Nonetheless, she politely introduced herself to him and went to talk about her joining them, "I came here to discuss our alliance. If you wish to form an alliance with me, I'd require something of you."
Naoki asked what she wanted.
"Those black egg like jewelry, I would require that you give them to me," she discovered this not lonh ago, but Grief Seeds were no longer required by her; her Soul Gems now automatically cleansed itself, most likely from her Persona—but she hadn't asked Igor about that yet.
That being said, even if she herself had no longer had any uses for them, that doesn't invalidate them from being used to form alliances with Kyoko or Mami.
The tall boy, Kido-san, inquired into if she knew what they were.
She in turn replied with a simple, "I know what they can be used for."
They then started to ask her all sorts of questions in relations to the Grief Seeds, thankfully she managed to evade most of them with technically correct answers and non answers.
They also started to ask about Persona related things which she anwsered with things about Igor and what he told her as well telling them how she fused her Personas.
After a few minutes Naoki sighed. "Alright, it's clear that you are not that trusting of us, that being said, we are willing to overlook this if you promise to tell us this in the future and if you promise to join us wherever we go."
The others, in particular, Kido shot him a questioning look, but he paid no mind to them.
Homura looked him dead in the eyes as she evaluated what to do, eventually she responded, "Very well, I promise that I will tell you what they are in the future and that I'll accompany your group to fight Shadows."
"Well then, are we in agreement with allowing Akemi Homura to join our group?" asked Naoki the others.
Kido frowned and the boy besides him looked somewhat concerned as well. Thankfully Toudou and Naoki were somehow able to convince them to allow her in.
She then bid them goodbye as she promised to show up tomorrow to this place for their next Witch hunt.