Gurgle, gurgle—
Water bubbled at a rolling boil. Homura Akemi held the recipe Yimi had brought home the other day, skimmed it, and chopped the scallions and ginger into the pot.
Her cooking was passable. Her parents had always been away for work, and she'd spent stretches in the hospital for her frail health, but most schools in Japan offered home economics classes. Between those, years of making her own bento, and cycling through multiple time loops, she got by.
"Then what?" Yimi was propped against the cutting board, chin up, watching intently. Eager to learn.
"Then add the main ingredient." Homura slid her hands under Yimi's arms, lifted her onto the cutting board, and laid her down.
"Hm?"
Yimi blinked up at Homura, assuming she was about to get petted.
Homura pressed a hand to her chest to keep her still. Her other hand reached for the kitchen knife.
Yimi glanced at the reaching hand. Then at the boiling water. Then back at the hand pinning her down.
o(≧口≦)o
She shrieked, kicked her little legs, wriggled free, dropped off the cutting board, and landed a kick square on Homura's shin.
"Small-fry!"
"How did you do it?" Homura flicked the shoe print off her leg, not pressing further.
Because Yimi could move within her Time Stop, she'd been so preoccupied with grabbing the cat and bringing her here that she'd forgotten to eliminate the Kyubey hovering around Madoka.
Then again, even if she'd killed that one, a replacement Kyubey would appear the moment she left.
Yimi didn't answer. She inched away from Homura in tiny steps, edging toward the door.
"I'm asking how you got Sayaka Miki to abandon the idea of becoming a Magical Girl. And also—since when are you and Kyubey on such good terms?" Homura killed the burner and pulled out a chair.
Sayaka ultimately becoming a Magical Girl had been within her expectations. The wish alone was a threshold she could never get past—a tragedy written in stone.
But the degree to which she'd resisted contracting was something Homura had never seen in any timeline. She needed to understand the circumstances. Even if this loop failed, she could reset and try to make a bigger change next time.
"I don't know. She just decided she hated it on her own, then came and found me herself." Yimi truly didn't know. What was so surprising about that?
"Is that so?" Homura's eyes narrowed slightly.
It didn't matter. She could confirm with Sayaka Miki directly. For some reason, this timeline's Sayaka wasn't nearly as hostile toward her.
Homura studied Yimi. "Sayaka Miki signed a contract with you. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't be this strong."
Sayaka's aptitude was unremarkable. Even as a Magical Girl, she was the weak type. Across countless loops, her first encounter with Kyoko Sakura usually went badly. Not once had she won.
Homura raised her pistol and aimed at Yimi. "I believe I warned you not to think about contracting Magical Girls. Considering you're not an emotionless creature like Kyubey, I'll give you the chance to explain."
Yimi frowned. "You said not to let them contract with Kyubey."
Homura fired a round at her feet.
"The Magical Girls I contract don't have side effects." Yimi crouched and picked at the bullet hole in the floor, trying to dig the slug out.
"What do you mean?" Homura lowered the gun barrel slightly.
"They don't get corrupted and turn into Witches. They generate mana on their own."
"The only motivation for Sayaka Miki to become a Magical Girl has always been her wish." Homura searched through the mental archive of events she'd memorized across her loops. "Did you grant it?"
"Probably."
"Then what's your goal? You granted someone else's wish without needing them to become a Witch to fuel the universe's energy supply. What are you trying to do?"
"Feed five Magical Girls Kyubey and get you all to think it's delicious." Yimi answered without hesitation.
"…"
Homura glanced at the kitchen knife on the cutting board.
She reined herself in. She didn't entirely buy that explanation.
A flicker at her fingertip, and the purple Soul Gem that had been disguised as a ring returned to its true form, hovering above her palm.
"Mana consumption corrupts a Magical Girl's Soul Gem, and Grief Seeds are needed to purify and replenish it. Without that relationship, how are you providing her with power?"
If anything, this made Yimi more suspicious.
"Third Magic and Miracle. Mana created from nothing. The energy forms a mini Holy Grail."
"You can create mana out of nothing? You can solve heat death?" Homura furrowed her brow—though she didn't particularly care about entropy or heat death.
"Probably?"
"It's not 'probably'—it most certainly is." Kyubey appeared boldly between the two beings most likely to kill it on sight.
"An unlimited mana supply. Even if the vessel is limited, if mass production were possible, the universe's crisis would be resolved entirely."
It perched on the refrigerator, licking the fur on its tail. "Based on Miki Sayaka's abilities, I can already tell. You're clever, but as a child working with newly acquired technology, you still don't have the ability to refine it further. That's why you left Miki Sayaka with so many unnecessary functions. I doubt you can build a perpetual motion machine on your own."
For example, the option to store a soul inside the Soul Gem still required active, manual use.
"Then again—you really are a time traveler, aren't you?" Kyubey shifted its gaze to Homura. "That explains everything. Why Madoka Kaname, with her perfectly happy family life, has such extraordinary aptitude."
Homura stared at it.
"Through your repeated time jumps for Madoka Kaname's sake, you've long since twisted the karmic destiny wound around her into an immeasurable magnitude. If she were to become a Witch, the resulting energy would be unprecedented—the entire Earth would be destroyed."
"It was… me?"
Homura went rigid.
Come to think of it, Kyubey hadn't been nearly as fixated on Madoka at the beginning. She couldn't remember which timeline it had started, but at some point it began praising Madoka's aptitude every single loop.
So it was her own repeated resets that had made the Incubator's obsession with Madoka grow stronger and stronger?
"But if you would provide me with a sample of your technology, there'd be a new research direction—and no reason to target Madoka Kaname." Kyubey hopped down and locked eyes with Yimi. "I could've simply used some method to seize Sayaka's Soul Gem, yet here I am, negotiating a trade with you, the inventor. By human standards, that should count as good faith, shouldn't it?"
"So, what do you say? Anything you need, I can provide directly."
Yimi folded her arms, feeling distinctly unhappy.
She understood the logic. But this gross-tasting white thing was scamming people while patting itself on the back for being reasonable—and it had the gall to say this kitty couldn't build a perpetual motion machine. That stung.