A whole month had slipped by in the blink of an eye, and given the anime-like pace of running into an enemy almost every single day, this was probably about the right time to be facing the final one.
Come to think of it, Yimi was the one who originally wanted to form a contract with Madoka, right? And yet even now, with Sayaka already joining the decisive battle, Madoka remained the Muggle who didn't even understand the rules of being a Magical Girl.
Even her request to spectate Homura's fights against Witches had been flatly rejected. The reason: Homura didn't want Madoka to see the indecent transformation process involving her Soul Gem.
As for news about the confrontation with the final Witch, that was a topic she simply couldn't wedge herself into. Homura deliberately kept her in the dark, and Sayaka wasn't particularly eager to discuss her life as a Magical Girl either.
Despite being deeply connected to both of them, Madoka didn't even know the exact date of Walpurgisnacht's arrival—only that it was sometime in the next couple of days.
"Yimi, do you know what the final boss among the Witches is?"
Madoka scooped up Yimi, who had been sitting on the floor trying to color Xiaobai with crayons, and set her properly on a chair.
"Final boss? The boss of the Witches?" Yimi looked up blankly.
Being on the younger side and having only started school a little over a week ago, she hadn't yet synced up hobbies with her classmates—hadn't even played a video game. All she could do was interpret Madoka's words through their literal meaning.
A boss was generally the person who ordered employees around. She didn't quite get it, but if she had to name someone who could be called the boss of the Witches...
"Isn't that Kyubey?"
"Huh?"
The unexpected answer made Madoka freeze for a beat. "But isn't Kyubey the one who forms contracts with Magical Girls?"
"But its Magical Girls end up becoming Witches." Yimi set down Xiaobai and looked up at Madoka. "When the gem gets, fully corrupted, they turn into Witches. Using magic speeds up the corruption, and despair speeds it up too."
"Kyubey's Magical Girls turn into Witches? Something like that..."
This was the first she'd ever heard of it—a setting that couldn't be further from the beautiful image of Magical Girls.
"Does Homura know about this?"
"She knows." The little cat hugged her own shoulders, looking downcast. "But I modified, their formulas, so they won't become Witches anymore. But the Black One won't let me, touch her Soul Gem."
"..."
Yimi's phrasing wasn't great—back in the previous world, she'd sometimes throw grammar out the window entirely when speaking English—but it didn't stop Madoka from understanding. So-called Magical Girls and Witches were entirely a production orchestrated by Kyubey.
"B-But why would Kyubey do something so horrible?"
"It said it's to solve heat death."
Of course this wouldn't make sense to a young girl. The concept of heat death existed in a realm humans could barely reach.
As for being shocked—it wasn't really all that shocking. After all, she hadn't exactly been close with Kyubey. There was no sense of betrayal or dramatic contrast. If it had been Yimi doing something like this, that would have truly shaken her to the core.
What she felt more was sadness and heartache for Homura. Homura knew about all this—that was why she'd tried to stop Madoka from becoming a Magical Girl.
So this was what Homura had truly been hiding from her? All of it—including the somewhat risqué price Magical Girls had to pay—was designed to drive them further into despair.
After who knew how many cycles of time loops, the burden she carried couldn't possibly be summed up in a single sentence.
Now it all made sense. The biggest inconsistency had been right there all along: being a Magical Girl had been a profession of despair with no way back from the very start.
Madoka took a step back and looked at Yimi. "Then... is Yimi trying to save everyone? Saving all the Magical Girls from Kyubey?"
She didn't want a negative answer here. At the very least, this child shouldn't be part of the darkness. Even though Homura had once suggested Yimi might be a pawn being used, a child this innocent shouldn't be part of the forces pulling strings behind Magical Girls.
"Only three people. And one of them is a, Red Person—not your kind of red. I'm never talking to her again." The grudge-holding kitten threw in her opinion on Kyoko while she was at it.
Three people.
Having spent every day with Yimi and occasionally picking her up from school, Madoka naturally understood—what she was saying was that she'd only managed to save three.
But Mami-senpai had mentioned that Magical Girls were spread widely enough that nearly every city had at least one, and what Yimi described was only what she herself considered saving.
A piercing alarm interrupted her thoughts, simultaneously making Yimi press down on the ears atop her head. Madoka had heard this sound during school drills—it was an evacuation alarm.
Unlike the Date A Live world where shelters were built as the top-priority infrastructure, this world, which had developed rapidly thanks to Magical Girls, at least had places where people could take shelter immediately.
But why would an evacuation alarm go off at such a coincidental time? Why right now?
"Madoka, hurry and bring Yimi out." Tomohisa called to them, cradling Tatsuya.
"I know, let's hurry." Madoka took Yimi's hand.
"Mm, is a spacequake coming?" Yimi stowed Xiaobai into her storage space, grabbing the Lemon in her other hand.
Because this thing still had an effect even while stored in her storage space, Yimi was actually a little afraid to put it in there.
The whole Kaname family was home at this hour, so there was no risk of being separated during evacuation and worrying about each other. That much, at least, was fortunate.
---
"Sit here like good kids and don't wander off. When we get out, I'll buy you strawberry cake."
"Cake."
Yimi and Tatsuya sat obediently on the mat, tilting their heads up at Junko like baby birds with open beaks waiting to be fed.
In the larger shelter, each family had mats for resting. Given the trend suggesting this might be a long-term evacuation, unease spread through every salaryman who had just finished—or hadn't yet finished—paying off their mortgage.
Ordinary people couldn't see Witches, so even without a Labyrinth's boundary, Walpurgisnacht appeared to the public as nothing more than a typhoon-scale natural disaster.
Looking at the dozen-plus unanswered calls she'd made to Homura, Madoka's anxiety almost rivaled that of the adults around her. Every previous call to Homura had been picked up instantly—sometimes the girl would even pull a hand out of the bath to answer.
It wasn't just Homura. Sayaka too.
They'd already started fighting, hadn't they?
"Worried about your friends?" Junko walked over and stroked her daughter's hair. "The signal's just bad in the shelter. Don't worry too much."
If only that were really all it was.
Once a person fell into a bind, their thoughts spiraled easily. To avoid repeating past mistakes, Homura had deliberately kept Madoka ignorant of Walpurgisnacht. But the lack of communication was precisely the kindling that set off overthinking.
Would Homura and the others win?
Madoka recalled her dream once more.
If they really could win, why had Homura looped through time again and again? Kyubey had said her aptitude as a Magical Girl was the greatest, but even in the dream, she herself had seemed somewhat powerless.
At a time like this, Madoka recalled those words once more: "Even if I can only save Madoka alone..."
Was that girl really planning to sacrifice herself too, just to save her and no one else?
Was it really okay to follow Homura's arrangement and just sit here as an ordinary person? If what Kyubey said was true—that she possessed the greatest Magical Girl aptitude—then...
Could a wish to eliminate all Witches the moment they were born, across past and future, actually be fulfilled? Had she ever had this thought in previous iterations? Saving everyone, every single one of them...
Madoka's clenched fist relaxed slightly.
It might seem selfish, but she just couldn't sit still after all.
Madoka stood up.
"Where are you going?" Junko grabbed her sleeve.
"I'm going to the restroom." Madoka looked down, then extended her hand toward Yimi. "Yimi, can I have the Lemon for a moment?"
Yimi quickly hid the Lemon behind her back. "This is an orange."
"?"
Oh right—Yimi had promised Homura she wouldn't form a contract with Madoka.
See, everyone really was such a good kid.
"Yimi, there's a man selling balloons over there. Look, is that a Diego on one of them?"
"Diego!" Yimi spun around in fright.
"Sorry, Yimi!" Seizing the moment, Madoka snatched the Lemon right out of her hands.
"Meow!"
"Wait, Madoka—what exactly are you trying to do?"