???

  ***

  Mana didn’t know how long she had been fighting for in this dark space, and she didn’t care. All that mattered in this moment was her survival, which the skittering creatures all around her were opposed to. Her brain felt hot, and she could feel exhaustion setting in. Even with most of her spells being channeled through magic tomes, their repeated use took its toll on her, which so far had been unnoticeable during their regular use on her numerous adventures. Waves upon waves of strange, shadowy animals descended upon her and she blew them all away with fireballs and fire arrows. She cleared a path through them with applications of Blast, not letting a single one of them get close to her.

  She vividly remembered the researchers with their bitten-off limbs and had no doubt that a similar fate would await her if she ever let them get close to her. Her panicking mind went into overdrive and so did her use of her spells to keep the monsters at bay.

  She ran up what looked like a hill, with the creatures following her, but even with a fireball for light she couldn’t see past four meters in the perpetual darkness of this strange place. Fiery explosions lit up the surrounding area as living shadows encroached upon her. She blasted a few more to get some more space, then she turned around on the hill. She raised a fireball and saw the creatures encroaching like a black swarm of cockroaches, filling her sight completely. Whichever shadows she destroyed with her attacks were devoured by others, which in turn grew larger and stronger. The hopeless absurdity of it all made Mana want to laugh, but instead, she raised her voice in a defiant scream, flinging fireballs upon fireballs into the approaching creatures until she felt her strength waning. She fell on her knees and slumped over, desperately trying to keep fighting but her last reserves of mana were sapped, and her vision grew blurry. She felt the living shadows draw closer and clenched her eyes shut, fully expecting to die a painful death being eaten alive…

  ***

  A bite never came – instead a green glow hit her closed eyes, and she slowly opened them, looking at a not-too-distant spot from her hill. There was Arisu, her transformed body becoming a source of light in this eternally darkened space. Her school uniform was now tattered, bearing silent witness to the intensity of her fight against Marisa’s summoned creatures.

  “Mana!” she shouted and drew the string of her magical bow. Arrows flew, too many to count, one for every creature surrounding the exhausted witch.

  As shadowy creatures died in her path, Arisu stormed forwards, holding a familiar book in her arms.

  Mana’s eyes widened and she wanted to shout Portal’s name, but her drained body only managed for her to weakly reach out for it – Arisu was immediately by her side, lifting her up and carrying her in her arms as she ascended into the sky, with the screaming mimics right below them.

  She looked at Mana with worry and summoned a portal somewhere.

  Why can she command him? Not that I mind…

  Mana’s thoughts drifted into darkness, and she passed out.

  September 2024

  ***

  Mana opened her eyes, staring at the ceiling. It was her own room’s ceiling as far as she could tell – there was a scratch that she recognized from when she played with a toy as a young child and accidentally flung it straight up with surprising force. It broke, of course, and she cried for a whole evening, causing quite a headache for her father who tried to calm her down.

  After contemplating her ceiling and the origin of its scars she propped herself up, looking around in a panic.

  Why am I in my room? Where is Marisa? What happened?

  After collecting her wits for another minute, she finally spoke.

  “Portal? Are you here?” she asked for her friend. To her relief, he responded.

  “I am here, Mana. On your desk.”

  Mana felt herself tearing up and wanted to get up to pick up her old friend, but she felt shaky on her legs – she stumbled and almost fell, but an arm caught her from the side. As she checked who it belonged to, it was none other than Arisu.

  “Take it easy, Mana. You overexerted yourself. You still need some rest.”

  The girl was back to her dirty-blonde hair, hiding her crystal eye with an eyepatch. She gently guided Mana to sit down on the edge of her bed, then she went and grabbed Portal for her, handing him over. Mana immediately hugged her friend tightly to her chest.

  “Your mom says breakfast is almost ready. I’ll bring it up for you.”

  That statement made something click in Mana’s head and she shot up from the bed, standing up straight as she stared at Arisu with wide eyes.

  “What did you tell my parents?!”

  Arisu cocked her head and smiled. “Eh? Should I have told them anything? It was kind of weird how they never asked who I am past my name. They just keep telling me to take care of you and to treat you right and to rein you in when you get weird ideas…”

  Mana closed her eyes and sat back down on her bed. She took a deep breath before she threw her head back and stared at the ceiling, letting out a little laugh as the absurdity of the situation dawned on her.

  “They think you’re my girlfriend.”

  “Oh? Oh... oh!!” Arisu's eye widened and she looked away from Mana, trying to hide a furious blush. They remained like this for a while before Mana finally pushed herself off her bed, walking towards the door with some difficulty until Arisu assisted her, supporting her by letting her lean against her.

  As they walked down the stairs, Mana inspected this strange girl – she wore a fresh uniform, and she suspected that her parents gave Arisu one of her spares – they had a similar build, so it fit her well.

  After a few more steps she could see the table with the prepared breakfast. Her mother still stood in the open living room kitchen and hummed as she poured some miso soup into a bowl, turning her head to smile at Mana and Arisu.

  “There you are. I’m glad that you’re already strong enough to come down, Mana. Go and get seated, you two!”

  ***

  Mana could only assume that Arisu explained the situation surrounding her weakness to her parents while she herself was passed out, the way they were acting nonchalantly around her. An awkward silence hung in the air nonetheless as everyone simply grabbed their food and ate, with her parents sneaking many glances towards Arisu before looking at her, as if they expected a formal introduction.

  Mana tried to ignore their unspoken demands and steered the discussion somewhere else entirely.

  “You’re very calm considering I was passed out,” she commented before stuffing some vegetables into her mouth. With every bite and every time she swallowed, she could feel a bit of strength returning to her body.

  “Of course we were worried, Mana!” her father spoke up. “Arisu here carried your unconscious body into the house while her own clothes were completely torn apart and told us that you were using too much magic due to a dangerous situation. Who wouldn’t be concerned hearing that?”

  He let the words sink in and sighed as Mana lowered her eyes to stare at the table. “However, we started accepting this the moment we found out that you were something like a Magical Girl.”

  Now Mana’s mother spoke up, putting down her chopsticks. “Arisu here told us that you’re currently doing something very important to save people. So even if we have second thoughts about letting you walk right into harm’s way…” she hesitated for a moment and looked down at her plate. “…well, we know at least that you won’t do this alone.”

  With that, she smiled at Arisu who responded with an awkward grin.

  “So, is Arisu the girlfriend you’ve been talking about?” her father now asked, but before Mana could even deny it, Arisu spoke up.

  “Well, she asked me if I’ll be her wife...!”

  Arisu was still laughing half an hour later while Mana was furiously red and walking ahead of her, down the shopping street.

  “Why did you say that?! It took ages to make them understand that you’re not my girlfriend!” she complained loudly to the strange girl from the future. Mana decided to go outside and take a walk to calm down her racing and utterly embarrassed mind after Arisu’s little prank.

  “I had to get you back for making my heart flutter like that, you know?” Arisu teased her as she walked behind her.

  “I should slap you! Ugh… I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life!” Mana ruffled her hair, desperately looking for something to distract herself. She wandered aimlessly through the shopping street, past all the stores where she used to love to window shop before she turned into a dimension-traveling witch. Arisu caught up, now walking next to her, until Mana finally thought of something to ask.

  “Well, we failed to capture her, now what?”

  Arisu looked a little troubled, but she gave her answer quickly.

  “The older you told me that if we fail, we should try again two days later... so tomorrow? She left me some other instructions, like finding auntie Sayaka and getting to a specific park at a certain time...”

  “Auntie Sayaka?” Mana raised an eyebrow at Arisu, who simply responded with a smile.

  “Oh, she’s a doctor. She’s a friend of my mother’s. Apparently, we’ll need her tomorrow, or so you said.”

  “Me…?” Mana raised a brow, then she groaned as she remembered that there were two of her.

  Arisu grinned at Mana in response, then she tilted her head.

  “So, we got some time to kill. Do you want to do anything?”

  “I might as well go to Madame Bille and ask her for spells so I can restrain Marisa without killing her,” Mana mused.

  “Oh so that’s why you looked like you were struggling when you fought her. You didn’t want to hurt her!” Arisu observed – and her face took on a rather gentle expression as she looked at Mana, smiling.

  “That about sums it up.” Mana admitted. She looked herself up and down and let out a sigh.

  “Let’s go back so I can get changed and then… Arisu?”

  Mana blinked and could only follow Arisu with her eyes as she walked straight towards a woman with strange make-up. She looked ordinary enough, but her choice of bright pinks and baby blues on her face made her stand out a little – Mana felt a little strange after realizing that she didn’t even notice the woman’s presence until now. Arisu came to a stop right in front of the stranger and smiled, making Mana think she was about to strike up a friendly conversation before her next words.

  “Go home!”

  “Excuse me, young miss?” the woman raised a brow and turned towards Arisu.

  “You’re planning to kidnap a child, aren’t you? Go home before I have to hurt you.” Arisu’s tone was still friendly, but now it carried a considerably colder note.

  “What the- how do you-”

  “Three.”

  “My disguise is perfect! Not even the Magical Girls of this world were ever able to detect me! How could a child like you-”

  “Two.”

  “You can’t make me!”

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  “One.” Arisu’s hair appeared to flutter in the wind and changed its color, emitting its own glow. Mana looked around in a panic to see if anyone saw what was happening, and the first few heads started to turn.

  “Okay, okay! I will leave! Do not hurt me!” the woman now announced, her hands raised. Arisu quickly stopped her transformation and all that the people who turned their heads saw was a schoolgirl with an eyepatch giving a strange woman the stink eye.

  Arisu pointed to a tight alley between two buildings and the strange woman walked inside. She disappeared in a puff of pink smoke, with a small, green humanoid creature with butterfly wings appearing in its place, barely bigger than Mana’s hand.

  “Ruining my fun! No sense of humor or respect! Stupid humans!” the fairy kept complaining before a green glow appeared behind it and it simply vanished inside. As the alley was quiet again, Arisu sighed and turned around to face Mana. Seeing Mana’s expression visibly gave her pause for a moment before she smiled again.

  “I can tell when someone’s not from here and I can tell where they are from,” she said as if that would explain everything.

  Mana kept staring at this strange girl, narrowing her eyes as she took in her unusual appearance once more and thought about the strange abilities she demonstrated. She didn’t even consciously form her following question.

  “What are you?”

  Arisu’s careless expression faded, and she grimaced, walking past Mana down the street with no real destination.

  “I hate that question.” She told Mana as she managed to catch up to her.

  “I am a person. A girl. My birth was very unusual, and my abilities are strange, but I am…” she turned around to Mana. “I’m just Arisu.”

  Mana nodded – in a way she understood. She got odd looks and some questions about her hair and eyes since she started exploring the library, and there were other girls like her experiencing the same scrutiny after changing. The Kawaguchi Incident, the overlapping of other worlds with Earth, brought new and strange things with it which would become part of everyday life, but right now, the first children who were different than everybody else were still regarded with odd glances their way, or sometimes even suspicion.

  “I’m sorry, Arisu,” she said, looking down at the ground. That seemed to brighten Arisu’s mood again.

  “Well, you didn’t know, I guess!” She patted Mana’s shoulder before grabbing her hand and pulling her back towards her house.

  “Let’s get changed and visit… Madame Bille.”

  Mana furrowed her brow as the odd girl from the future hesitated before choosing the way she addressed Nicola, as if she caught herself almost saying something she shouldn’t.

  Moon of the Murdered Singer, 1067 AR

  ***

  Mana and Arisu stepped out of the portal, just outside of Romystedt. The gates on the other side of the drawbridge were imposing, but Mana walked towards them with determined steps. The marionettes in their military uniforms by the gate didn’t appear to mind the witch and her companion and let her pass. She crossed the marketplace which she went through last month and approached the mountain road, all while Arisu followed her.

  “So you know the way!”

  “I’ve been working for Nicola for a few months now,” Mana admitted freely as the guard marionettes standing next to the gate to the mountain pass simply nodded her way and let her pass, just like their counterparts by the main gate.

  “Right… it’s kind of fun to learn facts like this about you! From your past self, that is. Your future self is a little more tight-lipped…”

  Mana’s eyes glanced Arisu’s way and saw her troubled expression.

  “Did something happen between you two?” she asked – partially out of interest, and partially to drown out the deafening silence of the forest which now surrounded them on the way up the path.

  “I broke her trust in me, let’s leave it at that.”

  “So you will break my trust in the future, huh?” Mana remarked, and Arisu looked genuinely hurt by her observation.

  “Listen, I don’t know the details, but I know that it’s part of an unchangeable future, so for what it’s worth: I think I will forgive you.”

  Arisu smiled in response to Mana’s words, stepping closer and hugging Mana from the side.

  “I hope so, too! I like you, Mana.”

  “And I don’t know anything about you,” Mana grumbled, looking Arisu directly in her good eye.

  “Ask me anything, then!” Arisu grinned and put her hands on her hips, as if to challenge Mana. “But you’ll have to tell me something in return. And no sexual harassment, like those other questions!”

  Mana rolled her eyes. “Believe me, those questions had a reason. But fine! Here’s one: tell me the strangest thing about yourself. I’ll start.”

  Arisu nodded and listened intently as the two kept walking up the forest path. Mana didn’t notice it the last time, but she was almost certain that there were eyes on some of the trees – and the forest path was lined with lanterns, which weren’t lit at the moment, as the sun was still out. They still struck Mana as odd for reasons she couldn’t discern.

  “I am in a relationship with my own clone, who has the soul of my twin sister who was never born.”

  Arisu’s eye widened and she nodded.

  “It’s Marisa, yes?”

  Mana nodded, then she gestured for Arisu to keep up her own end of the bargain.

  “I have four mothers!” Arisu declared with a wide grin which looked like it was challenging Mana. The witch regarded the blonde with tired eyes as her mind pieced together a possible explanation.

  “So, you’re adopted? Or your mother joined a big group that’s like a family?” she asked while looking skeptically at Arisu – the girl however shook her head.

  “Biologically. Including their loved one, my number of mothers goes up to five!”

  “How does that work?” Mana asked in a slightly annoyed voice, but Arisu only responded with a mischievous grin.

  “You want to know how I was made? I told you that sexual harassment isn’t allowed!” The girl with the eyepatch wore a self-satisfied expression on her face that told Mana in no uncertain terms that she goaded her into this trap on purpose.

  “You’re a mischievous one, aren’t you?”

  ***

  Passing the little guard house the two walked across the drawbridge into the mountain castle. Marionettes watched them walk by without interfering.

  “Can you tell me why you are time traveling? What does Doppelg?nger hope to achieve by stealing the Amaranth potion?”

  Arisu looked troubled. Her eyes wandered, sticking to the passing statues and paintings as it took her a while to answer.

  “My mamas suddenly vanished into thin air. It’s because of something Doppelg?nger did in the past. She wants to prevent me from being born, I don’t exactly know why.”

  Arisu stopped for a moment, shifting uncomfortably in place while she stared at a statue depicting Nicola wearing a wooden mask and wielding a rapier.

  “When I made eye contact with Doppelg?nger - the older Doppelg?nger - I saw strange visions. First, I felt like I was sharing a warm darkness with someone. And then I saw you... and felt like we were in love. I saw us kissing. And, err… more than that.” After saying those words, Arisu fidgeted in place and looked to the side, blushing.

  Mana stopped in her tracks, looking back at Arisu with a feeling of dread in her stomach. This wasn’t right – those were moments Mana shared with Marisa, during her life and before they were born, when they were still Bonnie’s and an unknown person’s souls. How could Arisu have seen them?

  Mana’s mind feverishly looked for an explanation before something clicked into place for her.

  “The ‘Alter Memory’ ring.” She said this with absolute certainty before she turned around and kept walking.

  “Huh?” Arisu ran to her side and looked at her quizzically.

  “She must have used the ‘Alter Memory’ ring on you to share her memories. There’s no other explanation for this.”

  “I don’t think she had-”

  “No other explanation!” Mana insisted and kept stomping down the hallway.

  Mana kept walking until she reached the room with the fireplace where she met her future self a month ago. She wanted to push the doors open and announce her presence but stopped as she heard a strange sound coming from inside. It sounded like sobbing. She opened the door just a crack wide and saw a woman on one of the red sofas. A woman dressed in a black idol outfit with white accents, with a black wig that sloppily sat on top of a net covering her blonde hair. Mana’s heart sank into her stomach as she recognized her: This was Luna, the world-famous Magical Girl idol, and Sol was nowhere to be seen. Those facts combined with the cancelled concert made it dawn on Mana that something horrible must have happened to them.

  She felt a hand on her shoulder, and as she turned around, she was face to face with Madame Bille.

  “Leave her be for now. Let’s go somewhere else.” she spoke in a hushed voice, guiding her two guests up the stairs to her workshop. She cast Arisu a short glance and raised a brow.

  “I see you brought a friend, young Witch Queen. Would you introduce me?”

  “Ah, right that’s…”

  “Arisu! Nice to meet you!” Arisu beamed Nicola’s way, cutting Mana off entirely, who simply shrugged and kept following Nicola.

  “Arisu… there’s something familiar about you.”

  “You think so?” Arisu asked with a wide grin, walking alongside the silver-haired woman, who in turn inspected the girl a little closer – then she simply reached out and lifted Arisu’s eyepatch, much to the latter’s surprise, and, as far as Mana could tell, horror.

  “As I thought. You are a Deogemma. A hybrid, even.” Nicola narrowed her eyes and pierced Arisu with her gaze, who shrunk a little under it, then she looked at Mana. She never saw Nicola with that kind of expression before; she looked wary, and almost disgusted.

  “Can she be trusted?”

  “I think she’s my future wife.” Mana replied dryly, and judging by the older woman’s reaction, that caught her utterly off guard – and Arisu as well, who turned a deep shade of red again.

  Nicola shook her head before she put her fingers to her forehead, closing her eyes as she let out a quiet groan.

  “Your involvement with time travel is an endless source of headaches, young Witch Queen – but very well.” She turned towards Arisu again.

  “I will trust you. For now.”

  ***

  Mana and Arisu sat down in the armchairs in Nicola’s little workshop library, explaining their situation in detail while their host ran her finger across the spines in the expansive bookshelf. Novels and religious works were ignored in favor of more practical spellbooks.

  “So, Marisa was taken over by Doppelg?nger and you need spells to fight her directly – preferably without injuring Marisa in the process.”

  “That about sums it up.” Mana confirmed.

  Nicola nodded and pulled a few tomes out of her shelf, walking over towards Mana and handing her the stack.

  “Bind. Paralyze. Counterspell. This last one should be useful against the stasis spell she mastered recently.”

  Mana looked at Nicola with tired eyes before she started to flip through the pages, studying the intricacies of the spells.

  “Why did you teach her, anyway?”

  “She loves you, and in her mind the best way to let you see her love was to be of some use to you. She came to me, and I couldn’t exactly turn her away.”

  Mana grimaced and clenched her fists, staring at the ground.

  “Am I really that selfish that she thinks she has to do something for me so that I love her?”

  Nicola shook her head and let out a long sigh.

  “No, Mana. I believe it is her inherent nature as a spell book. Even while Doppelg?nger’s malice was dormant, she felt like she needed to be useful to you in some way.”

  Mana bit her lower lip and stared at the letters of the spell book in front of her, which grew blurry and unintelligible as her tears welled up. Marisa never really felt like she was Mana’s equal, and she never noticed – the sheer guilt of that realization was overwhelming. She hastily wiped her tears away, concentrating on reading the spell tome to distract her racing mind as Arisu raised a hand.

  “I have a question, er, Miss Bille!”

  Nicola turned her head towards Arisu and tilted her head, but she gestured for her to continue.

  “When I made eye contact with Marisa, I saw a strange vision. Do you know what that means?”

  That caught Nicola’s attention entirely – she turned towards Arisu and kneeled down in front of her, looking her in the eye.

  “Tell me everything, young Arisu.”

  “There is no doubt about it,” Nicola announced to her two guests after sitting down in her own armchair. She rested her chin in one of her hands, covering her mouth with her index and middle finger as if she was lost in contemplation.

  “Arisu here is the reincarnation of Marisa.”

  “No!” Mana jumped out of her chair, staring at Nicola. She knew – she didn’t want it spoken out loud, but she knew. Having it said by someone else made it so painfully real and made it impossible for Mana to hide from the facts any longer, yet every fiber of her being resisted before accepting them.

  “How can you be so sure?!” she demanded to ask.

  “Simple. If the same soul in two bodies establishes eye contact with itself, both bodies are flooded with visions from each other’s lives, or even their own. What Arisu experienced was just that – and I fear Marisa experienced the same, which reignited her desire to prevent Arisu from being born.”

  “But didn’t you say everyone is the same soul anyway?” Mana’s body shook now, as she slowly walked towards Nicola. The woman got up and grabbed Mana by the shoulders before she pulled her close into an embrace – recently she felt a lot like a caring aunt to Mana.

  “That is only one of the existing theories, Mana. It could be one soul, or a hundred, a thousand, maybe even billions. But even if it is one… do you remember what you did exactly one year, two days, seven hours and thirty minutes ago?”

  Mana furrowed her brow and looked up to Nicola – she was slowly calming down now.

  “No… what does that have to do with our souls?”

  “It’s the same for a soul. You remember what you did this past hour instead, yes? The most recent reincarnation of a soul is just like that. It remembers, faintly, if not consciously. It will lose connections to its incarnations a hundred or more lifetimes ago, but the immediate previous life? That will have an effect.”

  Mana shook her head and clung harder to Nicola’s dress.

  “But… that means Marisa is going to die so that Arisu can be born!”

  “That won’t be an issue, trust me.” She heard her own voice and turned around. There was her older self, the Mana with cat ears. She looked tired, and her witch robes were torn in various places. She walked to the armchair in which Mana just sat and sat down, inspecting the spellbooks.

  “Ah, I remember learning those. Very good, they will be useful.”

  “Mana!” Arisu exclaimed happily and skipped to her side, grinning widely as she hugged the older Mana, who received the gesture in a much less hostile manner than before, simply letting Arisu do as she pleased, even as she ran her fingers over her tail and the witches’ spine straightened out in reflex.

  “…in my future, Marisa was imprisoned until after Arisu was born. Which means that time or dimension travel must be involved in how she will die.”

  Older Mana grimaced, desperately trying to hide a blissful expression even as her body shivered involuntarily as Arisu kept petting the cat parts.

  “But the possibility exists that she will die during her fight with you, now that you both have traveled back in time,” Nicola observed.

  “Don’t say that!” Older Mana hissed Nicola’s way, who looked at her with an apologetic expression.

  “What happened to you anyway?” Mana asked. “You were late, and you look like you went through hell.”

  “I think I might have started the witch hunts in old Europe.” Older Mana replied dryly.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.” Older Mana got out of her seat and let out a sigh.

  “I will go after her again. I just wanted to let you know about this, before it makes you despair.” The corner of older Mana’s mouth rose, and she patted Mana’s head before she turned towards Arisu.

  “Let’s talk later… and don’t forget about Sayaka and the other things!” Arisu received those words with an enthusiastic nod, then she hurried back to younger Mana’s side, waving at older Mana as she opened another portal.

  “I will see you both tomorrow, then. I promise I’ll bring the potion back. I need you two, however, to confine Marisa and be at that park tomorrow evening, or it will all be for nothing!” older Mana announced and left.

  Nicola sighed, looking at the two girls from different times in front of her.

  “Learn your spells, young Witch Queen. You still have grueling tasks ahead of you, it would seem.”

  ***

  “By the way, how were you able to command Portal?” Mana asked while she read her spell book. Arisu sat by her side, clearly bored by the lack of cat tail or cat ears to harass, so she leaned against Mana’s side instead. She pondered the question for a moment, then she gave her answer.

  “I didn’t command Portal directly,” she replied, and Mana tilted her head.

  “Then how?”

  “I can copy spells, like your Trace spell. I just need to be hit by one or touch the magic energies… or the caster. I can only use them for a certain time after learning them that way, however.”

  Mana grimaced. “Getting hit by them? So, what happened with that golem happens to you a lot?”

  Arisu puffed out her cheeks in response to Mana’s observation.

  “I’m not getting hit that often, alright? That thing just surprised me, that’s all. And I only let spells hit me if I absolutely need to learn them!”

  Mana grinned as she listened to Arisu’s complaints and gently ruffled her hair.

  “Alright, alright. That was an exception, got it.”

  Mana closed her spell book and cleared her throat. “Well, I need to test my mastery of these new spells, want to help me by letting me hit you with them? You will even learn them that way!”

  “Hey!”