Seika stumbled towards the front door of the office building – naturally, a crowd already gathered out front, making her next step that much harder. She couldn’t allow anyone to enter – to find Lethe and free her by accident. She rummaged through her little chest of wonders, looking for something to help her out.

  Got it!

  She put the ring on her finger and walked back upstairs to grab a permanent marker from one of her desk’s drawers before she stepped towards the copier/fax machine by the wall. She inspected it with a skeptical look as it leaked toner all over the place.

  Guess I’ll need to call in that favor from my father.

  She shook her head and pulled out a sheet of paper. She had to flip through a few that weren’t stained with toner yet and cursed as she stained them with blood in the process. She grabbed a pristine one very carefully with her left hand and pulled it out, then she wrote on it with the sharpie.

  ***

  Seika stepped outside in full gear of the Tokyo Fire Department, including an oxygen mask – an illusionary attire cast on top of her by one of her rings, containing a ‘disguise’ spell. It would have probably been very useful for the Celestial Sisters, for sneaking in and out of concert venues without being recognized.

  “Please disperse! We have already dealt with the issue. Be assured that there is no risk of a fire breaking out!”

  “And what in the world happened? The windows suddenly exploded!” a man questioned her. Seika needed to think about it, sweat running down her forehead. Naturally she didn’t know much about what could cause explosions in an office building, so she went with a half-truth.

  “An interdimensional incursion! A small, anomalous one which didn’t need Magical Girl intervention!” She lied. Or did she? She wasn’t exactly a Magical Girl at this very moment – or when she beat her hated nemesis into submission.

  “Huh? My phone didn’t go off!” She heard someone say.

  “Some threats are too small to be recognized by the early warning system. Now, please! Disperse! Everything is under control.”

  She made sure to point down the street so the people would keep walking, and pain shot through her right shoulder as she did so.

  After everyone was out of sight, she released the disguise spell and turned around to tape the sheet of paper she prepared to the door.

  ‘FIRE IS OUT. TRIPLE EYE HAS BEEN INFORMED’ it read. Seika nodded after looking at her work and fished her phone out of her pocket to try and reach Miori, but she still hadn’t looked at LINE.

  “Fine, I’ll get the locator ring to… huh.”

  She saw something weird on her news feed. The Rodent Regiment was invading Kawaguchi – the first interdimensional incursion in that area since the first recorded one in history – the Kawaguchi incident itself.

  She quickly checked the exact location to make sure her parents were safe and breathed a sigh of relief – before pangs of guilt gnawed at her for feeling that way, when other people got endangered. Her grip on her phone slipped and it fell down –as she grabbed it off the ground, she saw red smears left by her own blood. A thin trickle along her right arm caused steady drops of red to fall down on the asphalt.

  “Stupid plant got me good…” she groaned as pain shot through her shoulder.

  “You need first aid…”

  Seika couldn’t even hear Minerva; she stared at the video feed of the news to try and find her target.

  There she was. Bellona Azure, the Magical Girl guise of the woman she loved. Slaughtering her way through a trench filled with the Rodent Regiment, accompanied by an… oddly colorful looking girl. This looked like it could be a whole story the two would reminisce about once this entire thing was over and done with.

  “Right… Kawaguchi.”

  “Seika.”

  Minerva’s voice echoed through her mind, but Seika’s thoughts were too occupied - she rummaged through her magic chest again until she found a ring of flight. She dropped it out of her blood-slickened fingers and had to crawl after it to put it on before she hovered above the ground.

  “I have to hurry…”

  “Seika, listen to me…”

  Seika flew towards Kawaguchi, with her shoulder still bleeding heavily. A steady red trickle dropped from her hand, down onto the city. She had trouble concentrating on her flying magic, and her addled mind only allowed for thoughts about reaching Miori.

  “Seika… you’re bleeding out! Stop!”

  Seika shook her head in response to Minerva’s words – her thoughts were feverish, utterly focused on getting to Kawaguchi. To see Miori. She desperately wanted to see the woman she loved and tell her how she felt for nine years. To use the potion and finally right all the wrongs that Lethe had wrought.

  “You need to go to a doctor before things get worse, Seika!”

  “I don’t have the time, Minerva!” Seika shouted with tears welling up in her eyes.

  “In two hours Lethe will be free, and she will tear everything down before she kills me!”

  “You don’t have two hours!” Minerva’s voice sounded like she was on the verge of crying, despite not possessing a body to do so.

  “You have fifteen minutes at most until you pass out! Maybe less because you increased your heart rate with your stupid energy drinks!”

  Seika tried to ignore her, but concentrating on flying became harder with every passing minute. Her thoughts were about Miori. Only Miori. She had to reach Miori…

  “Forget it, I’m taking over your body!”

  “Don’t you da- “

  Seika wanted to express her objection, and her disgust at Minerva’s intended violation of their more than a decade-long trust-based relationship, but it was already too late. She felt herself shoved on the backseat of her own body, with Minerva changing course towards a hospital.

  You bitch! After sixteen years you take over like I’m a puppet?!

  Seika’s body jerked and the two personalities inside her fought – they lost control over their flight and started an uncontrolled descent, spinning towards the ground. The cityscape below became a blur as Seika gained control of her left arm and tried to grab her earring to tear it off, while her right arm, controlled by Minerva strained against her, grabbing her by the wrist. Seika could feel pain shooting through her body as that strain seemed to cause more damage in her stabbed shoulder.

  “I don’t want to betray your trust! But if you continue like this you’ll die! I don’t want to lose you, damn it!”

  Oh? Because you want to keep using me as your host? Because you having a form is tied to me being alive?!

  Seika’s inner voice was filled with venom; the blood loss related confusion and anxiety drove her into fight or flight mode, and there was no running away from her shared soul.

  “Because I LOVE you, Seika! You’re my partner and my other half! You’re no mere host! You’re ME! And I am YOU!”

  The ground rapidly approached – but finally Minerva gained enough control to stop their fall a meter before they would have hit the ground, making them hover in the air.

  “You’re the only world I’ve known for all sixteen years that I’ve been alive! I know to read your mood by your heartbeat alone! I know your anguish and your loneliness better than anyone in this world! I want you to be happy, so I want you to get together with Miori! But to do all that you have to live!”

  Seika’s eyes widened, and her mind cleared up for an instant - she fell the last meter to the ground, and a debilitating pain shot through her shoulder as the anesthetic magic and her own adrenaline finally wore off, causing her to let out a scream.

  “Seika, please! Get help! Even just first aid!”

  Seika almost blacked out from the pain but forced herself to stand up. She was in a park, with no one around at this time of day. She felt her heart hammering in her chest, desperately trying to keep what little blood remained in her body flowing. Her shirt was drenched in her sweat mixing with her blood, and she felt like the world around her was spinning.

  You’re right… I’m so sorry Minerva.

  “Spare me the apologies and get yourself to a doctor! Quickly!”

  Seika nodded, and despite her situation she was filled with an uncanny determination – she didn’t come this far just to die to something as mundane as blood loss, or so she decided. She sluggishly put one foot in front of the other, feverishly trying to keep her eyes open as her left hand rummaged through her little chest of wonders and slipped on the locator ring – now that she found out Miori’s whereabouts through the news, she could use it a bit more selfishly.

  “Show me the nearest doctor who can treat me,” she commanded the ring and the jewel on it shone a bit brighter for a moment. Seika’s mind was given directions, so she followed them.

  The path was long and torturous, even as Seika used the last of her ring of flight’s energies to reach a residential street to which the locator ring pointed. Single family homes and apartment complexes dominated the street, and she expected to find a clinic here, but instead she found herself in front of the door phone of one of the apartment buildings. She didn’t even consciously register the nameplate she pushed for the doorbell, then her sight grew dark in the corners, and she simply collapsed on the ground, staring at the sky, just as a voice answered the intercom.

  “Hello? Who’s there?” a woman’s voice answered. Before Seika could even answer, someone else spoke.

  “Please come down! We have a medical emergency!” a young girl’s voice shouted – the girl it belonged to stepped into view, with blue hair spilling over her shoulders, and a large, black witch hat on her head.

  “Why are you… never mind! It’s okay now, Miss Hitoishi!”

  Seika wanted to ask so many questions, but the girl extended a hand towards her and everything grew dark.

  “Stasis!”

  Seika felt herself floating through a void. Unlike the other times she dreamed this kind of dream, it wasn’t warm and comforting, but cold to the point she felt like she was freezing.

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  Is this it?

  There was no reply. She doubted that Minerva could hear her in her unconscious state. Maybe it was even beyond unconscious.

  Whatever may happen now… I’m sorry. You were right, Minerva.

  She still drifted through nothingness – the darkness in front of her devoured her entirely, giving her ample time to think.

  Madame Bille said that Romy reincarnated somewhere in the many realms out there. If that’s true, then I might be reborn somewhere else, too.

  I wonder if I will see Miori, or whatever she will call herself at that point, again.

  Or maybe my punishment for being cocky will be to always be reborn where I can’t meet her.

  While she dwelled on her thoughts, she felt a sudden warmth course through her. She got pulled into a light, fully expecting it to be the end of the line for her, but…

  ***

  “…crazy! Utterly, nonsensically crazy! If this weren’t a severe emergency, I wouldn’t even entertain the thought of having a young girl whose blood type I don’t know donate to a patient whose blood type I also don’t know!”

  She heard a woman’s agitated voice lecturing someone. She didn’t feel strong enough to open her eyes just yet, but she listened. She felt something sticking to her left eyebrow and her cheek – and she felt a strong pressure on her right shoulder. It hurt, but not unbearably. There was also a foreign object sticking in her left arm, bringing warmth back to her freezing body.

  “I’m sorry, miss. But we need to get her ready to meet someone in an hour. And don’t worry about the types. Hers is O positive. I’m O negative.”

  This was another voice, coming from her left. Quiet and polite, but Seika had the feeling that there was something fierce to whom it belonged to.

  “Don’t give her too much, girl. We can’t have another case of someone bleeding out. Much less so a child,” the first voice replied.

  “Don’t worry about me, au-, er, miss. I can’t bleed out.”

  “What in the – you’re serious, aren’t you?” she could hear the woman sigh.

  “I’ve seen some crazy things in my life, so I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt. Especially after you came in transformed like that.”

  Seika opened her eyes now. Her vision was still blurry. She could make out a girl sitting to her left, facing away from her. Her head was covered in shoulder-length dirty blonde hair, and she wore a middle school uniform. She was holding what looked like a ball in her right hand and gave it a squeeze ever so often. Seika realized it was a hand pump as she saw a catheter going from the girl’s right arm to her left, transporting blood from one to the other. She was giving her a manual transfusion.

  Seika furrowed her brow in confusion and turned her head to the woman the girl was talking to.

  “Oh, look who’s awake.”

  The woman wore a white doctor’s coat, and immediately leaned closer to shine a bright light into Seika’s eyes.

  “Urgh!”

  “Yep, good reaction. The eyes, too. How many fingers?”

  “…three.”

  “What’s your birthday?”

  “March 19th, 1994”

  “Very good. And correct, too, judging by the ID in your wallet.”

  The woman withdrew her face from Seika’s and let out a relieved sigh.

  “Seems like you didn’t suffer any brain damage from the period you operated with the… minimum possible amount of blood. Seriously, what happened to you? You looked like someone stabbed you repeatedly in the back. I had to suture quite a few holes before even thinking about putting that bandage on. And if your vein or artery had been nicked, you’d be under the knife for much longer. Or dead. That one’s more likely.”

  “Nope, I’ve only been stabbed once, but with five nails.” Seika replied dryly.

  “…nails?”

  Seika’s vision cleared up and as she looked back to the woman in white, she recognized her. She was nine years older than the last time Seika saw her, but she never changed her ponytail hairstyle, and her face was still the same, even with the slight progression of age.

  “…Sayaka?”

  “Huh? Do we know each other?”

  “You’re little Sayaka! From the Kuma Group! I remember you!” Seika chuckled quietly to herself.

  “Okay, she’s still a little bit out of it, I guess...?”

  The doctor looked from Seika to the girl sitting by her side to another girl in the room – this one was wearing witch robes with a fitting hat, which looked way too large for her. Blue hair spilled out over her shoulders as she tried to hide her face under the brim. Seika recognized her as the one who approached her by the door.

  “Seriously, who is this? How does she know me?”

  “I beat your friends and then Kuma mysteriously remembered how to make you stronger,” Seika chuckled – and she could see the doctor freeze in place, slowly turning her head towards the office worker on her bed.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me… “

  ***

  “So, you’re Minerva Crimson, the oldest Magical Girl.”

  “Please don’t use the o word.” Seika groaned as she sat up and had a good look at herself. The right sleeve of her shirt was torn off and she now wore a shoulder bandage, wrapped so tight that it hurt a little – probably a necessity, considering the earlier bleeding. Additionally, her right arm was now in a sling and she was certain that she couldn’t move it as well as before anymore.

  “Once you’re done with whatever you’re supposed to be doing instead of getting proper treatment, you should come back here or find a doctor elsewhere. Even without further damage to your shoulder’s tendons, you can look forward to months of rehab to be able to move it properly again.”

  Sayaka sighed and looked her over as Seika touched the bandages that were taped over the cuts along her eyebrow and cheek.

  “Seriously, what in the world did you get mauled over?”

  “Love.” Seika responded, and Sayaka blinked.

  “You’d let yourself almost bleed out for…?” Sayaka scrunched up her face – but after a while she softened up.

  “Well, that’s the woman who fought Kuma for three girls she didn’t even know.”

  “Wait, you knew?” Seika raised an eyebrow at Sayaka – her left one, which made her flinch from the pain right after.

  “Kuma told us the day we graduated. Apologized for deceiving us and that it was you who made him change his mind. You probably saved our lives, considering the things we fought after.”

  “And you’re a doctor now… you were always serious about saving people, weren’t you?” Seika observed with a smile and Sayaka turned her head away with a blush.

  “Well, it made the most sense. I didn’t have powers to grab people out of danger directly anymore, so it was either becoming a firefighter and first responder, or a doctor. Could have probably done the former, thanks to the training we did,” Sayaka said with a little wink before she continued.

  “Fuuka is a PE teacher now. Oh, you should see what Haruka’s doing these days! It will blow your mind!”

  “I’ll take you up on that once my issue is dealt with.” Seika chuckled, then she looked to the girl in the witch hat.

  “You were the one who cast ‘Stasis’ on me while I was on the brink of death out there, weren’t you? Thank you.”

  The girl raised her head and looked at Seika with a bashful expression that carried all the way to her golden eyes.

  “N-not worth mentioning… n-nothing’s beyond the Witch Queen of the Infinite Library, after all!” She tried to put up a boisterous air, but right now she appeared more relieved than anything.

  “Oh… that’s Mana Kanno!” Minerva suddenly spoke up and Seika smiled.

  So you’re still there, partner… I’m sorry for earlier.

  “You were delirious from blood loss… I’m sorry for not noticing sooner.”

  Anything I should know about this ‘Mana’?

  “She’s a witch and helped me with your birthday gift earlier this year. I think we can trust her.”

  Speaking of blood loss… Seika looked to her side now, to the girl who supplied her with fresh blood this entire time. She was now faced towards her, and Seika could take in her appearance. Under the shoulder-length dirty blonde hair she saw a single blue eye, while the girl’s right eye was covered by an eyepatch. She looked up at Seika with what appeared to be adoration.

  “…do we know each other?” Seika asked with puzzlement.

  “Not yet,” the girl replied with a smile – then she hugged Seika, tight enough that her shoulder ached.

  “Ow, ow! Not so hard! I don’t know what I did to deserve that, but not so hard, please!”

  Sayaka stepped in and looked at the catheter.

  “All right, I think that’s enough, or you’re going to blow her up like a balloon with your infinite blood or whatever you got going on there.”

  She gently pulled the needle out of Seika’s and the girl’s arms before putting band-aids on top.

  The girl finally relented and Seika looked at her with confusion – though there was a warm feeling of familiarity in her chest for some reason.

  Seika looked towards Mana, unconsciously patting the blonde girl’s head as she spoke to her.

  “So, you two saved me and pumped me full of blood. Thank you. Though I’d love to know how you came to save me in the first place.”

  Mana looked away, clearing her throat.

  “You’d have to ask the older me. This whole thing was planned out by her.”

  Just in that moment a blue glow appeared in the middle of the room, expanding into a proper portal – Seika could make out bookshelves on the other side. Another Mana stepped through – visibly a little older than the other one, not to mention the cat ears and matching tail that the younger one was lacking. Her outfit looked torn and burned in various places as she shuffled over towards where Seika sat.

  “Speak of the devil!” the younger Mana shouted after her.

  The girl in the witch robes stopped in front of Seika’s bed and grabbed the magic chest she carried the entire night, simply opening it before she produced a vial from her pocket – the vial with Madame Bille’s blood.

  “How did you- ?” Seika started.

  “You dropped this.” The older Mana simply replied in a tired voice, putting the vial back into the box.

  “That’s all I’m going to say about this.”

  Mana looked to the unknown girl at Seika’s side and how Seika’s hand stroked her hair.

  “Well, aren’t you having fun? Come on, let’s go home.” Mana said with a little smile.

  “Can I have a moment?” the girl suddenly asked, looking around between the three other people in the room besides her and Seika.

  “…you know that’s risky, right?” older Mana replied, furrowing her brow as she looked at the girl. Then she looked back at the younger Mana who observed the interaction.

  “…ugh, but I do remember that I let you do it, so… whatever. Come on. Everybody out!”

  She threw her arms up and walked towards the door with the younger Mana following. Sayaka looked incredulous as she was ordered out of her own apartment, but followed suit, turning around one more time.

  “Right! Give me your LINE later! I really want to catch up after this whole episode!”

  With a click, the door closed, and Seika was all alone with the strange girl.

  Huh?

  They sat in silence for a while, with the girl grabbing and holding Seika’s hand.

  “What an odd girl…”

  That’s my line! Are you noticing anything about her?

  “She’s… one of us. My kind. But also, not. She’s not a halfling either, like Bacchus or… I don’t know.”

  Seika pondered over her partner’s words, but couldn’t make sense of the situation either – for now she addressed the girl.

  “So, uhm… from context clues I’m guessing you and the cat-like Mana are time traveling.”

  The girl nodded.

  “So I can’t ask you too many specific things.”

  She nodded again.

  “Well, now this is gnawing at me! You’re so clingy, I hope that doesn’t mean I’m dead in whatever future you’re from!” She smirked, letting go of the girl’s hand to ruffle her hair.

  She managed to get a little chuckle out of her, and she looked up.

  “No. You disappeared, but we just fixed that.”

  The girl’s eye sparkled as she looked up at Seika.

  “That’s good to hear!” Seika said with a wide grin. “I don’t think I’d like disappearing very much.”

  The girl hugged her again – even tighter than before.

  “Ow, ow, ow! Please, my shoulder really hurts right now!”

  “Ah! Sorry!” the girl blushed and withdrew from Seika, staring at the hands she held folded on her lap.

  “It’s alright. Whatever our relationship is like in the future, you must be a really good girl to care about me that much.” Seika went back to patting her head.

  “I’m actually a troublemaker…” the girl admitted quietly.

  “But with your heart in the right place, hm?”

  “Maybe…” the girl bit her lower lip.

  Seika checked her phone – it still had her blood caked to the screen, so she wiped it on her shirt for a while.

  “I don’t know what kind of relationship we have in the future, but I can already tell that you’re a good girl at heart, alright? So, whatever got you doubting yourself, don’t beat yourself up over it. I’m sure you’ll do the right thing in the end.”

  As her screen was finally clear she opened her timer and saw the remaining time before Lethe would be freed. It sat at 43 minutes.

  “You have to go soon, right?” the girl asked, clinging to Seika’s arm.

  “Yeah. I only have one shot at this, so it’s better if I have enough time to explain everything to Miori.”

  Seika sighed and stowed her phone again, looking at the girl. She still couldn’t shake that feeling of familiarity – especially when looking in her eye.

  She heard the door open and the others entering again.

  “Ready to leave?” the older Mana asked the girl and she nodded, hopping off the chair she was on, after reluctantly letting go of Seika’s arm.

  The witch then turned to Seika.

  “I left my younger self with instructions on how to get you to Bellona. She’ll also take over fighting those stupid rodents. She can handle herself, so don’t be shy doing what needs to be done.”

  Mana smiled as the girl hurried to her side and gently touched her shoulder.

  “See? I told you we’d make it. Now things are back the way they should be.”

  The girl in the witch robes summoned a portal, waving her eyepatch wearing companion through it before she turned towards Seika once more.

  “Oh. The letter that girl with red hair gave you. The one who looks exactly like my younger self? You can toss it out. It’s just gloating about your imminent death. Give it to her, she’ll get rid of it for you.” Mana pointed at her younger self as she said that.

  Seika blinked and fished the crumpled letter out of her pocket.

  “Completely forgot about that.”

  “It’s better that way.” Mana turned around and stepped through the portal, giving Seika a final wave while her younger self stepped forward.

  Just as the portal looked like it was about to close, the girl with the eyepatch stepped forward and shouted a farewell.

  “I’ll see you soon… mama!”

  What?

  “WHAT?!”

  The older Mana’s eyes widened, and she pulled the girl back from the portal while holding a hand on her mouth. That was the last Seika saw of the two as the portal closed.

  Seika’s jaw dropped and she stared at the spot where the time travelers had just vanished. She turned her head towards the younger Mana who looked at her with a tired expression and shrugged.

  “I’m just as clueless as you are. Welcome to my life for the past six months.”

  ***

  Seika stepped next to Mana as the young witch opened a portal to their destination. The girl looked up to Seika and offered her a little smile as she took the letter off Seika’s hands.

  “The artifacts… were they useful?”

  Seika blinked, looking at the little chest she still wore at her hip, then at the girl with the pointy hat. She nodded in response.

  “They helped me a lot. The crown in particular keeps my old enemy trapped right now.”

  Mana nodded.

  “That’s good. I was drowned and lost my first kiss for that artifact in particular.”

  Seika blinked, taken aback by the confession.

  “You collected it…?”

  “I did. For people who are long dead and a girl who hasn’t been born yet.”

  Seika let that sentence sink in, then she spoke up again.

  “Once this is over, we should probably…”

  “No.” Mana shook her head and looked up at Seika with an exhausted smile.

  “I think you’re probably a nice person, Miss Hitoishi, and I enjoyed my time with Minerva. But I think I’ll enjoy a year of peace and quiet before you and that girl turn my life upside-down again.”