Unlimited Ambition

The conversation usually stalls at this point. Mami Tomoe will transform, then pull out her matchlock gun and point it at my head.

"I'm going to kill you, then I'll kill myself!"

Then came the "Bang!" of a shot. I had no choice but to delete my account and start over.

After experiencing this a few times, I was able to accept the daily life of drinking black tea and eating cake without ever mentioning Chinese cuisine again.

Basically, Asami has treated me as her possession. But when did this situation begin...? Was it the fourth time, when we officially confirmed our relationship? Or the seventh time, when I foolishly pushed her away? Or the fifteenth time, when she caught me cheating on her with Kyoko?

In short, although reversing time can erase the memories of most people in the world, the subconscious from the previous time still remains. This is why Mami becomes more and more difficult to deal with, and Madoka becomes more and more difficult to deceive.

That's pretty much it. After complaining for a while, Mami finally accepted my going to school—or maybe it was because she wanted to spend more time with me.

I was thinking this as I washed the dishes.

"The water's boiled. Shall you shower first, or should I?" Mami walked over, wrapped in a bath towel.

“…Let’s shower together.” I rolled my eyes and said that.

That's about it. I've lost count of how many cycles this has gone through—I stopped counting after the twenty-eighth failure. In fact, I've already decided. I'll try three more times at most. If that idiot with long, straight black hair still can't succeed after those three, then that's it. I'll restore everything in this plane to normal. Then I'll go back to my original plane and participate in the final Holy Grail War. At least I'll get my share of the plane's power, and then we'll talk about other things.

It seems like decades ago, Yuki and I climbed onto the roof and watched the moon all night. Afterwards, this question suddenly occurred to me: What if I eventually reversed time—in fact, I already have that ability now—but the tragedy still happened, and nothing could be changed?

Although the idea was somewhat absurd, it was hard to suppress once it came to mind. So I discussed it with Yuki, and we decided to leave this dimension alone for a while. We'd find another dimension to conduct an experiment, to see just how likely it was that normal humans could change history by reversing time under normal circumstances. That's it.

However, so far, it has never been successful even once.

"Kyubi, you really are something... A bathtub is too crowded for two people." Although he said that, Mami's face was beaming with joy. She probably agreed.

But why does Mami use the term "two people" here? Shouldn't Kyubey be a mostly white creature that looks like both a cat and a rabbit?

What a joke—what era are we living in now—the people I do business with are all high school students—high school girls in puberty, you know. Would you say it's more reliable to be some unknown creature whose true nature is unclear, or to be more reliable to be a handsome and gentle boy of the same age?

But then again... I don't know when, but the age limit for magical girls suddenly became much lower. Back in the day, magical girls were all little kids, like elementary school students who were eight or nine years old, at most ten, with skin so tender you could squeeze water out of it. Compared to them, my current contractors are practically a bunch of old ladies—ah, Mami, I'm not talking about you—

Chapter 1: Mitakihara, the Transfer Student

"So, students, do you think it's better for a fried egg to be half-cooked or fully cooked?!" At this moment, a bespectacled female teacher named Saotome Kazuko, who looked past the legendary marriageable age and was slightly unsellable, roared this in her class.

"Shinji, you answer this!" Kazuko-sensei pointed her pointer and called out.

"Well, um... it doesn't really matter, right?" the male student whose name was called replied.

"—That's right! That's exactly it! So it's incredibly rude of someone to reject me for such a ridiculous reason! It's not a big deal if you can't fry an egg properly! Seriously—all you female students, please remember this: when you grow up, never date a boy who cares about whether you can fry an egg properly. And all you male students, when you grow up, please don't become like that. That's all. Also, we have two new students transferring to our school today, please welcome them."

"What's going on? This is the important thing, isn't it?" Hearing the laughter of her classmates, a girl with pink hair and a round face tied in pigtails forced a smile.

"Is the new classmate a boy or a girl?" That's when some bored people asked such a pointless question.

"There are both boys and girls," the teacher replied.

"Oh."

"Hey, Madoka." At this moment, the girl next to Madoka Kaname, with short blue hair and looking like an athletic girl, nudged her and whispered, "What kind of person do you think will transfer here?"

"We'll see each other soon," Madoka replied.

"Honestly, Madoka, don't you understand? The most important thing is the process of guessing and anticipating beforehand—what's the point if you just know the answer all at once?" said the girl named Sayaka Miki.

"Alright, you can come in now. Wright, and Homura Akemi," the teacher said.

……

"Um—I said you can come in now." Seeing that no one responded, the teacher raised her voice a little.

However, still no one agreed.

"Wright-kun—and Homura-kun—are you still there?!"

At that moment, the atmosphere outside the classroom suddenly became tense. Akemi Homura, with her long, straight black hair, cold gaze, and wearing stockings, looked at me with a detached, aloof expression. I felt a little uneasy inside.

"Should I just kill him here—no, forget it. If this guy were that easy to kill, I wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble... Also, why is this guy in the school? This has never happened before... Damn it."

"Is this Homura Akemi?" Despite the cold, icy gaze of the long-haired girl, I maintained an extremely gentle smile and said, "The teacher is already calling us. Could you please open the door? Or could you move aside so I can go in first?"

"..." Homura Akemi turned around without a word, opened the door, and went inside. I touched my nose and followed her inside.

"Ah... this must be Homura Akemi." Kazuko-sensei was getting a little impatient and almost went out to call us—but before that, Homura pushed open the door and went in.

I'm a little captivated by her. She's such a fragile and helpless person, yet she undergoes such a drastic change because of another person. She wraps herself in a cold shell.

I really want to see her cry her heart out after her dream is shattered—no, I should say, I wish her success, success would be the best. After all, her success rate is directly related to the final results of my experiment.

So, you've failed more than fifty times already. And you still act all nonchalant—how shameless! If I were you, I'd just find a block of tofu and smash my head against it.

Shrug.

"Wright Baldwin."

Because I couldn't use such a strange name as Kyubey, I changed it back to that name. Actually, by now I've basically given up hope of finding my original name—and the author doesn't seem to want to bother giving me another name. Damn it, what's going on? It's been so long, almost 1.3 million words—and I still don't have a real name. Sometimes I really want to just kill myself. But then I think about how I probably won't die. So I guess I'll just have to accept it.

Okay, I was just kidding. Actually, I'm terrified of dying. Extremely, incredibly terrified of dying. Terrified to death.

That's it.

I wrote my name in kana on the whiteboard with a quirky pen. Then I turned around.

"That's it. I'm from the Scandinavian Federation of Northern Europe. Please feel free to give me your guidance." After saying that, I gave a gentle smile.

Then came a girl's scream. Enraged, Homura Akemi almost pulled out a gun and ripped a hole in my head.

"Don't go too far, Kyubey." At this moment, Mami, who was observing me from the shadows, also "reminded" me in this way through telepathy.

"Well, this is just a little trick for getting along well with classmates," I replied to Mami, my mind working in sync with hers.

"Oh, right, that cassette tape store I pass on my way to school, I just sensed a witch there. Don't you want to go check it out?"

"Is that right?"

"Of course, why would I lie to you?"

"Well... I'll go after school. I'll go check it out after school."

"That's settled then. I have something else to attend to. Let's split up and go our separate ways."

"Chubi."

"Ok?"

"I always feel... that you're hiding something from me."

"How could that be? It's all your imagination."

"Is that so... I hope so."

Immediately afterward, Mami stopped asking questions. I also breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"...Huh? Sayaka, I feel like I've seen that boy somewhere before..." Madoka and Sayaka were whispering to each other. However, since their classmates were also whispering nearby, they didn't stand out.

“Madoka, you really are something…” Sayaka said with a mischievous smile, nudging Madoka with her elbow. “I never thought that a pure girl like you would come up with such a cliché way of picking up girls.”

"No, it's true, I really feel like I've seen him somewhere before."

“…Hmm, now that you mention it, I think I vaguely remember him…” Sayaka looked at my face more closely. “Logically speaking, I shouldn’t forget a handsome guy like that after seeing him… Did I see him on some TV show? Is he some kind of foreign celebrity? —By the way, where is Scandinavia?”

At that moment, I also noticed the gazes of the two girls, turned my head slightly, and nodded and smiled at them...

Chapter Two: Long, Straight Black Hair Under the Cover of Night

Like me, Homura Akemi has also forgotten how many times she has reincarnated. Perhaps since the first time, she has experienced hundreds of such cycles. Yet, she still remembers that day, the moment she became a magical girl, very clearly. She can't forget it even if she wanted to.

"So, you want to save us?" The boy, who had a very handsome smile, looked dejected as he held Xiaoyuan's body, looking up at her like this.

"...But, but now..."

"Please, sign a contract with me and become a magical girl."

That's what the boy said.

To be honest, after witnessing the tragic deaths of her two predecessors, Homura Akemi no longer had the same longing for the profession of magical girl.

People will die.

that's all.

Basically, this one reason is enough to make a young girl hesitate.

However, the boy said to her, "Please help me."

Homura Akemi seemed captivated by that smile. In a daze, she gave an affirmative reply.

“I understand. I will help you… Cupid.”

"Thank you so much." Then, the boy called Kyubey hugged her. Homura Akemi blushed and her heart raced as she couldn't help but think, "Even if I were to die for him, it wouldn't be such a big deal."

However, things didn't go quite as she imagined. Homura Akemi's original plan was to sign a contract with Kyubey and become a magical girl. Then she would mourn for Mami and Madoka for three minutes. After that, she could enjoy a carefree life with Kyubey.

However, the reality is not like that.

“Every magical girl who signs a contract with me can have one wish granted. If you want to change all of this, Homura, just wish for the ability to reverse time, so you can travel back in time and save the world.”

While it's more realistic to wish for Kyubey to love you forever after signing the contract (even though it's impossible), Homura Akemi ultimately listened to me, made that wish, and successfully returned to the past.

"At first, it was all for you. But things are different now. I won't fall for it again."

So, in a CD shop not far from the school, in a room that was rarely visited, Homura Akemi expressionlessly pulled out a pistol and pointed it at me.

I originally wanted to get to know Madoka and Sayaka better here. But instead of hooking up with the cute girls, I attracted a female assassin. How unlucky!

"I'll kill you." Homura Akemi remained expressionless and silent, but that was what she was thinking. She was used to seeing her in that black magical girl outfit and the round shield on her forearm. It seemed she hadn't improved much this time. Perhaps she had already reached her limit.

"Um... I don't know why, but this is only our first day meeting, right? Have I offended you before, Xiaoyan?"

"...Don't call me that so affectionately," Homura Akemi thought to herself before pulling the trigger.

They dodged it without any doubt.

"..."

Then came a moment of silence.

"Ah, well, although you see me dodging it so easily, it was actually very difficult. Predicting the trajectory of the bullet based on the angle of your gun's muzzle is a very technical task. And even if you dodged it, it doesn't prove anything. My skills are very poor. You could say I have no combat ability at all. Don't bully me."

"...Do you even believe what you're saying?" Homura Akemi silently scoffed to herself. Still silent, she froze time in an instant, then pulled the trigger repeatedly, firing all the bullets in her magazine in one go. A barrage of bullets formed in the air, making it difficult to dodge.