Infinite Journey: Dark Souls

"No, this is..."

The outline of another city was already faintly visible in the distance, but the bus, which was going straight, drove straight past the edge of the city from the three-way intersection leading to Kazamino City.

"...You should have turned left!"

An agitated Anzu stood up and watched helplessly as her city receded into the distance, right before Yan's eyes.

[See 31, Takihara Cycle] [MIAKIHARA]

After getting off at the next bus stop, the two noticed in a quick glance that there seemed to be a problem with the bus schedule.

Did you get on the wrong bus?

"Impossible! We definitely got on the train to Kazamino."

"Let's take the next bus back... We absolutely can't make the same mistake again this time."

While waiting for the bus, Anzu took out a box of chocolate chips, poured a few for Homura, and started munching on some herself.

After a while, the bus lights dispelled the gradually darkening sky. The two stared at the bus schedule and, after confirming that it read "[See 15 Kazamino Station North Exit]", they boarded the bus again.

Anzu remained standing until she was sure the bus was heading in the right direction, then sat down again and pressed the announcement button on the bus stop announcement system once more.

"Next stop, Mitakihara 2-chome. Passengers heading to Mitakihara Private Elementary School, please get off at this stop. This train will stop at the next stop."

The city's outline reappeared in their field of vision, but the station name announced by the electronic voice system was still not the one they had hoped to hear.

The bus once again went straight through the three-way intersection.

"Stop right there, hey!"

Feeling like she'd been fooled, Kyoko jumped out of the carriage in a fit of anger, landing on the bus's hood and yelling at the bus driver whose face she couldn't see.

Even though she was blocking the driver's view, he ignored her and calmly drove the bus.

Flame jumped down as well, and after confirming that the driver was the same as the other passersby she had seen, she grabbed Kyoko's shoulder to prevent her from taking any further aggressive actions.

The city's outline has once again receded into the distance.

[See 31, see Takihara Cycle]

"How could such a thing happen!"

“This time, let’s go check it out… Turn left at the three-way intersection we pass along the way, and we should be able to reach Kazamino.”

"Ah."

PS: Yunxi: The content in 【】 is research on Madoka Magica, and all information comes from the Madoka Magica Baidu Tieba forum.

The sudden reunion of the thirteenth of destiny

Enveloped by full-coverage headphones, the music seemed to resonate directly in her heart. Xiao Yuan was immersed in the sea of ​​music, her body swaying to the rhythm.

This was a feeling she missed quite a bit; it seemed that ever since Kyosuke Kamijou recovered from his injury, she had never had the chance to come here with Sayaka to listen to music again.

The small white animal lay on her shoulder, leisurely swaying its tail.

As she listened, Xiaoyuan suddenly felt that her swaying rhythm was out of sync with the music. Somewhat puzzled, she took off her headphones and then, through the superhuman physical abilities of a magical girl, she felt a slight tremor in the building.

Could someone have been attacked?

A thought popped into her head, and she immediately hung the headphones back on the stand, searching around for Sayaka.

"Oh dear...where did she go?"

"Hehe, Xiaoyuan, were you looking for me?"

Suddenly, Sayaka appeared behind her, and the moment she turned around, a flash of blue light appeared on her body... as if she had deactivated her combat suit?

"That startled me! -- By the way, Sayaka, did you feel the building shaking?"

"Yes, yes, it's on the top two floors. Shall we go up and take a look?"

"Okay! Let's go up and take a look together. Although the Nightmare probably won't appear during the day, we can still help if anything happens!"

"OK, let's go then! Oh, and by the way, QB can stay with me for now; it must be tiring for it to be perched on your shoulder all the time~"

Without waiting for Madoka's reply, Sayaka picked up QB and ran towards the escalator.

"Hey? Wait for me!"

————————————————————————————————————————

The source of the tremor was the second floor above the CD store. The battle had reached a fever pitch, and the entire floor was a mess. If it weren't for the fact that there were no real ordinary people in the witch's barrier, the place would probably be littered with corpses.

"Tch, although I had anticipated this, I didn't expect that even with the Ash Body, it would struggle so much against familiars."

The weapons that were originally inserted around their bodies in a ring have now spread all over the floor, and Xiaoyan and Zida have also suffered many more wounds. However, instead of blood, there are now only faint dark purple flames burning at their wounds.

However, it's not that the Ashes are really weak; it's just that these familiars, after revealing their true forms, are completely above average. Moreover, their chaotic fighting style makes Xiaoyan, who hasn't fought witches in a long time, very uncomfortable.

Simply put, even the strongest enemies in the World of Fire will walk properly. But these familiars in front of her, with their exaggerated speed, made Xiaoyan truly experience what it means to not follow the usual path.

Here we go again!

Four figures surrounded them again, stepping on the roof, walls, counters, and support pillars, launching another surprise attack from all directions on Xiaoyan and Zida, who were back to back.

After revealing their true colors, their abilities seemed to have increased significantly, and the glowing red knitting needles became deadly weapons.

The simultaneous attack by four people, amplified by high speed, was far beyond what ordinary methods could withstand.

But now Xiaoyan has already resorted to extraordinary methods.

In the previous fierce battles, they had clashed countless times, which greatly increased her ability to rewind time. In order to keep up with the speed of the four's sudden attack, Xiaoyan directly used time rewind to replace the so-called attack after-cast delay after a normal attack.

Every time the familiar girl passed by her, their weapons would clash violently. Before Homura could recover from the attack, another one who wasn't walking properly would attack again. Homura, having reversed time, could immediately regain her attack stance and unleash another attack in that short interval.

And so a dazzling scene unfolded before our eyes: a black shadow rapidly maneuvering through the floor space, like a cage, trapping Xiao Yan and her companion inside. And the black lines that formed the cage delivered an attack with each flash.

The two people in the cage seemed to leave afterimages. No matter how dense the black lines were, all sorts of strange weapons would always flash in their hands, leaving sparks flying as they parried the attacks from the black lines.

Arrogance seemed to completely clone Homura's fighting style. They looked after each other's backs, and in the narrow space cut by the black lines, countless afterimages were reflected, constantly knocking away deadly attacks.

However, the wounds continued to increase on their bodies. Now that Homura had completely shed her magical girl identity, although she no longer needed the support of magic and could continue fighting as long as her flames remained burning, the high intensity of the battle still made her fighting will unstable. Once she lost her fighting spirit, she would crush herself.

Therefore, a way to break the deadlock is urgently needed!

During the brief moment of rewind, Xiaoyan's gaze met that of arrogance, and the familiar immediately understood its master's thoughts. She switched to her katana, no longer attacking in response to attack, and instantly rewinded to a few sword counter stances. At the cost of the katana breaking, she brought the cage of black lines to a halt and stunned the rushing figure.

At the moment the four familiar girls froze, Homura drew her twin pistols and took turns firing them in the direction where the four had stopped. Deep purple flame bullets rained down at a rate comparable to that of a heavy machine gun.

In an instant, the cage was completely torn open, and a torrent of deep purple flames engulfed the four familiar girls, slamming them violently against the surrounding walls.

As the afterimage faded, Xiao Yan put away her scorching hot pistol and, with an air of arrogance, immediately leaped off the floor, intending to get rid of these troublesome familiars first.

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!"

A familiar voice suddenly came from below her, and on the escalator where she was about to step, the face she had been longing for was getting bigger and bigger.

The sudden encounter robbed Homura of her ability to react, and she stood there dumbfounded, crashing into the pink-haired girl.

Bang-!

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" ×2

————————————————————————————————————————

Sayaka had actually noticed the tremors in the department store long ago, or rather, she had suspected her earlier than anyone else, even when Ori first came into contact with them.

After all, she is the only magical girl who has retained her memories—not counting Bebe, who was a witch from the beginning.

She had no recollection of Ryougi Ori existing in the world they were watching over, but she was clearly not a product of this witch's barrier, so as an anomaly, she was placed on Sayaka and Nagisa's surveillance list.

As it just so happens that Mami seems to be interested in accepting her as a member of the magical girls, Sayaka decisively handed the task over to Nagisa Momoe, while she and her goddess, in this world's incarnation, went shopping at a department store for the first time in a long time.

Before encountering those familiars, this should have been a nice nostalgic trip, but shortly after arriving at the CD store, she saw those willful familiars also coming to browse the CD store.

In her judgment, this was probably the spontaneous behavior of these familiars, and they were not there to monitor them. So, although her interest was somewhat dampened, she did not intend to fight them. However, their subsequent actions piqued her curiosity.

The familiar wearing the lady's hat, who was at the very back, seemed to notice something before stepping into the store. She paused for a moment, then immediately began to call out to her companions who had already entered the store. These guys, after peeking out in confusion, quickly gathered together, made a ruckus for a while, and then left immediately.

This was the first time she had ever seen anything like this, so she quietly left the CD store while enjoying her music, unaware of Xiaoyuan's presence.

After confirming that she was out of QB's sight, she changed into her combat suit under the blue light and caught up with the familiar girls.

【Oktavia von Seckendorff】

Then she saw a scene that left her completely baffled.

Homura Akemi actually got into a conflict with those familiars here. Didn't she make plans to go out with Kyoko?

And what's with that guy fighting alongside her? He should be a familiar too, but Sayaka feels that he's different from other familiars.

No, something's off about Homura Akemi. This kind of close-quarters melee combat seems to be something only she and Kyoko are good at. When did that girl, who only relies on stopping time and needs weapons and equipment to fight, become so skilled?

Moreover, many of these exquisite skills are clearly designed for humans, or rather, for creatures of similar size to humans. If it weren't for the fact that they happened to encounter these doll familiars, these skills would be quite impractical for a magical girl's job.

In short, there are many suspicious points. Most importantly, Sayaka, who has some authorization from the Law of Cycles, keenly discovered that she was not included in the management, which means... she is not even a magical girl?

interesting.

Sayaka had some guesses. After all, having fully understood Homura Akemi's experiences, she would have a clear understanding of time travel. So the origin of this other Homura Akemi was very intriguing. Could it be that she was someone who completely escaped the fate of a magical girl at some point in time?

This speculation sparked her imagination. If a magical girl had emerged who could shed her magical girl identity, did it foreshadow a way to completely break this spiral of tragedy? Perhaps Madoka could too…

She suddenly had a bold idea: if she let Xiaoyuan interact with her now, it might bring them many different things.

Although she didn't know the other party's purpose, as long as it was Homura Akemi, she wouldn't be harmful to Madoka, right? So she did what she thought of. Sayaka has always been a straightforward demon... now she should be considered a priest. Anyway, the priest immediately returned to the CD store, and coincidentally, Madoka also noticed something and was looking for her.

"Hehe, Xiaoyuan, were you looking for me?"

It seemed to startle Xiaoyuan, but now she still had to deal with another guy.

As she changed back into her school uniform before Xiaoyuan turned around, she glanced at the little white beast clinging to Xiaoyuan.

"That startled me! -- By the way, Sayaka, did you feel the building shaking?"

"Yes, yes, it's on the top two floors. Shall we go up and take a look?"

"Okay! Let's go up and take a look together. Although the Nightmare probably won't appear during the day, we can still help if anything happens!"

"OK, let's go then! Oh, and by the way, QB can stay with me for now; it must be tiring for it to be perched on your shoulder all the time~"

Without waiting for Madoka's reply, Sayaka picked up QB and ran towards the escalator.

"Hey? Wait for me!"