Arc2 Ch8 (Gilde's Summary)

The following is Gilde's summary of Arc2 Ch8, with minor edits to naughty no no words to appease the filter
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Chapterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Eighttttttttttttttttttttt

------------------Intro------------------
-Recap of where we're at post-Chapter 7: following the big fight in Futatsugi + Sakuya's death + Yuna's Kimochi mind palace adventure with Iroha, Yuna has announced that Promised Blood will step down and join forces with the Kamihama Magia Union. (Or, at the very least, they'll put their faith in Iroha for now.) Kagome has been hospitalized after putting herself in the line of fire, so-- as she explains in this intro-- the following segments were either heard second-hand from girls who visited her, or journalled in her stead by Puella Care.

-During one of her visits with Kagome, Urara confirms that she'll be leaving Promised Blood fairly soon to continue observing from afar with Folklore. When Kagome asks why she tried to protect Sakuya if she's just an observer, Urara makes another mention of how saving individual people won't affect the result they're waiting for. Apparently, the sole deciding factor is "whether Magical Girls can be publicized or not".

*(Other tidbit of (potential?) note: Livia's the one who offers to continue Kagome's notes while she's recovering. Another point to jot down in the 'there's something important about Kagome's notes' column? ...Or Livia's just being nice. One of the two.)

-After its Ominous Foreshadowing Rat Conversation (TM) with Kyubey last chapter, the baby Kyubey (hereafter Mokyu) has spent the past several days desperately trying to tell Iroha and co. something. But alas! It can only communicate through adorable squeaking! At any rate, it at least manages to convey that A.) there's an imminent threat, and B.) it has something to do with the purification system.


------------------Kamihama Magia Union------------------
-Sudachi narrates a brief explanation of the post-Chapter 7 atmosphere within the Union. Due to a combination of A.) the "West + PB joining forces against the East" rumors that Yuna fanned in Ch.6/7, B.) the sudden news of the Union and PB *actually* joining forces, and C.) the West mayoral candidate winning the (sabotaged) election right at the same time, East-side girls such as the Apartment Trio are having... mixed feelings, to say the least.
--> Kanagi and Mitama are doing their best to survey the East-side girls and put their fears to rest, but the mood is still grim. A West-side kid at Tomorrow Shop apparently threw a rock at Mikage, for one thing. (Just like Mitama feared in Chapter 6.) But Mitama herself asks the Apartmenters to not judge all of the West-siders based on that one incident; if nothing else, they're all on equal footing as Magical Girls.

-The Union heads have a meeting and confirm with each other that yeah, MGs from all three chunks of the city are viewing the PB truce with suspicion. (Yachiyo outright says "maybe we came on a little strong with the 'join forces' phrasing... we should've phrased it as 'temporarily cooperating'... :\" which feels like the writers talking through her LOL)
Momoko smartly suggests that getting an explanation and apology from Yuna herself would help regain the Union members' trust. Tsuruno suggests, also smartly, that if Yuna and the Union seem like *too much* of a united front, it'll conversely seem suspicious. Hrm.
(Also more mention of the Tomorrow Shop incident, though Mikage-- and Mitama?-- is only really concerned about the effect that news of the incident might have, rather than the incident itself.)

--> Mifuyu and Sudachi join us on the way back. No news on the Karin/Alina search (yet!). Mifuyu shares the Amane twins' current situation with the others, while additionally noting that her own family has called her back to their house for the time being. (Erk.)
Since Mitama needs to tend to some Coordinator work, Yachiyo and Mifuyu are the ones to accompany Mikage and Sudachi on a trip to Tomorrow Shop. Hopefully it'll be a good place to hear more about the city's current situation?

-Iroha checks in on the Baby Genius Science Lab. According to the digital store metrics... Sana's picture book has started selling like hotcakes!! ;O; (Apparently it got spotlighted by a particular influencer or something. Yay.)
--> Touka and Nemu's MG-related posts, on the other hand... nothing. Zilch. Nada. Absolutely no attention received. The two of them are solidifying their Theory (TM) about a potential cause-- which Iroha picks up on-- but they still refuse to share any details besides "the East/West issues might provide a hint" "as long as you make sure to connect that hint to several other things." Thanks, I guess?
They also believe that they can still successfully publicize info by "trying something risky"; for now, though, they just need Iroha and Ui to do their best to stay alive until the time is right. (Okay, I guess??)


-At Tomorrow Shop: adorable flashback to one of the Baby Yachi/Mifu scenes! Aw.
Yachiyo greets Mrs. Shopkeep and asks about the rock-throwing (which Shopkeep notes that Mitama was particularly upset about at the time). As we see in Mitama and Mikage's section of the chapter further below, it was apparently prompted by what the local kids had heard from their parents about the election, including the smear campaign about the East candidate's alleged gang connections. Mikage thanks Mrs. Shopkeep for how she stepped in to scold the kids and defend Mikage; Shopkeep likewise apologizes for how her generation failed to fix things.
After a bit more discussion of current goings-on, Yachiyo asks if she's ever heard about a potential historical source for the conflict. Mrs. Shopkeep brings up Tsuyu and Chizuru from the Mulberry Leaf legend: according to local history, Tsuyu and Chizuru led a successful revolution and proceeded to part ways. But according to Shopkeep's great-grandmother's great-grandmother-- so, eight generations back-- some people say that Tsuyu and Chizuru went on to do something that actually caused a schism amongst the populace, with Tsuyu and Chizuru being forced to fight on opposite sides.
...It's just folklore, though.

--> What's more important, Shopkeep says, is trying to change things here and now. At this, she coaxes the kid who threw the rock out of his hiding place in the back of the shop, where he was listening in on our conversation. After being scolded by Shopkeep the previous day and hearing all of what we said, he apologizes for what he and his friends did, and Mikage happily accepts the apology (along with an offer to play together some other time).
(In retrospect... it might've helped things a little if Mitama and Kanagi had been present for this conversation too. But hindsight's 20/20.)


-The above convo prompts Yachiyo to search for documents on Tsuyu and Chizuru, enlisting most of the other Union members at Asuka's dojo to help. After a whole half-day of searching, the only new document from the dojo is a copy of a call to arms to hunt down Chizuru (since she was, y'know, a mountain bandit and all).

--> Then we're greeted by... Karin!!! She's back!!! She and Alina found their way to a particularly deep part of Mirrors, after which Karin got booted out. First thing she did upon returning was to go find Kanagi at work, who then directed her to us at the dojo.
Karin has news for us about Alina, which...
I'm actually going to truncate entirely!! Because we see it first-hand during the Karin/Alina section of the chapter, and it's very dramatic. See below.

-On one of the following nights, Yachiyo gets a phone call from Kanagi. After confirming that their issues with PB will most likely be resolved at the upcoming meeting, and that all that's left to do is to gather the Kimochis in one spot afterward, Kanagi says that she and Mitama will be resting on their own and won't attend either event. Yachiyo's like "...yeah, no problem? we saw how badly you got injured, you don't need to ask permission to rest". In response, Kanagi sighs and apologizes for what they might have to deal with on her behalf.
Then hangs up before Yachiyo can respond.


-Then, a few days after Karin's return (and Iroha's visit to Futatsugi in the PB section below), the Union members from the supporting cast all gather in the dojo to hear an explanation from the Union heads and Yuna herself. Though they couldn't make any more progress on the "history" side of things, Yachiyo does her best to allay the crowd's fears about the East/West divide.

(One bit from a "crowd whispering to each other" section that I particularly like:
 -Himika says that they're all Magical Girls, so they all ought to be equal with each other!
 -Leila replies that sure, they each got a wish granted, but apart from that they're just ordinary citizens. Ordinary Easterners and Westerners.
 --> Yachiyo tells the crowd about the boy at Tomorrow Shop and his apology, and says that if children younger than them are capable of changing, it's their responsibility as those children's elders to set a good example for them. --If our generation doesn't put a stop to these things, then which generation's going to have to?
 -Leila and Himika think about it again.
  ...They're all just ordinary citizens. So it's only fair to assume their example can spread to the /other/ ordinary citizens, right?)

-Then it's Yuna's turn on stage... and her first words are "wow it is LITERALLY amazing to me that you are all standing here like fish on a chopping block for me. this is hilarious"
--> Everyone's like "EXCUSE ME????" --> Yuna goes on to reiterate her position of "I still don't trust any of you motherduckers, I still wanna murder all of you, I am ONLY here b/c I'm putting my faith in Iroha and b/c joining you guys is the smartest move atm. also here's the specific ways in which i plotted to murder you prior to the Kimochi Thunderdome Rules, how i weaponized the east/west rumors to get kanagi out of the picture + tried to destabilize felicia + etcetera. you're basically only alive right now thanks to ryou and ikumi's deaths so watch your backs." (as iroha notes a minute later, she's hamming it up on purpose. slllightly.)
--> This naturally gets everyone Extremely Pissed (particularly Hinano) and the crowd tries to straight-up fight Yuna in the middle of Asuka's dojo, much to Asuka's chagrin. After Yachiyo and Mifuyu intervene to hold everyone back, Iroha is like "jesus christ Yuna you didn't have to play it up that hard" & the other Mikazuki members are like oh, ok, she was hamming it up on purpose in order to put the "PB + Kamihama West collusion" rumors to rest. (yuna's like yeah but you didn't have to say it in front of everyone :\)

--> after the dust settles, Yuna clarifies that once the Auto-Purification System goes worldwide, they'll just. establish a non-interference policy between Futatsugi and Kamihama. no visits between the two. if something comes up that requires a visit she'll phone them up first so that it can be done w/ as little face-to-face contact as possible.

--> also, once Momoko gets confirmation abt the ceasefire from Iroha, Rena and Ranka officially fight it out (w/ arcade games) at the arcade. yay. Ranka also demands that Team KMR show her around their school afterward, since she wants to introduce Yuna to the track team that Sakuya was on.

-The Mikazuki crew prepares to move out of the shelter over the next few days. Touka's sad that they can't sleep over at her cool shelter any more (lol), but she and Nemu agree that keeping Iroha and Ui at a distance while they set up The Big Publicization Gamble (TM) will be convenient.

-Also, Mokyu is nowhere to be seen?


~Interview Subject: Mikage Yakumo~
-When it comes to what she wants to be when she grows up, Mikage's first choice would've been "a celebrity", because DUH. But she's heard more than enough stories about The Evils Of The Celebrity World (TM), so she'd rather open a candy shop! That'd be nice.
It'd also be nice if she could run said shop together with Mitama, but... she thinks the best thing for Mitama would be to just get away from the city after graduating. Ditto for Kanagi. She's been getting the sense that it's just not a good place for either of them.



------------------Promised Blood------------------
-Kagome narrates an explanation of the post-Chapter 7 atmosphere within Promised Blood. Despite Yuna announcing a ceasefire, there's been an outcry from several PB girls-- mainly Ryugasaki-- who aren't pleased with this outcome. This would be the perfect time for Juri to step up and throw her support behind Yuna... if she weren't in a total funk herself right now, as we see upon cutting to her.
*(Also!! As if it weren't enough that the PB/Union conflict petered out. Her favorite comic got cancelled!! So it had to wrap everything up in, like, one chapter!! UGH)
--> She's got zero motivation right now. There's nothing for her to do with herself, far as she's concerned. Nobody to fight in either city. Barely even feels alive. She says as much to Ranka, who's been complaining to her about the Ryugasaki backlash. ...Although, speaking of which. Maybe another brawl between them and Torayamachi could be fun?

-Meanwhile, Yuna is finally finding time for student council business again. (Her fellow council members are relieved to see it. Aw.) Hikaru reports the latest developments: namely, that the talk of outright *joining forces* is causing about as much tension between Futatsugi's MGs as it was between Kamihama's, if not more. (...Definitely more.)
Yuna admits that, with Sakuya's last wishes and Iroha having been at the forefront of her mind, she may have been too hasty in trying to get her girls back to a regular school life. On top of that, Ryugasaki weren't as close with Sakuya as Yuna's girls were (& thus had less context for her decision), and the fact that Yuna both single-handedly announced and disbanded the revenge plan can't have sat well with them either.

--> All of the above points are reiterated by angry Ryugasaki girls during the following meeting between the three gangs. Ranka (and Hikaru!) share how their opinions changed upon getting to know the Kamihama girls personally. When a Ryugasaki girl brings up Sakuya's death as a point in favor of retaliating, Yuna responds with how Sakuya herself was hoping for a ceasefire, as well how the Kamihama girls have now lost two of their members in the same way that Futatsugi lost everyone in the catacombs. She herself doesn't trust anyone from Kamihama besides Iroha, and she can't stop anyone from *individually* trying to take revenge on Kamihama in the future-- but for now, prioritizing salvation over revenge is the right choice for them to make.
--> Though this does give the Ryugasaki girls pause, Juri takes this opportunity to cut in and do what she does best: propose a fight between her and Yuna as representatives of each gang. (Ranka's not pleased with this.)

-After a brief argument with Juri over the above, Ranka heads down to the arcade that night to take her mind off of things, and finds Ao discussing the situation with Janomiya.
--> Ao very matter-of-factly tells her girls that she'll continue sticking with Yuna, since Yuna's more likely to win the fight based on past precedent-- and, well, she already told the others as much! So that's that. And betting on the winning horse will give her a better chance of standing above everyone else at the end, too!
--> This... isn't much different from Ao's modus operandi during Crimson Resolve, but the Janomiya girls are all put on edge by how brazen she's being about it. She reiterates all of this to Ranka upon noticing that she's there, and doubles down on the "secure an absolute position on top of everyone else's backs" rhetoric in particular. (Ranka telepathies the Janomiya girls like "yo you guys are seeing this, right? I'm not the only one here who thinks she's getting worse?" and the Janomiya girls are like "yeah bro she is DEFINITELY getting worse and it's freaking us out".)

(--> Ao: "Why don't you join me too, Ranka? I'll even forget about how much you hurt me in Monzenbashi. Y'know, as a favor. The Bat had you under her thumb, after all. But from here on out, WE can be the ones with everyone under our thumbs!")
--> Ranka is like "jesus christ, ok, slow down" and asks what Ao's currently planning, which turns out to be the same "snuff out both Yuna and Juri while they're fighting" plan from CR. Ranka calls her out on not being able to go through with it back during CR, but Ao says things are different now. "I've already killed one person, after all."
--> Ranka hurriedly excuses herself.


-The fight is held in the catacombs a day or two later. During the proceedings, Yuna takes the opportunity to address the crowd and explain her rationale for trusting Iroha. (We're pretty much up to speed on that rationale already, but there's one more point I liked that didn't get directly mentioned in Chapter 7. --> Part of why Yuna thought she could trust Iroha is that during the Arc 1 Flashback Dive (TM), she learned how Iroha *herself* started out as an outsider to Kamihama. If Iroha's presence was what stopped the Magius' plan-- if her presence managed to change the kind of place that Kamihama was-- then maybe she'll be able to change things for the better in other places, too?)
--> And just as the fight is reaching its peak (and Ao is tightening her grip on her axe)... speak of the devil! It's Iroha!
She just kind of blunders right into the room.
Yuna and Juri both look at her like "do you mind? we kind of had a thing going on here".

-Iroha offers to leave and come back to finish her business another time, but Yuna insists that she finish said business and tell them what it is, here and now. (Juri is likewise miffed by the sudden intrusion, and no longer feels like finishing the fight.)
--> Iroha's like "uh... okay" and quietly heads over to the far wall.
It turns out that she's here to make good on her Chapter 7 promise to pay respects to Sakuya... or, more specifically, she's here to pay respects and introduce herself to each of the girls sleeping in the catacombs. She gives an impromptu speech to the graves (seriously, the graves) where she explains who she is, personally apologizes for what happened to each of them, hopes that she can have their blessing in allying with Promised Blood for the near future, and promises that she'll bring each of them into the future as fellow MGs like everyone else.
--> Everyone just kind of stares at her bemusedly. (The Ryugasaki girls in particular.)


-Yuna escorts her back to the train station, then discusses things with Juri, Ranka and Hikaru.
Since the Ryugasaki girls have settled down after watching Iroha's visit, Juri dejectedly concedes the fight. That just leaves Janomiya to deal with-- or more specifically, Ao, since it didn't escape either of their notice that she was totally about to backstab them before Iroha walked in.

--> After Ranka tells them about last night, they go confront Ao at the arcade. She halfway tries to brush off their accusations ("noo, I was just thinking I'd stop you guys if the fight got out of hand! :O" "I could never eliminate either of you, that'd be way too scary :)"), but after enough prodding from Ranka and Juri, she admits that yes, she's 100% willing to knock Yuna and/or Juri off the ladder if they can't take her all the way to the top. ...But it's still purely hypothetical right now. She swears.

--> On their way back home that night, Juri and the others agree that Ao used to be much better at lying.


-Next day: Yuna's off to Kamihama to help settle things with the Union, as seen above. But first, she wants to touch base with Juri about what's to be done re:Ao.
--> But Juri's nowhere to be found? She's not responding to texts from either Yuna or Ranka. Hasn't gone to attack Ao at Janomiya or anything like that, either. Yuna's search party reports no sign of her at school, at Ryugasaki's base, the arcade, the boxing gym, the riverbank, the construction sites... nor the riverbank where she broke off from Torayamachi... nor the catacombs.

-The only other place that she might visit during a low moment, Yuna theorizes, is their former warehouse base in Kamihama. This theory proves right when she walks into the warehouse, expecting to find Juri planning a solo attack against the Union, and instead finds Juri about to break her own Soul Gem.
--> cue The Gayest Event CG In All Of World History which i'm sure you've all seen screencaps of already lol
--> After a bit of prodding, Juri admits that yes, she was trying to kill herself. Her reasoning is basically the same as what she and Tsuruno talked about in the previous two chapters: as far as she sees it, there's no way for her to be satisfied with anything less than either her or Yuna killing the other in the end. As long as she's around, Futatsugi will never be peaceful-- which she was OK with when the *rest* of Futatsugi was actively fighting, sure. But now they're finally, actually on the verge of ending that era for good. So they're better off leaving her behind along with it.
--> Yuna rebuts that even if all of that is true, now is hardly the time for her to bow out; she's still the central presence that keeps Ryugasaki together, and they still need to do something about Ao. If she absolutely needs to fight in order to keep herself going, then for at least the immediate future, she can fight alongside Yuna to get Ao back.
--> This is enough to convince Juri to hold off. She figures she can at least postpone her death until Ao and the Janomiya girls are all safe. (Phew.)
--> Yuna also asks Juri to wait at the Kamihama base until she gets back from the Union meeting, since there's somewhere she wants to visit afterward.


-That place turns out to be the graveyard, where she'd like to visit Ryou and Ikumi's graves. If Iroha was kind enough to mourn the girls in Futatsugi's catacombs, she says, it's only polite for them to extend the Union's girls the same courtesy. She's not there to grieve, of course-- a statement that initially gets some harsh words from Hinano, who's also there to visit-- she says she's there to thank the two of them for the role they played in convincing the Ryugasaki girls to back down. (She admits that "thanks for how your deaths helped cool things off!" probably isn't an ideal sentiment to give, but still.)
--> When Hinano angrily asks whether there was any point to Ryou and Ikumi's lives-- "there was, wasn't there?!"-- Yuna agrees. Hinano says that if she's going to say that much, then Yuna needs to join them in carrying the weight of those two deaths. Yuna says she can't promise to go that far... but as long as she's cooperating with the Union, she can at least help support them while they do the carrying.


~Interview Subject: Juri Ooba~
-When it comes to what kind of future she wants, Juri knows exactly where to start: she's not gonna *have* a future unless she finds a way to do something about her condition. Can't keep going around beating the hell out of people and adding more Aos to the world, after all. So she figures that that's what she would hope for, if anything. Either A.) she finds a way to change herself, B.) she finds some other war to fight in somewhere, or C.) she exits stage left.
She adds that while she doesn't have any real regrets in her life, after spending so much time with Ao and Hikaru, she's started to warm up to the idea of hanging out with a group of friends. Weird, right? So her plan ATM is to set things straight with Ao, then take option C before she gets too attached to the idea of sticking around.



------------------Tokime Clan------------------
-Yozuru narrates a brief intro to the post-Chapter 7 atmosphere within the Tokime Clan. The air is heavy; Asahi and Ryouko are recovering from their wounds, while Shizuka's been grappling with the shock of witnessing Yuna's rampage and Kagome's injury. She's also been mulling over the gulf in viewpoints between Diviners vs. other MGs that she felt in Chapter 3, though she still has no intention of forcing the Diviners' pride on other MGs. It's just a difference in viewpoint, after all-- they're all doing the same work and protecting civilians together.
--> After a few moments of contemplation, she confirms to the rest of the group that yes, they'll join up with the Union and Promised Blood to unite all the Kimochis. She'd like to be able to correct Yuna's ways some day, but she can put those particular feelings aside for now.

-Speaking of things that need to be set right: after discovering Asahi's man-made scars, they'll be heading back to Tokime Village to investigate her branch family.
Asahi herself is just about well enough to walk around again, which is a relief to Chika, who's in charge of tending to her. Asahi apologizes to her for the scars that they saw; Chika is curious as to why Asahi hasn't magically healed said scars. Asahi says that she keeps the scars around because they're evidence of a lesson that she had to learn: namely, that "for prey like us, there's no point in expecting to be saved". ...Those are just her personal feelings, though, so she tells Chika not to dwell on it too much.
--> She's pleased to hear about the ceasefire, but less pleased to hear about Shizuka and co.'s upcoming investigation. Visiting Asahi's home town is the absolute *last* thing that Shizuka should be doing in her current state...

-Meanwhile! Let's check in with Ryouko!
Ryouko's faring better than some might've anticipated when it comes to processing Sakuya's death, but she does snap angrily at Yozuru after a few poor choices of words on Yozuru's part. On the one hand, she made good on her promise to not let Sakuya kill her. Great job! Hooray for friendship! ...On the other hand, she's pretty sure that she now has first-hand experience of what Sakuya had gone through. (Her mental image of what Sakuya might say to her right now agrees with that assessment.)
--> Asahi finds Ryouko grilling fish outside. Ryouko thanks her for saving her life, though Asahi says she didn't do a very good job. (Ryouko: "bruh don't devalue ur own good deed like that :V")
When Ryouko comments on how Asahi makes sure to pray even before small meals like grilled fish, Asahi explains that it's an expression of gratitude to the animal that they're eating. (A concept that a lot of people are probably familiar with.) Like an oath, basically: you're taking another being's life to fuel yourself, so you owe it to them to honour them with the life that you live from then on.
--> Ryouko's reminded of a Buddhist story she heard once, where an animal offered itself up as food for a priest, and the priest went on to take the animal's life up to Paradise along with his. She laughs/cries a little: "that's it right there, huh?" If she literally did "take" Sakuya's life, then it's only right for her to carry Sakuya along with her and live a life that she would've been proud of.
Ergo, she says, she's totally on board with the Promised Blood alliance. Sakuya had faith in Yuna, after all, so she will too.

--> Ryouko looks a lot better after that conversation.
--> On the other hand, Chika's worried about the vibe that Asahi was giving off. ...She looked very alone.


-The GJD Trio returns to Tokime Village and is happily greeted by the Mom Duo!! Everyone clap for the Mom Duo.
  -Mom Hiroe was very concerned about the news of Chiharu's disarming. Chiharu's like 'yeah sorry about that :('.
  -Shizuka proudly informs her mom that the Tokime Gaze-Locking technique came in very handy. Mom Tokime is glad that the conflict is over.
  -Shizuka admits that she had more in common with Yuna than she'd have hoped, but she still can't bring herself to like Yuna, so she's glad that they'll only have to cooperate for a few days.
  -Shizuka also flumps onto the ground halfway through the conversation out of sheer exhaustion / relief to be home.

  --> Mom Hiroe has done the bulk of our preliminary investigation for us! Turns out that the Miura family is descended from the Toki branch clan (朱鷺 / crested ibis, different from Sunao's surname). The one village that still retains that name has been incorporated into what is now Yukuni City. Dun dun.

-While Chiharu and Sunao spend the evening at the hot springs, Shizuka has a conversation with her mom after waking back up. She immediately gives her mom a huge hug, then describes how the world outside is *full* of evil people. Not Witch-controlled people, but actual villains like Mikoshiba. She can't help but feel like her work as a Diviner is nothing but a pointless stopgap measure in the face of it all.
--> When her mom asks if this has made her feel any differently about what she wants to do as a Diviner, Shizuka says that there's still one ray of hope that she wants to continue following. People aren't inherently evil; she's learned that much. So on top of fighting Witches, she has a responsibility to guide people in the right direction and prevent evil from sprouting. Other Magical Girls may not share her pride in supporting the country, but as she said above, they're all doing the same job. So if regular MGs will fight Witches, then it'll be the job of Diviners like Shizuka to guide the populace at the same time.
--> Shizuka's mom admits that she knows even less about the outside world than Shizuka, so she can't offer any specific advice beyond supporting what her daughter thinks is right... but she does have two words of caution. One: while they've always supported the country from the shadows, Diviners have never actually been leaders themselves, so their past experience may not be much help going forward.
Two: if you want to lead people, there's only two ways to do it. Either you gain their respect, or you subjugate them. One of those two options is guaranteed to cause further conflict.

-Sunao likewise asks about Shizuka's intentions when they get a moment alone on the train to Yukuni. Is she serious about all this "leading people" business...? --> Based on what she's seen and heard in Kamihama, yes. That's what she has decided to do. Sunao says that their experiences in Kamihama may be far from ordinary, so she hopes that Shizuka at least reserves her judgement until after Yukuni. --> Shizuka's like "so you're basically saying you want me to reconsider", which Sunao cops to. She doesn't want Shizuka to clash with Iroha or Yuna, and doesn't want her to end up becoming someone like Mikoshiba.
--> Shizuka tells Sunao that she's overthinking it. After all, she's trying to do something /good/.


-Welcome to Yukuni!!! Breathe in that fresh ocean air!!!
The trio would LOVE to take in the sights, but they're here on an official investigation. No time to hunt for souvenirs!! We're gonna take the bus right up to Toki Village... once it arrives, at least. Until the bus arrives, we'll search for local MGs to ask about Asahi!

--> Before they can do that, Chiharu gets a whiff of malice from somebody nearby.
    The person in question seems to be staring at them.
    Once they're on the bus, she notices a second, similar source as more passengers are boarding.
    Then another.
    ...And another.

--> By the time they start driving into the mountains, there's roughly half a dozen students their age amongst the bus passengers, and all of those students are setting off Chiharu's malice radar like crazy. When the trio gets off at Toki Village's bus stop, they're keenly aware of the students getting off the bus right behind them.

--> It turns out that Yukuni's student population isn't just suspicious of Magical Girls-- they HATE them. "If you three got off at this stop, you must be some of Asahi's MG friends, right? You've got rings and everything. We can tell."
--> Wait, how do they know Asahi? "Oh, we don't just KNOW her. We're the ones who made sure she couldn't do anything else nasty around here."
--> Couldn't do what, exactly? "What do you mean, 'what'? You're all monsters! You're threatening us just by BEING here!"

--> The students go on to mention how they know about Witches hurting people, how Witches are suspiciously common wherever Magical Girls can be found, and how Magical Girls themselves eventually turn into Witches. Who's to say that all your "Witch hunting" talk isn't a cover for how you're CONSPIRING with the witches to kill us, huh?!
--> There's roughly a dozen students surrounding them by this point, armed with knives, blunt implements, airsoft guns, etcetera. They're aware that they can't permamently hurt an MG, but they can at least chase all the MGs they find out of town. Running into the woods only aggravates them further-- "so you ARE planning on doing something here!"-- and once the mob explicitly confirms that they're the ones who hurt Asahi, Shizuka flies into a rage, transforms, and nearly attacks them before Chiharu and Sunao hold her back. (The mob is shocked to see an MG actually attacking them. They thought that wasn't allowed!)

(*all of the above feels like it adds more points in favor of my "someone witched out in public" theory, imo?)


-We cut back to Suitoku Temple at this point, where Asahi explains what the audience just learned to Chika, Ryouko and Yozuru. (No point in hiding something that's about to be uncovered anyway, right?) Chika and Ryouko naturally react with horror. When asked why she didn't fight back, Asahi replies that retaliating would've only made things worse for herself or the other MGs in Yukuni. After all, an angry mob of students doesn't actually need /physical/ violence to drive someone out of town...
--> When asked about whether Yukuni's MGs could do something about this, Asahi replies that there's simply not enough of them left any more. And since the mob didn't actually know what /caused/ MGs to turn into Witches, any MGs who suddenly vanished were simply assumed to have left town. Meanwhile, all the potential contractees had heard too many nasty rumors (and, y'know, info about Witch transformation) to even consider contracting, so Kyubey officially gave up on trying to introduce more MGs into the town. The 4 members of Folklore are now the only ones left.
(*Asahi also mentions an "opportunity to regain the civilians' trust" that ended up backfiring. Another potential plot thread to pull at?)


-Fast-forward to the GJD trio returning to Suitoku Temple that evening. Shizuka regrets losing her temper-- she might have straight-up killed someone if Chiharu and Sunao hadn't been there-- but if nothing else, it gave the mob a good enough scare that they answered all of the trio's questions before fleeing. Upon following their directions to Asahi's house (because of course they knew where Asahi's house was), the trio was greeted by her grandmother, who asked how Asahi had been doing at her new school, and whether she'd been getting along with the other 3 girls she went to Kamihama with.
--> Based on the above comment (plus Chika inadvertantly confirming said comment) and what they just learned about Asahi, Shizuka deduces that Asahi is a spy from a faction made up of her and the other 3 girls. After all, she'd hardly go around making regular friends after what happened in Yukuni, or putting much stock in the Tokimes' philosophy.
--> Asahi admits to her status as a Folklore agent, though she clarifies that their only objective is to observe the outcomes of certain events within the Kamihama conflict. But now that she's been found out, she believes it's only fair for her to leave. "Rabi was right about now being the wisest time to pull out."
--> This gets some protest from Chiharu in particular. Asahi has saved their bacon multiple times, and none of what's come to light has made them think of her as any less of a genuine ally. Shizuka doesn't want to have to throw her out, so she lets Asahi make the final decision, but Asahi does choose to leave in the end.

-As Asahi packs up her stuff and makes to leave, Shizuka apologizes and thanks her for all of her support, particularly during the Neo-Magius auditorium incident. Asahi says that she took the shot in the auditorium because she genuinely wanted to keep Shizuka from dirtying her hands; while Asahi couldn't let herself get personally invested in the Tokimes' philosophy, she *was* holding out hope that they might somehow succeed. If that ideal world of Shizuka's actually became a reality, she says, then that might just be enough to break the chains of Resigned Acceptance (TM) within her.
--> Unfortunately, Shizuka hasn't managed to live up to those hopes. She's seen too much of the evil in the world by this point, much like Asahi has.
--> Upon hearing this, Shizuka pauses, then gets a more determined look on her face. "Then all I need to do is fight back against that evil. Right?"
--> Answering that question would fly in the face of Folklore's objective, so Asahi can't say one way or another. But she's glad to hear that Shizuka would happily welcome her back if they all make it out of the conflict alive.


--> Once Asahi leaves, Shizuka comes to a decision. This is the last nail in the coffin that told her what she needs to do.


~Interview Subject: Sunao Toki~
-Sunao's kind of nervous about being Officially Interviewed for something-- which she apologizes for, since the interviewer (Kagome? Yozuru? not sure which) already went to the trouble of easing the tension with a conversation about Mr. Purrs-a-Lot. :V
She's particularly invested in the Tokime Clan and Shizuka's well-being, on account of the whole "was ordered to kill Shizuka and Chiharu" thing. Which is... probably also why she gravitates towards "care worker" jobs, when she takes a moment and really thinks about it. Which likewise makes her feel kind of bad, but she'd still like to do her best to support those around her.
And while we're talking about futures: she'd like to spend her teen years having enough fun to totally forget about all of that stuff. :)



------------------Folklore of 0------------------
-Rewind back to the immediate aftermath of Chapter 7, once again. Rabi and Alexandra discuss their members' current status (Asahi injured but still trusted / Urara injured and found out, but given permission to leave peacefully by Yuna). As far as anyone is aware, the Union is safely on its way to assembling the Kimochis and spreading the purification system worldwide. Alex and Rabi both agree that Iroha is the reason behind the low number of casualties; since the ceasefire was largely brought about by Iroha's determination, Rabi says, she's "undoubtedly fighting against the Acceptance (TM) that we believe in".

(*i'm gonna use Acceptance for 諦念 going forward, i think. 諦念 means "spiritual enlightenment / understanding and accepting the truth of the universe / freedom from doubt (via abandoning worldly attachment)" etc. in the Buddhist sense, so it's not purely a negative word, but Folklore and Tasuke are deeefinitely putting a lot of emphasis on their whole "accept our inability to be saved" ethos-- see below-- so this phrase personally feels like an OK balance to strike?)

--> Despite Iroha's presence, Alex is still worried about Himena and the Neo-Magius waiting in the wings. They're preparing to trigger what's likely to be a big, BIG battle, and the only real chance they have of avoiding it is if Alex manages to convince Himena to step down. In much the same way that Asahi had hope for the Tokimes' philosophy, Alex believes that if Himena changes her mind and calls off the battle, it'll be enough to convince her (that is, Alex) that they don't have to resort to the Acceptance after all.
--> Rabi nods, though she warns Alex to get out as soon as she senses any danger to herself. "Death advances the clock hands pointing to Acceptance, after all."

-Rabi figures she ought to get back to Nayuta and co. soon. She feels bad about pushing Nayuta away from Touka, but Touka's dad was moving dangerously fast with his publicization plans. Livia agrees on that note re:Touka's dad.
--> Oh hey Livia how did you get here!!!
    Livia: "Bro I'm doing Adjustments for all of you, of course I know where your hideout is :V"
    Oh. Okay but why are you here?
--> Livia explains how she's continuing Kagome's journal while she recovers. But Folklore's not really doing anything right now besides "talking about what everyone else is doing", so she figures she'll get a juicier story if she follows Nayuta instead.
So after a belated intro narration from Livia, we're off to follow Nayuta and friends!


-First, we get a look into Tasuke and Toukadad's argument at the hospital at the end of 7. (with NEW AND IMPROVED DAD SPRITES!!!!!!!! wowza)
--> Toukadad is like "bro what the **** I spent all that time running for mayor, then kissing up to the now-actual mayor, then kissing up to Diet members, so that I could tell the government about MGs and save Touka, but then you just tell the Diet members to their face that you made the whole thing up??????" and Tasuke is like "yeah"
--> Tasuke tries to explain that his research is all pointing to the fact that publicizing MGs will actually hurt them in the end. Toukadad is like "ok then how DO we save them besides publicizing" --> Tasuke is like "we can't :(" --> Toukadad is like "BRUH do you want me to watch our daughters DIE" --> Tasuke is like "i mean we can extend the amount of time they have but that's about it! :(" --> Toukadad is like "bro we cured Touka's illness in this hospital i am Not giving up this time either" --> Tasuke is like "umm er actually her contract is what cured her illness" --> Toukadad is like ">:( ................."

-On his way out, Tasuke bumps into Touka/Nemu, and thanks Touka for alerting him to Toukadad's Diet member meeting the previous day (end of ch.7).
(*so in retrospect, I'm guessing the part where Tasuke was like "hmm... on second thought maybe he WILL agree with me!" in front of Nayuta was the part that was fake. he went to the meeting specifically to sabotage Toukadad. mystery solved :V)

--> Touka's like "yeah no problem! that sure was a close call huh :)", which tips Tasuke off to the fact that Touka and Nemu have likewise found evidence of the Ominous Trend Of Bad Things Happening If MGs Get Publicized. (this is what Touka referred to as Destruction / 滅び last chapter, just for the sake of keeping track. interestingly enough, it's the same verb used w/r/t mitama's desire to destroy the city...?)

--> But then when Tasuke asks "so are you gonna, y'know, stop? :\" Touka's like "LMAO no way, Nemu and I are gonna go full steam ahead w/ trying to overcome this insurmountable barrier and we'd do the same thing even if your hypothesis was 100.000% confirmed. such is the ethos of an overly ambitious baby genius :)"
--> They're Magical Girls, after all! What's the point of being an MG if you don't use it to your advantage? They're gonna use every trick at their disposal to escape from the path leading to their own Destruction (TM), no matter what Tasuke says. Granted, it's a path that they just recently discovered, with a chance of success so small that they'll basically be threading a Kyubey through the eye of a needle... but that's never stopped them before!
--> Tasuke's like "well if you're serious about this then I'm going to get equally serious about stopping you!!" but Touka's like "i mean you COULD waste time standing in this hospital lobby and arguing with us but... don't you have a very upset daughter who was tragically torn away from you yesterday (by me) :)" --> Tasuke's like "ARGH :["
--> (He does get Touka to promise to consult w/ him before putting any of their plans into action, though. Phew)


-BACK AT NAYUTA'S PLACE: Nayuta's plan to break into Toukadad's house and start knocking things off the shelves if Tasuke doesn't show up soon is mercifully averted by Tasuke texting to say he's on his way. (then nearly reignited by Tasuke texting to say "wait **** sorry I bumped into Touka in the lobby, gonna be another few minutes" LOL)
--> Rabi returns, with Livia in tow! (Livia is like "hey hi hello i'm recording stuff for Kagome while she's on bedrest". Nayuta is fine with Livia recording the upcoming convo w/ Tasuke b/c it'll be good material for Kagome's notes and the eventual publicization thereof... but it's just. a little embarassing to suddenly have someone new in the house :x)
--> After what happened the previous day, Nayuta is worried about whether Touka was only pretending to cooperate so that Toukadad could steal the Volume 2 manuscript. Which also makes her worried about /Kagome's/ notes getting stolen...
--> Rabi's like "weeeell we can't know for sure, we'll just have to wait until your dad can tell us" in a way that (at least imo) feels very "ah **** she's taking this way more seriously then i expected. ahhh **** i didn't expect to feel this guilty about it" which, lol
--> (Livia telepathies Rabi to basically say "you're feeling more guilty about it than you expected huh" and Rabi's like "yeeeah :(", though she's still hoping that hearing from Tasuke in person will be enough to change Nayuta's mind about publicization. Livia's like "yeah, here's hoping.")

-BELOVED PÁPÁ RETURNS AT LAST.

(*small note before we get to the point: Livia refers to Tasuke as "sensei" when talking to him. (or センセ with no "i" on the end, technically.) we're really late into the story and the only candidates for the "sensei" that Mikoshiba mentioned on the phone are still Tasuke and Livia... I guess Tasuke feels like the more likely candidate, personally? Livia may be a nihilist w/ a weird moral compass, but the mental image of her ever talking to politicians *or* having Mikoshiba's contact info to share with them feels bizarre.
for what it's worth, GJD doesn't explicitly mention how far back Mikoshiba's phone recordings went, and we only get to hear one recording with "sensei" in it... so maybe that recording was during the last 4 years, ie. after Tasuke visited the village, and the "sensei" talk was just because that particular client had heard about the village from him in passing? b/c he talked about his research to the wrong person at the wrong time? i guess that'd be the least complicated solution.)

(speaking of "least complicated solutions"...!)

-OKAY NOW LET'S GET TO THE POINT. TASUKE. WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO.

--> Tasuke starts from the top, with an explanation that lines up the past six chapters' worth of breadcrumbs in a way that basically matches the tidiest, least-complicated theories that people might've been bouncing around.
1. Two years ago, Tasuke learns that Nayuta is an MG and begins seriously researching the subject. He's like "wow, it sure is weird that MGs have never been publicly acknowledged despite their massive influence on human history."
2. He does a bunch of globe-trotting research and concludes that there's records of MGs in legends and history all over the place... but they're never referred to with a unified term, and their exploits are always described like a dream or fantasy that only lasted a short time.
3. So where are all the "everyday" MGs...? They never tell anyone about their Witch hunts or about what they wished for. It's like they're genetically inclined (so to speak) to hide from society as a matter of course. His visits to Kamihama and Futatsugi during big MG conflicts only strengthen this suspicion.


(--Wald, Abraham. 1943. "A Method of Estimating Plane Vulnerability Based on Damage of Survivors."
  The US's data on bullet hole locations only accounted for planes that hadn't been shot down entirely.)


4. It's not just the MGs, either-- crime, accident and death rate spikes that are related to MGs or Witches go totally unremarked-upon by regular people. So after the last stop on his trip (Tokime Village, though he got cold-shouldered this time), he sits down to write and publish Volume 1 of his MG book in the hopes of changing this bizarre trend.
5. After Volume 1 (the "history" part), he starts writing Volume 2 (the "what do we do about this" part)... but falls more and more ill the further he gets. (Suspicious? Possibly.) So he goes to Yukuni City, a town known for the health benefits of its hot springs, to recover.
6. Once there, he discovers the grisly aftermath of whatever happened in Yukuni. Local students know about MGs, just like he had hoped the rest of the world eventually would... but the knowledge had actually inspired them to hunt down and wipe out the city's MG population.

7. ????? (Insert Tasuke's encounter with Rabi/Asahi/Urara/Alex and the founding of Folklore of Zero here)

8. Tasuke's like "oh god my daughter can't know about this. all of our research may have been for naught! i need to lay low until Folklore and I can confirm our hypothesis about Publicization = Bad." hence why he sends that goofy letter to discourage Nayuta from finding him. (also he swiped the old Volume 2 manuscript from his house in order to rewrite it before anyone could find it, b/c the old version was basically his personal road map to MG Publicization. ok then.)

--> Nayuta slaps him!!
She's risked her life fighting Witches for years *and* learned about Witch transformation, and she's still standing here, isn't she? And they've been researching together for two years straight, haven't they?? And you thought she couldn't handle hearing about this??? (which imo: FAIR POINT LOL :V)

--> Tasuke does his best to apologize, and goes on to explain how he and Folklore are currently observing the events in Kamihama-- specifically, the events centered around MG publicization. Between Tasuke's research and the Yukuni incident, they're pretty thoroughly convinced that publicization guarantees despair, but they're not *100%* convinced. If there's still a tiny sliver of hope that someone's publicization efforts *won't* end in despair, they want to see that happen. They're just... not optimistic about it.
(Touka/Nemu and Nayuta were apparently a slightly different story than (for instance) the Neo-Magius, though; he wanted to stop Touka/Nemu because he knew they were practically guaranteed to go to a dangerous extreme, and he and Rabi wanted to stop Nayuta because well, she's a close loved one of theirs, duh)

-Since Tasuke is non-magical, the actual judgement of "hope vs. despair" is mainly being handled by the four Folklore members: Magical Girls who've likewise come to a resigned Acceptance of their lack of salvation. After a brief silence, Rabi confirms this, and explains how her clock's hands move forward whenever the situation moves closer to total despair. (At the moment, they're worried that Himena and the Neo-Magius will add another minute to it.)

(*at this point most of the audience is probably thinking "but Alex literally revitalized the 'publicize MGs hell yeah' group to begin with by putting Himena in charge??" to which my answer is: LOL IKR

--> more seriously: if i had to try to justify that particular plot hiccup, i'd guess it's because A.) Alex didn't know Himena in advance and couldn't predict just how big of an impact she'd have, B.) Alex *was* genuinely invested in resolving Himena's personal problems even before she got to properly know her, and C.) she's not yet convinced beyond all possible doubt that the Neo-Magius' goals will end in tragedy. (yyyet.)
(also D. after skimming the early chapters again, i thhhink Rabi might be the only one who's said "I don't intend to participate in the conflict myself" outright? the others can do what they want, we've seen her say as much :V)

--> although that does still leave the problem of "they expected a 'publicization vs. no publicization' conflict to end in tragedy and still actively chose to revitalize one of those two sides when it was petering out" lol???? Rabi DOES describe Folklore as straight-up taking advantage of the other factions during this convo, so maybe they'll address that later i guess.
--> they also hint at having some sort of emergency button that they intend to press once midnight hits (see below), so maybe that also plays into their weird attitude towards the conflict? i have a theory re:that but it's beyond the scope of this summary @ this point.
ANYWAY)

-Nayuta's like "wait what" and suddenly connects all the breadcrumbs of Rabi Backstory from the previous chapters, and is like "OH MY GOD you were LYING to me this WHOLE TIME"
--> Rabi's like "yes i know we're on shaky moral footing here and i'm sorry for lying to you about Touka. in my defense there was a very high chance you'd die otherwise" and Nayuta's like "i don't care about THAT!!!" (*LOL AGAIN)
"i'm upset because this means that all the time you spent with Mikage and I was a lie!! you were such a good friend, you were like a real big sister to me, did none of that actually matter to you :,( i must have been really stupid to believe all of it"
--> Tasuke: "rabi did you seriously not prime her for this even a Little bit"
    Rabi: (WHISPERING) "yeah um no um i. didn't think she'd take it this hard (read: didn't think i was that important to her)"
    Nayuta: *literally faints and Doppels out in the middle of the living room*
    Rabi: *<-- is realizing this may have been a bad move*

--> Thankfully they have Livia there to keep Nayuta's Doppel from straight-up blowing the roof off the house. After carrying Nayuta to bed, they have a conversation that basically amounts to Rabi being like "dang I ****ed up. but also you kind of ****ed up too Tasuke", Livia being like "yeah you ****ed up too Tasuke" and Tasuke being like "ok yeah :( i did"

-While the three of them wait for Nayuta to wake up and tell them what her intentions are now that she's heard the whole story, Rabi also gets Tasuke up to speed on what Kagome's up to. He's like "ah geeze i /did/ encourage her to do MG journalism back when i met her..." and is worried abt the news of her injuries. And so on and so forth.

(--> Before she leaves to meet back up with Folklore, Urara likewise gives Kagome the TL;DR of "we each know the Professor, he found out about 'publicization = bad' b/c of stuff that happened to us in Yukuni, he's given up on publicization and you should too if you know what's good for you, sorry".)

-Nayuta wakes up and is greeted by Livia; Livia tells her that Tasuke and Rabi have left for a Folklore meeting, but since they've told Nayuta everything they know, it's now up to Nayuta to choose what she wants to do going forward. There's also a letter from each of them.
  --> Tasuke's letter contains an apology for hurting Nayuta so badly by keeping everything secret, and directions to the Minaminagi aquarium in the event that she's comfortable joining Folklore in their observation of events. If she chooses to return to Yukuni with them (as they plan to do after the meeting), they can also tell her the full story of what happened there and explain their stance in detail. (If she stays in Kamihama, though, he begs her to not get involved in the upcoming conflict and to not tell anyone about their hypothesis before the dust has settled.)
  --> Rabi's letter likewise contains an apology for hiding things from Nayuta, followed by Rabi clarifying that none of her interactions with Nayuta (outside of the dad-related coverup) were insincere. She was being honest 99.9% of the time (<-- her words), she did genuinely enjoy their time together, and she hopes that Nayuta can bring herself to believe that as well. She'd like to make lasagna for her again some time.

(*rabi genuinely enjoying her home assistant work is a cute character moment but it also makes me wish even harder that they'd just given her a generic fortune-teller outfit or something instead of. what we got)


-Cut to Folklore and Tasuke's aquarium meeting. The three agents report on their groups' activities (ie. all the stuff we just read in the above sections); as we'll see in the Neo-Magius section below, Alex was unsuccessful in dissuading Himena and has pulled out of the Neo-Magius for her own safety. All that's left is to wait for Nayuta's decision, then head off to observe from a safe distance.
(Small point of interest: Tasuke mentions that if any of them have managed to find faint hope despite being chained down by Acceptance (TM), then there's nothing that ought to stop them from lending aid. --> Urara replies that if none of them are left when the end arrives, there'll be nobody left to carry out the 'final salvation'. The group agrees that they have to remain at a safe distance, in order to lend their aid when the time finally comes. ...Eeeeenteresting?)

--> The door opens and oh **** it's Nayuta! She's here to officially announce that she'll be joining the group on their trip to Yukuni.



...



--> Oh **** wait we got a text from Touka! She and Nemu have officially put together their ultimate plan to announce Magical Girls to the world! They'll be executing the first step of their plan in front of the Eternal Sakura, and have invited both Folklore and Kagome to serve as witnesses. See you in a day or two, Uncle!

-Well darn. I guess we're not going to Yukuni JUST yet.


~Interview Subject: Asahi Miura~
-Asahi has some mixed feelings about being interviewed. She'd like to answer what she can, but it's a little hard to talk about her hopes for the future when she, uh. Doesn't have any. But for the sake of argument, she'll tell us about what she /used/ to hope for, under the assumption that she actually comes out the other end of this alive. (Big assumption!)
Long story short, she's come to want to avoid human contact as much as possible and just live in peace by herself. She's got a short list of people she can trust-- Rabi and co. from Yukuni, the Tokime members she bonded with-- so she'd prefer to just occasionally interact with those people while she lives alone out in nature. No more exhausting social relationships: just her, the woods, and a few friends who'll be around to bury her one day.

...Though, again, that's what she /used/ to hope for. She's given up on looking forward to that sort of thing.



------------------Neo-Magius------------------
-After our four initial groups, we get three shorter snippets focusing on the Big Contributing Factors to the upcoming conflict: the Neo-Magius, the East/West tension, and Alina in Mirrors.

-The Neo-Magius section opens with a flashback to the end of Dependence Blue, with each core member declaring how they're an underdog and how they want to rise up against the world.
--> Then fast-forward to the Takarazaki Youth Association hall, for a group meeting during the early bits of Another Story 7. Their attempts at reaching out to Ao and various Tokimes are proving successful. Miyu's attempts to recruit Kanagi, less so. San imagines that it'll take something particularly dramatic to get Kanagi on their side, though Alex is still impressed that they managed to get in good with both of the non-Union groups already.
--> Meanwhile, Alex has found a perfect place to project Himena's voice from: the Hokuyou radio observatory! Shigu/Hagu confirm that it should still be operational.

-Flashback to Himena asking Livia about Mirrors copies (right before Livia caught a glimpse of Himena's Big Scary Plan), then jump forward another few days. Alex reports that they can't force a Mirrors familiar out of its Labyrinth, and it'd be difficult to even track down a specific girl's copy, much less get that copy to use its ability on command. So recruiting copies as allies is a no-go.
--> Ergo, their only option w/r/t the "use someone else's personal magic" part of the plan-- which the "telescope" part of the plan 100% hinges on-- is to get Himena's synthesis magic fully upgraded.
As for which personal magic they're going to copy... Hiko-kun is suggesting that they just copy Mitsune's perception-altering magic, but Himena doesn't want to put any further stress on Mitsune, period. She's already made Mitsune "do a bunch of work" related to the East/West divide (as we're reminded of by another flashback in which Livia mentioned the divide to Himena).

(*Shigure also phones to say she finally caught a Mitsune copy immediately after the above discussion. Himena's like "oh yeah no, sorry, we were just talking about scrapping that plan. i'll treat you to monjayaki at one of San's usual snack stores to make it up to u tho" :V)


-Fast-forward to the aftermath of Another Story 7 (where, for those who haven't read it, Himena succeeded in both snagging Meiyui's personal magic and using it to cover her tracks during a run-in with Team Nanaka in Takarazaki). Himena and Alex are talking in the park at night, and Himena is SUPER jazzed about imbuing the radio telescope with Meiyui's magic. Unlike Mitsune's, it doesn't stop at just altering perception! It's basically low-level reality-warping! Just THINK about what they could do with that.

--> She continues discussing the plan with Hiko-kun while Alex looks on. "Yeah. Yeah, totally. We'll have them assemble right when the other 3 groups are joining forces. Perf!"
--> Alex interrupts. She asks if Himena would still be willing to cancel the plan. The other groups have all backed down and joined Iroha Tamaki; can't they just join them too and be done with it? --> Himena's like "wait what."
--> They don't *have* to fight any more. Sure, Alex knows that it'll be difficult to get people around them to accept Himena and Hiko-kun otherwise, or for San to revive her festival. She's well aware of that. But doesn't the thought of putting that many people in harm's way bother you at all?
--> Himena's like "nope! The people who called me crazy p.much have it coming, honestly".
--> Okay. Alex tells her that going through with this plan means that they're all very likely to die.
--> Himena: "I mean, that's just ONE possible option." Alex flat-out tells her to pick a different option. They're *this* close to assembling the Kimochis and putting an end to Witch transformation for good.
--> Himena says that she doesn't care about all that stuff. If it comes down to being a Magical Girl with her dream crushed or being a Witch, she'd pick being a Witch! San's of the same opinion.
--> Alex says okay, fine. If she can't convince Himena, and can't stop her by force, she'll just leave.

--> This is what actually gets a different reaction out of Himena; much like in Ch.5, she's SUPER emotionally invested in Alex sticking with her.
--> "It's either me, or the Neo-Magius's plan. Pick one."
--> Himena, now genuinely upset, says that she's seriously not gonna be able to deal if Alex leaves. Like, she can tell that the brakes are going to come RIGHT off.
(rather than saying "this is me putting the brakes in question /on/" (lol), Alex just says that threats aren't going to work. Either Himena scraps the plan, or she leaves.)

--> After a moment of silence, Himena apologizes and says she's going to have to pick Hiko-kun. Alex sighs sadly, says she expected as much, and leaves.



------------------Mikage------------------
-In this section, we get front-row seats to the Tomorrow Shop incident mentioned above. Mitama was already feeling pretty dejected that day; the sunset had reminded her of a conversation she had with Kanagi after returning to Daitou Ward and experiencing the fallout there. It was one of the conversations where Kanagi told her to "hate the city and its history, not the people".

-Mikage and Sudachi were also pretty dejected, respectively, about not being able to mediate well between Nayuta and Touka / not being able to protect Kagome. But their subsequent trip to Tomorrow Shop didn't help much, either, because on top of Mikage drawing a dud pack of Woohoodles (normally INCONCEIVABLE)...
--> ...Several elementary-schoolers started making faces at them for loitering around a shop on "our side of the city".
 "Don't you have your OWN shops already? Go stand around one of those!"
 "You guys are scary! We saw it on the news!"
 "Yeah, we won the election because you're basically the mob!"

--> One boy gets particularly angry, because *he* heard from his mom that everyone on the East side has always been bad! They even threw a rock at the doctor man from the hospital, didn't they?!
--> Just as Mrs. Shopkeep is coming outside to see what the commotion is, the boy is like "WELL HOW DO YOU LIKE IT" and throws a rock at Mikage. (A rock throw for a rock throw is the one of the most "kid logic" things I can think of, but like. Ouch.)

-Mrs. Shopkeep shouts at him to go home and wait until he's cooled his head off (in a tone that feels basically appropriate for a kid that age and an incident like this, imo), then turns to tend to Mikage...
--> And sees Mitama and Kanagi standing right across the street.
It's kind of hard to tell-- partly bc of the limitations of the game's UI and Live2D setup :V-- but Mitama apparently gets REALLY mad. Like, "looming over the kids and demanding that they apologize Right The Hell Now" mad. Which is... understandable, but definitely not a constructive response from someone who's basically an adult from their perspective.
--> Shopkeep says as much once the kids run off, but that's definitely not what Mitama needs to hear right now, either. She has a small meltdown: "What am I SUPPOSED to do, then?" "It's easy for you to say that when you don't even know how we've been treated!" "I'm sick of this!" "I hate both sides of this whole rotten city!"

--> Shopkeep apologizes-- both for what she said, and for her generation passing their issues further downward-- but Mitama's officially had it. If this **** is going to spill over into her day-to-day life on /top/ of always looming in the background, she's done being the bigger person.

--> Meanwhile, Kanagi has been abruptly reminded of what she said to Touka last chapter. "She can't think of a word other than "despair" to describe what it'd feel like to see the next generation learning to continue that same hateful atmosphere."
...Then she snaps out of it when she realizes that Mikage has been trying to get her attention. She apologizes for almost losing her temper.



-Kagome closes out the section by reiterating her thoughts on "regular society is what pushes Magical Girls into making their contracts", and mentions that even after this incident, Mitama and Kanagi did seem  like they were managing to keep their anger at arm's length.
...But even if this incident didn't trigger anything on its own, something /else/ might.



------------------Alina/Karin------------------
-And NOW we get the Alina-in-Mirrors stuff that the gang heard from Karin, sorry to keep you waiting.

-It turns out that when the offshoot Mirror Witch got blown up in Chapter 6, Karin and Alina got pulled into a deeper region of Mirrors. Alina's monologue mentions how her mysterious psychic passenger showed her a vision of Destruction (red font again) (TM) as they were getting pulled down, which felt somehow nostalgic to her.
--> She can tell that the passenger in question is most certainly /not/ her own self at this point, though. Combined with how she missed her front-row seat to Ikumi's final moments (bruh), and how Karin is still following her around and talking about the Alina Gray Rehabilitation Plan, she's in a pretty bad mood.

-The passenger's voice leads us to a single mirror close to the Labyrinth's core, which projects a hologram of an unknown Magical Girl that only Alina can see or hear. (Alina's first reaction is to demand her memories back and try smacking the mystery girl, which does not work on account of her being a hologram.)
--> This Magical Girl is, in fact, the mystery passenger! She introduces herself as (dun dun dun........)

Mikoto Sena!

The girl from Hanna's backstory, and the girl who Mitama suspected to be the Mirror Witch's original identity. She says she's more of an "ex-Magical Girl", though, since she turned into Endless Mirrors and all. Of course, that might be a little hard to believe, given how most souls get annihilated upon witching out... but she figures her ability to manipulate Mirrors ought to serve as good enough proof of her identity. She's not sure if she counts as a "soul" herself, either; more of a persona created from Mikoto's leftover memories?
And since she's a bunch of memories hitching a ride on Alina, she was able to conceal Alina's own memories as an incentive to bring her down to Mirrors.
--> Alina tells her to slow the hell down and explain things in order. (lol)


-Okay, so. Home movie time. Mikoto pulls up a fancy little frame around the edges of the screen and gives us her backstory.
She was born to a family in Daitou Ward, and grew up in a fairly by-the-numbers dysfunctional household in the apartment complexes. An angry, irresponsible spender of a father on one side, a mother whose hair was practically falling out with worry over their checkbooks on the other side. Constant arguments, constant storming out of the house. Etcetera. She hated her father for it, and was sure that she and her mother would have a perfectly happy life waiting for them if he would just /go away/.
--> So you can probably guess what she wished for. If Mikoto has to be honest, she surprised herself with how little she hesitated over it!

--> ...But once her father wasn't looming over the household any more, her mother turned out to be pretty irresponsible in her own right. There'd frequently be letters on the table saying "headed out to have some fun today, here's money for dinner". (The money typically wasn't enough, but hunger had stopped being an issue after making her contract.)

--> Thankfully, she managed to make a friend in the form of Hanna Sarasa, and the two of them got along pretty well. Thanks to Hanna's ability to overwrite her own magic with other people's, Mikoto was able to study the "subliminal suggestion" magic she reecived from her wish. She could even cast it on herself, and began regularly using it to paint a picture of a perfect, happy family in her head whenever she left for school. ...The illusion came crashing down once she stepped back through the front door, but compared to having to think about it all day, she easily preferred the illusion. And, she says, fighting Witches to protect her city's peace was very fulfilling!

--> But as we know from Hanna's backstory, Mikoto turned into a Witch at sunset one day. Since her self-applied illusion broke as it happened, she felt a huge rush of emotion all crashing down at once. Not just sorrow, regret and misery-- but also a hatred for everything around her, and a desire to claw her way up towards a better life.

Strangely enough, she also heard a voice from somewhere: "I want to become the thing that destroys Kamihama."

-Mikoto was like, yes! Oh my god! Exactly! I want to wipe out this awful city that spat me out into the world! I want to tear the whole thing down! I'm gonna do that, so I'm not going down here!
--> She's not quite sure what she did after that, but she's pretty sure that she cranked her magic up past "planting ideas in people's heads" and all the way to "planting /herself/ in people's heads". She transferred everything except for her actual soul-- ie. both her memories and her newly-developed magic-- over to Hanna, where she stayed hidden in a corner of Hanna's memories like a dormant personality. After that, she hopped from host to host until she eventually found herself hitching a ride on Alina.

--> Her magic supply was almost exhausted by the time she reached Alina, but luckily enough, she got boosted back up to full strength on account of Alina combining Eve with the Fur God Uwasa. And now that she's back, she's hell-bent on one goal: Destruction (TM)!!!

(*note: I think it's still fair to interpret this as "Mikoto was hitching a ride but wasn't /literally/ responsible for Alina's end-of-the-world obsession, since she only got boosted up to her previous strength after Alina did the whole Fur God thing". i guess later they could be like "yeah everything from Holy Alina's MGS onward was the fault of this hollywood-ass evil split personality" but that'd be a big cop-out lol)


-Ghost Clone Mikoto may not know exactly when she became aware of this goal, or whether it's even really hers, but that doesn't matter. She's a snapshot of the original Mikoto's final moments, and original Mikoto wanted to destroy the city, so that's good enough for her. So, Alina, how about blowing up the city together?
--> Alina's like "yeah yeah whatever just gimme my memory back." (Mikoto's like "uhh do you wanna like. visit some parallel universes w/ me first or--" and Alina's like "bro i don't care if you're the one with the fancy powers here, this is My brain you're cooped up in and i can crush you like a grape if i so choose")
(--> ...then she discovers that she's not actually able to crush Mikoto like a grape, but she /can/ dig her heels into the ground hard enough to be really annoying, so Mikoto shrugs and un-conceals her memories.)


-Alina gets her memory back and returns to Ultimate Final Human Extinction Mode!!!!!!!!!
Yes! She remembers! Humanity is a terrible terrible species that secretly wishes for naught but its own destruction! This is the cause of all bloodshed and suffering! First, war for survival! Then war for war's sake! Forever wars fought on trumped-up pretenses! Rampant environmental destruction once the well of war runs dry! The grim hand of resource extraction tearing humanity's own foothold out from beneath it, with everyone's heads stuck in the sand as the sand itself dissolves into ash!! The ultimate expression of senseless, instinctive death drive that she swore to bring to its grim conclusion as her capital-b Best Art!!!!!!!!!!!!!


(*alina. alina. alina please. alina you're describing the actions of only the top 1% of the population and not-- ok ok i'll stop editorializing)


-Alina is like "okay yeah I'm on board, I will officially participate in your so-called Alina Gray Evolution Plan." (*mikoto did in fact name it the Alina Gray Evolution Plan of her own accord. lmao)
--> Fool Girl! I apologize for 1. worrying you this whole time, and 2. for ditching your boring Rehabilitation Plan! ADIOS


-And before Karin can get any further with her cries of "wait what!!" and "noooo!!" and "oh ****!!" she gets booted out into the Mirrors house in Kamihama. Then she goes and tells the Union all about what just happened. (including the Mikoto backstory, because she was able to see the backstory video, she just couldn't hear mikoto's half of the conversation outside of that. so there you go)


-...

-Kagome wraps up by saying that while Mitama wasn't there at the dojo, she did eventually hear the whole story.
That settled it: her wish wasn't averted after all. It turned Mikoto Sena into a destruction-obsessed ghost, that ghost is now possessing Alina, and her wish is still slowly, inexorably grinding towards its ultimate conclusion.
(At least, as far as Mitama sees it.)



------------------Intermission------------------
-Okay! So! It's been a few more days and everyone's ready to meet up for The Grand Final Ultimate Kimochi-Sharing (TM)!!
 ...Although there's still a few sources of unease hanging in the air, like how Mokyu's been missing for several days straight. (Yachiyo hopes that it hasn't gotten itself stuck in a fence somewhere.)

-Momoko phones to say that Mitama is missing! Mitama is not in the shop. Repeat: Mitama is not in the shop. Kanagi is also AWOL.

-Meanwhile at Suitoku Temple: Shizuka shocks the group by suddenly announcing that they will NOT meet the Union and PB at the gathering spot. There'll be no joining forces. Fighting Witches is only a stopgap measure; the only way to truly save the land they call home is by having Diviners set a good, virtuous example for the rest of the populace to follow!
--> Everyone is naturally upset at this sudden reversal of position. After a bit more back-and-forth arguing, Sunao slaps her; Ryouko is likewise unimpressed. The conversation doesn't go anywhere constructive from there, though, since Shizuka is just like "okay! Fine! I guess I'm the only one here who can even realize how awful things are outside my village! Those people literally turned their blades on us and none of you care!"
--> She storms out. Chiharu and Sunao are like "uhhhh welp. ****"

-Meanwhile at Janomiya HQ: all the girls who disagreed with Ao have fled to the Yuna/Juri coalition. By now, it's just Ao and the girls who agree with her "aim for the top" ethos.

-Meanwhile in Takarazaki (probably): Mokyu is anxiously squeaking at a Kyubey! Kyubey is like "nope, sorry, you can't convince me. I'm going to continue my energy-reading investigation and there's nothing you can do to kick me out at this point. Honestly, this is really illogical behavior coming from a lifeform that used to be me!"
--> Himena is like "THERE YOU ARE YOU LITTLE RASCAL" and tries to grab Mokyu, but they scurry away once again.


------------------Chapter finale------------------
-After one last Ominous Foreshadowing Kagome Narration, we cut to another episode of Livia And Kyubey's Ominous Foreshadowing Power Hour.
  Livia: "If I gotta be honest with you, Kyubs? Even if there's another upset at the last minute, I don't think you're gonna get much more out of your energy level investigation. :/"
  Livia: "I fanned some of that East-West talk myself, but I dunno how much of a point there was to it..."
  Kyubey: "Given that 'prompting collisions between fellow Magical Girls to measure energy acquisition' was the policy to work under, you weren't wrong, Livia."
  Livia: "The issue here is the /results/, though."
  Kyubey: "Well, it's unfortunate, but the fact of the matter is that it would simply be inefficient to continue acquiring energy via Doppelization as opposed to Witchification."

  --> Livia's like "well is that it, then? everyone holds hands and we all go home?" and Kyubey's like "oh I guess the Neo-Magius haven't reached out to you yet have they...? no, that won't happen juuust yet". But Livia's still skeptical about the Neo-Magius causing as much of a stir as Kyubey expects. (Though it might be a different story if they've changed their stance since the last time Livia peeked at them, she says.)

  Livia: "That aside, what are you gonna do with the Auto-Purification System? Not much point in keeping it if it's not useful, right?"
  Kyubey: "I wouldn't say it's *completely* useless. I'm still just observing things at this stage, and there's still some value in utilizing the APS."
  Livia: "Value, huh..."
  Livia: "Well, I don't think you'd have to keep that research of yours goin' if Kagome would just become a Magical Girl."
  Kyubey: "I believe that it'd be wise to simply continue observing Kagome Satori for now."
  Kyubey: "Taking more time now ought to let her accumulate more karma, after all."
  Livia: "Gotcha. So it won't hurt to let her develop a teeny bit further, then."
  Livia: "Then I guess the Neo-Magius' princess is the only real blip on the radar?"
  Livia: "What on Earth could she be thinking...?"


-What an interesting and not at all extremely ominous conversation!!
Anyway let's cut back to the Union. Mitama's left the shop unattended, with a letter on the table.
--> The letter starts with an apology to Mikage, saying that Mitama and Kanagi will be away from home for a little bit. Mitama describes how she was willing to keep her anger under control even after the election conspiracy and the Tomorrow Shop incident, but no matter how open their arms are as they try to accept their fellow people of Kamihama, "the curse placed on the city isn't going to disappear". She knows that Mii will be disappointed in her, but she's going to leave and go do what the curse demands of her.

--> Worrying!!!!
Mikage is like "but why would she leave if she said she was OK dealing with the Tomorrow Shop stuff... :(" and Rena's like "yeah ditto for the election stuff, why the change of heart /now/". Dun dun dun?

-Meanwhile! Everyone at PB is in a tizzy over Ao going missing too! She apparently slipped out from under Hikaru's watch while she was talking to an arcade attendant about a broken change machine. The remaining Janomiya girls confirm that the Ao-aligned girls left along with her, but as for where they went after that? No idea.
--> The Tokimes likewise receive word of the other groups' mystery disappearances while they're busy searching for Shizuka, plus the several branch-family members who left along with her.

-But despite the disappearances, everyone else meets up at Kamihama's waterfront park on schedule to at least discuss the situation. Everybody's still under the impression that Himena is dead, so nobody connects the dots about who might've been responsible for a bunch of unrelated members going missing at the same time.
--> Well, if nothing else, this is all the more reason to unite their groups for added safety! As a sign of making the union official, they're also going to give all of the currently-present Kimochis to Iroha for safekeeping, since she's the one person who managed to safely pacify the Kimochis last chapter.
...But while they're holding out each bracelet in turn, Ui starts to notice something strange in the air. Can't quite put her finger on it, though.


-(brief Spooky Kyubey Cutaway where kyubey is like "yep, looks like we're clear to continue the investigation. this last comparison will finally give us enough data to draw a conclusion!")


-Suddenly! Everyone gets pulled into the Kimochi Thunderdome Arena, confronted with an extremely upset Sapphire, Turquoise, Aquamarine, Diamond and Opal. Cue a big boss fight where the whole cast gets to fight the Kimochis (where once again i'm truncating most of the little interactions between cast members, sorry).
The Kimochis were all totally chill and trusted Iroha right up until a moment ago, and they never had to fight when exchanging bracelets before... so nobody has any idea WTF is going on? It seems like the Kimochis are targeting Ui every so often, though.
--> Ui also realizes that the Kimochis are actually in pain for some reason. Like they're struggling against some external force?

--> While we're busy trying to get our bearings, the missing members arrive on scene. Ta-da! Ao, Kanagi, Shizuka and Mitama are here to help out! They're like "sorry it took us so long" (or in Ao's case, "how are you nerds having trouble rn, the Kimochis are distracted by some weird force they're struggling with and everything" :V).
--> Kanagi's like "I came by the park and you guys were all passed out, so I tried out Iroha's Kimochi telepathy thing with my bracelet and arrived here? anyway no time to talk, let's deal w/ these guys".

-The last one left is the Garnet. (*side note: they still say there's only five Kimochis in the fight, but the Garnet was with Kanagi and wasn't one of the five present when the fight started? oh well just roll with it, all the bracelets are radioing each other atm anyway.)

Hinano calls dibs on it because it used to be Ikumi's, and says she's gonna blow it to smithereens with her Doppel... until Ui runs up and pulls her away with a Grief Seed at the last second. Ui can tell that there's something wrong with the Doppel system by this point. (!!)
Kanagi and Mitama step in to take out the Garnet-- "just like they practised"-- and the Kimochi Labyrinth dissolves.

-Okay, so the Sapphire, Turquoise, Aquamarine and Diamond are all safely consolidated in Iroha's bracelet. Phew.
 (...*counts on fingers* wait a second)


--> More pressing right now, though, is to hear what Ui's Spidey Sense is tingling about. After a few moments of looking at the sky, she says that:



...the Auto-Purification System has gone offline!!!!!!!!!!

(Everyone is like "OH **** WHAT")

--> Kyubey waltzes on into the park and is like "correct! nice job figuring that one out". Everyone else is like "how the hell did you get in here. the city has a No Kyubeys Allowed sign on the door". Kyubey says don't worry, he's here to explain things nice and clearly for us.

-First off: Kyubey just shut off the APS. How, you might ask? Because there's an Incubator unit currently sitting in the central APS Labyrinth, serving as the system's core.
--> "But Mokyu took Ui's place as the system's core when Eve exploded!" Yeah, and then Mokyu miraculously came back to us in the credits sequence. While the gang had previously assumed that this was because Mokyu simply had to remain within the city's radius in order for the system to detect them, Kyubey says it's actually because Mokyu /got kicked out/ back at that point in time. And they got kicked out because Kyubey stole their seat.

--> So yeah, there's been a regular Kyubey sitting in the APS's core in... wherever the core's Labyrinth is located, ever since the barrier around Kamihama came down in Arc 1. (And presumably during Arc 2 Chapter 1, when he told us about the whole "get the Kimochis and you might be able to control the APS!" thing.) After all, how could he measure the amount of energy the system was receiving from Doppels if he wasn't connected to the system?

--> He was barely able to keep the APS functioning at first, let alone control it-- but by now, he can change the size of Kamihama's barrier at will! So that's what happened just now. He shrank the barrier back down, and the city's no longer safe beneath it.
(*he wound up with quite a few burnt-out Kyubey units before the current one succeeded in controlling it, but oh well lol)

--> And since the APS's Doppel field and the Magius' anti-Kyubey field are one and the same (...which i GUESS is something the magius had set up offscreen at some point? lol), Kyubey can now freely enter the city. The end!

-This is what Mokyu was trying to warn us about: they've spent the past week or so trying to get back into the core Labyrinth, only for Kyubey to push them back out each time. (Which Kyubey demonstrates by spitting Mokyu out at our feet. It'd be a shame to get rid of such a unique specimen, so we can safely have them back for now.)

(*i guess this explanation doesn't contradict the Otsukimi event, if we assume that "APS core Labyrinth" doesn't count as "inside the Kamihama barrier"? so the Kyubeys messing around in the core would've still lost contact with that one Kyubey that got stranded under the dome :V)


-Well, if Mokyu can locate the core Labyrinth and we have all the Kimochis assembled, then we can just go break down the door and kick Kyubey out!
--> Kyubey says that only APS core candidates can detect the Labyrinth's presence, so that won't be happening.
--> Ui's like "nuh-uh, I'M a core candidate so I can locate it. that's why the Kimochis were in pain a minute ago! you were trying to manipulate them into killing me!! >:("
--> Kyubey admits that Ui is indeed a threat to him, since unlike him or Mokyu, she has the unique ability to control both the APS /and/ its original body parts.

-At this point several people are like "bro what about that whole 'whoever gets the kimochis can control the APS' spiel you gave us. did you straight-up lie" and Kyubey's like "nope, I was being truthful! As far as I knew at the time." He thought that /theoretically/ it'd be possible for them to control the Kimochis' energy reserves, but since Ikumi and Yuna have both failed spectacularly, he's had to revise that theory. While he can't rule out all possible scenarios, Ui seems like the only one who can keep a proper handle on the things ATM.
(*His own inability to control the Kimochis is also why he couldn't properly sic them on Ui just now. Oh well, back to the drawing board.)

-Yachiyo's like "okay, sure, great. I think that's all the explanation we need."
One last question: why is he telling us this?
--> So that he can get proper energy readings when we turn into Witches from here on out, of course! "Turning into a Witch when you were expecting to produce a Doppel" and "turning into a Witch when you know full well it's coming" wouldn't yield the same energy. Now that we're all up to speed, his data ought to be 100% accurate.
--> Thanks! Mystery solved! Yachiyo and Yuna crush him flat.



-Well this sucks. (For Yuna and co. in particular, since they just got told that their revenge plan was pointless from the start. :V) Sunao and Chiharu have a pretty good idea of why everyone else hates Kyubey now. (on the other hand Shizuka is STILL like "eh well Kyubey is a higher and more sacred being than any of us so I don't really mind if his plans are incomprehensible" which, frickin' okay then LMFAO)

--> But it's... also better than things could be, all things considered! Kyubey just gave us a full explanation of our own win conditions. We give Ui the Kimochis, she opens the entrance to the APS core Labyrinth, we boot Kyubey out, we re-install Mokyu, we use the Kimochis' energy to push the "APS field size" slider all the way to maximum and boom, no more Witches being created anywhere in the world. Nice and simple. (...We might have to add 'convince the Kimochis not to turn back into a world-eating monster' to that list too, but that's beside the point.)


-Hey speaking of which where did the Opal go.
Also why do Shizuka/Ao/Mitama/Kanagi all have weirdly sober expressions.
Also what's up with this magic reading we're getting from behind the fountain, it's weirdly similar to-- AH


-DUN DUN DUNNN

HIMENA IS ALIVE

--> Himena's like "yeah I faked my death with Mitsune's help, surprise bitches." Iroha's like "hey hey hey wait uhhh I don't know if you've heard but all three of our groups over here have a ceasefire! we're about to use the Kimochis to go evict Kyubey! idk why you're here but we'd REALLY appreciate it if you could just wait for just. like. a minute"

--> Himena's like "lmao I'm not after the APS so I can save MGs the world over or whatever in the first place, sorry. Also you kind of DON'T have all the Kimochis?"

-Dun dun DUNNNN. Shizuka/Ao/Mitama/Kanagi dramatically walk over to the Neo-Magius crew and announce their change of allegiances in that fancy sunset CG you've also probably seen screenshots of. Once MGs hold positions of power above regular humanity, Ao will never be under anyone's thumb again. Shizuka will be able to guide the populace to what's right, whether they like it or not. Kanagi and Mitama will be able to tear down the city and force everyone in it to put their differences aside, just like everyone almost managed to after the Eve disaster... at least, if they know what's good for them.

--> Mikage is naturally very upset by this!! What do you mean you want to tear down the city?! She thought Mitama wasn't wishing for that any more!
--> She stopped her, right?! Mikage *stopped* her!
(Cue the flashback to Mikage's wish again.)

--> Mikage reveals that she heard about Mitama's wish from Kyubey on the night of the Walpurgis-and-Eve disaster, and assumed that the impending threat was a direct result of said wish. So Mikage's wish was "to protect Kamihama City" on that night.
--> Mitama sadly says that she already found out when she looked into Mikage's Gem; she's grateful to Mikage for it, but by now, she's convinced that her wish for destruction is going to move ahead whether she likes it or not.

--> Momoko's like "KANAGI WTF" and Kanagi's like "yeah no sorry, I've given up any hope that the city might change unless we provide a common enemy for them to stand against. i'm doing this to give the children a happy future!!"

--> Ao finally tells Yuna and Juri straight-up that all of Futatsugi's problems were their fault and she wants to get rid of both of them. (Juri's like "okay, fair. but NOW of all times???" lol.)
But they can feel free to attack her however violently they want! She's stronger than both of them now, and she's going to make a society where nobody can stab each other in the back the way they did.

--> Shizuka tries (and fails) to ask Chiharu and Sunao to join her. She doesn't care about MG Supremacy (TM) and still doesn't care for Himena-- she's just using Himena and the Neo-Magius as a means to an end, in her words-- but she, Ao, Mitama and Kanagi all agree that they want to make a peaceful, equal society! Under their rule, the world's people will never commit acts of evil again. (Chiharu/Sunao are like "bro Himena literally wants to make a goofy-ass science fiction dystopia" but Shizuka's like "i mean hey, as long as nobody does any more evil :\")
--> (Chiharu's like "Shizuka I'm OK w/ supporting you w/r/t your own ideals but this is just. like. you trying to convince yourself that Himena's ideals align with yours when they super don't. if you're going to abandon your own decision-making responsibility then it's my job as a branch family daughter to make you open your eyes!!" <-- very protagonisty of her)

-Himena suggests that Iroha join up with them too; Iroha's like "dude i am not gonna turn on a dime like that, can you at least explain your long-term goals first" and Himena is like "ok! here's what Hiko-kun and I have planned" and reiterates most of the stuff she said during her Chapter 5 auditorium speech.
   -1. vertically structured society with a hierarchy that goes "NeoMagi core --> NeoMagi misc. --> all other MGs --> all regular humans" from top to bottom. 2. everyone in the MG category and the human category is 100% equal within that respective category. no demands of cash or grief seeds will be made. nobody's allowed to injure, demean, humiliate, abuse or otherwise harm any of their fellow people. 3. MGs' word is law b/c regular humans will turn evil and backstab each other at the drop of a hat! so it's our job to keep everything nice and orderly. absolutely zero tolerance policy for backtalk to MGs or begging MGs to do stuff for you. 4. MG leader appointed to each region; APS access is granted w/ priority given to NeoMagi members and taken away from those who oppose the regime.
   --> in short!! everyone's equal except for us, who are better, and whose job it is to make sure everyone else stays equal. nice and happy :)

-Iroha's like "uhhh ok so you basically get to do whatever you want to non-MGs w/ zero consequences" and Himena's like "yeah?????????? did that part not come through?????????"
--> anyway it's not like we're GUARANTEED to like, frickin', torture and enslave them or whatever. that'd be weird. we're just gonna pay them a visit and tell them about how we're inherently, objectively superior and (apart from anyone who's stupid enough to contest that fact) the rest will naturally fall into place! --> Iroha's like "how tho" and Himena's like "I mean did you not hear what Mitama and Kanagi said"

--> Ah. You're Going To Start By Attacking The City Government Probably. That's Gonna Suck. Ok Then.

(also, Kanagi and co. joined the Kimochi boss fight specifically in order to grab as many additional gems as they could. case in point: Mitama now has the Opal.)




-The newly-bolstered Neo Magius crew takes their leave, and the rest of us stick around for a bit to go "well huh. this sure ain't good."
--> It's weird that they would take the Kimochis right after learning that Ui's the only one who can handle them, right? What do they plan to do about /that?/
(Team KMR: "...Maybe they'll try to have Mitama adjust their Soul Gems so they can mimic Ui's powers? idk")

(*editor's note: i doubt that particular suggestion would work, but i bet this is why himena's been trying to capture mokyu lately. if mokyu has Residual Ui Aura then she could easily copy said aura to someone else at this point?)

(*double editor's note: JUST REALIZED THAT WE'RE GONNA HAVE TO PAY LIVIA A LOT MORE VISITS FROM NEXT CHAPTER ONWARD, HUH....... :big eyes emoji:)


-Most of the cast voices their thoughts on their respective (ex-)allies' decisions; meanwhile, Iroha gives Mikage a hug and promises that they're going to get Mitama back.





-Meanwhile, a couple hours earlier! Folklore and Kagome follow their respective invitations to the Eternal Sakura tree (with Rii-chan's help, in Kagome's case). Kagome feels a little out of place, but Touka and Nemu reassure her that her attendance is an important factor for them.

-The baby geniuses have gathered everyone here today to carry out the first step of their Big Plan: peacefully announcing the presence of Magical Girls to the world, since Uncle Tasuke went and totally gave up on that!

--> Tasuke and the Folklore members are like "bro that is incredibly dangerous. ur going to usher in The Destruction Of All Magical Girls Worldwide and so on. we saw what happened when people try to do that & it's why we're so set on Acceptance (TM) in the first place." --> Touka/Nemu are like "we wouldn't have formed the Magius in the first place if we were the sort of people who'd back down after hearing that!", and say they called everyone up here specifically because they're *not* gonna fail.

-They're about to make their own publicization attempt here and now, and they ask Folklore/Tasuke to reconsider their position at least a little bit in the event that it succeeds.
Touka tells Kagome to 1.) continue her journal no matter what, 2.) interview as many MGs as possible, and 3.) keep accumulating samples of those MGs' magic in the journal, like she's been doing already. Literally don't stop writing until you're dead.
Kagome's like "o...k...?" and Touka's like "LEMME HEAR A NICE DECISIVE RESPONSE!! WE'RE PUTTING ALL OUR CHIPS ON THIS GAMBLE HERE" and Kagome's like "OK!!!! :U"
--> Then Nemu sends a text to Ui, and they're ready to begin. (meanwhile nayuta and co. are like "guys you still haven't explained anything. what ARE you doing")

-Ui gets the text at Crescent House (where the gang's still staying for the time being-- their plans to move back in to Mikazuki Villa are canceled on account of the Neo-Magius also knowing where the Villa is).

Nemu says: "hey remember a while ago when Touka and I told you to keep our plans a secret and we'd explain them to you in detail later? well. basically. the two of us are about to use our own lives as a means of publicizing MGs. I can't share the details rn b/c we're being watched by a bunch of people who believe in Resigned Acceptance (TM), but if we succeed, then the Eternal Sakura should still be alive. so we're gonna use our lives, but we won't LITERALLY be dead, dw."
"the plan doesn't just require us tho: it'll need you + Iroha + Kagome if we want to have any chance of it working. so you HAVE to promise us that you'll both stay alive until the time is right, NO MATTER WHAT. Touka and I are staking our lives on this plan, and it'll only work if those conditions are met!!"

--> Ui is very upset by this!!!!!!! :U

-When Sakurako asks them if they're ready, Touka's like "of COURSE we're ready, it's not an exaggeration to say that both our lives basically existed for the sake of what we're about to do".
She has them each crouch down in the most effective defensive posture possible, hold their house arrest bracelets out at arm's length...
--> And then they're both like "ARGH **** IT THIS DOESN'T LOOK COOL AT ALL" and stand back up w/ their fists in the air. :V This is gonna be half luck-based anyway!! Who gives a damn!!

--> Listen up, Uncle Tasuke!! If this succeeds, both of us are still going to end up in critical condition! That'll probably be the last straw for Touka's dad!
--> See these bracelets? They're rigged to explode if we try to transform! Which is fair enough, on account of all the hideous villainy we did!
--> But as part of our repentance, we're gonna take that punishment and sublimate it into pure hope!! To save all Magical Girls!!
--> If this big-ass tree behind us is alive after this, Stage 1 is officially complete!



--> They transform and the bracelets go KABOOOOOOM. (Someone screams. Not sure who.)

tl;dr: in the immortal words of wint @twitter: "so long suckers! i rev up my motorcylce and create a huge cloud of smoke. when the cloud dissipates im lying completely dead on the pavement"



-Nayuta and Tasuke and the Folklore crew are all like "jesus christ what the ****? they just blew themselves up? what the ****? what was even the point of that?" and Sakurako's like "I know what the point of it was but I'm not telling you lol. Also hey look I'm still alive! do you think there's hope now"
--> Rabi literally says "I have no idea how to even determine that," which feels like an unintentional comedy punchline to the whole scene.

--> Cut to Touka and Nemu (...presumably Touka and Nemu?) getting wheeled into the hospital, w/ Toukadad understandably freaked out.

--> Later: Sakurako heads to Crescent House in the aftermath, and tries to reassure a very very VERY upset and crying Ui that Touka and Nemu are both alive, on account of Sakurako still existing. (As to where they are? Sorry. Gotta keep that a secret. Dun dun dun)



-That's All Folks!!
 That's The End Of The Chapter It Ends Right There!!