When I think back to the day Mitakihara was almost completely destroyed, it seems like it was just a bad dream. It wasn’t. It was terrifying, it was emotionally stressful and it was the second hardest day of my life…yet I can’t help smiling when I’m reminded of it.

It may seem strange, but…it was the day I realized I wasn’t alone anymore. After my mom died my life started going downhill to the point where I figured no one would miss me if I just ended myself. Heck, I almost did. After I met everyone, though, everything changed. I felt brighter. I felt happier…and that only increased when I met and got to know Hiroko. When the giant witch attacked, along with that evil girl Anisa, it felt like my happiness was being tested. Were the people I considered the first true friends I’ve ever had going to be taken away from me?...Was the strange, raven-haired magical girl I grew to love going to be killed before I could tell her how I really felt?...Or would it be the other way around and would I be the one weak enough to have her life taken away from her first?

Yet after all that doubt and fear, I’m still here. Four years later and we all are. Our lives continue, even as all this magical girl stuff continues to loom over us. Witches still lurk in the unlikeliest of places. Both Hiroko and Yuzuki have to continue risking their lives to ensure everyone’s safety, including their own. Despite all of that…we keep living as best we can, as normally as we can. And even though normality will never really return to our group, one thing I know for sure is that I’ll keep trying to move forward with a smile on my face. For my friends…for Hiroko…and for myself~