Chapter 200: Chapter 6: Bizarre Developments
"Sayaka, I think something weird happened to me today."
"Weird how?"
"That kitten that showed up at school today—I think I heard her talk. She asked me if I wanted to become a Magical Girl."
"Huh?" Sayaka stared at her best friend in disbelief, reaching over to feel her forehead. "Has my little Madoka finally reached that age?"
"No, that’s not it! But right after that, the transfer student—Akemi-san—just scooped her up and carried her off. Said it was her pet cat that came looking for her."
"I have absolutely no idea what you’re saying. Your whole point is that a cat talked to you, right? Come to think of it, I’ve still got those toy wizard potion bottles I used to play with as a kid—want me to give them to you?"
"..."
After school, Homura cornered the innocent little cat against a wall. One hand pressed flat against Yimi’s chest to hold her body upright, the other pressing a handgun to her head.
"What exactly are you after? Are you one of Kyubey’s kind?"
Yimi lifted a paw and nudged the gun-hand aside. "I’m gonna feed Magical Girls—cooked Kyubey."
"That makes no sense. If your goal were simply to eliminate Magical Girls, you wouldn’t have asked Madoka whether she wanted to become one."
Homura’s expression remained perfectly blank as she studied Yimi. "Kyubey’s identity is that of an Incubator. Its purpose in contracting Magical Girls is to utilize a technology that converts emotional energy to counteract the universe’s entropy increase toward heat death."
For the universe as a whole, that might even qualify as a good thing. But for girls like them—underage victims averaging fourteen years old—Kyubey’s behavior was no different from outright scum.
Homura’s cold gaze bore into the little cat. "And your current actions, rather than eliminating Magical Girls, look more like you’re somehow accelerating the conversion of emotional energy."
Grief Seeds—that was what the Kyubeys actually harvested. Emotional energy representing the power of despair, not the fairy-tale nonsense where love could conquer all.
Yimi looked up at her, uncomprehending. "What’s entropy? What’s heat death?"
She didn’t seem to be faking it.
"In your view, what is a Magical Girl?"
"A girl who does magic." Yimi answered honestly.
"Then what do you think Kyubey is?"
"Hard to eat... tasty ingredients." Her eyeballs drifted to one side as she said this.
"..."
Homura lowered the gun. She had a strange, inexplicable sense of déjà vu.
Or rather, being around this cat always produced an odd feeling—like watching a clueless child get duped into doing something, exactly the way Kyubey had once duped them into fighting Witches only to become Witches themselves.
No, that wasn’t quite right either. From the very beginning, this cat seemed to harbor a singular obsession: to cook Kyubey into something edible and then feed it to others. She’d even eaten some herself.
And since Kyubey was a creature invisible to ordinary humans, feeding it to normal people would be nearly impossible anyway.
Looking at it from a non-conspiracy angle, the explanation actually tracked. Maybe she was simply something like a "Chef Alien"—and a young one at that—who had stumbled upon the bizarre species known as Kyubey and wanted to figure out how to make it taste good?
But the thought was still revolting. No ordinary human psyche could accept using that thing as a cooking ingredient.
Homura holstered her weapon. "Being a Magical Girl is a cursed existence. If you intend to get people to contract with Kyubey, I will never let you off."
Yimi’s ears twitched. She didn’t fully understand, but the gist was clear enough: Kyubey was a bad thing.
Homura glanced at her watch. "It’s about that time—I need to go hunt Kyubey. Want to come along?"
"Yes."
Good. Let the cat show her exactly what was so special about it.
As mentioned before, hunting Kyubey was fundamentally pointless—the creatures were nearly impossible to exterminate entirely. Homura simply killed them at the precise moments when Kyubey was about to approach a potential contractee, preventing the contract from ever forming. The biggest obstacle in the Mitakihara region was Mami Tomoe, the resident Magical Girl and self-appointed host, who naively treated the emotionless Kyubey as a friend.
No special detection skills required. After countless loops, Homura knew exactly where Kyubey was most likely to encounter Madoka—because today was the day Madoka would go with Sayaka to rent music cassettes, and Kyubey would latch onto the opportunity.
"Hm?"
The moment Homura drew close, Kyubey reacted instantly, uttering a puzzled sound before bolting into the distance without hesitation.
Homura didn’t make her move. Instead, she looked down at Yimi. "The ingredient you want is right here. Go ahead."
She didn’t believe a cat capable of moving freely through Time Stop lacked offensive capabilities.
"Meow."
Yimi pounced forward, a flash of white light bursting from behind her.
"’The World!’"
A hulking Stand that formed a stark contrast to Famine’s build materialized almost instantly in front of Kyubey’s face, seized it, and with raw brute force twisted its head clean off. Blood sprayed out, splattering across Yimi’s fur. In terms of sheer panel-stat strength, The World outclassed Famine by a wide margin.
Beyond that, The World Over Heaven—while not employing Time Stop’s power here—possessed an even more formidable ability: Reality Overwrite, channeled through both fists.
Only then did the little cat belatedly realize: why hadn’t she simply used The World to overwrite Kyubey meat into something delicious from the start?
「Congratulations, Host! Achievement unlocked: [Any Living Thing Feels Pain and Fear When Hurt, or Leaves an Opening, but Kyubey Does Not]. Reward: 5% portal energy.」
"Meow?"
An achievement name that long for a measly 5% energy?
Yimi stowed the Kyubey meat back into her storage space.
"Akemi... -san?"
A familiar voice called from the shadows ahead, making Homura’s brow furrow slightly.
Why had she come in here on her own? This area was supposed to be off-limits for the shop.
Oh, right—Kyubey possessed Telepathy. It had probably cried for help to Madoka the moment Homura wasn’t paying attention.
Damn Kyubey.
Taking in the scene before her, Madoka clapped a hand over her mouth and stumbled back a step. "Why would you do something so terrible?"
What did it look like through her eyes? She’d come running after hearing a telepathic "help me" while looking for cassettes with Sayaka, followed the voice here, and found—
Since The World had ripped off Kyubey’s head and Yimi had already stored the body in her storage space, Madoka of course had no idea who had been calling for help. All she saw was the little cat who had talked to her that morning—now drenched in blood—with Homura standing right there holding a gun.
"This has nothing to do with you... Terrible?" Homura looked down at the gun in her hand, then at Yimi.
Madoka rushed over and scooped Yimi up. "So heavy."
"Meow?"
Then Madoka turned and ran.
She had no time to process why a middle-schooler like Homura was carrying a gun—talking cats already existed, so what was one more impossibility?
Homura realized what was happening a beat too late and scrambled after her. "Wait—!"
A cloud of dry powder—apparently blasted from a fire extinguisher—hit her square in the face.
The culprit, Sayaka, waved Madoka on: "Madoka, this way! Run!"
Things had taken a truly bizarre turn.
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