Chapter Text
Where the hell is everything!
99% of the time, the past repeats as normal. Homura wakes up in her hospital bed, fixes her eyes, and kills any incubator that gets with in a kilometer radius of Madoka's apartment before enchanting her new base. (If only it kept with her between timelines like all the explosives in her shield did).
There was one little problem, Mitakahara city was gone. Homura knew something was wrong immediately when she woke up and the pristine white walls of the hospital were dull and yellowed. The holographic display of digital clock was replaced with a standard wall clock, and the medical devices in general were lower tech.
Checking the calender, there was still a flower circling the current date for her release from the hospital. March 16th, but the day was wrong. It was a Thursday instead of a Wednesday. Looking at it further the entire calender was different. Homura sighed and enchanted her eyes to make sure she was seeing this right (how the hell did she survive years with her old glasses?) and ripped the calender off the wall.
It was a normal calender, that promised a new type of tree every month instead of the cats her usual calender had. It was also for 1989, not 2011.
Homura sighed and tried to breathe. She has approximately 13 minutes left before the nurses came to check on her, assuming she could rely on any of her knowledge for right now. This isn’t the first time the timeline had gone wayside, there was the other time she was sent to the 90s and everyone kept calling her by Mami’s family name for some reason. These ‘alternate timelines’ happen. Homura tried asking the cats in that world that served as incubators but they were as useless as anyone else- and then sabotaged her anyway. No point in worrying about it now. Homura had long accepted that if there was a chance to save Madoka, then these timelines provided a rare opportunity to try something new.
Turns out it only took 9 minutes for the Doctor to discharge her. Some new guy named Tofu. Still after verifying her own identity was at least intact Homura left the strangely small hospital on a search to find Madoka’s apartment. The problem? There were basically no fucking skyscrapers in this ward! Two decades in the past or not how the hell did a ward of Tokyo not have any building larger than 5 stories?
Local registers did not help at all. Nor did the scarcity of computers in this world, forcing Homura to snoop through local records, but she could find no mention of Mitakahara City or Madoka Kaname even existing. This timeline was probably a dud, still there was at least one avenue left to check. The calender and school papers Homura was discharged with did not say she was enrolled in Mitakahara middle school, rather she was to start attending Furinkan High School.
Odd, Homura preferred not to think about how long she spent repeating the six weeks over and over. Some trips lasted longer than others depending just how quickly hope gave out. Not to mention these anomalies throwing a hammer in the works.
Still Homura calculated that she had spent about a year trapped in her time loop, and that was about nine resets ago. By all accounts Homura should be 16 years old now. The fact that her new medical records wrote her birthday as February 22nd 1973 was unimportant. And that she still hadn’t quite cracked 160cm was a minor annoyance at best.
With no other obvious paths forward, Homura Akemi did what she always did and got ready for school.
Furinkan High school was noisier than she expected. Despite being smaller than Mitakihara, the lack of glass walls made the whole thing feel oppressing like being shoved into a can of sardines. Energetic ones too. Upon reaching the third floor Homura noticed a group of female students pressed up to what few windows they did have. One upper classmen with a page-cut was shouting above the others.
“Make your bets! Make your bets! How long will Akane stand against the Hentai-horde today?”
She was definitely staring too long as the upper classmen caught her eye. “You there! New-girl! You seem like the smart type. How long do you think my precious little sister will last against that horde of awful boys out there?”
That’s what they were betting on? How pointless. Still at second glance Homura realized it was not just a small group of boys lined up but every male sports club member equipped with bokens, tennis rackets and hockey sticks. Any girl who stood up to that much harassment was primed to be targeted by Kyubey. More importantly, this upperclassmen who would place bets on her own little sister’s safety seemed too smart for her own good. She instantly recognized a lower classmen was new which meant she could recognize every student in the school. More importantly she seemed mercantile enough to sell that information.
Homura flipped her hair. “I bet one minute and 25 seconds exactly. If I win you must tell me what I need to know.”
The upperclassmen grinned like a shark but her eyes sprinted around Homura like those of a hare staring down an approaching fox. “And if you lose.”
“I thought that’d be obvious. I will answer any one question you have of me.”
“But you have one in mind and I don’t know you.” The girl tapped her chin for a second. But whatever hard ball she wanted to play was interrupted as someone screamed
“She’s coming!”
“Make it three.”
“Deal.”
The upper classmen set a timer right as a boy and a girl entered through the front gate. The boy was dressed in a red silk shirt and instantly jumped up on the gate at a word form the girl, the girl who looked familiar with dark blue hair tied in a white ribbon charged the small army of teenage boys. She was doing quite well too. Homura could not sense any magical interference, just swinging a bag against several opponents. At one point she stole a hockey stick to hit another on the head. It was impressive and sure enough the girls weren’t the only ones watching. A small white creature was perched on one tree and just outside the gate were- a panda? Odd But not important. Homura watched the timer tick away. One 1:17, 1:18, 1:19- and still there were atleast a dozen boys left.
Sighing Homura took a step back and grabbed her shield.
Time froze around her, fortunately just a second before the upperclassmen turned her head at the sound of the clock. Homura would have to be careful where she stood when time unfroze. Still it was a simple matter to take a golf club and beat a couple boys on the head. Not enough to kill any but enough to throw them off guard and make them easy targets. A few that were close to jumping the new girl she tied the shoes of. And as for the girl herself, this “little sister” was fierce yes, but wore no ring or bore any other marks of a magical girl Homura could see. That was almost more impressive. Still a dead end.
Homura sighed and moved a step to the left of where she had froze time, just enough that the upperclassmen wouldn’t see her until her magical girl uniform had dissipated. And resumed time. The little sister grabbed a boys leg and threw him at two others. Another five or six all fell on their own as if tripping on air. One puked seemingly just at the sight of the little sister.
“What the fuck?” The upperclassmen whispered as her sight was torn back to the crowd and then the clock. 1 minute 25 seconds exactly.
“It seems I win the bet.”
The upperclassmen glared and her before flashing a peace sign. “Not yet.”
Just then a tall boy in Kendo gear came out, and started announcing his presence like he was in a samurai movie.
“He wasn’t part of the same group.”
The upperclassmen feigned concern, “Oh but he was. The bet was made on Akane defeating the Hentai horde and he is their noble leader. Sorry if a transfer student like you didn’t know that.”
Homura was caught in a loophole, and if there was one thing she hated, it was legal loopholes.
Sensing her killing intent or just wanting to save face the upper classmen relented. “Tell ya what. You’re new so I’ll cut you a break. And Nabiki Tendo keeps her word. You ask me one question and I’ll ask you three.”
“Fine.” Homura spat out. “Do you know a short pink-haired girl named Madoka Kaname?”
Nabiki’s face was a rollercoaster but it went too fast for even Homura to read. “I can honestly say that I have not met a short pink haired girl by that name.”
Another loophole, That was clear as a day in the older girl’s precise wording. Was this girl an incubator in human form? Still as the crowd erupted in applause Nabiki Tendo kept her eyes on Homura.
“I get three questions, right”
‘That was one, you have two left”
“Oh I’m going to love you.”
Not a question.
“Fine then genie girl, I’ll save my third for a later time. You can save me your name I’ll check the registrar's office later. What I want to know is how you made sure the Horde was defeated at exactly 1 minute 25 seconds.
Homura flipped her hair. “I didn’t. Their leader wasn’t defeated at that time, remember.”
The clouds burst into rain behind Nabiki as something thudded to the front of the school. Homura didn’t look, she had already turned on her heels and left for class.
“And remember girls, sunny side up is when you can see the yoke on top of the egg whites, its inappropriate to give your husbands eggs sunny side down!” The teacher droned on before adjusting his glasses, seemingly to finally recognize that students were here to begin with.
“Oh and it seems we have two new students today. Homura Akemi”
Homura stood up, and wrote her name on the board. The class seemed harder to impress than usual. Though a pair of boys did whisper to each other once she turned her back.
“And Ranma Saotome.”
No one stood up. Eventually a girl coughed. “Akane’s missing too. She must’ve been hurt after this mornings fight.”
“Rough housing is no excuse for tardiness- I’ll just mark them both as…”
Suddenly the door floor open. The little sister from earlier ran into the room with the boy in red silk shirt. His black hair tied in a long braid flapping behind him.
“Sorry-” The girl- presumably Akane cried out. “We’re here.”
“You’re late. Class meet Ranma. Now why don’t both of you hold buckets in the hall and think about your tardiness.”
The boy, Ranma apparently, blew his water soaked hair out of his eyes. She noticed the two appeared to be matching with his braid ending in a smaller red ribbon that matched his silk shirt but threw off the whole “macho martial artist” look he was apparently going for. Even more than that, the girl had slight signs of the drizzle outside from earlier, Ranma was soaked and his silk shirt was slightly steaming as if someone poured boiling water on him.
Still after much grumbling the two delinquents agreed to their punishment. Before the Teacher could get the lesson started Homura decided then to make her move.
“Oh sensei, I also need to go to the nurse’s office for my morning check-up. Who is the nurse’s aid for this class.”
Several kids behind her began snickering and The teacher adjusted his glasses. “Oh right, you hadn’t been in school since middle school. There is no nurse’s assistant. If you need to find the nurse’s office you can put one of the two delinquents out there to work.”
“I see.” Homura bit her lip, as another peel of laughter burst out from the class at that, followed quickly by hooting as she stood up and walked out the door. Homura was beginning to miss Mitakihara.
Outside the room, the two late comers had wasted no time already getting themselves into even more trouble. Though that was largely the fault of the upperclassmen with the sword coming at them.
“Saotome! Is it true thou hath stolen the fair-Akane’s hand in marriage?”
He slashed without waiting for an answer, and Homura noted that Ranma seemed more scared of dropping the bucket of water than the sword slash itself. Still it was none of her business and her beloved was still likely hiding somewhere on this campus. So Homura pushed past the chaos thinking she could simply ignore the madness.
But madness was never great at ignoring her.
“Ah, I see Homura Akemi, the cold flame of St. Hebereke’s school for girls. Could it be that you’re the Yurei the Mercenary mentioned.”
“I’m sorry, do I know you?”
The swordsmen puffed out his chest. “How, how could you forget Tatewaki Kuno the Blue Thunder of Furinkan high, brother of your co-conspirator, Kodachi.”
Homura raised an eyebrow. It made sense that her past would’ve been changed as well to fit into this new timeline, but awfully inconvenient memories of it did not follow. Still maybe she should check out this ‘St. Hebereke’s’
Kuno however turned his attention back to this Ranma boy. “Could it be Saotome, that you have not just ensnared the lovely Akane into your trap, but summoned spectres of the unloved dead to this realm as well?”
“Unloved?”
“Hey, lay off. I don’t even know that chick. You want to mess with me, leave the girls out of it!”
Ranma sprinted down the hall with the swordmen after him. Homura spared a glance at the Akane girl again.
“Is it always like this here?”
The bluenette crossed her arms in a way that was familiar but Homura still couldn’t place. “Kuno is but Ranma’s making him worse. And we’re on the third floor idiots!”
That last part was directed out the window, which Ranma had just jumped out of followed by a rather persistent samurai. Sighing Homura checked to see if either needed to be saved and was relieved to see a pool was underneath. But then something strange happened. What surfaced was the unconscious body of Tatewaki Kuno, being dragged by someone other than Ranma. Rather wearing Ranma’s clothes was a much smaller girl with bright pink hair tied into a braid with a red ribbon.
“Madoka?” Homura breathed. And although there was no way she should’ve been able to hear her from the far end of the pool, the small boned girl with pink hair and the red shirt stared up at Homura in horror.