"We bring you shocking live news from the red flats downtown. A huge conflagration has blew up the entire flats, and no survivors were found."

Madoka's innocent pink eyes widened in fright at the scene of chaos on the television screen. She hugged her knees around her, biting her lip in frustration. The reporter's deep voice continued with his narration, as a video of firemen trying to douse the flames were played.

"Firemen have arrived at the scene and managed to put out the fire after a gruelling one-hour battle. Many charred bodies were uncovered from the rubble, but there were some bodies that were mysteriously unburnt but slashed open in many places. Two complete skeletons were also discovered near a blackened police car. They are believed to be Officers Rikyu Sanada and Nemu Otoki. Officer Saka, who was with the duo, has mysteriously disappeared, with no trace of him anywhere."

This was followed by a blurry picture of numerous bodies lined up in a row, covered by a large white cloth. The hull of the police car was seen in the background. Madoka gave a shocked squeal, covering her eyes immediately. She couldn't stomach this info. It was too much for her.

And the worse part was that she couldn't do anything about it.

"Madoka!" Yelled her mother, Junko, from downstairs. "You'd better turn off the TV now if you don't want to be late for school tomorrow. I'm certainly not waking you up myself!"

Madoka scrambled up hastily, turning off the television and cutting off the reporter's speech halfway. "There has been a weird sighting of a huge shadow and lar-"

"Yes, mom! I'm going to bed now!" she replied, shouting down the stairs. With a patter of small feet, she was in her room, surrounded by her stuffed toys. She decided to sleep with her big stuffed bunny tonight to calm her nerves.

Somehow, she felt that she knew what caused the tragedy. She just couldn't wrap her mind around it.

***

Homura watched the firemen extricating the bodies from the rubble with her impassive violet eyes, standing on a cliff overseeing the whole process. She twiddled with her soul gem on her left ear, watching the witch, Eliyah Sampah, bounce off into the horizon, cackling madly through sewn lips. Her flies flew after her in a cloud of scribbles, witch barrier receding after her.

Poor fools, she thought to herself. They can't understand what has hit them, and they never will. But that is just the way it is now.

The girl turned her back upon the ruins, flicking her long black hair. She ignored the witch. After all, it wasn't her duty to get rid of it. That job lay with the Puella Magi, the magical girls.

But...

A thin smile crept over her lips.

All the Puella Magi have forgotten who they truly were, and did not know about the existence of magic, wishes or witches. She had done this to them when remaking the world, executing her power as the new creator by erasing the minds of all the Puella Magi about their magical abilities and witch-fighting duties.

Let the world grow and be destroyed at its own pace. After all, it was wrong to interfere with the law of nature. And, so long as Madoka wasn't affected, she wouldn't really mind about what happened to the entire universe. No matter what, she will keep Madoka from harm.

If it means that she has to sacrifice herself to ensure that her friend never remembers her godly form, so be it.

She will readily give herself up for her.

***

"Now, class, I have a very important message for all of you. Make sure you pay attention. Should a plate be washed with water first or immediately soaped, what do you think, Nakazawa-kun?!"

Miss Saotome, the rather eccentric class teacher of the Year Two students of Mitakihara Middle School, whipped out her cane and pointed it at Nakazawa. The boy stood up warily and answered in a confused tone, "Err, you can wash it either way, can't you?"

The teacher smacked the cane into her palm, exclaiming loudly, "Correct! It is wrong to judge a lady by how she washes her plates! Girls, please remember that it is wrong to date a man who complains about how his plates are washed, have I got you all clear?"

The class murmured a 'yes' as Nakazawa sat, his face a picture of bewilderment. Sayaka rolled her eyes at Madoka, who was sitting next to her, and said with a grin, "I guess that didn't work out for her as well. Poor Miss Saotome, that must have been the hundredth time she got dumped!"

The two girls giggled softly, glancing over at Kyoko who was snoring gently two seats behind. Nothing seemed to faze the red-haired girl - she could probably sleep through a thunderstorm.

"Ahem, with that said," piped up Miss Saotome, who looked reasonably more relaxed, now that her anger was vented, "We have new transfer students from Australia, and they're twins! Come on in, girls, don't be shy!"

There were excited whispers as, gesturing with her hand, Miss Saotome encouraged the twins to enter the classroom. They stepped in shyly, eyes darting around the classroom in nervousness.

They were quite tall for fourteen-year-olds, one with long midnight-black hair and the other with short, dark blue hair streaked with silver. Both had amber coloured eyes, tinged with a deep red, and they wore the school uniform with thigh-high black leggings. Each had a silver ring on their middle fingers. There was a crescent-shaped hair pin on the long-haired one, while the short haired one wore a star-shaped pin. Besides the difference in hair and choice of accessory, they looked completely similar.

The pair bowed awkwardly at the same time, then straightened as the teacher introduced them. "Class, this is Estella and Luna Queen." She pointed at the short-haired one, followed by the long-haired one. "They're from Lordanum City of Australia, and have moved here because of their parents' jobs. They have lived in Japan once when they were younger, so they know some Japanese, but don't hesitate to help them if they're stuck on certain things, like our culture and language."

The pair wrote their english and japanese names on the whiteboard, and everyone applauded lightly as they finished. Kyoko woke up from the noise and glanced up at the two girls for a few seconds, then plopped back down on the desk, uninterested. Trust everyone to make a big fuss of transfer students.

***

Sayaka, Madoka, Kyoko and Hitomi lounged about the rooftop of the building after school, discussing the day's events. It was certainly not what you would call a 'normal' day.

For one, the two Australian girls were total brainiacs, solving all the maths questions like a breeze and writing five-page-long essays about 'the importance of preserving our natural ecosystem'. Also, they seemed quiet and reserved, like their class monitor, Homura Akemi. Homura, on the other hand, seemed not to mind them at all, giving them occasional glances of disinterest. All the teachers took an immediate liking to the twins, and had 'abandoned' the rest of the class, much to Sayaka's annoyance.

"I don't see the big deal about them two," she sulked, leaning against the grail. "They're from Australia, so what? You don't have to treat them like they're some goddess or something."

Kyoko prodded her shoulder with a Pocky stick, remarking cheekily, "You're just jealous that they're smarter, prettier, taller, more active, more pleasant, more amazing, more stunning -"

"Shut up, Kyoko," Sayaka pushed Kyoko away, saying airily, "You're no better than me, so stop comparing ourselves to those two queens!"

Madoka and Hitomi laughed at their antics as they began to harass each other good-naturedly. Leaving them to their 'argument', Madoka turned to Hitomi, asking, "By the way, Hitomi, have you watched yesterday's news about the burning of the red flats?"

Hitomi nodded, replying, "Oh, yes. It was so tragic.... They are even speculating that it was the work of a devil, because apparently, someone saw a large shadow near the flats right before it was burnt. Don't you think it's so scary that lately, there have been so many weird cases of mass deaths and suicides?" She started to count off her fingers. "First, it was the bomb at the factory, then a whole family committed suicide, followed by a mass gas poisoning in an office, and now this."

The pink-haired girl creased her brow in worry at her friend's reply. Something was still nagging at the back of her mind, that she somehow knew what was causing all these tragedies to occur.

As Madoka opened her mouth to reply, a soft voice cut in from behind. "You shouldn't worry too much about that, Madoka."

All four of them turned their heads towards the direction of the voice, and saw Homura standing at the entrance. She walked towards them nonchalantly, tossing her hair behind her.

"Hitomi, it's not nice to spread rumours about demons and devils," said Homura, staring pointedly at the green-haired girl. Hitomi wilted under the glare, apologizing under her breath.

"As for you, Madoka, don't go about wondering and thinking that you can do something to save those people, because you can't," she said icily, her violet eyes now focusing on a cringing Madoka. "Just stay as you are, and never change... not even to save the world."

The four girls looked at Homura in confusion. Her words were not making any sense to them. With a last, hard stare at Madoka, Homura turned on her heels and stalked away, her violet earring glinting in the sunlight.

Sayaka's fists balled up angrily. "Who does she think she is, going around lecturing people and telling them off? I've got enough of these quiet, freaky people to deal with, and she decides to make it worse by waltzing in with a creepy comment."

Kyoko merely cast a long stare at the receding figure, saying, "I'll never fully understand that girl."

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it," remarked Hitomi with a sad smile, taking her satchel from the seat. "I'll be going now for my classical Japanese dance lesson. See you guys tomorrow!"

The three waved her goodbye as she vanished below the stairs. Sayaka turned to Kyoko and Madoka and said, "So, wanna drop by Mami's class before we go back home?"

"Heck yeah, sure!" agreed Kyoko with much enthusiasm. "She might have some cake with her, if we're lucky."

"You glutton! All you ever think about is food!" Sayaka pinched Kyoko's belly, which made the red-haired girl squirm and laugh. The both of them raced down the stairs, yelling at the top of their voices.

"Last one there's a rotten cherry!"

"First one there's a smelly frog!"

Madoka shook her head, smiling to herself at Sayaka and Kyoko's childish romp. Slowly, she shouldered her bag and stared out into the horizon over the many high-rise buildings, absorbed in her own, deep thoughts.

She still had that persistent feeling that she was once part of something bigger.

Something very much bigger.

Whew, I finally got it done XD Just for info, this new world that Homura created has both wraiths and witches. The reason as to why witches are still here even though Madoka has erased them will be revealed later ;)
~SaitheVivana