Starved for answers following the sudden intervention by Yui Arashi and the Sixth Bureau, Hanako manages to track the former down to a ruined opera house in an abandoned district of the city. Here, she finds Yui — though not in the guise Hanako realizes. Instead, Yui introduces herself as “the Oracle”, claiming to have been watching Hanako and her friends for a while now using her ability of omniscience. Still angered by Yui’s sudden interruption during the battle with Chiemi Takahata, Hanako calls on the Oracle to leave her and her friends alone. Yui, however, implores her to see the bigger picture. Invoking the suffering Rui Tomatsu caused and the uncomfortable truths about Kyubey’s contract Hanako recently learned of, the Oracle invites Hanako to join forces with the other Puellae Magi in the city, as doing so will not only increase Hanako’s chances of survival, but also allow Yui to protect the city from an immense threat about to be unleashed. When Hanako questions how Yui knows about this threat, the Oracle reveals her true identity — she is not Yui, but an entirely separate individual by the name of Cecilia Ambrosi, sharing a body with the person Hanako met earlier. When Hanako asks how this is possible, Cecilia relates to her the story of her life.
Years ago, Cecilia grew up in an impoverished remote village in Italy, along with her elder brother Velare Ambrosi. Wishing to escape her mundane life, she took Kyubey up on his offer and became a Puella Magi in exchange for her wish to see the world. When her soul was unable to handle the omniscience this wish granted her, however, it was splintered, killing Cecilia in the process. Stricken by grief, Velare nevertheless found his sister had left him a part of her soul, trapped in a pocket watch. This Artefact — as Velare dubbed the watch — allowed him to continue using Cecilia’s powers after her death. In the years that followed, Velare wasted no time in his attempts to avenge his sister. Using the pocket watch to travel the world and amass a significant fortune, he eventually settled down in Mitakihara along with three other men who had suffered a similar loss. Using the opera house as a base of operations and dubbing themselves the Conductors, Velare and his comrades started to look for schemes to outwit Kyubey’s manipulations and ways to protect people from Witches without the need for Puellae Magi to sacrifice themselves.
Over the course of the years, however, the Conductors started losing track of their original goal, eventually disbanding as the result of a pointless feud with an organized crime syndicate headed by Yui’s father, Kaito Arashi. Following the death of Kaito’s fiancée at the hands of one of the Conductors, Velare, a mere shadow of the man he used to be, decided to groom Kaito’s daughter — Yui — into his successor, by any means necessary. In rebelling against his machinations, however, Yui discovered another shard of Cecilia’s soul. Realizing the only way to escape the clutches of an omniscient man was to fight him with equal weapons, Yui made a contract with Kyubey, wishing to absorb Cecilia’s lost soul into her own body, gaining her powers of omniscience in the process. Together, the two managed to put an end to Velare’s ambitions once and for all, but are now left with cleaning up the mess he and the other Conductors caused by messing with powers beyond their comprehension.
When Hanako inquires what any of this has to do with her, Cecilia tells her one more story: the story of a creature the Conductors created amidst their crusade, “a Puella Magi whose soul has become corrupt before fully forming into a Soul Gem, [who] carries the form of a Puella Magi, but the insanity, power, and instability of a Witch”. Before disbanding, the Conductors’ final act was to seal this creature — which Cecilia refers to as “Kae” — into an Artifact and burying one of their own somewhere in the city alongside with this Artifact. Cecilia fears that Kae is about to escape her prison soon, however, and implores Hanako to join her cause1. When Hanako refuses to believe such a creature can even exist, Cecilia reveals that one has been set loose on the city before: the great disaster that struck Mitakihara four years ago — the same disaster that caused the disappearance of Koharu’s mother and ravaged the district the opera house is located in — was caused by such a creature. Back then, Yui was the one who took down this hybrid of Puella Magi and Witch, but Cecilia fears Kae will be many times more powerful. Hanako, however, refuses to pledge her allegiance to the Oracle’s cause.
After Hanako leaves, Yui takes back control over her body and informs Cecilia of a more personal issue regarding the Conductors’ legacy. She believes her father Kaito to still be alive, and on the look for another one of the organization’s Artefacts, a lantern that can allegedly transfer souls into new bodies. While Kaito seeks to use the lantern to resurrect his fiancée, Yui wants to use it to give Cecilia a body of her own. Both realize they are racing against the clock in more ways than once, and will need to recruit more allies to their cause if they want to prevent the missing Artefacts from falling into the wrong hands.
Meanwhile, a girl is sitting on the beach, about to turn into a Witch, when a winged Puella Magi swoops in from across the sea, offering her aid. Using her wings, the mysterious Puella Magi is able to miraculously purify the girl’s Soul Gem without a Grief Seed. Surprised, the girl implores the winged Puella to help her friends as well, stating that there are dozens of Puella Magi around town and not enough Grief Seeds to maintain all of them. The winged Puella, who introduces herself as Aoi Hikarizaka, promises to help, but wonders what could have happened in this city for it to have so many Puella Magi struggling for survival. Then, she disappears.
- For the full story of the Conductors, their rivalry with Yui’s family and the origins of Kae, make sure to read The Conductor’s Omnibus, which was released at the same time of these events occurring in Mitakihara Original. ↩︎
Mitakihara Original 