With the city slowly spiralling into chaos, Niko is similarly losing control over the Dreamscape, as people are randomly getting pulled in without her knowledge, and made to suffer horrific nightmares. Meanwhile, the Dreamscape’s permanent residents are starting to lose their memories one by one, while Hikari’s memories remain inaccessible to the new warden. Exasperated, Niko starts to believe there is someone else somehow trying to wrest control over the Dreamscape away from her.

As school starts up again, rumours are beginning to spread amongst the student body about the incident at the mansion. When Koharu learns about one particularly outrageous theory being spread by a new transfer student — a first-year amateur photographer named Yosuke Nishioka — she sets out to confront him, only to find out he intends to join the Newspaper Club. When she refuses, Yuna, backed up by Shinju, insists she let him join, at least as a trial member, stating that the two have more in common than she might think, despite Yosuke’s tendency to push Koharu’s buttons.

At night, Yui returns to Fujiwara no Sagi. Relieved, he thanks her for returning Kotori’s soul to her body and confirms Shinobu’s identity to Yui, as well as the fact that Shinobu visited him in person, albeit not to ask for Aoi’s location, as Yui had anticipated. Stating his intention to move his family out of town in order to stay off the Bureau’s radar, Kenji is surprised to find out Yui requires his clan’s services once more — to know Cecilia’s whereabouts. Unfortunately, he cannot answer that question. Upon her departure, Yui reveals the reason why she needs to findher “sister’ as soon as possible to Kotori in the form of a mysterious letter — to which Kotori replies by handing Yui a flash drive described only as “a kill switch”.

The next day, Hanako returns to school as well, but before she can reunite with her friends, she is approached by Aoi’s supporters, who urge her to convince Aoi to wipe out the 6th Bureau using her new powers, but Hanako speculates that if the Bureau gets attacked now, their reign of law and order might seem justified — Aoi seems to want to wait until public opinion turns on the Bureau entirely, which she anticipates will happen soon.

Indeed, as the news of Shinobu’s arrest becomes widespread over the following days, another protest breaks out in the city in response to the hardline policies adopted by the Bureau’s new branch director, a bureaucrat named Kobayakawa. Dedicated to returning law and order to the city, Kobayakawa assumed direct command over all JSDF units stationed in Mitakihara and pledges the Bureau’s unwavering support to Masato Yamada’s mayoral campaign. When Satomi overhears her father discussing the latter, she anonymously leaks the information online, causing a large part of the city’s youth to go from protesting to rioting. All over town, clashes between rioters, Yasuda’s supporters and the Bureau begin to escalate, culminating in a further tightening of the city-wide curfew and the arrest of countless protestors, including Koharu’s sister Midori.

On the other side of the conflict, Aoi’s sisterhood continues to fan the flames as well. While their leader recovers from the fight with Shinobu and attempts to convince the neutral parties in the fued that she only intends to use her control over Walpurgisnacht as a deterrent, her followers go against her orders. Led by Kotori, they gang up on Mei, believing her to have ratted the sisterhood out to the Bureau and holding her responsible for Miho’s death. In the ensuing fight, Mei is forced to reveal that she possesses an Artefact — a phone charm containing a fragment of the shattered soul of her beloved, the girl who was turned into a Witch by Rui Tomatsu — and uses it to fight Kotori on equal terms. Before either of the girls can deal a lethal blow, however, they are interrupted by a patrolling Kohaku, granting Mei the opportunity to flee.

As Masato Yasuda’s political discourse grows ever more grim, so does his relationship with his daughter. Having received a death threat, he prepares to stay to a safe house until his next rally, but not before clashing with his daughter once more. When Satomi re-affirms her refusal to be used as a tool for his political ambitions, the two have another fight, during which Masato reveals that the death of his son, Satomi’s brother, was not the result of a traffic accident. In reality, Satoshi committed suicide because he was — in Masato’s words — “sick” and “refused to be fixed”. Shocked by the revelation that her whole life has been a lie, Satomi has a mental breakdown. When Kyubey appears in her room one more time, she wishes for him to kill her. Kyubey, however, suggests a more glorious way to die.

Later that night, Satomi’s mother finds her trashing her father’s office, clearly disturbed and looking for evidence to expose his ties to organized crime to the world. Upon confronting her mother with the truth, Satomi stabs herself in the neck with a letter opener, but the wound immediately closes, marking her awakening as Puella Magi. Passing the letter opener over to her mother, Satomi then uses her newfound powers to manipulate her into confess to the police that she killed her own daughter before fleeing, setting the mansion ablaze in the process.

The next morning, Masato is shocked to see his daughter joining him on stage for his rally. When she takes the mic, however, the speech she delivers is not the one he prepared for her. Clearly deranged and under the influence, Satomi starts insulting her father in front of his supporters, being met with opposition and jeering from the crowd. When Masato tries to wrestle the microphone away from her, however, the crowd witnesses an immense beam of light erupting from and disintegrating the Sixth Bureau headquarters, seemingly killing director Kobayakawa, Yuna and the imprisoned Shinobu. As a panic breaks out, Satomi pushes her father into the hysteric crowd and orders the crowd to “do whatever they want”, her powers of suggestion causing everyone present to go feral, trampling Masato and attacking the law enforcement officials at the scene.

From the distance, Yosuke watches the rally devolve into anarchy and takes a few pictures, mentioning to his companion that he now realizes why they kept referring to Shiori as “Firestarter”. The companion is revealed to be none other than Kyubey. Meanwhile, Yui, Alice, Yuzuki and the members of the Newspaper Club all witness the ensuing pandemonium on television, where they find the light that destroyed the Bureau split and travelled great distances to strike down prominent criminals, third-world dictators and warlords. Aoi has finally made her move.

In the hours that follow, the international community quickly determines that the projectiles originated in Japan, and the Japanese government in turn quickly casts the blame on the Bureau. Due to witness reports of the light originating from the its headquarters, the government concludes the Bureau has gone rogue and developed a weapon of mass destruction in secret. Eventually whatever personnel didn’t resign in the wake of the HQ’s destruction are discharged as the Bureau is forcibly shut down. With the city devolving into complete anarchy, Aoi gathers her followers to put the second part of her plan into motion.