Approaching an isolated cabin on the far edge of Mitakihara, a collapsed freeway visible on the horizon, Yui parks her bike in the middle of the road, dismounts and knocks on the door.

Yui: … Candygram!

With an exasperated sigh, followed by a kind smile, Toi opens the door — barely recognizable with her hair loose and unkempt and wearing a washed-out 80s band T-shirt.

Toi: She will not get that reference.

Yui: I didn’t exactly rehearse what dumbass thing I’d say to get her to open the door, y’know. I thought about it the entire ride here. Didn’t exactly have a good partner to bounce it off of. Lynx doesn’t make for good conversation.

Yui nudges her head back behind her, a messily parked motorcycle behind her.

Toi: … Are you even old enough to drive that thing? And I’m pretty sure you need to wear protective gear and a helmet.

Yui: Neither of ya have any kinda authority to do anything about that anymore, y’know. So, is she accepting visitors or not?

Toi: I’m still on the Mitakihara High payroll, mind you! Being a government spook has its advantages when people can’t know that you faked your own death.Yui: (smirking) So put me in detention, then, Ghost Teacher.

Toi: (she responds with a smirk of her own) I had a look at your file in the archives once. It’s surprising how petty all the pearl-clutching about your “delinquency” seems, now that this is the world we live in.

Anisa walks in, her hair loose as well, wearing a pair of thick-rimmed glasses and a baggy ensemble of layers upon layers of black.

Anisa: You on the phone or something? I need help moving these —Oh. (she casts her gaze downward) You’re here.

Yui: Heh. Skippin’ class seems so trivial by comparison (she peers in with a little wave). Kept duckin’ my calls, so I made it personal. Ya couldn’t avoid me forever, boss.

Anisa: Stop calling me that. We could be in college together, for crying out loud.

Yui: Would you prefer the other name? “Third Angel”? In case ya forgot, titles are kinda the world I live in. Pretty sure “boss” is tamer.

Anisa: (she raises her glasses to pinch the bridge of her nose, visibly exhausted) Is that the official title? I thought I was the one who got to make these up.

Toi: Sounds like something from an anime.

Yui: Or a game. Big ass title card drops right as the music kicks in. I like the term “Malefica” better, even if it’s not as easy to pronounce. But uh… yeah, nomenclature ain’t why I’m here… We should talk.

Anisa: Should we? (she nestles herself in a corner, on the wooden floor, the cabin’s interior around her containing little more than two mattresses and a portable gas cooker)

Yui: Yeah. I’m not gonna sleep well at night until I get it all straight. Y’know, before the next big crisis needs dealin’ with.

Anisa: Then say what you want to say. I’ll listen. I mean, you’re right. I don’t know what else to tell you.

Yui: From the top, then. … I’m the Fourth. You were Third. Kae was Second, ’til I tore that amalgamate soul apart — didn’t know I could pull that off, just so y’know… Sis — Cecilia was the First. I’m on track so far, yeah?

Toi: We didn’t exactly keep track of them in that way.

Anisa: … And we *did not* know aboutCecilia Ambrosi. We were never convinced that she herself could be the trouble her return would spell.

Yui: (entering the cabin proper, she leans against the wall opposite Anisa with one leg bent up, foot pressed back against the wood) But you sure wanted to hunt her down, ‘fore ya lost the Bureau. Why’s that, exactly?

Anisa: I was told that if she ever came back to Mitakihara, she would bring with her the end of the city as we know it… And I’m not talking about the place, the city — that’s pretty much lost already — I’m talking about the people. The community. Our community.

Yui: So, you went to try and bring her back? Sounds a lot like the you I knew four years an’ some change ago, y’know.

Anisa: I wanted to know where she was. It was never our plan to bring her back here. We weren’t that stupid.

Yui: S’how you operated up to this point. Secure. Contain. Protect. (she gives an indifferent shrug)

Anisa: I’m not proud I became the person I was set up to become. They knew I was going to try and do things differently. Maybe a better person than I am would have succeeded.

Yui: Maybe someone without omniscience. Someone with your good intentions and without any knowledge, beyond that gained the old-fashioned way. An’ I don’t mean surveillance. First real questions. One, how does your power work? Two, how the hell’d ya come back in the first place?

Anisa: I’m… not omniscient. That’s the entire point. It’s… It’s a game. It’s all a game. The Hierarchy has abandoned this world, or at least… this version of it. This reality. To them it is nothing more than a playground… When we… did what we did. When we defied the Afterlife, we defiled our reality with it. To them, it is now but a torture chamber. Our torture chamber. They’ll come up with some new way to destroy this toy they’ve abandoned and throw it at us, telling us to fight it, giving us whatever hints will agonize us the most, time after time making us think we’ve got a fighting chance, only to pull the rug again. They’ll put us in a situation where we have to become the thing we hate the most to save our world, and be spat on for it… You… don’t understand. It’s all part of their game. It’s all part of my punishment. That’s why they brought me back in the first place. To put me in a burning dollhouse and task me with trying to put out the fire, knowing that one day I will fail but compelled to keep fighting, unable to give up. Disasters will keep coming to this city, over and over again, until one day, we will fail.

Toi: …

Yui: Hierarchy…? Where’ve I heard that term before…? (Yui shakes her head and sighs) So they give you enough, just to let you make the worst possible decision, but make you feel like it’s the only way. That’s the shtick behind the Bureau, then? And that iron fuckin’ grip you had on the city this whole time?

Anisa: Exactly. There is just… something in me that will end up harming others, no matter what. They know this, and they’ll keep confronting me with it until they finally put me out of my misery. That’s the punishment for violating their directive.

Yui: So, lettin’ ya carry out your other half’s destruction, but leavin’ ya in the driver seat to watch the crash. Heh… gonna suck when I die and meet these fuckers then, isn’t it? ‘Specially with my unnatural powers and all that.

Toi: You don’t understand, Yui. The Hierarchy cares for but one thing — the living may never learn of the Afterlife. Anyone who just as much as scratches the barrier they’ve built between their realm and the many realities of the living, will see their world forfeit, often by their own hands.

Anisa: When people know what death is like, they will not fear it anymore. This is what the Hierarchy fears more than anything.

Toi: And so, anyone who shares a reality with a heretic like this, becomes little more than a pawn to them. A lamb they can sacrifice to torture the heretic into despair unlike anything you can imagine. We have all been defiled. I have, Anisa has. But so have you, or Alice, or even people who know nothing of any of this. We are all disposable. Rats on a sinking ship.

Anisa: And when we die, the gates of the Afterlife will remain closed to us. We will disappear into the void for the stain we carry. The stains I have tainted you with.

Yui: Huh. Better make the most of it, then. This one shot of livin’. Figured whatever powers-that-be’d be all up on me for messin’ with souls. Kinda surprised they let you tell me all this, though. Or am I defiled enough that your masters don’t care so much anymore?

Anisa:
(she shakes her head)  It doesn’t matter. I could scream the truth from the rooftops, and they wouldn’t care. We’re all doomed, anyways. We are none of their concern anymore.

Yui: By the current crisis? Or just, the inevitability of them throwin’ shit until we all break?

Toi: These might as well be the same thing.

Yui: (she scoffs) This ain’t world endin’. It’ll suck, sure. But we’ll survive it.

Anisa: Until the next thing comes along. And the next. And the next. Until nothing remains.

Yui: Then it’s whatever. I fight until the wheels fall off, which case, y’all’re fucked anyway.

Anisa: … Doesn’t it bother you that everyone you love will witness — will perish in the end of the world?

Yui: Even if somehow we lived forever, heat death of the universe’d kick in eventually. Everyone dies, Anisa. My job’s to try an’ make sure that they die from old age, and not a monster made of magical alien bullshit. S’why I have this power, even if I was tricked into it by my soul-sister. An’ while I have it, I’m gonna fight. I don’t like that prospect, sure. But I have power, so I’mma use it.

Anisa: (a bitter smile creeps onto her lips) You’re strong, Yui.

Yui: Only ’cause my three predecessors made me this way. Heh… so, olive branch. Ya want info on The Oracle, right? S’why ya went to the Birds about it.

Anisa: … It doesn’t matter. Whatever it is I foresaw, it’s already happening. So, Cecilia will be following suite soon enough.

Yui: Yep, she’s on her way back. …I can feel her soul again. I was on my way to meet her, but I figured, y’know… when it rains and all that. Kinda surprised you don’t wanna know about her, from someone who shared a soul for almost a year.

Anisa: You’d be surprised how little actually matters when you know what I know.

Yui: We’re past cryptic bullshit. Unless those fuckers force that as like a rule.

Toi: What we mean to say is that we don’t need personal information about Cecilia, or about her backstory.

Anisa: All that’s important is that there’re people out there who’re gonna burn the whole place down to get to her.

Yui: They’re gonna have a lot to burn to get to her. Including her, herself. Wanna know where she was comin’ from?

Toi: If you’re so eager to tell.

Yui: Kamihama.

Anisa: … What was she doing there? There are no Puellae Magi in Kamihama. No Incubator has been sighted there in months.

Yui: There are now. One minute, nothin’. A void of souls, save for one big-ass barrier. The next, bam. All at once. Sis’s soul leavin’ the city, an’ like… I dunno, couple dozen thousand or some shit regular ass people, all at once. That kinda sense gets overwhelmin’, y’know.

Anisa: She’ll have one hell of a story to tell, then.

Yui: After I kick her ass, yeah. I’m also gonna have to let you all in on some shit. Her sight, specifically. You two probably knew this already, but Cecilia doesn’t actually have blind spots in her vision. ‘Side one reality-bending exception, anyway.

Anisa: … Then she’ll know what’s coming.

Yui: Last, the mechanism of her sight. Since we bonded and nearly melded our souls, I got a little echo of it. Nothin’ concrete, mind. But I know how it works. See, she can only see visions based on intentions and actions of others. It takes like… an immeasurably low amount of time. But the only thing that causes her vision to change is for someone to change their intentions. Drastically. To the level of the soul. So if she’s tellin’ you that she’s got a blind spot, it means that she knows what’s gonna happen, and that we’ll be okay on the other side of it.

Anisa: … Even against someone who can dictate reality itself? Alter it on a whim?

Yui: That’s where it gets tricky, an’ why she genuinely couldn’t see Yasu’s wish way back when. S’how the Maestro wasn’t invincible. My parents learned how to fight against that sight. I know how now, too. But Cecilia left to Kamihama while all this shit was goin’ down with Aoi and the amalgamate Witch. She’s not runnin’ back to Mitakihara. She knows what’s comin’ next, and it doesn’t scare her.

Anisa: (she stares at Yui with a solemn gaze) … She’s wrong.

Yui: Nah, I don’t think so. Oracle’s got her own agenda, sure. But if she wanted this city destroyed, she’d have done it herself. I can feel it, you know… she’s like me. Two sides of the coin on the same page.

Anisa: You should be afraid. You can’t afford to go into this thinking it will all be alright.

Toi: … That’s when it will all go down in flames.

Yui: So… does this mean I can’t count on the Third Angel to help us fight this shit when it comes down? Just gonna sit here, bemoanin’ your fate? Or d’ya feel like tryin’ ta make up for some of the shit you did, way back when?

Anisa: I’m saying it’s foolish to be fearless. Not that fear leads to inactivity.

Toi: Fear can be a good teacher.

Yui: God, d’ya just get kicks outta speakin’ in metaphors and riddles? I thought the doublespeak and nothings would stop once the mask fell off.

Toi: … It’s just a common saying, Yui…

Anisa: We’re gonna keep fighting. We just think it’s wiser to be afraid of what is coming.

Yui: Maybe that works for you. But I grew up with my world on fire. Y’ever have to fight to eat? You know, I started cage fighting at the age of twelve, right? I might not kill again, but I sure as fuck can fight. Fear might keep you goin’, Anisa, but me? It’s just another chain I busted out of long ago.

Anisa: … I look forward to seeing the result of that determination, Yui.

Yui: You know though, this isn’t the only reason I showed up to talk to you. Right, Anisa?

Toi: … Wanna exchange recipes?

Yui: … Yes, actually, I can’t cook worth shit. Preferably something diabetic friendly. But before that… I mean, there’s a lot of bad blood we need to clear up, especially with the fire and brimstone on the horizon.

Anisa: There might be, on your end. But I can offer little more than a punching bag.

Yui: I’m good with those, y’know. I own a gym.

Anisa: Then maybe you should go there to find the catharsis you want.

Yui: … A punching bag didn’t kill Esther Rinju.

Anisa: … What do you want me to say, Yui?

Yui: I dunno. But I’ve got a lot to get off my chest…