The next morning, Anisa makes her way up the stairs of a run-down apartment complex, eventually unlocking a door on the third floor and entering, immediately grabbing a bag of instant coffee from a shelf and microwaving a mug of water as she yawns.

Toi: (sitting on the couch not too far away from the kitchenette near the front door, still wearing her pajamas and a pair of wide-rimmed glasses, she looks up from her laptop to confront the woman who just entered with a smirk) Where have you been?

Anisa: Citizen’s Council. The Birds of Fujiwara decided to stage an intervention. They want my help to take the city back.

Toi: In true anime fashion, huh? Recruiting yesterday’s villain to deal with today’s threat.

Anisa: Very funny. (she sighs as the microwave dings, opens it an, upon noticing the water isn’t boiled yet, closes it again)

Toi: They’re right, though. People like us shouldn’t stand by idly and shrug their shoulders at the inevitability of it all. You’ve still got a role to play.

Anisa: Hmm. (she takes the mug out of the microwave again, stirring in a tablespoon of instant coffee) What’re you doing for the cause then, miss Sakurauchi?

Toi: I’ll remind you I do still have an actual job… sis. (she shows Anisa her laptop screen) Got hundreds of students reporting in on the volunteer work they’re doing. We’re giving them extra credit for contributing to the rebuilding effort.

Anisa: (she takes a sip of her coffee and plops down next to Toi on the couch) Point taken.

Toi: … I… (she clears her throat) … haven’t heard anything from the newspaper kids, though.

Anisa: They’ve been out of town. According to the birds, Yasuda’s not our only problem. The Incubator has decided to clean up the city and get rid of every Puella Magi he can’t use as a living battery. And given our efforts… that’s everyone. 

Toi: … Cleaning up before the secrets get out? Might already be too late for that.

Anisa: Hm. Kyubey has brought a death squad into town; calls them “the Balancers”. According to the Birds’ daughter, there’s four of them, including Yasuda. 

Toi: And the others?

Anisa: Not in the Bureau’s records. Probably foreigners.

Toi: Oh boy… As if we haven’t had enough international incidents as of late.

Anisa: (she shakes her head) We can’t direct these assassins directly. I tried that with Hikarizaka, and look where it’s brought us…

Toi: But we can save lives.

Anisa: (she leans in, prompting Toi to open up the bureau’s old database on her laptop) Kotori claimed that one of the girls in Hikarizaka’s clique — the one who teleported them into my office when they tried to break Takahata out —

Toi: — Okazaki? Hotaru Okazaki? —

Anisa: Okazaki, yes. She apparently teleported your students to safety when these Balancers had them all rounded up. Mrs. Sakaki — I talked to her at the meeting — she claimed her daughter was out of town, so I assume the younger Hayama and her other friends are on the other side of the country.

Toi: Who told her that? Kotori, I mean.

Anisa: Takahata did. Kotori’s been in touch with her.

Toi: If Takahata was there when these assassins originally struck, I should be able to—

Anisa: God. Right. The chip.

Toi: (she flashes Anisa an exasperated glare) … Don’t pretend you forgot about the chip you had us implant in her!

Anisa: Save the lecturing for after we pull a smoking gun out of that data. If Takahata was there when they announced themselves, who knows what we’ll learn about these assassins—

Toi: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Anisa. Easy, okay? I’m not saying we shouldn’t get involved here, but where’s the harm in tracking down Yui Arashi and teaming up with her? ‘Sides… What are you going to do with the information we’ll uncover from that chip? Track these balancers down online?

Anisa: I just… I just need some thread to pull at. That might be enough to trigger… something in me. I’ve got the past, present and future of all of reality in my head, remember? I just need to—

Toi: (she narrows her eyes) Anisa… What makes you think the Hierarchy are just going to hand you the keys? Besides, all the previous times they’ve shown you glimpses of all that knowledge swimming around in your mind, it’s been incorrect.

Anisa: But—

Toi: (she shakes her head) In short, they gave you the Bureau, and then took it away. They gave you your angelic powers back, and then took them away. You know how they work at this point. Really, I just think they gave you all that—

Anisa: — because they knew it would make me miserable. So when I got comfortable with the mission and the power they gave me—

Toi: Yup. In other words, you’d better get used to being a regular old human again.

Anisa: …

Toi: … Sorry. Did that strike a nerve?

Anisa: No, it’s just… We’re not human, though. We’re… Well, I don’t know what we are, but I can still feel it in me. The power of my wish. Don’t you think that’s strange?

Toi: Well, we died as Puella Magi. Makes sense that we’d be resurrected as Puella Magi.

Anisa: Does it? These are… godlike beings with the power to bend reality to their will. If they wanted us to serve as their slaves for the rest of eternity, wouldn’t it make more sense if they just turned us human again?

Toi: Maybe that’s beyond their jurisdiction. Maybe the Afterlife can’t meddle in Incubator affairs, and vice versa.

Anisa: But there is precedent. Niko Segawa was brought back to life with her humanity restored. So was… (she sighs) Well, there’s others.

Toi: So… you’re saying—

Anisa: I’m not saying anything. I’m just considering… that maybe the Afterlife and the Incubators are not… unrelated entities. Or… at least not as unrelated as we’ve always assumed.

Toi: Okay… But what does that have to do with any of this?

Anisa: What it has to do with all this is that we still have our powers. We always had, it’s just that… like, you said, they’ve been locked away, and the Hierarchy have the keys.

Toi: Yes?

Anisa: … But a lock can be broken.

Toi: … Hypothetically, yes. Unless it’s one of those locks that destroys whatever’s inside when forced open. Where are you going with this?

Anisa: You were right, Kanamin… All this time, the Hierarchy were able to enact their punishment because I kept doing exactly what they expected me to do. So maybe if I—

Toi: Go to sleep? Maybe you should go to sleep. You’re talking nonsense.

Anisa: No, no, no, you don’t get it. What I mean is… Okay, so… if I still have the powers I had as a Puella Malefica… which we know I do — as long as the Hierarchy feels up for it — then I might also still have the powers I had as a Puella Magi. Or… would have had, if I hadn’t, well —

Toi: — gone crazy for cocoa puffs? 

Anisa: Right… But I did have it, at some point, even if only for a split second. The thing I wished for. The knowledge… of a god. If that is true, then those “visions” the Hierarchy sent me when I was Shinobu were not messages from them, per se, but more like… glimpses of knowledge I already had that they just… allowed to leak through… That would, hypothetically, mean we could go the other way around, right? Access that knowledge by circumventing their restrictions.

Toi: Except the last time you tried to “circumvent their restrictions”… (she looks at Anisa’s artificial arm) … they reminded you you’re not as immortal as you like to think you are.

Anisa: So we cheat. We find someone else who can dive into my head and find out all of the Incubator’s deepest secrets. Including how to defeat his cronies.

Toi: (she scoffs) Anisa, if we can’t go against the Afterlife’s magic, who else can?

Anisa: That’s the thing, isn’t it? All this time, we’ve been assuming that the Afterlife’s magic is somehow different from the magic wielded by Puella Magi, by Conductors and by Incubators… But what if it isn’t? What if magic is just magic, and it all originates from the same source? In that case… maybe the Afterlife’s rules can be broken.

Toi: … No. No, no, no, you are not implying what I think you are implying. Anisa, that’s insane!

Anisa: More insane than the idea that separate from Puella Magi and Witches and Incubators, there’s an entirely unrelated Afterlife that somehow only seems to affect people who’ve been involved with Kyubey and his ilk?

Toi: How are you going to prove it, though? And what difference will it make?

Anisa: What difference does it make? Kanamin, we swore we would help these girls. Ease their burden. If what I’m thinking is right, this won’t just ease their burden. This won’t just save them from the Incubator. This will cause the entire system to come crumbling down. And the way to do so is in here (she points at her forehead). They… The Hierarchy and the Incubators think they can control us, but they’re forgetting one thing…

Toi: … They gave us… the same power that they wield.

Anisa: In their arrogance.

Toi: You don’t actually think the incubators are responsible for the Afterlife, right?

Anisa: Maybe I do. They have the power to warp reality itself. Besides, there’s a precedent. Our good friend the Virtuoso’s told you about his colleague the Troubadour and his “Dreamscape”, hasn’t he?

Toi: The Dreamscape’s not an afterlife, though. It’s something that was created, right? It was the lingering magic of a Puella Magi and—

Anisa: —why wouldn’t… why couldn’t the Afterlife — the one we know — have been created all the same? (she snaps her fingers) The Dreamscape. Maybe the solution to leveling out the playing field has been right in front of us all this time!

Toi: (she sighs) … This is deranged. How did you go from being the system to fighting to tear it all down in half a month?

Anisa: Kanamin… I went to art school. I was never supposed to be the system. (she gets up from the couch, pulling out her phone)

Toi: Who’re you going to call?

Anisa: Our old friend, the Virtuoso. He’s gonna tell me everything about the Dreamscape. I’m getting a hunch that could be where we find what we need.

Toi: Sure… (she mumbles) Do enlighten me what it is we need as soon as you get the chance.

Anisa: (she turns around quickly before leaving the room, phone held to her ear) Oh, and do pull up from that chip whatever you can find on these Balancers and Takahata’s encounters with them!

Toi: Or I could just call her? Or Yui Arashi? Or… do anything that normal people would do? … (she sighs as Anisa, having disappeared down the hallway, doesn’t reply) You can take Shinobu Nagano out of the Bureau, but you can’t take the Bureau out of Shinobu Nagano, huh… (on her laptop, she opens up the app connected to Chiemi’s chip) … (as she scrolls through the data, her eyes suddenly widen and her face falls) … Oh.

Anisa: (she emerges from the hallway again) … He’s not answering. Guess he likes to sleep in… (she notices Toi’s grim expression) What’s up?

Toi: We’re… too late, Anisa.