Two girls mutter and argue as they leave the basement of New Eden. Thursdays weren’t typically a day for “self-defense” training, but the older of the girls insisted. The older of the girls limped out with a freshly healed broken arm, and she was swearing under her breath.

Ayumi: Y-Yui-sensei warned you, though! She… she said that forcing her hand would—

Tomomi: She broke my freaking arm, Ayumi! How is that fair?

Ayumi: She healed you though! O-Or taught us how to heal injuries like that. Besides, she wouldn’t have, if you had taken her seriously… 

Tomomi: Oh, you are not taking her side, I hope…

Ayumi: I-I’m just saying…

The two continued arguing, unaware of the woman entering as they exited the gym. Yuzuki looks curiously at the departing girls, her eyebrow raised.

Yuzuki: (She calls down the stairs) Um, hello, Yui-san? You’re here, I assume?

Yui: (She calls up from the clinic) Yo, Yuzu! Down here!

Yuzuki: (She comes down the stairs, scanning left and right for any more trainees) Were those two new girls who left just now? 

Yui: The two newest, yeah. (Yui is sitting on a cot nearby, wrapping her own wrist in bandage tape) One’s a hothead, needs some sense drilled in the hard way. But the other one, she’s starting to get the hang of it.

Yuzuki: Um… did I hear that you broke one of their arms? 

Yui: (Yui sighs, rolling her eyes) Girl came in here, demanding a rematch. Told her I don’t do training on any day that ain’t Sunday. She transformed, so I threw her down the stairs before someone else could see. Guess I put too much oomph on the toss. Broke her arm on the way down, so I gave her the ultimatum of either comin’ back Sunday, or fighting me for real. Her friend talked her down, so I taught them how to heal themselves.

Yuzuki: Yui… g-geeze, they’re young teenagers and we’re supposed to be the adults here. Of course they’re gonna be a little immature or hot-headed sometimes, y-you don’t have to break an arm… 

Yui: Not like I intended to break her arm! She transformed up here! Someone could’ve walked by and seen it, then what?

Yuzuki: I-I don’t know… (She tilts her head with a finger on her chin, as if actually thinking it through) As long as they didn’t see the exact moment of transformation, hopefully people would just think it was a cosplay… if they did, well, then they’d have seen it and then they’d see you throwing her down the stairs… 

Yui: You can’t see the stairs down from outside, I made sure of that. But she was right outside the little partition I put up to keep the stairs hidden. I had to think fast. Besides, someone like her? If she ain’t brought down a peg now and then, she could easily go Tomatsu on us.

Yuzuki: Tomatsu… that bully that the younger girls had to deal with, right. You got that impression from reading her soul? 

Yui: Big time. Girl’s ego is the size of this city. She does care for her friends, but she also kinda looks down on ‘em. Sees herself as above everything. I’m just reminding her that there’s always a bigger fish. Her friend doesn’t view me quite so harshly. …Minus the broken arm thing, anyway. But she got over it. She’s hangin’ on my every word… Already gone from a one to a two.

Yuzuki: Um… I don’t know if you should talk about them that way… like they’re hanging on your every word and all that. 

Yui: What d’ya mean, Yuzu?

Yuzuki: I don’t know, it just seems a little like… (Her hands clench, uncomfortable) like you’re looking down on them a bit. 

Yui: (She’s quiet for a bit, almost as if she were supposed to be upset. But instead, she simply nodded.) …I see your point, Yuzu. Y’think I should ease up a bit, then? Or at least, not treat them like babies?

Yuzuki: Y-yeah, I think that’d be good. We wouldn’t want them to stop coming, either… if they do, who knows what’ll happen to them?

Yui: I guess. Though, Ayumi’s definitely coming back. She was so scared when she made her contract, but now that I taught her the ropes, she’s got a lot more confidence. I just dunno how to do that in reverse for her friend.

Yuzuki: Are there some problems with the confident one’s skill? 

Yui: Confidence is one thing. But cockiness gets girls like us killed out there. Or worse. (she mutters) Not makin’ that mistake again…

Yuzuki: Ah… I-I don’t think anything that happened in the past few weeks is anyone’s fault… 

Yui: …Alice’ll kick my ass if I argue that, heh. Right. (She shakes her head.) So uh, what brings you here, anyway?

Yuzuki: Oh, I just thought I should check how stuff is going over here. As one of the Puella “senpai” in town, I guess I should pitch in where I can here. 

Yui: I appreciate it. Like, really.

Yuzuki: Gotta find some way to make myself useful these days… 

Yui: Useful? I’d kinda be dead right now if not for you. 

Yuzuki: Yeah… I just wish I’d been able to do more during the whole Balancers thing. They didn’t even come after me when they were hunting everyone down at the beginning. I mean, not that I wanted them to, of course, but… 

Yui: Yuzu, buddy, you keep going back to that. I still gotta say, count your blessings. Those guys weren’t holding a surprise birthday party for us. They were out to kill us.

Yuzuki: I know, I know. And I shouldn’t take their opinion to heart, I know. I guess it’s a good thing they didn’t see me as a threat. 

Yui: More that they kinda weren’t organized, or did their homework. They figured if they took me out, they would just have free reign of the entire city. Kyubey kinda jumped the gun bringing that squad our way, turns out.

Yuzuki: And gathering you all up for their villain monologues instead of just getting rid of all of us… it seems Mr. Anti-Emotion still knows how to be arrogant. 

Yui: Genie cat might not have a soul, but I know without a doubt it knows fear and arrogance. Worked out in the end, though. If it didn’t feel fear, we’d all be dead. 

Yuzuki: (Yuzuki folds her arms and closes her eyes, thinking) He’s scared of this “Magia” thing, huh… I still don’t think we’d be a threat to his life or anything, even if a Magia’d person would probably never die or go Witch. You got it all figured out during the big final battle, right? 

Yui: Its life? No. But its scheme, definitely. I figured it out, but…

Yuzuki: How’d you do it? The more of us are like that, the better.

Yui: …I kinda… lost it. I can’t access Magia anymore.

Yuzuki: O-oh, right… I think that happened to Takahata-san, too, when she tried to hijack our leadership vote. 

Yui: Dunno what it says about the power that it’s that easy to lose. That, or it’s one hell of a coincidence. …Y’know, it happened to Punisher, at the end. She tried to activate her Magia and just… couldn’t.

Yuzuki: So it happens to Kyubey’s handpicked, too. Really hypocritical of him to use agents who have it when he’s so against it… we still have Hayama-san who got it as well, right? Has she lost it?

Yui: I don’t think so. Then again, I’ve uh… kinda shut myself in last few weeks or so, settin’ up the training program.

Yuzuki: I’m sure she’s been busy with restarting school, plus a lot of work cleaning up the military base again for the JSDF to get set up again. 

Yui: Probably. Those guys have been running ragged fixing up the city…

Yuzuki: (She pulls out her phone and starts scrolling through a webpage) They’ve published a tentative schedule on getting different services back running again. Seems like they’ve got things organized. 

Yui: That’s good. So we can kinda focus on our own lanes for a while. Still, if either Shinju or Kohaku ask for help, I ain’t gonna think twice about it. We’d have been sunk without them.

Yuzuki: Seems like just about everybody pitched in. I should get everybody a little gift or a… fruit basket, or something. 

Yui: Heh… never changed, have ya, Yuzu? Still the same dutiful Student Council president you were when we met, huh? (Yui smiles genuinely despite the teasing edge to her words)

Yuzuki: (Yuzuki waves her hands defensively) I-I’m not the Student Council president anymore, since we got into college… 

Yui: Doesn’t change that you’re still super dependable like one though! I mean, you came all the way to check up on this place, that counts for something!

Alice: (she exits the gym’s office space, carrying a small shopping crate filled with all sorts of knicknacks to be moved to the storage space at the back of the basement) You’d do right to listen to Yuzuki’s advice, then.

Yui: She’s never steered me wrong…

Alice: I’m serious, Yui. I heard you talk, and… Yuzuki is right. I don’t think you’re going about training these girls the right way. I’ve told you before, right? I mean… (she puts down the crate) I get that you’re scared of a new Tomatsu, or whatever her name was, but… I can’t help but think about Shiori… and… well, she also thought you were looking down on her, and… You might end up creating a new Firestarter instead. (she sighs) I know it sounds like I’m tearing into you, and I shouldn’t, because you’re doing something admirable, and necessary, but maybe it’s not the right thing for you to be doing right now. I know it’s not fair.

Yui: …I tried with Shiori, I— (she stops completely, silent for a minute or so before just standing up.) …If I don’t, who will? No. It… I have to. I have to do this. (taking a few steps away, she stops at the stairs) …I’ll keep all this in mind. Thanks. (Yui slowly walks back up the stairs, towards her office)