After exchanging a tense and knowing look, Hanako’s form vanished from the Library. Kotori, naturally, remained, energy and gaze locked onto the book on the desk. She turned page after page, finally stopping on one near the very beginning of the tome.

Mei: (She steps into the dim light, once Hanako was gone, and approached Kotori) …Found something, ‘Tori?

Kotori: I’d love to address your avoidance of Hanako this time, but… yes, I found something.

Niko: (as if on cue, she suddenly appears out of the pink mists to join the two) Hold on… You found something about this Path thing? Finally?

Kotori: No. A Balancer. The one killing people in the waking world. … Diana Caelum.

Niko: Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, back up a little. Why didn’t anyone tell me about this? That killer Shirahara’s looking for is a Balancer?

Kotori: Apologies, Niko. But I’ve spent a majority of my time lately trying to decode the information about her in this tome, rather than The Path. It felt more prudent. …But I’ve only recently uncovered this fact. She was a Balancer for… quite a long time. It’s… unnerving, I didn’t know anyone could live this long…

Niko: There’s been other cases… I think Arashi knew someone like that at some point. Mei-Mei, can we look that up real quick? I think Cece has that woman’s body now, if I remember right.

Mei: The Ghost? Shit, what was her name again…?

Kotori: (A second tome appears beside the first, and as Mei sits down, she points at a page on her own tome) I don’t know how long that woman lived. But this woman, Diana Caelum… She’s not a Puella Malefica, nor does she seem to have found Magia, but she is also not a Ghost. She’s just an ordinary Puella Magi. A Puella Magi who became a Balancer. A Puella Magi who has lived for… over two centuries.

Mei: Two HUNDRED years?!

Niko: But… Kyubey doesn’t want people to live that long, right? Wouldn’t it have, like, tried to kill her or whatever? How can you be a Balancer for so long?

Kotori: There’s still gaps I have not uncovered. Her wish, for example, or her ability. …Or what she was doing in her early Balancer career. I cannot really see much of Kyubey in the thread of her history before the early 20th century. Right before the Great Depression, she quit.

Niko: Guess even Balancers can get depressed, huh.

Kotori: She wandered for a while after that, gravitating to other Balancings. …Kyubey is aware of her doing this, but I suppose hadn’t seen her in 19 years. Why Kyubey hasn’t taken her out, I cannot say. …The other troubling thing is, in every fight I see her in, it’s like… it’s like there’s two of them.

Niko: Two of her? Like a “two souls is one body” kinda deal, like with Arashi and Cece?

Kotori: No… more like, two instances of each fight, happening simultaneously.

Niko: One where she wins and one where she loses, I guess?

Kotori: I assume so. But I cannot tell, since trying to read two pieces of history at the same time is… difficult. It’s a massive strain.

Niko: But that doesn’t make any sense! There is only one history that actually happened, right? I mean, I’ve seen that movie with the car that can go back in time but… That’s just a movie, right? I know there can be multiple different futures, but, eh… Wait… (she waves her hands around) No, no, no, roll back to the beginning. There’s something I’ve been wondering from the start here… If she’s a Balancer, why isn’t she doin’ any Balancing? She’s not killing us, she’s picking on random hobos!

Kotori: I fear that is a question better suited to Yui. Diana has been visiting Yui off and on all week. She first visited New Eden, and then has found Yui at several other places. …And at the same time, she hasn’t. That, too, is a blurred, dual history. 

Niko: What?! Are they friends or something? Why’d this Balancer go around having a nice little chat with her enemies?

Kotori: If Yui found out Diana was a Balancer, I can only assume their conversations would turn into a confrontation. Which concerns me, if Diana can willingly affect this dual history nature… she’s a dangerous foe.

Mei: W-We gotta warn Yui! (She stares pleadingly at Niko)

Niko: … Guess I’ve got no choice, huh. (she sighs, then nods) Well, in any case, I guess building this place was worth it. Guess I’ll have to ask you how exactly you managed to find that book some other time, Tori. Ugh, this is gonna suck… (she vanishes in a cloud of fog)