Mei glanced around the gym— the old gym, the face of Paradise Hall that she reclaimed as her domain— before nodding, stepping out the front doors and onto the street, soon stretching far and away into a blank, white void. As she walked, the form of the Valkyrie materialized at her side, walking beside her. It cracked its knuckles, or at least made the motion therein and rolled its neck to do the same. Mei didn’t acknowledge its presence. Admitting what this meant for her was already a bitter pill to swallow.

Third on the list of bitter pills to swallow, right behind the advent of the Aria. Mei had heard Kotori speak of the Aria for quite a long period of time. ‘Tori loved her prophecies, after all. Even when she was alive. Making peace with her was the fourth most bitter pill. But the most bitter pill of all to swallow? Tolerating the Balancer’s presence down here. Niko had let this go on long enough. If no one else was going to do anything about Punisher’s continued existence, the Cadenza— the last of the real Conductors would have to take matters into her own hands.

Fei: Get down.

A sudden force pulls Mei to the ground, just in time for her to avoid what seems like a powerful gust of wind blowing straight at her, like a bullet aimed to the head. Mei can see a short tuft of hair scattering in the fog, severed from her bangs as they were swept up in sudden motion. Hunched down beside her, Punisher jolts back up, producing a gun in her hand, which she aims at the white void in anticipation of another attack.

Fei: Focus. Perceive with your soul, not your eyes.

Every emotion swirled in Mei all at once. Anger, bewilderment, confusion, and back to rage as she rose to her feet. Her megaphone appeared in her hand, but before she could make a move, the Valkyrie produced a copper staff in its right hand, pointing around at things Mei couldn’t see. When Mei didn’t react, it spoke in the voice Mei least wanted to hear right now.

Yui’s voice: She’s right, Mei. Focus. 

The one voice that Mei still could not argue with, even now.

Mei: Tch…

All of Mei’s training taught her to prepare for moments like these. The bigger problems than her grudges. She pulled on the handle of the megaphone as if pulling the trigger on a gun, and the shockwave of noise that followed created enough room for Mei to compose herself. Closing her eyes, she reached out with her soul.

Mei: …The fuck are these things?! And how many do we have here?!

The Valkyrie beside her had already thrown itself into the fray, and now Mei could properly sense that it and Fei were both fending off a pack of… something. Wayward souls, perhaps?

Fei: Countless. Incoming.

Punisher barely finishes her sentence before Mei can sense a shift in the fog. Something dives at her, like a missile launched by a stealth bomber. In a single swift move, the Balancer snatches the invisible force in the middle of its dive, and briefly, the entity takes the shape of a human, albeit a fragment of one. A splinter of a piece of a fragment.

Grabbing the wayward entity by its neck, Fei materializes a sword in her other hand, ready to deal the finishing blow, when a hand suddenly grabs a hold on her wrist. A blink, and she slowly turns her head, even though she already knows who stopped her.

Niko: Don’t hurt them. They’re lost.

Fei: And they’re attacking those who aren’t.

Niko: They have a right to be here as much as you do.

Mei: They also have a right to fuck off and not double-kill us. Vis Vocis! (Mei’s voice echoes around them, pushing the wayward spirits back, but without enough force to knock Mei or Niko off balance)

Niko: Mei-Mei, chill! Whoever killed these people up there broke their souls into a thousand pieces. They’re scared and lashing out at everything they see. They’re like lost puppies barking! You wouldn’t hit a lost puppy, right?

Mei: If it fucking bit me, yeah! They’re trying to kill us, what the fuck do you want me to do?!

Niko: Come with me, we’ll be safe in the Library. (she grabs both girls by the wrist and pulls, and suddenly, they find themselves in the central atrium of what has become the Dreamscape’s nucleus)

Fei: … What is happening? People in the city being killed en masse?

Niko: (she sighs) There’s a… serial killer on the loose, yes. Dozens of victims, I saw on TV, and… I guess the victims’ souls have been shredded into a thousand pieces and now these pieces are looking for each other, looks like?

Fei: …

Mei: But like, that doesn’t make any sense… how is whatever the fuck that Diana chick is doing up there tearing their souls apart like this?

Niko: I don’t know! Ugh, it’s always something, isn’t it?

Fei: Diana… Is she Puella Magi?

Mei: (bitterly, with a sidelong glare) I dunno. Ask Yui about her, next time you two meet up for training.

Fei: (she doesn’t even turn to meet Mei’s glare) I asked the proprietess. 

Niko: Who, m-me? Uh, yeah, I think she is. Shinju said so, at least.

Mei: So what, you think she has soul powers, just like Yui does?

Niko: D-Don’t look at me, man! Whatever it is, we gotta find a way to put these lost souls back together. We can’t bring ‘em back to life, obvs, but these people deserve a peaceful afterlife… like, uh, you guys.

Mei: …Did you just say “obvs” out loud? Like, actually?

Fei: Any ideas?

Niko: … Tori? 

Kotori: (Having been sitting at a nearby desk, nose in a book, she rises at her name being called without looking at the source) The trauma of their deaths is the likely cause for the tattered state of their souls. It’s apparently common among Balancings. The nature of how a Balancer kills results in this kind of damage. It’s Kyubey’s way of making sure his targets stay dead. (She glances up at Fei, but unlike the Cadenza, there’s no malice behind Kotori’s eyes) No offense. You might have known that, however.

Fei: … Balancers don’t kill civilians.

Mei: (She scoffs) Sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night, Punisher.

Kotori: Mei, stop. Liu Fei was more of an Assassin than an Eraser. In her line of work, she didn’t kill any civilians. …Probably. But even then, Kyubey doesn’t have any regard for collateral damage. And like it or not, Mitakihara was targeted for Erasure. …It’s fortunate for us, however, that Kyubey was doing more experiments, even in Mitakihara’s Balancing. If the squad he chose were all aligned in goal and mode of operation, we would all be sharing the same fate as these wayward souls.

Fei: A second Balancing has been called, then? 

Kotori: We’re not sure. But this woman, this… “Diana Caelum” is working alone. She has lived for over two centuries, and at some point, she was working for Kyubey as an Assassin. …And for a long time before and after, she was not.

Fei: (she seemingly doesn’t react to receiving this news, but turns to Niko) You have the responsibility to put these souls back together.

Niko: Yeah, I’m well aware, thanks!

Mei: Got any ideas, boss?

Niko: (she sighs) I think this also, like, kinda happened to Cece—err, Miss Ambrosi before? You know, that shady Italian lady from the Conductors or whatever? 

Fei: … “Conductors”?

Niko: That’s too long of a story to explain now! Anyways, Arashi fixed her, right? How’d she do that?

Mei: That was different. The Oracle’s soul was broken up because of how she died originally. She was a Puella Malefica, so her soul was already different and messed up. The weird thing was how her power kept working even afterwards, depending on what the pieces of her soul were attached to. All Yui did was wish those pieces back together, and what Kyubey did with that wish was literally remake Cecilia’s Soul Gem.

Fei: … That is indeed too long of a story to explain now.

Niko: No, but, I mean, there was a thing, right? Something like the Masque. Troubadour once explained how it all worked to me, but I didn’t really pay attention… Tori, can you look up the, ehm… “Conductors’ Artefacts”? That’s what they’re called, right, Mei-Mei?

Mei: You got that one right, yeah. Wow.

Kotori: The closest I can think of, in terms of relevance, is the Soul Lantern that belonged to Virtuoso René Colere. It can gather a soul, or fragments of a soul into one location, and transfer it into a vessel or something else. It is how Cecilia Ambrosi has a body, currently, and what Yui was trying to do to revive Mei. 

Mei: … 

Kotori: She also apparently used it to restore Alice Rinju to life, after the effects of the cursed Rinju bloodline rippled through her. …I often wondered what happened to the Rinju family, actually. I would have loved to have known this in detail when I was alive… Of course, those details, like many others, are… messy. I am speculating to fill in the gaps, so to speak.

Niko: Thanks for the, eh, recap, Tori. I have so many questions.

Fei: This “Soul Lantern”, does it still exist? Is it still operational?

Mei: You think Yui broke it after failing to bring me back? No, of course she still has it! (muttering) Dumbass…

Fei: Then she can help us solve this problem.

Niko: Whoa, whoa, whoa, ease off. I can’t just… ask Arashi to give me her super awesome bringing-people-back-to-life thingamajig!

Fei: … Why not? 

Niko: I dunno, she’ll probably be like “Oh, you can’t handle it, Segawa, let me fix this like I fix everything and also you should give the Masque to me too because you’re obviously too much of an airhead to—

Fei: That is preposterous. She would not work against you trying to save these souls. That is not who she is.

Niko: W-Well, what do you know?

Mei: Yui might be impulsive, but like… yeah, just talk to her about it. She’ll either want to help or just give over the Lantern, easy. And hey, if she’s difficult, just like… I dunno, take it from her or something. She went all soft as a Conductor anyway…

Niko: S-Steal it? Do you want me dead?

Kotori: Don’t be ridiculous, Niko. Just… talk to Yui. Let her know about this. Besides, she will know in a night or two, at the most, regardless. Get ahead of it. Tell Yui there is trouble in the Dreamscape, and you need to borrow the Soul Lantern.

Niko: I dunno… Can’t anyone else do it? You guys get along with her way better than I do…

Fei: The Lantern is in the waking realm, isn’t it?

Niko: (she sighs) F-Fine… I’ll… figure something out.