Kiwako is sitting on a rooftop, looking up at the night sky. She doesn’t turn her head when footsteps approach from behind.

Kiwako: I know, I knoooow. I’m up late. Right?

Rio: …I-It isn’t healthy, Kiwa-chan.

Kiwako: I just got a lot to think about.

Another set of footsteps, stopping beside the first.

Riko: Like confronting Kyubey for the first time in decades?

Kiwako: I thought it’d be weirder or harder, somehow. He Balanced me, tried to kill me, tricked me into a contract… but it was like he just didn’t care. Which is weird, right?

Riko: …Consider how many Puellae Magi have come and gone in the course of human history, Kiwa-chan.

Kiwako: Mm… I guess so.

Rio: …You don’t sound too shaken by it, though.

Kiwako: That’s the weird part! …Magic is so weird.

Riko: It’s… weird, yes, that you don’t hate Kyubey like the rest of us do.

Kiwako’s voice lowers to her serious register and softens significantly.

Kiwako: Exactly. …All of the hate I could ever feel is pointed in one direction. That’s what makes this so weird. I know it’s stupid to hate her, and not him. It doesn’t make any sense at all. But that’s what my power does. It sort of creates this red string of fate, and I don’t have any control over it. So when someone breaks it…

The twins are silent.

Kiwako: I’m being used as a weapon, and that’s okay. By Kyubey, who wants Diana dead. By Aisha, who wants the same. By Yui, to keep Diana from doing anything in the city. Probably that Melati person everyone in our circle talks about, too. Maybe even by Diana herself. 

Kiwako shudders, as if trying to contain her anger.

Kiwako: …But I’m okay with it. That’s the messed up part.

Riko: …What this tells me is, you trust the Oracle’s script.

Kiwako closes her eyes, lying back on the roof and facing the stars. She reaches up, closing her hand around something she can only see in her mind’s eye.

Kiwako: She still can’t read it. She never told me anything about all of this, so she doesn’t even know what her script says. But Cece-chan is my friend. I’m only alive and even normal now because of her. …My life as I knew it ended a few times already. So who cares what happens to it now, right?

Rio: Kiwa-chan, that’s—

Kiwako: No, no, Rio-chan. It really is okay. No matter what happens, it’s really, really okay.

She rolls backwards and into a standing position, turning to face the twin Birds with a soft smile as her eyes open once more.

Kiwako: Because… my friends are all here with me!

Rio and Riko exchange a worried look. Kiwako’s voice returns to its high, carefree normal.

Kiwako: Don’t give me that look! You’re gonna turn into worry people, just like Cece-chan!

Riko: Well… you’re right about one thing, Kiwa-chan.

Rio: Mm. We’re all in this together.

Kiwako: Good! …Nooooow, we oughta get off of this building. I don’t want Mr. Berry Mart to get mad at me and not let me get melon soda here anymore.