Established shortly after the Walpurgisnacht attack destroyed large parts of Mitakihara, the 6th Bureau is the branch of Japan’s National Police Agency charged with investigating, handling and ultimately, covering up, incidents related to Puellae Magi, Witches and Incubators. Though its existence remains a secret from the general public, the 6th Bureau has access to significant funding and manpower, making it a force to be reckoned with. While its goals more or less coincide with those of the various Puellae Magi in Mitakihara, its methods — especially its tendency to overexert its authority — do not.
Shinobu Nagano
| Age | 24 |
| Occupation | Chief of the NPA’s 6th Bureau, Mitakihara branch |
| Likes | Milkshakes, oil paint, blue jays |
| Dislikes | Obstructive bureaucrats, herself (an obstructive bureaucrat) |
| Pastimes | Saving the world, newspaper puzzles |
| @AnisaNobunaga |
A mystery wrapped in an enigma, Shinobu Nagano is the head of Mitakihara’s branch of the 6th Bureau, who first makes her appearance after a Witch attack reduces a part of Mitakihara’s Ino district to rubble. Since then, she has played a major role in keeping the activities of the various magical forces in her city under wraps, all the while working to advance her personal agenda of establishing a city-wide support network for Mitakihara’s various Puellae Magi. To this end, she has recruited Yui and Yuzuki as her eyes and ears around the city, although she appears to know much more about the city’s complicated history with magic than her outwardly amicable personality seems to let on.
Nagano’s secrets are revealed, however, when the 6th Bureau’s headquarters are attacked by the amalgamate Puella Malefica, Kae. Being forced to save Alice’s life, Nagano exposes her true identity as Anisa Nobunaga, the Puella Malefica who nearly destroyed the world four years ago — or at least, the human Anisa Nobunaga who existed before the Puella Malefica within her awoke to wreak havoc upon the world. Sent back to the realm of the living to atone for the sins committed by the Puella Malefica that once acted out her darkest desires, Nobunaga, or rather “Nagano” has been doomed by the Hierarchy, the otherworldly overseers of the afterlife, to dedicate her immortal life to saving the world from destruction, knowing she’ll eventually fail.
As a part of her sentence, Nobunaga was given the skills, qualifications and knowledge required to lead an organization of the 6th Bureau’s caliber — including access to glimpses of potential futures, though she is never granted enough information to be certain of her actions. Only her closest associates can know that she has foreknowledge of the future, however, leaving her forced to spend a lot of time and resources seeking answers she already knows and keep up appearances in front of her regular human subordinates. Furthermore, if Nagano ever violates the terms the Hierarchy set for her return to the world of the living, she loses a part of her body — as shown by rescuing Alice instantly burning her arm to a stump.
As a tormented individual burdened with the weight of the world, Nagano’s caring nature compels her to save people time after time again, though she knows that a day will once come when humankind will lose its struggle to survive. Knowing of the dangers to come, she enforces a strict lockdown in the city, which has soured the relationship between the 6th Bureau and Mayor Kuroe’s City Hall, and seems to be particularly obsessed with tracking down the missing Cecilia Ambrosi. This firm grasp on the everyday life of Mitakihara’s citizens causes riots to break out and, after one of Nagano’s men allegedly assaults a Puella Magi on patrol, all-out war against Aoi Hikarizaka and her allies. During this conflict, Nagano is forced to reveal her true identity as Anisa Nobunaga, after which she is promptly stripped of her powers yet again and taken prisoner by the organization she used to lead.
Yuna Sakurauchi
| Age | 24 |
| Occupation | 6th Bureau operative, school guidance counselor, therapist |
| Likes | Hamburgers, shoujo manga, bicycle rides |
| Dislikes | Cigarettes, paperwork, lifting heavy objects |
| Pastimes | Ikebana flower arranging, keeping Nagano on the right track |
| @YunaSakurauchi |
Yuna Sakurauchi is Mitakihara High’s guidance counselor and a psychologist specialized in dealing with autistic children. However, in reality, Yuna is Toi Kanashimi, Nagano’s loyal second-in-command, sent to infiltrate the school and monitor the Puella Magi there. Optimistic and kindhearted, she is fully aware of Nagano’s situation and often serves as her conscience, though she is not afraid of schemes and manipulations of her own to further the 6th Bureau’s agenda.
Toi and Anisa have known each other since they were little, but things went awry when Anisa’s parents ended up caught in the clutches of a religious movement of questionable repute and started to isolate their daughter from her friends. Returning years later as a Puella Malefica, Anisa murdered Toi, seemingly out of revenge for abandoning her to her parents’ madness. Much to Toi’s surprise, however, this was not the end, as she ended up in a kind of afterlife for souls who were taken before their time was due, run by the enigmatic Hierarchy. Eventually, Toi caught wind of the Hierarchy’s plans to violate its own strict rule of non-interference in the realm of the living to punish Anisa for escaping the afterlife. Clinging to her lingering connection with her younger sister Emiri, Yuzuki Tokai’s childhood friend, Toi stole some of the Hierarchy’s power to strip Anisa of her madness and her power, after which the Puella Malefica was put down by Yui Amaya.
Upon their return to the afterlife, however, both were severely punished, forced to return to the land of the living and trapped in an eternal struggle against entropy they are destined to lose. Nevertheless, Toi remains dedicated to making sure her friend doesn’t lose herself once again, even going as far as arranging for the Bureau to turn on Anisa and having her arrested when her identity is exposed. Having consequently won the favour of the Mitakihara Branch’s new director, she now serves as his closest confidante, though her true loyalties remain a mystery.
René Colère
After the defeat of Kae, René Colère, the former Virtuoso and sole survivor of the Conductors joins the Sixth Bureau as a consultant. For more information on René Colère, check The Conductors.
Other members of the 6th Bureau
Akihito Kobayakawa takes up the position of director of Mitakihara’s branch of the 6th Bureau following Anisa’s arrest. Having lost his sons during Anisa’s rampage in the city four years prior, he resents his predecessor greatly and delights in keeping her confined. Unlike Anisa, he believes the Bureau’s authoritarianism to be justified rather than a necessary evil, and takes a disciplined, hardline stance against anyone and anything opposing its rule over the city.
Captain Atsuko Inuhara is the head of the Bureau’s special intervention squadron. She is a gruff, shoot-first, ask-questions-later kind of person who is not particularly interested in the politics and intrigues of the people giving her orders. Along with her team, she was the one to arrest Shinobu Nagano when her true identity as Anisa Nobunaga was revealed, using the anti-Puella Magi weaponry developed by the 6th Bureau’s Sapporo branch.
Commander Hideyoshi Tendou is the leader of the Bureau’s gound forces, who answers directly to its director. Dedicated to Nagano’s ideals even as her conviction wavers, Tendou is loyal to a fault, but ultimately perishes when Aoi Hikarizaka obliterates a large part of the Bureau’s troops upon summoning Walpurgisnacht.
Mitakihara Original 