Manipulated by Rui Tomatsu in the service of her revenge on Koharu Shirahara and the friends who she believes did not stand up for her when her cheating was exposed, many of the female members of Mitakihara High’s track and field club have been forced to make contracts with Kyubey and wish for all sorts of blessings onto their “good friend” Rui. Serving as Rui’s own private Puella Magi army, they antagonize the Newspaper Club until Rui is murdered under mysterious circumstances, after which the clique disbands. While some of Rui’s former victims later become allies to the Newspaper Club, most of them later end up congregating around a mysterious new ringleader named Aoi Hikarizaka.
For more information about this new group, check The Argent Sisterhood.
Rui Tomatsu
| Age | 18 (upon death) |
| Occupation | Third-year high school student |
| Likes | Canned soda, lucky shots, the smell of new shoes |
| Dislikes | Weakness, the whims of fate, furry animals, tomatoes |
| Pastimes | Hanging around places she shouldn’t be, track and field (formerly) |
| N/A |
Rui Tomatsu was a delinquent third-year student at Mitakihara High, who used her unnaturally high aptitude for manipulation and blackmail to force several members of the school’s track and field club to make wishes on her behalf and kept her personal clique under her thumb by laying claim to every Grief Seed her “soldiers” got their hands on. Little more than a common bully in terms of personality, Rui was known and feared by her victims for her foul mouth, moody demeanor and general disregard for others’ feelings, or even safety. She was exceptionally talented at gathering information and using it to manipulate people, and would not hesitate to resort to violence — lethal, if necessary — if she could not have her way. Cocky and impatient, she appeared to highly value her individuality and was generally unafraid to claim and assert power over others, up to and including the enigmatic Kyubey.
Rui’s intimidating presence hid a devious intellect, as she was sure to always keep her cards close to her chest and times after time managed to get her enemies exactly where she wanted them to be. In spite of her smarts, however, Rui had a very simplistic way of looking at the world. In her view, weakness consists of accepting one’s fate and the only way to rise above this mold is to trample on others, and she had little respect for people who reject this worldview. It is implied Rui inherited this worldview from her mother, who continually pushes her to do whatever necessary to achieve her athletic endeavors.
Following her expulsion from the track club when her cheating was brought to light by Koharu Shirahara, Rui started manipulating everyone around her in order to exact revenge. She tries to frame Koharu for a heinous act she herself committed and intimidates her former best friends — Yasu, Niko, Chiemi and Akari — into escalating her vendetta into an all-out war against Koharu’s Puella Magi allies. When things get of hand, Niko loses her life and Rui uses her telepathy to force one of her victims into becoming a Witch, Chiemi and Akari decide to confront her. During the ensuing struggle, Akari kills Rui in a fit of rage, though Chiemi ends up taking the fall for her friend’s sake and is eventually arrested by the Sixth Bureau. Even in death, the scars Rui left on many of her victims continue to ache, even now that many of them have found a new leader to follow in the mysterious Aoi Hikarizaka.
By making other girls wish for her to have the extraordinary powers she’d need to set her plans into motions, Rui was arguably already more powerful than any other Puella Magi before she even became one herself. While her powers included supernatural strength and supernatural reflexes amongst others, the most prominent of the powers she received from her victims is her supernatural luck, which continuously bends reality around her to allow for the best possible outcome. She also possessed a power of telepathy far beyond that of a regular Puella Magi, which she could use to constantly eavesdrop on her subordinates and punish them with extreme mental anguish if they defied her, up to a point where she was even able to corrupt one of them into becoming a Witch.
Yasu Matsushita
Yasu Matsushita is initially introduced as as Rui Tomatsu’s close friend, confidante and loyal enforcer. When Rui grows increasingly more unhinged, however, Yasu begins to realize that the friend she used to know is long gone, and when her resolve is revealed to be little more than a petty vendetta, Yasu comes to see the error of her ways and joins the Newspaper Club. For more information about Yasu Matsushita, check Mitakihara High, Newspaper Club.
Niko Segawa
Niko Segawa is one of the members of the track and field club who is manipulated and abused by Rui into making a contract with Kyubey, initially siding with her former friend against Koharu, who she has been made to believe defamed her. When Rui turns out to be the true culprit, however, Niko turns on her. For more information about Niko Segawa, check Mitakihara High, Other Students.
Chiemi Takahata
| Age | 17 |
| Occupation | Third-year high school student (formerly) |
| Likes | Honesty, isotonic drinks, tropical fish, hot showers after hard work |
| Dislikes | Phony friendships, large crowds |
| Pastimes | Physical exercise, reading |
| @ChiemiTakahata |
Chiemi Takahata is a serious and often glum member of the track and field club, and one of the first girls to be forced by Rui into making a contract with Kyubey, along with her best friend Akari. Initially playing a large role in making sure Rui’s actions remain unseen, she eventually musters up the courage to confront Rui alongside Akari, during which the latter kills the former in a fit of rage before passing out. In a panicked attempt to protect her friend, Chiemi steals Rui’s Soul Gem to prevent her mangled body from regenerating, knowing Koharu will not rest until Rui’s killer has been brought to justice, attempts to take the blame for herself.
To this end, Chiemi confesses to Hanako and Shinju that she killed Rui, and antagonizes the two, ultimately managing to convince both them and Koharu that she has gone off the deep end. Succeeding in framing herself for Akari’s crime by fighting the Newspaper Club girls until she nearly pushed herself into becoming a Witch, Chiemi is ultimately taken down by Yui Arashi and the 6th Bureau, who take her into custody until Nagano can find a way to properly charge her for Tomatsu’s murder without revealing the secrets of Puellae Magi to the world.
Nevertheless, she is still seen as a hero by many of Tomatsu’s other victims, many of whom have since gathered around the mysterious Aoi Hikarizaka. When Aoi’s group raids the Bureau’s headquarters in order to set Chiemi free, however, she is furious to learn that in doing so, they have put Akari back under the Bureau’s radar, and disappears along with Akari, leaving Aoi’s group to face the Bureau’s forces alone. To add insult to injury for Aoi’s group, she later reveals the location of their secret meeting spot to Nagano, further escalating the conflict between the two factions, before leaving the city.
As a Puella Magi, Chiemi is specialized in long-distance combat with her sniper rifle, which can double as a tranquilizer gun. Her complex powers allow her to manipulate space and time to a certain extent, most prominently enabling her to create pocket planes of existence that she can shift people into and out of at will. People within her pocket planes can interact with the world as they normally would, but their presence and actions go entirely unnoticed by those outside of it. With this power, Chiemi was a valuable asset to Rui, allowing the clique to act without any of the ensuing damage being able to be traced back to them. Unfortunately for Rui, however, this power ended up being her undoing, as it is Chiemi hiding Akari from Rui’s view during their confrontation that allowed the former to stab her tormentor without being noticed.
Furthermore, Chiemi is also the only Puella Magi seen in Mitakihara Original so far to have access to a secondary, even more powerful transformation, which grants her near-superhuman speed on top of her existing powers. Referring to this secondary transformation as a “Magia”, she claims only a personal catharsis the likes of which she had when she decided to take the blame for Akari’s actions can grant a Puella Magi the ability to use it.
Akari Fueki
| Age | 17 |
| Occupation | Third year high school student |
| Likes | Boy bands, trains, her big pet dog Kurou |
| Dislikes | Ghosts, bitter food |
| Pastimes | Track and field, cooking, playing with Kurou |
| @AkariFueki |
Akari Fueki is a meek, sickly senior at Mitakihara High and a member of the track club — although she really only joined because her best friend Chiemi did. Like Chiemi, she is one of the first victims of Rui Tomatsu’s machinations, until a faithful night when she decides to tag along with Chiemi to confront Rui about her misdeeds. Looking to protect her friend, Chiemi uses her powers to shield Akari from Rui’s sight, unbeknownst of the fact that Akari brought a knife to defend herself in case anything went wrong. During the ensuing argument, Akari instinctively emerges from her hiding place and stabs Rui in the back, only to pass out immediately after, seemingly losing her memories of the events.
After Chiemi is arrested, Akari learns that it was in fact she who killed Rui, and consumed by guilt, tries to look after the remaining members of the clique, too weak to hunt for Witches by themselves by strictly rationing a collection of Grief Seeds Chiemi left in her care. When the Grief Seeds run out, however, a desperate Akari is saved by Aoi Hikarizaka, who is gathering the former members of Rui’s clique around her to help them cleanse their Soul Gems without the need for Grief Seeds. Trouble doesn’t end for Akari there, however, when she has the misfortune of running into the Puella Malefica Kae, who forces Akari to become a pawn in her struggle to obtain a particular Grief Seed from Aoi. Torn between her new friend and a vicious creature that will kill her at the drop of a hat, Akari dithers, leading to Kae gruesomely murdering her father and using her Witch’s Kiss to force Akari to attack her friends. After Kae is defeated, Akari returns to Aoi with her proverbial tail between her legs, only to be welcomed back with open arms and becomes a loyal member of the mysterious Puella Magi’s circle. Nevertheless, when Chiemi is set free and turns on Aoi, Akari decides to join her and the two skip town, seemingly never to return.
As a Puella Magi, Akari is a poor fighter but possesses the invaluable ability to “hijack” the eyesight of whoever she’s thinking of, even from a long distance. This allows her to do a number of things that make her a useful ally to many, most prominently tracking people down by seeing through their eyes and observing their surroundings. Akari’s powers even work without the person affected even knowing that she is watching along to whatever they are looking at.
Other members of Rui’s clique
Mei Tsukuda is another member of Rui’s clique who runs into trouble after the bully’s death, only to be saved by Yui Arashi. Having learnt to survive on her own as a Puella Magi, she later attempts to rejoin the remaining members of the clique to find out more about their new leader, Aoi Hikarizaka. For more information about Mei Tsukuda, check Mitakihara High, Other Students.
Mirai Mizutani, Miho Kawakami and Kotori Iro were all victims of Rui’s machinations as well, but were not formally introduced in the story until after the clique’s remaining members were recruited by Aoi Hikarizaka. To find out more about these characters, check The Argent Sisterhood.
Mitakihara Original 