Kazumi Magica Chapter 16: Strawberry Risotto

Continuing immediately from the previous chapter, Kazumi turns around and finds herself face-to-face with Misako Ishijima. Ishijima appears to have no memory of the bomb threat or her transformation into a pseudo-witch, and urges Kazumi to get in her car. They drive away from the lighthouse. Ishijima explains that over 20 young girls have gone missing in the past few months (Airi being amongst them), and she was worried that Kazumi was in danger. The only lead on the case is that some of the missing girls' phones had records of text messages from the address "Hyades". The messages themselves had been deleted, and the phone companies' servers contained no record of the address. Ishijima off-handedly asks Kazumi if she has regained her memories yet. At this, Kazumi bursts into tears, and they hastily pull up at Souichirou Tachibana's shop.

Kazumi eats and falls asleep. Tachibana serves Ishijima coffee with butter in it (a recipe inspired by a popular manga). Ishijima pulls out a photo of a young girl, who she identifies as Remi Shiina. She and Remi were close friends in their last year of middle school. Remi went missing, however, and Ishijima heard from Remi's sister that she had been a magical girl. Ishijima says that she has found evidence of magical girls throughout her career. Tachibana asks why she brought this up, and Ishijima replies that Remi loved the manga that he took the butter coffee from. Tachibana takes this coincidence as evidence that miracles and magic exist.

Kazumi stays at Tachibana's shop overnight. In the morning, Kaoru drops off Michiru's diary, with a letter to Kazumi in it. Kazumi opens the diary, reading about Michiru's grandmother, how she met Yuuri Asuka before the Pleiades Saints were formed (breaking up a fight between Yuuri and Kyouko at one point), the time she spent with the Pleiades, and finally her grief at having discovered the truth behind witches. Kaoru's letter urges Kazumi to run away before the others find and kill her, and that Kaoru will protect her from them.

Kazumi and Tachibana make one final meal of strawberry risotto, from Michiru's grandmother's recipe in the diary. She then thanks him and leaves. At the Freezer, she telepathically announces her location to the Pleiades. She says that she isn't going to run away, and demands that they meet her at the Freezer to end things (threatening to deactivate the Freezer and let the Soul Gems inside hatch if they do not).

Observation

• In Greek mythology, the Hyades are a sisterhood of nymphs that bring rain.
  • The Hyades were daughters of Atlas (by either Pleione or Aethra, one of the Oceanides) and sisters of Hyas in most tellings, although one version gives their parents as Hyas and Boeotia. They are also sisters to the Pleiades and the Hesperides.
  • The main myth concerning them is envisioned to account for their collective name and to provide an etiology for their weepy raininess: Hyas was killed in a hunting accident and the Hyades wept from their grief. They were changed into a cluster of stars, the Hyades set in the head of Taurus.