Madoka Magica Portable Mami Route
Please refrain from reading if you are not yet familiar with it.
Only If You Are By My Side (あなたが側にいてくれるなら)
Summary
This route is unlocked after finishing Madoka's route.
Mami, as an experienced magical girl, now enters into a witch's barrier alone. Even Kyubey is not by her side now. Although she is afraid, she has to deal with it. What happened to Mami? Why did she make a contract to become a magical girl?
Story
Mami, as usual, is going to a witch's barrier alone today. She feels afraid and calls Kyubey, but Kyubey doesn't respond to her. She wants a partner to encourage her. After she goes deeper, Kyubey comes and explains that he is doing something more important. In the center of the barrier, Charlotte is there. Mami finishes her quickly, but as in anime, she didn't notice there is another form. While Mami is in danger, a flashback to her past is revealed.
Several years ago, Mami was a normal student with loving parents and close friends. At school, there are rumors among the students about inexplicable suicides and criminal activities, and teachers warning them to be careful. Mami is afraid, particularly since she feels someone is watching her. One day, like in the anime, Mami was with her parents in their car when they had a devastating accident. Her parents were killed and Mami severely injured, perhaps fatally. Kyubey appears and influences Mami to make a wish to save herself, thus making a contract.
After the accident, Mami is depressed and is distant from friends and teachers at school. She only really talks to her dead parents and to Kyubey, with whom she develops a friendship. She is afraid of fighting and has to be pushed into it by Kyubey. Her first use of magic is when she instinctively forms a ribbon that saves someone trying to commit suicide. Gaining confidence from that and guidance from Kyubey, she successfully fights familiars. Afterwards, she decides that living as a magical girl to protect others is what she would live for, as she felt she had nothing and no purpose in life after the accident. However, one day she encounters a frantic mother in the park who is looking for her child who was sucked into a Gisela's barrier. Mami finds the child captured and crying, and fights Gisela. Her magic is not strong enough to defeat the witch, so Mami is forced to run away. Feeling enormous guilt, Mami vows to become stronger so nothing like this would happen again. She reads books about weaponry and tactics, practicing to generate bigger muskets, with more powerful attacks, and improve her fighting. Caught up with practicing and constant patrols, Mami loses her friendship with people at school and ends up alone.
There is now a time skip to several months before the current time. In it, Mami is a veteran magical girl but still afraid every time she fights. Mami enters Gertrud's barrier, where she encounters Madoka and saves her from familiars. Madoka passes out but still remembers what happened, and can recall Mami's appearance later, when she sees Mami at school.
The flashback ends to the current time, with Mami facing Charlotte, thinking she's about to die. But then an arrow attack from Madoka, who is now a magical girl, saves Mami. The two of them work to defeat Charlotte, and form a combination. Mami teaches Madoka how to be a magical girl, and often have tea and cake together at her place. Mami feels very happy now that she has Madoka and is no longer alone.
One day, a weakly Homura Akemi with braids and glasses transfers into Madoka's class, just like the start of episode 10 from the anime. Events play out like the anime of Homura's first day, although new scenes show how Madoka constantly tries to help Homura. When Homura gets caught in Izabel's barrier, Mami and Madoka are there to rescue her. Homura faints and they take her to Mami's place to help her recover and talk.
After being saved by Madoka and Mami, Homura comes to admire Madoka more and becomes friends with her. Homura is encouraged by Kyubey to become a magical girl, but doesn't feel she can fight. But at his suggestion, she begins to accompany Mami and Madoka into witch barriers to see what it's like to be a magical girl. Mami becomes jealous with how close Madoka is becoming with Homura, and wonders if she isn't becoming too dependent on Madoka. Even Kyubey notices their closeness and comments on how important Homura is to Madoka, and how having Homura by her side improves Madoka's fighting abilities as a magical girl. Rather than have tea at her place after fighting witches, Mami parts ways with Madoka and Homura, who walk home together instead. Kyubey continues to try and persuade Homura into become a magical girl and she slowly begins to find the idea more appealing.
Meanwhile, Sayaka feels Madoka's absence, as Madoka spends more time with Mami and Homura. So Sayaka talks to Hitomi more, and Hitomi seems to know Sayaka likes Kyousuke. One day she visits Kyousuke and catches Kyubey's eye. However, she doesn't contract throughout the route.
Kyouko in this route is in Mitakihara, ostensibly to hunt for witches, but really to see Mami. Mami shows at the start that she still has negative feelings towards Kyouko, who she feels betrayed her. Kyoko spends most of her time hunting witches, which she finds in short supply, and occasionally using violence to protect herself or others. Mami and Kyoko finally talk when Mami calls out Kyoko, who is lurking around the route to school. She confronts Kyoko for her selfish attitude and violence and is suspicious of why she's in Mitakihara. When Kyoko mentions she wants to meet the newbie magical girl, Mami assumes the worst and refuses to have them meet, telling Kyoko not to go near her and that she'd never forgive her if anything happened to Madoka. Facing hostility, Kyoko also becomes argumentative and is unable to convey her true thoughts and feelings to Mami. Thinking it's hopeless to rebuild a relationship with Mami, Kyoko goes home dispirited and regretful at how things turned out.
One evening, when Mami knows Madoka is with Homura, she decides to go alone to the park she's avoided for a long time, because that's the location of where the child she failed to save. She finds a woman with a witch's kiss, trying to commit suicide. Mami knocks her unconscious and finds Gisela's barrier.
There are two possible endings, depending on whether Mami's soulgem is completely tainted or not.
1. Mami fights Walpurgis. Mami calls for Madoka and Homura to come to help. Mami has Homura take care of the woman who nearly committed suicide. She then fights Gisela with Madoka. In her barrier, Madoka and Mami have a talk where Madoka eases Mami's insecurities, letting her know they are friends and that they should talk and spend time together. They defeat Gisela and become closer.
Afterwards, Madoka and Mami fight Walpurgis together. They are both afraid and yet, Mami feels a sense of contentment that she's fighting with Madoka. In a different sequence than the anime, Madoka tells Homura that she's happy she became a magical girl and that she was able to save Homura and become friends with her. She then departs with Mami to start the fight with Walpurgis. Towards the end, Mami sacrifices herself to save Madoka from a fatal blow. Madoka then finishes off Walpurgis before dying with her last words about meeting Mami soon. Homura, upset, makes a contract with the same wish as the anime, in order to save Madoka. She becomes a magical girl and resets time.
2. Mami becomes a witch. Influenced by Kyubey, Mami decides to fight the witch by herself. But since her soul gem is completely dark she cannot use any magic and only uses her melee ribbon attack, like when she first started fighting. Once she encounters Gisela, she realizes it is the same witch she failed to defeat, who killed that child. After Gisela is defeated, Mami recalls that if she dies in a witch's barrier like that child, her body won't ever be found, and nobody will know that she died. Despondent, she exits the barrier to check on the woman who attempted suicide. The woman rages at her for saving her when she wanted to die, to join her missing child. Mami realizes the woman is the mother of the boy she failed to save years ago, and is filled with more guilt and regret. When Madoka and Homura finally arrive, Mami tells them about her past failure in not saving the child or her parents with her wish, her constant fear of fighting and being alone, and concludes she doesn't deserve to be a magical girl. Horrified, they watch Mami fall into despair and her soul gem become a grief seed. Surrounded by Candeloro's barrier, Madoka is concerned with getting Mami's body out. Kyubey arrives to tell them the truth, that the body is only a shell and Mami is actually Candeloro. Madoka takes a while to accept it, and then call out to Candeloro to change her back, but is forced to defeat her when Candeloro attacks Homura. Kyubey tells them the full truth of magical girls and witches, and Madoka says she never wants to see him again. Later, they visit Mami's home to mourn. Madoka feels guilt that she didn't try harder to turn Mami back. It's possible that Madoka can be killed by Candeloro. If that happens, Madoka apologizes to Homura that Mami is so powerful that she can't protect Homura before her death. Homura then makes a wish to save Madoka and becomes a magical girl, resets time.
There is another possibility that Mami transforms into a witch one day later. In this case, she returns home, and doesn't go to school the next day. She is depressed because she doesn't get a telephone call. But then she realizes that she didn't tell Madoka her telephone number and falls into despair. Madoka and Homura tries to find her at school and her apartment but in vain. Finally, they find Mami in the park and watches as she becomes a witch.
When Walpurgis comes, Homura, thinking it's suicidal, tries to persuade Madoka not to fight. Madoka tells her that she has to, as she's the only magical girl left to fight Walpurgis. She says she's glad she was able to save Homura from a witch and that she has to protect others because she doesn't want the feelings she had at that time to be a lie. She doesn't want to fall into despair like Mami so this is the only route left. Madoka says she absolutely doesn't want to be a witch. Until the end, she wants to fight as a magical girl for the sake of others. Madoka fights and wins against Walpurgis before dying. Homura, overcome with grief and despite knowing the full truth about magical girls and witches, still makes the same wish to have another meeting with Madoka again. Homura says that it doesn't matter what happens to her, it doesn't matter what she has to go through, as long as she can save Madoka. Her last thoughts before she becomes a magical girl and resets time is, "I will change this fate. I will definitely save you. So wait for me...Kaname-san."
Trivia
- This route seems to correlate with the first timeline of Episode 10 of the anime, if Mami stays a magical girl, and incorporates events from the Drama CD "Memories of You" and references Mami and Kyoko's past in the Drama CD "Farewell Story."
- During the accident, while dying, Mami asks Kyubey if he is an tenshi, or a shinigami, and if he is there to steal her soul. Shinigami are kami that guide humans towards death.
- In his instructions to Mami as she learns what it means to be a Magical Girl, Kyubey reveals the following information:
- Witches are generally cautious which is why they are generally not in public, but lurk at the back of Barriers.
- The complexity of the Barrier gives indication of the strength of the Witch. Stronger Witches have more complex Barriers.
- Soul Gems react the closer one is in response to a Witch's magic. The level of response to a Soul Gem tells the strength of their magical power, e.g. the greater power of a Witch vs. the lesser one of a Familiar.
- Soul Gems can be used to open an entrance into a Barrier.
- Homura's personality is depicted differently in each separate route:
- In this route Homura is depicted as a bashful introvert, similar to how she acts in the first timeline of episode 10.
