Magia Record Story Last Bird's Hope

Part 1

Prologue

In what might be a sort of mix between a dreamscape and a memory for Kuroe, she battles a witch on a train and encounters a boy with cat ears searching for his father. He refuses to leave the train, fearing he’ll lose his chance to reunite with his father, and Kuroe empathizes with his unresolved grief and reveals her own pain over losing Iroha, who once filled her empty life but vanished before she could express gratitude or farewell.

Episode 1

Exhausted and grieving Iroha’s absence, Kuroe patrols for witches and uses a grief seed to sustain herself. Despite feeling unworthy, she vows to emulate Iroha by defeating witches and helping others, though her soul gem keeps rapidly darkening.

Episode 2

Kuroe ventures into another magical girl’s territory, drawing criticism for poaching witches, and two local magical girls question her motives. They mention rumors of another girl searching for a "black-hooded magical girl," and later Kuroe overhears news of rising crimes in Takarazaki City and, suspecting a witch’s involvement, decides to investigate.

Episode 3

Kuroe spends some time scouring crime-ridden areas but finds no witches. Her soul gem continues darkening quicker despite being purified often, and at a train station, she smells blood and encounters a fleeing man. She pursues him into a witch’s labyrinth but freezes during combat, nearly dying until a magical girl, Nagisa Momoe, intervenes and defeats it, warning Kuroe to leave.

Episode 4

The two clash over Kuroe's refusal to back down, and Nagisa references the Law of Cycles and her mission to fix distortions in the universe. Before leaving, Nagisa warns Kuroe that imitating others will lead to self-destruction.

Episode 5

While wandering around, Kuroe meets Yu, a cheerful but erratic girl, in her civilian form, so Kuroe doesn't realize she's a magical girl. Yu reveals she is searching for a bad person and Kuroe offers to help. She quickly accepts her help and leaves without letting Kuroe finish her sentence, both inadvertently continuing the search, but then Kuroe senses Nagisa’s Doppel. She rushes back to the station to help her, and after subduing it, Nagisa reveals that Yu is connected to the anomalies. The man who was fleeing earlier is nearby as well, hurt and unconscious, but then three Charlotte witches appear and take him into their labyrinth. Nagisa and Kuore chase after to save him, but the witches overwhelm Kuroe.

Episode 6

Kuro, the magical girl Kuroe once saved, appears and helps fight the witches. The group struggles until Nagisa distracts them, urging Kuroe and Kuro to flee, but then Yu arrives in her transformed state and almost effortlessly defeats the witches herself.

Episode 7

Yu confronts Nagisa about her cleaning up the discarded bodies of the people she killed, likely by having used her Doppel to eat them. Nagisa ruthlessly attacks Yu, trapping her in a bubble, but then collapses from exhaustion and likely from Yu's magic. Meanwhile, John, the criminal Yu hunted, wakes and pleads for help, explaining Yu murdered his associates. Kuroe and Kuro hide him, but she quickly tracks them down, insisting on killing John as a "bad person."

Episode 8

Yu claims magical girls must eliminate "evil," while Kuroe and Kuro argue for redemption, and John even admits his crimes and vows to atone. He stabs her, urging the other girls to run, and then Yu kills him. Kuroe intervenes, but Yu’s magic warps their perception, causing Kuro to attack mindlessly, and Kuroe, overwhelmed, collapses as her soul gem nears corruption.

Episode 9

Yu explains she kills criminals to stop them from haunting a "troubled person’s" dreams. Kuroe, fading in and out of consciousness, hears a voice urging her to kill Yu to prevent her from losing herself, and sees visions of Yu’s obsession with filling a void. The voice—Kei, whom Yu lost—begs Kuroe to end Yu before her current story erases her entirely.

Episode 10

Kuroe dreams of Kei's voice pleading for Yu’s death to free her from endless violence. She warns that Yu’s future holds only isolation, so Kuroe awakens conflicted, torn between saving Yu and stopping her rampage. She's unable to make a decision as she faints once more.

Part 2

Episode 11

On the train dreamscape, Kuroe reminisces about owning a cat in the past but no longer keeping pets after losing someone important. Homura, who is also part of the dream, advises her to move forward, stating she must disembark the "train" to reach tomorrow. Kuroe expresses reluctance to face the pain of loss and prefers to cling to past dreams, but Homura counters that only Kuroe can carry her memories into the future. Homura then departs and urges Kuroe to apologize to someone on her behalf. Kuroe fears a future without Iroha, but Kei reveals that she and Yu had attempted suicide together, but only Yu had survived. She pleads with Kuroe again to kill Yu before her memories of their shared past erode entirely, and Kuroe realizes Yu’s "emptiness" mirrors her own. Kuroe awakens in a an old, abandoned building with Yu, and a girl who introduces herself as Shi. As Kuroe's too scared, Shi prompts Yu to leave them alone for a bit, and explains her role in directing Yu to eliminate "bad people" based on a list derived from her nightmares. She explains how her ability to sense others’ suffering stems from her mother’s wish as a magical girl, and she defends their actions as necessary to alleviate collective pain. Kuroe confronts Shi about the morality of their killings, but Shi deflects and instead questions Kuroe’s refusal to let go of Iroha’s memory.

Episode 12

Shi recounts her past of being orphaned in a hospital explosion, being exploited by a cult-like facility for her power, and tormented by nightmares of others’ suffering. One day, Kyubey offered her a contract to erase her powers, but she refused due to fear of losing her empathy. Yu appeared and killed Kyubey in that moment, which was the first time they met, and afterwards they got to talking to each other.

Episode 13

Shi details how after she started keeping track of her nightmares, Yu started killing the people she described and her killings reduced her nightmares, so they developed rules to target only confirmed "bad people" from Shi’s dreams. Yu then massacred the facility’s staff to free Shi, justifying it as protecting her from exploitation and Shi reluctantly accepted her violent methods. Shi admits the arbitrary nature of their list, in which names are added based on her fleeting emotions, not justice, but she'd still rather be with Yu instead of being free. They're interrupted by Nagisa and Kuro, who throw Yu back inside the building.

Episode 14

Nagisa accuses Yu of destabilizing the universe as an anomaly, and reveals Yu's true identity as Yusa, a girl who survived a suicide pact, so she urges her to reclaim her memories and move forward. Despite Yu being unable to recognize the reality of Nagisa's words, Shi intervenes, insisting Yu is no longer Yusa, and suddenly, the members of a crime syndicate arrive, seeking revenge for Yu’s killings. The gang leader condemns their vigilantism, revealing their victims were coerced and not inherently evil. Yu dismisses his arguments and asserts her moral code. As they shoot her, she remains unfazed and her grotesque regeneration terrifies the attackers, before she kills and dismembers them all. Nagisa tries to convince Yu to move forward once more, but Yu refuses and her magic harms Nagisa's mental state, so she launches attacks hoping to harm Yu, but also hitting Kuroe as well. These attacks, paired with Kuroe's own perceived similarities to Yu, cause Kuroe's Doppel to emerge and before it can fully envelop her, Kuro reaches for Kuroe.

Episode 15

Kuroe once more dreams of the cat boy, who says he will leave the train at the next station despite not having found his father, but he says that he'll carry his memories with his father into tomorrow. Inside her Doppel's labyrinth, Kuro encourages her to see past failures as steps toward growth, but her Doppel berates Kuroe, claiming she’s unfit to be a magical girl and should reject tomorrow.

Episode 16

Separated from Yu, Shi ponders the existence of Doppels and then encounters Kyubey again outside the facility. She decides to contract as a magical girl, wishing to "know not only other people's problems and agony, but also their hope and happiness." Her goal is to atone for manipulating Yu and to find meaning in her cursed existence with her. Shi’s new magic allows her to synchronize with others’ memories and emotions, and when she synchronizes with Kyubey, she experiences all his memories, learning her mother’s dying wish was for Shi to "understand others’ pain." This revelation strengthens Shi’s resolve, and then Yu finds her. Shi attempts to confess her feelings to Yu and synchronize with her, but what she finds makes her devastated, so she kills her by destroying her soul gem, which was hidden inside her stomach, and freeing her from being a tool.

Episode 17

Shi is distraught after finding out that Yu’s heart was utterly empty, devoid of love, hatred, or malice, but she resolves to become others' hope, just like how Yu was hope for her. Nagisa arrives and confronts Shi over Yu’s death, but she uses her magic to sync with Nagisa, exposing her origins as an emissary from another universe, as well as sharing all her knowledge with Nagisa. They debate Shi's morality, with Shi vowing to become a "voice for the voiceless," seeking redemption by avenging others’ suffering as a magical girl despite Nagisa's protests. She takes Yu's body and uses her Doppel to escape, with Nagisa yelling that she'll notify the police about her actions.

Episode 18

Kuroe, still trapped in her Doppel’s labyrinth, is tormented by her Doppel declaring her a "failed magical girl." Kuro tries to help her, but it's not until she sees a vision of Iroha appear in place of Kuro. Iroha, talking to her all the way from the Magia Record, urges her to embrace her identity, and with Kuro’s help, Kuroe breaks free and resolves to accept her imperfections. Together, the two defeat Kuroe's Doppel, which has now taken the complete form of Kuroe's witch, Ichizo.

Episode 19

Before waking up, Kuroe laments Iroha's absence, but Iroha tells her that she will still have her memories of her, and makes her promise to remain kind, and then disappearing. Kuroe wakes up at dawn in the facility and thanks Kuro for saving her, acknowledging her own flaws but resolving to live authentically, even as a "failed magical girl."

Episode 20

They are unable to find any of the bodies of dead people, and reckon they were likely tossed in a labyrinth by Yu, but they manage to telepathically connect with Nagisa. She arrives and lies to them that Shi and Yu escaped, and that Shi, now a magical girl, wished for the power to rehabilitate and reform criminals, and plans to do that instead of killing them. Nagisa vows to monitor Yu and Shi, and Kuroe decides to live for herself, honoring Iroha’s memory without being chained to it. Later, at the station, Kuroe reminisces about Iroha to Kuro and bids farewell to Iroha, acknowledging that memories may fade but vowing to cherish their impact. She reflects on her loss and resilience, and she resolves to live true to herself, even if she isn’t a "proper" magical girl. Rumors persist of a shadowy figure, the Nighthawk.

The Rumor of the Nighthawk

Fan translation:
The rugged peaks have been worn smooth, becoming the mother of the garden’s pebbles.
By the time the new buds that sprouted yesterday transform into a magnificent shrine.

“My, have you heard? Who’d you hear it from? "That rumor about the Nighthawk!" "Eh~? Is that the story about the terrifying Runaway Doppel?" "What are you talking about! The Nighthawk is the one who told us how the magical girls of this world were saved." "The Magia Record born in the distant past and the legend of a single girl—she shared these tales with us pitiful souls, an apostle from ancient times." "No, no, isn’t it said that she’s some kind of bird monster?" "No, no, she’s definitely human! She even tells us her name!" "Her name, like faith itself, is—" "×××イ××"

Not continue. This is the last.

Trivia

• The cat boy looking for his father on the train is likely a reference to Night on the Galactic Railroad, with the boy representing Giovanni, who is also on the train looking for his missing father.
  • Iroha's Doppel, Giovanna, is also named after this character.
• The hidden name at the end of the Rumor, "×××イ××," is possibly Kuroe's first name, with Kuroe being her family name instead of her first name.
  • Japanese names with six characters are highly uncommon, so it is possible that two characters are the ones comprising her last name, 黒江 for Kuroe, or that it could be a title of some sort.
  • The only known character イ, is in katakana, spelled as "i".