Null Magical Girl Breaking: Homo magica

Translation courtesy of Project Mokyuu on Tumblr.

Kosane wakes up from the train with a terrible headache. She feels like she had severed the chain between her and her memories. Slowly, her memories of Kyubey, the Time Railroad and the Magical Girl assaulters return. She coaxes herself to not fall asleep, knowing that if she did she would never wake up.

She opens her eyes and realizes she is no longer on the train. Instead, she is in an endless blue sky with magical girls in the endless plane. She screams suddenly, and Kyubey pops out of her head to ask her what is wrong.

Kosane exclaims that all the girls and their outfits were cute. She says that she is being overwhelmed by all the cute... girls? Kosane begins to look around. Maybe they aren't all girls. Some look fairly androgynous. Kosane disregards the thought and continues gushing about how cute the people are. Some are doing cute things, she thinks, and its too much for her to handle. It's so cute that she can't believe it and begins to question what is going on. She hides her face in Kyubey's tail to hide from the cuteness.

Kyubey explains that he also doesn't know what is happening here, despite his connected consciousness with the other Incubators. Kyubey decides that it will instead try and find out where they are and what time it is by measuring background cosmic radiation inside Kosane's head. When it comes out, Kyubey deduces they are nearly 800,000 years in the future, and that all of these people are extraordinarily powerful (which he says may be because of their cuteness).

Kyubey then goes on a speculation tangent. Maybe they are an evolved form of humans, due to the fact that no Incubators can be found anymore. Since he doesn't think these people signed a contract, he thinks they are simply the next stage for humanity. He dubs them "Homo magica".

Kyubey then theorizes that the Incubators have all but been erased off the face of the Earth and, possibly, the whole universe. Why? because of these people. Because of the Homo magica. But how do they prevent themselves from becoming witches, Kosane asks? Kyubey responds, surmising that they must have created a new system to prevent "witchification". They avoid this fate by being "cute". Through time, humanity has evolved to erase almost all insecurities. For these Homo magica, doing cute things keeps them happy and can prevent them from becoming witches.

However, Kyubey brings up, something's wrong with this plane. It is functionally similar to a large-scale labyrinth. Maybe the Homo magica created this world themselves, Kyubey says. In conclusion, Kyubey says that the Homo magica are self-sufficient organisms. Kosane has a hard time believing all of this, but eventually begins to understand. Kosane is then confused again. The people here thrive on happiness and their relationships with others. In that case, why did they attack her on the train? Kyubey begins to answer her.

These are Homo magica, not Homo sapiens. As such, they may be unwilling to form relationships with anyone unlike them.

Kosane strokes her head and finds out that 1) Her skull has a new fracture and 2) Her skull is caving in (likely from the earlier attack). She suddenly collapses and falls unconscious.

When she awakens, Kyubey tells her that he can help her not get overwhelmed by the cuteness. All she needs to do is let Kyubey alter her cells and she will be able to stand the cuteness around her. Kosane agrees and, with time, she is able to stand with out "cuteness intoxication". However, it isn't all good. She finds that she can't read any emotions anymore without focusing extremely hard. She has become more like Kyubey. Though not mentioned now, it is also revealed that she no longer needs to eat or drink.

Kyubey hops out of her head and begins to walk with Kosane in tow. While walking among the Homo magica, Kosane realizes just how far Kyubey had gone. She was able to realize the girls were doing "cute" things. However, she was unable to feel any care for the girls. She is now completely and utterly disconnected. Only now does Kosane realize just how bizarre the Homo magica are.

The Homo magica evolved to maximize "cuteness." Their eyes literally sparkle with many lights, their faces mimic anime and they look like beautiful drawings. They are real and, simultaneously, unreal.

After what seems like a day of walking, they reach the border of the barrier. Beyond the barrier, Kosane and Kyubey can see a huge, floating object occupying about a quarter of the sky. The surface of the object is covered in holes and craters, like a sponge. Kosane thinks it may be an asteroid, but Kyubey says that is may be the home of an alien race.

Eventually, the two realize the asteroid is getting closer. It will impact the world they are on. Kyubey climbs inside Kosane's head and says that it will likely impact soon. While Kosane begins to ask for explanation, she is lifted by a strong wind. The asteroid has made impact. As Kosane flies from the impact, Kyubey begins to tinker with her again. Her hands begin to morph slowly into wings. Kosane looks below her as she idles in the air, seeing the Homo magica also suffer from the shockwave. However, the Homo magica begin to show their true magical girl power. Using their magic, the ones not crippled take off towards the asteroid in a single attack.

As Kosane prepares and deals with the second wave and watching the Homo magica attack, Kyubey says that he has received a telepathic signal from a Homo sapien-like creature. Kyubey connects Kosane to the signal, and they speak.

The voice on the other side is boyish and raspy. The voice asks who they are, and Kosane explains that they come from 800,000 years in the past. The voice says that they will meet up with Kosane, so she should just stay there. Suddenly, a shadowy figure comes towards them. The girls name is Coeurl. Coeurl grabs Kosane (and, because he is in her head, Kyubey) and heads towards the meteor.

Suddenly, the Homo magica surround and attack them. Coeurl drops Kosane and forms two katana-like swords to defend herself. The Homo magica's attacks are strong enough to turn the air around them into ozone. Kosane thinks that Coeurl must be dead, as no human could survive such an attack. However, Coeurl uses her magic to deflect the beams right back at the Homo magica. She begins what Kosane calls a "dance", deflecting the many beams with her dual swords. Coeurl calls on the meteor to give her assist fire, and it obliges.

The meteor (or as Coeurl calls it, the "control tower") sends many whips of light to attack the Homo magica, completely defeating them. The Homo magica have been cut into pieces.

However, the magica aren't dead. Coeurl curses as the magica come back together, saying that their soul gems must not have been on their bodies. Using a light screen, Coeurl takes Kosane and Kyubey away to escape. Suddenly, Kosane gets a blasting warning that a Soul Gem Bomb is about to go off. When it does, she and Kyubey realize what they thought was a bomb was instead a large Soul Gem that has almost become a witch. The witch is a large hand with each finger with the puppet of a family. Coeurl is issued a retreat order, and she launches herself towards her control tower with Kosane following close behind. As the asteroid (now known to be a spaceship called the Yamata no Orochi takes off, Kosane collapses from the massive g-force and, as she slowly comes to, realizes that she is seeing the entire solar system. The sun, earth, all of it. The Yamata no Orochi opens a wormhole to escape, pulling Kosane, Kyubey and Coeurl inside with it, and Kosane blacks out again.

When she awakens, she is onboard the Yamata no Orochi, and her arms have reverted to their original form. Kyubey contacts her telepathically, telling her that the "meeting" is about to begin. Kosane questions what he means by "meeting" before opening her door to see a ceremonial pedestal, like that out of a fantasy story. The pedestal is surrounded by knights and, at their center, is Coeurl. Coeurl notices Kosane and hands her a tequila-like drink, and Kosane accepts it. Kosane asks where she currently is.

Coeurl answers her, telling her she is currently on the planet Terminus, the last stronghold of "old humanity" in the galaxy. She reveals that the Homo magica has built the Time Railroad to take over all of time and space until the end of eternity.

Kosane, drunk, interjects. As a thermodynamics major, she states that there is no such thing as eternity, as all stars will eventually die. Entropy is the only thing that is eternal, she says. The only reason she is alive is because she has accepted that nothing she does will matter and will eventually disappear.

Kyubey then berates her, saying that magic doesn't follow the laws of physics. Therefore, Kosane is a fool. Kosane begins to tremble, afraid of both the facts that 1: the universe won't end and 2: it will be cute forever and ever. She is filled with dread over this realization.

Coeurl goes up to Kosane and whispers in her ear, saying that she and the rest of the inhabitants of Terminus are fighting to stop the invasion of the Homo magica, and they need Kosane's help to do so. Coeurl asks Kosane how to make the "magic management technology" from 800,000 years ago. Despite Kosane saying that no such technology existed, Coeurl says that it did exist, and that Kosane must tell her for the sake of the universe. Kyubey jumps in, saying that Coeurl may be talking about "fiction".

Stories, after all, are made by human emotion and human relationships. Coeurl agrees, saying that humanity destroyed fantasy early in the Magi War because that believed that fantasy brought the Homo magica. As such, the magic of storytelling has been lost. However, the stories are just what is needed to organize a group of non-human Magical Girls.

Kosane asks if there are other intelligent beings in the universe, other than humans. Kyubey answers: Of course there is! There are millions of species in the universe consuming energy every moment.

Coeurl says that Kosane is the last hope of the world: If she can create emotional energy from storytelling, then they may be able to create Magical Girls without a contract. Without Kosane, the universe is doomed. Kosane reluctantly agrees and became an emotion manager for the planet of Terminus. For several years, she travelled around Terminus with Kyubey to search for beings that have the ability to become Magical Girls. On Terminus, she encounters various alien races:

• Kronos: A life form that takes multiple appearances throughout its life due to metamorphosis. On their homeworld, they took up an entire ecosystem. They are both predators and plant-like creatures.
• Hemitheos: While these life forms are not intelligent themselves, their reproductive cells are, leading to complex decisions of who to mate with.
• Mediums: The residents of the home planet of the Mediums were unable to reproduce, so they developed the Mediums to store their reproductive cells and reproduce for them. However, the cells inside began to come together and began to take over the planet, leading to a fully connected race.

Ultimately, however, the project assigned by Coeurl was a failure. Kosane was unable to write stories about non-human lifeforms because their stories and emotional swings were different than human emotions and, therefore, had different reactions than humans would. Because of this, Kosane ultimately failed. Kosane delved into alcoholism due to her failure. However, during her mission, Kyubey began to self-replicate and, therefore, had created a whole legion of Incubators.

In her loneliness and despair, she has heard rumors that Coeurl has died. But it doesn't matter. She continues to cuddle the Kyubeys and drown herself in tequila. Is she human, or an Incubator? Is she alive, or dead? Is this real?

She begins to describe this world as a utopia. The perfect world for her - she has no problems, no responsibility. She has already failed everyone, after all.

But even utopias crumble eventually. A voice begins to shake Kosane from her trance. After a while, she recognized the voice. It's Eruna.

"You can't escape from human relationships. It is your fate."

Kosane finds the voice terrifying, like some horror is hidden right behind it. Kosane decides to ignore it and drown herself in both tequila and Kyubeys. But it doesn't matter. Eruna's voice follows her everywhere, and she cant escape. Eruna asks to connect with Kosane, to play with her.

Suddenly, Kosane realizes Terminus has been destroyed by the Homo magica. Death surrounds her, and Terminus crumbles beneath her feet. Kosane and Kyubey are launched into space by the shockwave of another attack, and view Terminus melt. The gravity of Terminus folds in on itself and Terminus explodes.

Kosane finds it scarily comical. The planet she just strove to save for years has been destroyed. The destruction of worlds is just like making instant ramen to the Homo magica. What hope did they have in the first place if the Homo magica wielded such power?

Using the remnants of the planet, the Homo magica begin to make clay. It is revealed that, just as Homo sapiens make babies, the Homo magica make their offspring out of clay. Suddenly, all of the Homo magica become Witches, imprinting their magical energy on spacetime itself. Using this, they implant the clay figures with life and continue the Homo magica race.

Eruna tells her sister that she cant escape from either her, herself, or human relationships. Kosane tries to reject it, saying she'll escape from Eruna and her lies. Eruna asks how she will escape? Using the Time Railroad?

Kosane looks over to where the Homo magica are, revealing that they are building the true nature of the Time Railroad. It is an endless loop, where organisms live and die forever and ever. They use this railroad to travel across time and space and alter the timeline so that it acts in their favor. They repeatedly alter and distort the world, making it hard for Kosane to travel.

However, she does. Kosane takes herself and all the Kyubeys she can carry to the center of the railroad. They travel between existent and non-existent realities, chased by time-looping predators. Kosane uses Kyubeys ability to see optimal futures in order to pick the best path.

Suddenly, Kosane ends up on an endless train platform, and a train at the station. Eruna asks where Kosane is going, and Kosane responds that she is going wherever Eruna isn't. Kosane jumps on the train and starts the boiler for the engine. However, it moves too slowly. Eruna will catch up! Kosane shovels more and more "coal" into the train. The charcoal burns so much that the boiler's maximum is exceeded, and it explodes. Kosane is launched into the past, and faintly hears Eruna laughing behind her.

Continued in volume 3