Oriko Magica Sadness Prayer: Chapter 21

Oriko confronts Yaegashi, revealed to be the man who made her father take the fall in order to take down his true political enemy, Kimihide. Yaegashi remains calm as he drinks, not even turning to look at her and asks Oriko if she has come here to censure him, though he also notes that she knows it will do her no good to do so. He then says that Oriko acts like an abandoned puppy and asks if she lost something she felt was important. Oriko shouts at him to be silent and prepares to fire one of her orbs at him.

The next scene details Kirika's past as to how she became a magical girl. Kyubey had confronted her one day at school and offered her the contract, though she initially declines unable to see herself being a magical girl and walks away in disbelief over the whole thing. Kyubey follows after her and asks if there's a wish she'd like granted and Kirika answers that she wants to be a different Kirika. He asks if this is her wish but Kirika says it isn't. Kyubey tries to reason with her but Kirika refuses to listen, all while passing by her classmates who think she's crazy for talking to herself. When one of them mocks her for being always alone and creepy behind her back Kirika becomes anger and shouts at Kyubey to go away as she throws her bag at him. At home Kirika thinks about her wish to be a different Kirika while playing a video game. She compares her wish to change herself to that of her game where one switches roles but ultimately remains the same despite the difference and wonders what her wish really is. Kyubey continues to follow Kirika and pester her over the contract over the next couple of days, but he only keeps angering her until she shouts at him to shut up and bumps into the person following her, revealed to be Oriko. Kirika becomes shocked and embarrassed over this and repeatedly apologizes to Oriko for her mistake, but Oriko says it feels strange for someone to apologize so much over a trivial thing and tells her not to worry about it. Kirika notes how nice Oriko is and tries to ask her if she wants to be her friend but is unable to spit it out before Komaki approaches Oriko and begins talking to her. When she notices Kirika and asks if she's a friend of hers Oriko says they aren't and that they just bumped into each other. Komaki states that she thinks Oriko shouldn't be hanging out with girls from other schools as people would start making weird rumors about her again. With that Komaki and Oriko leave as the latter bids Kirika to take care. Kirika inwardly notes how she's not a suitable enough friend for Oriko. In her room Kirika thinks about enrolling at Oriko's school in order to get closer to her but she can't as Shirome is high class compared to Mitakihara. Kirika becomes frustrated and says she wants to die when Kyubey suddenly appears and says it'd be a waste for her to do so, prompting her to smack him over him bothering her again. Kyubey says he doesn't know what she went through to bring her to this but says there's a way to change her background and asks her what her wish is. Kirika says it isn't possible but Kyubey affirms he can grant it and wonders what kind of magic her wish will create. He asks her to show him what it will be, and Kirika finally makes her wish: to keep changing until she's suitable for Oriko.

In the present Kirika awakens but her body feels heavy, making her wonder if she's low on magic. Instead she notes that she's close to the end where her wish will be fulfilled as she has remembered everything and has to get this wish granted. She says she must protect Oriko from Mami, Homura and even Hisaomi.

Meanwhile Oriko asks Yaegashi if he will call for someone as she has come to kill him, but Yaegashi answers that he knows that making Oriko think he's not taking her threat seriously. Yaegashi says no as he knows Oriko is just that kind of person who would. He then starts talking about her father, who, compared to his other siblings, was a man with neither the ambition nor capacity for the political world. Despite that Hisaomi quietly desired a seat in the diet, and while Yaegashi was happy to oblige he didn't understand why him, but at the same time he did from a certain point of view. Oriko calms down as her orbs disappear and asks Yaegashi why, to which he answers with the name Shuuichiro Mikuni, Oriko's grandfather. Shuuichiro was gifted for politics, but what really made him popular was his calm and elegant personality that made others love him. But those closest to him, especially his children, knew this wasn't his true self as he set traps for anyone in his way and cut off the incompetent, a skill of his that made him a frightening man. Oriko doesn't understand why Yaegashi is bringing this up and asks what the connection is between her grandfather and what happened to her father, to which Yaegashi replies that among the incompetents he cut off, one was his own child, Hisaomi. Yaegashi goes on to say that he isn't surprised she never met Shuuichiro as none of her family would've been allowed beyond the Mikuni front door and that even Kimihide objected to that treatment. Even in his adulthood Hisaomi still lived in fear of his father as whenever Yaegashi would tell him his stories about the man he could see the change in Hisaomi's eyes. Oriko suddenly becomes angry and repeats that his story doesn't make any sense to her. She decides she's heard enough and says she will never forgive Yaegashi for bringing her father down and driving him to an early grave as she summons her orbs again to attack him. Yaegashi questions Oriko on him killing Hisaomi as doesn't understand what she's talking about, saying the one who really killed him was Oriko herself.

A flashback is then shown depicting a younger Oriko where after her mother passed away she underwent a change, going from a crybaby to a person who succeeded at everything she tried. After her graduation she became the one her classmates aspired to be and she rose above the others. Her father noted that she was such a success that there were times he began to doubt she was his daughter and he inwardly notes that Oriko frightened him; while she was talented and inspired admiration in others, behind her smile lurks a familiar coldness. Yaegashi says Hisaomi hated to see Oriko cut off as well and didn't want her to learn of his incompetence, so he instead tried national politics (with Yaegashi supporting his campaign) in an attempt to grow out of it. He adds that out of everyone in the family, Oriko is the most like Ichichiro, the man her father feared. Oriko is surprised by this as she doesn't understand why her father would think that way as she has never met her grandfather and knows nothing about him that would make her so close to him. She recalls her father's notes in his book talking about how exhausted he was and wanted to escape from this life and from Oriko herself. Oriko becomes even more enraged and threatens to kill Yaegashi with her orbs to avenge her father's death and uphold his ideals. Yaegashi smiles at her and says she's his type of person, the one who acts on her ideals and thinks nothing of cutting down anyone who blocks the path. He adds that he truly thinks that if Oriko were to try the life of politics it would be very interesting to see, causing Oriko to remember how she manipulated Sasa and Lina's group and killed them all in the end to get her way. Oriko leaves Yaegashi alive and he feigns ignorance to anyone else being in the room with him when an aid comes in to check on him.

Kirika suddenly hears a crash and runs off to find the source, discovering it's Oriko who has returned home and was now suffering from a mental breakdown over what Yaegashi has revealed to her, shouting as she breaks another glass. Kirika grabs her and tells her to stop as her hands are covered in blood and that this isn't like her. But Oriko glares at her in anger and shoves Kirika away, questioning her on what it means when it's not like her. She finds all of her talents at excelling in everything from her academics and inspiration to be nothing but a joke, along with questioning the revelations about her father's worth of the family name and his death because of her being similar to her grandfather. Kirika tells her it's nothing like that, but Oriko says she finally realized the truth about her wish: wishing to learn why she's alive made her see the Witch that brings the end of the world, which Oriko interprets to mean that life has no meaning and she expects that it also means for her to just hurry up and die. Kirika tackles Oriko down to calm her, but Oriko becomes upset as she can't stand being Oriko and wants to stop being her. Kirika refuses to let her quit being herself as Kirika wants to complete her wish and that Oriko was the reason it came true. Kirika tells Oriko that because of her wish's phrasing to make herself suitable for her, being a magical girl now isn't suitable enough for her and proposes that her wish can turn her into a Witch to better suit her goals. But Oriko refuses as it'd be too much of a burden on her to have that happen, but Kirika says it should be one as it'd be wrong if it wasn't. She then tells Oriko that if it ever seems like she's about to loose herself then she wants her to think of Kirika as she will be the one to pull her back to who she is. Oriko cries as she hugs Kirika, who then adds that now that her wish has been granted they're going to see to it that Oriko's is granted too.