The Different Story: Episode 10

The episode begins with Kyubey asking Homura if she's going to stop Kyoko and Mami. Homura responds that it's unlikely Kyoko would want her to help and she wouldn't want to waste her energy on needless conflict. She looks down and remembers the previous timelines in which they all worked peacefully together until Mami attempted to kill them all after learning the truth. Meanwhile, the battle between Mami and Kyoko rages on. Mami shoots at Kyoko but misses, and as Kyoko leaps out of the way landing on industrial pipes she's nearly sliced by Mami's ribbons laying in wait. Mami has learned to harden the strings like piano wires and laid them across the sky as a trap. As Kyoko tries to reason with Mami, Mami only responds by firing more muskets at her. Kyoko rushes in to close range with her spear but Mami blocks with the side of her musket and slashes at Kyoko with a ribbon. Kyoko's spear breaks apart into its chained form and wraps around Mami's leg while the spearhead knocks the musket out of her hand, causing Mami to crash to the floor below. The fight is over now, with Kyoko telling Mami it's not her fault that Sayaka became a witch. Mami agrees, responding that it's actually Kyoko's fault. She'd heard rumors about how Kyoko had been collecting grief seeds needlessly, grief seeds that should have been Sayaka's. With Kyoko's return, Mami's life has been ruined and she's lost all of her friends and happiness. Now Mami is growing filled with resentment so she has to die and join Sayaka in the afterlife. She raises her musket and fires at some support beams, causing them to crash between her and Kyoko. As she's leaving, the floor beneath her gives away and Mami is left hanging by a ribbon she managed to cast. Kyoko swings down using her spear chain but Mami throws a second ribbon at Kyoko's leg and fires at her again before kicking her down to the ground below where a net of ribbons awaits the falling Kyoko.

Madoka sits at home in her pajamas, thinking of her friends and praying for their friendship.

Kyoko hangs suspended by Mami's ribbons, incapacitated. Kyoko tells Mami of Homura's warning earlier, about how her life would be in danger if she ran into Mami. But Kyoko didn't want to believe her and came picking a fight anyways, hoping and believing that Mami wasn't that kind of person. She apologizes for betraying her first, for having Mami believe in her only for Kyoko to hurt her time after time. Mami asks if she's going to beg for her life, however Kyoko only wants to apologize. She tells Mami to shoot her if it'll make her happy, to which Mami complies. A shot of Kyoko's lattice barrier as it disappears, a smoking musket barrel, and Kyoko's shattered soul gem are all that's seen. Mami turns towards Sayaka's witch barrier but before she can go in she transforms forms back to a schoolgirl and collapses, her magic spent and her soul gem polluted. Kyubey appears from the shadows, watching and waiting for Mami to transform into a witch. As Mami lays there, she reminisces about practice fights with Kyoko. Mami has tied Kyoko up with her ribbons and she has won another practice fight. Kyoko cries about the unfairness of Mami's ability, but Mami promises to do anything Kyoko wants should she ever win a fight. As they finish up for the day, Mami tells Kyoko that she is proud to be friends with such an excellent magical girl however Kyoko doesn't see her as a friend. Before she can elaborate, Kyoko changes her mind and takes off. Distressed at the thought that Kyoko is only friends with her in order to become stronger, Mami resolves to become the ideal magical girl, strong, reliable and kind. Suddenly a younger version of Mami appears, telling Mami that everyone will leave her no matter how hard she tries. Younger Mami entices her older self to create an ideal world where her friends will never betray her and they can have fun tea parties forever, all she has to do is become a witch. Before she can respond, Mami is awakened by Kyoko who is alive and well.

Trivia

• The younger Mami that is encountered in this chapter is actually the inner witch of Mami, Candeloro. If Mami became Candeloro in this timeline, her familiars would be red ones and blue ones, rather than the pink ones. The reason for this is because in this timeline the two people that Mami wanted to keep all to herself were Kyoko and Sayaka, instead of Kyoko and Madoka.