Wraith Arc: Chapter 7
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The chapter begins in flashback. Madoka lies dead on the ground in a puddle of rain, having defeated Walpurgisnacht though it cost her her life. Homura, her hair in braids and still wearing glasses, sits over her sobbing. Kyubey looks down on the scene from some nearby rubble. Homura wipes the tears from her face and stands. She makes her wish to redo her meeting with Madoka, not as someone that is protected by her but instead to become someone that can protect her. She clutches her chest as a soul gem is born and her magic shield comes to existence. In the present, Homura and Wraith-Madoka sit in Homura's apartment as the panels that hang suspended in front of them depict the scene from the flashback. Kyubey appears from the shadows, talking about civilization and the longing for ungranted wishes. Kyubey asks Homura if this is the conclusion she hoped for. Because she doubted the existence of an imaginary human, all of her emotions have been devoured by a small wraith. Homura sits there with a vacant expression, Wraith-Madoka clinging and swirling around her. Since the entirety of her emotional energy has been her soul gem has lost its shine and won't lean towards hope or despair. Because her soul gem is stagnant, the law of cycles cannot detect it and so she continues to exist in this world. Kyubey says there is no use for a magical girl who abandoned hope and leaves. Wraith-Madoka stands up and looks out the window, feeling the presence of the giant wraith nearby. Out in the city, hundreds of wraiths walk the streets in file, all of them heading towards the clock tower where the clock's face begins to crack from the pressure of dark miasma. A woman who is walking past pauses and notices black tendrils of energy snaking out from an alley.
At the park, Mami and Kyoko discuss Homura's absence from school and home. They're not surprised she hasn't been to school considering her heart was eaten. Kyoko is more surprised that she was willing to give shelter to a wraith. She considers that the wraith didn't go all the way and took her life as well since maybe they just want to be left alone together. Mami considers this a real possibility since they treated Homura like they knew her without actually understanding her feelings at all. Mami mentions how odd Homura’s story about magical girls fighting in order to die is. The law of cycles takes away a magical girl’s soul in exchange for having made the contract, but if Homura felt that the wish she was granted wasn’t what she desired then she may have used the wraiths to avoid the death that comes before hope. Kyoko snacks on some dango and replies that Homura didn’t have to let a wraith take her heart simply because she didn’t want the law of cycles to get it, then pauses and adds that personally she wouldn’t choose either. Kyoko then realizes that Homura said her memories of her wish are fake and maybe if she were to remember her real wish then she would recover her hopes and she’ll go back to normal. Mami asks her how she plans on doing this and then teases her for being more amicable towards others now as opposed to how she was when she first arrived in the city. Kyoko looks down and claims she only wants to defeat the giant wraith to bring back as a souvenir before she goes back to Kazamino, and also still has to keep the honor of Sayaka. Suddenly the park begins to fill with miasma and the girls look around quickly only to notice they have been surrounded by a swarm of wraiths. They transform into magical girls, poised and ready to fight but the wraiths don’t notice them. Kyoko begins her attack but Mami tells her to hold off, noticing that the wraiths are ignoring them completely. She suggests they not do anything rash to attract their attention and instead should follow them in the hopes of a clue.
As they follow the wraiths into the city, they notice several people strewn in the city streets. At first Kyoko suspects they are victims of the wraiths, but these people are dead. Kyoko is confused and asks what is going on since wraiths only turn people into vegetables, not kill them. Mami agrees but cautions that the wraiths they’ve been encountering are nothing like the ones they are familiar with. As she talks, Kyoko calls out for Mami to duck just as several sabres stab into the ground beside her. The wraith-Sayaka appears and Kyoko readies her spear. She asks the wraith if she killed all these people but the wraith remains silent. Kyoko turns to Mami and tells her to follow after the smaller wraiths while she deals with the wraith-Sayaka. Mami takes off and the wraith-Sayaka readies herself. Kyoko summons a lattice barrier around the wraith and points her spear at her declaring the wraith will pay for the sin of impersonating Sayaka. Mami leaps across the rooftops, following after the wraiths and finding them gathered around the clock tower. She hears a noise and turns to fire her musket behind her. The miasma dissipates to reveal the wraith-Kyoko but this time the wraith has brought a friend: a wraith version of Mami. Mami fires her two muskets at the wraith imposters. On a building roof nearby, Homura and Wraith-Madoka stand and watch the skirmish below.
Elsewhere, Kyoko blocks Wraith-Sayaka’s sabre and counters with her spear, unleashing her weapon into its chained segments. The spear-chain surrounds Wraith-Sayaka only for her to seemingly teleport above and behind Kyoko’s head. Kyoko turns and is only barely able to block the attack, quickly returning it with an attack of her own only for the wraith to teleport again. She summons another lattice barrier behind herself which just catches the several sabres the wraith had thrown at her. Once more Wraith-Sayaka is behind her aiming to stab at her back but Kyoko blocks it with her spear and is quickly knocked into a nearby building. Kyoko considers the unusual magic the wraith is using but notes she still fights just like Sayaka. She rushes down an alley with the wraith in hot pursuit. As she’s running, Kyoko summons a lattice barrier that barely grabs at Wraith-Sayaka’s cape, anabling Kyoko to chain the wraith with her spear. She rushes to attack but the alley is filled with a dark miasma as other mutated wraiths begin converging on them. They hold out their hands and a flash of bright light floods the alley. Wraith-Sayaka is heavily damaged however the other wraiths hold Kyoko dangling by her arm. Wraith-Sayaka unsheathes her sabre and points it at Kyoko’s soul gem, beginning the process of devouring her emotions. Suddenly, Kyoko stabs her spear through the dark hollow in the center of Wraith-Sayaka, kicking her way out of the wraiths’ grasp. She stabs her spear at the ground, Wraith-Sayaka still pierced through the center and then kneels on the ground in a prayer. Her soul gem shines as hundreds of spears appear from the ground and stab upward, destroying the wraiths that fill the alley. She finishes Wraith-Sayaka off with a side swipe of her spear, then untransforms as she falls to her knees, her soul gem dark and spent.
Meanwhile, Wraith-Mami and Wraith-Kyoko continue their attack on Mami. Wraith-Mami summons several muskets and shoots a volley of bullets at Mami, who manages to dodge the attack only for Wraith-Kyoko to come down from above with her spear. She manages to wrap her spear-chain around Mami’s right leg which Mami shoots off but not before Wraith-Mami shoots at her with her own version of Tiro Finale. A burst of light and the dust settles, showing a somewhat damaged but very much alive Mami. Her soul gem appears dark and she’s out of breath. She summons several muskets around her as she prepares to counter attack. In the distance, Wraith-Madoka and Homura continue to watch the battle unfold. Wraith-Madoka takes the ribbon from Homura’s head and holds it in her hands, an aura of light enveloping her. Mami continues to fight but Wraith-Mami aims another Tiro Finale at her. Just as the blast is about to come at her, Wraith-Madoka aims her bow at the sky and unleashes an arrow of magic. Her magic symbol appears in the sky and begins to rain down arrow shots at the wraiths below. The dust settles and Mami notices Madoka standing before her.
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| Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Wraith Arc: Chapter 6 | Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Wraith Arc: Chapter 7 | Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Wraith Arc: Chapter 8 |