Madoka Magica Portable Mami Route

Only If You Are By My Side(あなたが側にいてくれるなら)

Summary

This route is unlocked after finishing Madoka's route.

Mami, as an experienced magical girl, now enters into a witch's barrier alone. Even Kyubey is not by her side now. Although she is afraid, she has to deal with it. What happened to Mami? Why did she make a contract to become a magical girl?

Story

Warning, this section contains spoilers.
Mami hopes for her happiness to continue. Mami, as usual, is going to a witch's barrier alone today. She feels afraid and calls Kyubey, but Kyubey doesn't respond to her. She wants a partner to encourage her. After she goes deeper, Kyubey comes and explains that he is doing something more important. In the center of the barrier, Charlotte is there. Mami finishes her quickly, but as in anime, she didn't notice there is another form. While Mami is in danger, a flashback to her past is revealed. Several years ago, Mami was a normal student with loving parents and close friends. At school, there are rumors among the students about inexplicable suicides and criminal activities, and teachers warning them to be careful. Mami is afraid, particularly since she feels someone is watching her. One day, like in the anime, Mami was with her parents in their car when they had a devastating accident. Her parents were killed and Mami severely injured, perhaps fatally. Kyubey appears and influences Mami to make a wish to save herself, thus making a contract. After the accident, Mami is depressed and is distant from friends and teachers at school. She only really talks to her dead parents and to Kyubey, with whom she develops a friendship. She is afraid of fighting and has to be pushed into it by Kyubey. Her first use of magic is when she instinctively forms a ribbon that saves someone trying to commit suicide. Gaining confidence from that and guidance from Kyubey, she successfully fights familiars. Afterwards, she decides that living as a magical girl to protect others is what she would live for, as she felt she had nothing and no purpose in life after the accident. However, one day she encounters a frantic mother in the park who is looking for her child who was sucked into a Gisela's barrier. Mami finds the child captured and crying, and fights Gisela. Her magic is not strong enough to defeat the witch, so Mami is forced to run away. Feeling enormous guilt, Mami vows to become stronger so nothing like this would happen again. She reads books about weaponry and tactics, practicing to generate bigger muskets, with more powerful attacks, and improve her fighting. Caught up with practicing and constant patrols, Mami loses her friendship with people at school and ends up alone. There is now a time skip to several months before the current time. In it, Mami is a veteran magical girl but still afraid every time she fights. Mami enters Gertrud's barrier, where she encounters Madoka and saves her from familiars. Madoka passes out but still remembers what happened, and can recall Mami's appearance later, when she sees Mami at school. The flashback ends to the current time, with Mami facing Charlotte, thinking she's about to die. But then an arrow attack from Madoka, who is now a magical girl, saves Mami. The two of them work to defeat Charlotte, and form a combination. Mami teaches Madoka how to be a magical girl, and often have tea and cake together at her place. Mami feels very happy now that she has Madoka and is no longer alone. One day, a weakly Homura Akemi with braids and glasses transfers into Madoka's class, just like the start of episode 10 from the anime. Events play out like the anime of Homura's first day, although new scenes show how Madoka constantly tries to help Homura. When Homura gets caught in Izabel's barrier, Mami and Madoka are there to rescue her. Homura faints and they take her to Mami's place to help her recover and talk. After being saved by Madoka and Mami, Homura comes to admire Madoka more and becomes friends with her. Homura is encouraged by Kyubey to become a magical girl, but doesn't feel she can fight. But at his suggestion, she begins to accompany Mami and Madoka into witch barriers to see what it's like to be a magical girl. Mami becomes jealous with how close Madoka is becoming with Homura, and wonders if she isn't becoming too dependent on Madoka. Even Kyubey notices their closeness and comments on how important Homura is to Madoka, and how having Homura by her side improves Madoka's fighting abilities as a magical girl. Rather than have tea at her place after fighting witches, Mami parts ways with Madoka and Homura, who walk home together instead. Kyubey continues to try and persuade Homura into become a magical girl and she slowly begins to find the idea more appealing. Meanwhile, Sayaka feels Madoka's absence, as Madoka spends more time with Mami and Homura. So Sayaka talks to Hitomi more, and Hitomi seems to know Sayaka likes Kyousuke. One day she visits Kyousuke and catches Kyubey's eye. However, she doesn't contract throughout the route. Kyouko in this route is in Mitakihara, ostensibly to hunt for witches, but really to see Mami. Mami shows at the start that she still has negative feelings towards Kyouko, who she feels betrayed her. Kyoko spends most of her time hunting witches, which she finds in short supply, and occasionally using violence to protect herself or others. Mami and Kyoko finally talk when Mami calls out Kyoko, who is lurking around the route to school. She confronts Kyoko for her selfish attitude and violence and is suspicious of why she's in Mitakihara. When Kyoko mentions she wants to meet the newbie magical girl, Mami assumes the worst and refuses to have them meet, telling Kyoko not to go near her and that she'd never forgive her if anything happened to Madoka. Facing hostility, Kyoko also becomes argumentative and is unable to convey her true thoughts and feelings to Mami. Thinking it's hopeless to rebuild a relationship with Mami, Kyoko goes home dispirited and regretful at how things turned out. One evening, when Mami knows Madoka is with Homura, she decides to go alone to the park she's avoided for a long time, because that's the location of where the child she failed to save. She finds a woman with a witch's kiss, trying to commit suicide. Mami knocks her unconscious and finds Gisela's barrier. There are two possible endings, depending on whether Mami's soulgem is completely tainted or not. 1. Mami fights Walpurgis. Mami calls for Madoka and Homura to come to help. Mami has Homura take care of the woman who nearly committed suicide. She then fights Gisela with Madoka. In her barrier, Madoka and Mami have a talk where Madoka eases Mami's insecurities, letting her know they are friends and that they should talk and spend time together. They defeat Gisela and become closer. Afterwards, Madoka and Mami fight Walpurgis together. They are both afraid and yet, Mami feels a sense of contentment that she's fighting with Madoka. In a different sequence than the anime, Madoka tells Homura that she's happy she became a magical girl and that she was able to save Homura and become friends with her. She then departs with Mami to start the fight with Walpurgis. Towards the end, Mami sacrifices herself to save Madoka from a fatal blow. Madoka then finishes off Walpurgis before dying with her last words about meeting Mami soon. Homura, upset, makes a contract with the same wish as the anime, in order to save Madoka. She becomes a magical girl and resets time. 2. Mami becomes a witch. Influenced by Kyubey, Mami decides to fight the witch by herself. But since her soul gem is completely dark she cannot use any magic and only users her melee ribbon attack, like when she first started fighting. Once she encounters Gisela, she realizes it is the same witch she failed to defeat, who killed that child. After Gisela is defeated, Mami recalls that if she dies in a witch's barrier like that child, her body won't ever be found, and nobody will know that she died. Despondent, she exits the barrier to check on the woman who attempted suicide. The woman rages at her for saving her when she wanted to die, to join her missing child. Mami realizes the woman is the mother of the boy she failed to save years ago, and is filled with more guilt and regret. When Madoka and Homura finally arrive, Mami tells them about her past failure, her fears, and how she doesn't deserve to be a magical girl. Horrified, they watch Mami fall into despair and her soul gem become a grief seed. Surrounded by Candeloro's barrier, Madoka is concerned with getting Mami's body out. Kyubey arrives to tell them the truth, that the body is only a shell and Mami is actually Candeloro. Madoka takes a while to accept it, and then call out to Candeloro to change her back, but is forced to defeat her when Candeloro attacks Homura. Kyubey tells them the full truth of magical girls and witches, and Madoka says she never wants to see him again. Later, they visit Mami's home to mourn. Madoka feels guilt that she didn't try harder to turn Mami back. When Walpurgis comes, Homura, thinking it's suicidal, tries to persuade Madoka not to fight. Madoka tells her that she has to, as she's the only magical girl left to fight Walpurgis. She says she's glad she was able to save Homura from a witch and that she has to protect others because she doesn't want the feelings she had at that time to be a lie. She doesn't want to fall into despair like Mami so this is the only route left. Madoka says she absolutely doesn't want to be a witch. Until the end, she wants to fight as a magical girl for the sake of others. Madoka fights and wins against Walpurgis before dying. Homura, overcome with grief and despite knowing the full truth about magical girls and witches, still makes the same wish to have another meeting with Madoka again. Homura says that it doesn't matter what happens to her, it doesn't matter what she has to go through, as long as she can save Madoka. Her last thoughts before she becomes a magical girl and resets time is, "I will change this fate. I will definitely save you. So wait for me...Kaname-san."

Observations and Trivia

This route seems to correlate with the first timeline of Episode 10 of the anime, if Mami stays a magical girl, and incorporates events from the Drama CD "Memories of You" and references Mami and Kyoko's past in the Drama CD "Farewell Story."
On Day 19, as long as it's after Madoka enters Gisela's barrier with Mami, it's possible to clean Mami's soul gem, even if it goes completely dark.
Seconds before Mami's car accident, she was thinking how happy she was to have wonderful parents, and great friends at school. And how she hoped that her happiness would continue...
- During the accident, while dying, Mami asks Kyubey if he is an tenshi (angel) or a shinigami (grim reaper), and if he is there to steal her soul. Kyubey responds that's not what he is and then introduces himself by saying that his name is Kyubey.
In his instructions to Mami as she learns to become a magical girl, Kyubey reveals the following information:
- Witches are generally cautious which is why they are generally not in public, but lurk at the back of barriers. Note: It implies strong and/or confident witches may not choose to have barriers.
- Witches move around and like to be in ominous places where the negative feelings of many people are easier to gather.
- The complexity of the barrier gives indication of the strength of witch. Stronger witches have more complex barriers.
- Soulgem reacts the closer one is, in response to a witch's magic. The level of response to soul gem tells the strength of magical power, e.g. greater power of a witch vs. lesser one of familiar.
- Soulgem can be used to open an entrance into a barrier.
- If someone, whether a regular human or magical girl dies in the barrier, their body disappears there. They will forever be considered a missing person to the rest of the world.
Mami's magic that came out naturally were the ribbons. For her to form muskets, she had to study their structure to create them. And while she tried to make state-of-the-art guns, for some reason her magic only allows her to make muskets. She researched to make one big enough with an attack powerful enough to defeat an opponent in a single blow...which would eventually become "Tiro Finale." Mami also read strategy books and practiced to learn how to fight. Note: This seems to show magical girls do not naturally create all the magical items they use and excel at fighting. Instead, it requires hard work and research to excel at magic, outside of the occasional genius (e.g. Madoka Kaname in later timelines).
During a visit to Kyoko, Kyubey notices her eating habits are the complete opposite of Mami. While Mami likes to converse with others, and even invites Kyubey to join her for meals, Kyoko eats alone and doesn't talk even with Kyubey present. Mami makes her meals and sets them at the table to eat leisurely, while Kyoko buys or steals all her food and quickly eats it directly from the packaging.
When Kyoko comes to Mitakihara, she meets a lost Tatsuya for the first time. Her words are harsh in getting him to stop crying, but her actions are kind in giving him candy and keeping him company until his dad arrives.
Kyoko uses violence when she feels she needs to. When a policeman grabs her to detain her for being a truant, she punches him to escape and runs off.
Kyoko's violence is also used on behalf of others. When she saw a group of thugs stealing from, beating and threatening to extort more money from a student, she stepped in and warned them to stop. When they didn't, she beat them until they ran away. She also warned thugs who were using her father's abandoned church as their criminal hideout to leave, and when they refused, she beat them until they ran away.

Speculations

Strategy

In Mami's flashback, try to level Mami up as much as possible, as the higher the level she is, the more stat points she'll get when the flashback is completed, e.g. Lv 6 gets 5 pts., Lv. 5 gets 4pts. etc. Since there's a limited number of mobs to fight, one way to get a higher level is to ignore Gisela in the boss fight and kill adds instead, as the encounter ends when Gisela is at 70% health or Mami's HP is at zero. You can extend the fight by avoiding damaging attacks by Gisela and using healing potions when needed. Depending on which end you want to pursue, you may decide to use the stat points on Mami or keep them and transfer them later to Madoka instead. Even though the storyline has Mami only using a ribbon, it's possible to find a spell book earlier on and use it in the fights. It does not effect the storyline.
Izabel can be a difficult fight, particularly if Mami's emotion value is high, making her soul gem go dark quickly. While not easy, Madoka can be used to primarily fight familiars and Izabel, particularly if she received many stat points. Mami can be used in reserve when Madoka's health becomes low or to use Tiro Finale against Izabel. Be sure not to use this or any other attack when Izabel has her reflective barrier up.
Candeloro is an easy fight as neither she nor her familiars do much damage. Madoka can chose to ignore the familiars and focus her range attacks to Candeloro to quickly defeat her. Sometimes Candeloro will disguise herself as one of her familiars, but she can be identified by the use of a fireball attack, which looks and sounds different from the Madoka familiar's bow and arrow or Kyoko familiar's spear attack.
Players can see their first encounter with Walpurgis on this route. It is not necessary for Mami and/or Madoka to defeat her, as the route's cutscene end will happen, as long as they get to the final level with Walpurgis. It's possible to defeat it using Mami and Madoka, by investing points in Madoka's stronger attacks and largely ignoring familiars on the last level, particularly on the last platform. Instead, move without pause, use healing potions and only kill mobs when there's no other option. You will likely need to use consumables (まほうのなみだ) to revive a companion, though you can only use it once during battle. Once on the platform with Walpurgis, use Mami's Tiro Finale and some of Madoka's stronger attacks, making sure to use healing potions. It's a slow and difficult battle, but victory is possible. Defeating Walpurgis alone with Madoka is extremely difficult but also possible with the same strategy, though it may require purchasing higher stats from the store on a repeated iteration for victory.