Magia Record Story Hereafter: "The Rumor of the Rumor of the Rumor"

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The story takes place shortly after the group has defeated the Chelation Land Rumor.

Episode One

Yachiyo Nanami has called everyone for a meeting to include the entire Mikazuki Villa household, Tsuruno Yui, and the Momoko trio. Rena Minami guesses they’re there for a party to congratulate them on all the hard work they’ve done but Yachiyo says that’s not it. She shows everyone the book she uses to keep track of all the Rumors, titled “The Kamihama Rumor Files”. She wants to know what happened to the Rumors they defeated since it’s not like people stopped spreading the rumors themselves. Felicia Mitsuki figures they must have disappeared since Kako told her gossip disappears after 7 and 5 days. Yachiyo corrects her, telling her the correct saying is gossip disappears after 75 days. Either way, that doesn’t necessarily mean the rumors have disappeared since other legends and lore have survived over the centuries with some of them changing over time. Yachiyo wants to make sure the rumors have actually gone or if maybe the rumors have changed and created new Uwasa too. Everyone agreed to help although some, like Rena, needed more convincing than others.

Episode Two

The groups split up with Momoko Togame, Kaede Akino, and Rena being tasked with following up on the Breakup Staircase Rumor. Momoko and Kaede meet up with Rena at a café. Rena asked how it went but neither Momoko nor Rena has found anything. One of Kaede’s acquaintances had never heard of that particular rumor, but she did hear of a rumor where you chant a magic spell on a staircase which causes you to grow distant from someone you dislike. Even though it’s not the same, there were a lot of similarities with the Uwasa they had encountered, although it seems only the bit about the stairway had survived. Rena asks if that isn’t enough work for now but Kaede tells her to take it seriously, especially with all they went through because of that rumor. Rena yells at Kaede that she is taking it seriously before blaming it all on Kaede. Too late, Rena realized her mistake as Kaede began to cry. Momoko tries to console Kaede but she begins to argue with Rena, blaming her for starting the whole mess to begin with. Rena gets upset and storms home.

Episode Three

Rather than go home, Rena ended up walking around by herself. She blames herself for what happened since she believed that nothing good ever came of dredging up the past. As she’s walking and mulling things over, a girl nearby keeps muttering to herself on a staircase. Finally, Rena can’t stand her muttering any longer and demands to know what she was muttering about. The girl admits she was saying “I don’t want to see her ever again”.

Back at the café, Momoko cheers up Kaede a bit and suggests they go looking for Rena nearby since they both know she never goes straight home. She tells Kaede they can go together so she can apologize to Rena. Kaede is a bit indignant at first since Rena was to blame, but Momoko tells her to phrase it another way.

Rena asks the girl if what she was really muttering was the incantation to end friendships. The girl says it is and that she’d been saying the spell for an hour every day for three days now. Rena tells her the spell probably won’t work (especially since she doesn’t sense any labyrinths nearby) and instead advises the girl to simply apologize to her friend. She figures the girl had had her first argument with her friend, but Rena asks her if what she really wants is to never see her again. If she parts ways with her friend now, then she may regret it forever. The girl admits it’s true and hurries to go talk to her friend. Rena sighs as she realizes she should probably take her own advice.

Momoko and Kaede catch up with Rena. Kaede apologizes to Rena, telling her she realizes that the reason Rena didn’t want to investigate this rumor again was because it reminded her too much of what happened last time, when Kaede was kidnapped by it. Rena is surprised to see Kaede apologizing first for what happened. Momoko prompts Kaede to finish, and Kaede tells Rena that she was in the wrong as well and needs to apologize too. Rena stutters for a bit but Kaede firmly repeats what she said three more times before Rena yells out an apology. The trio is all smiles now so Momoko suggests they finish investigating. Kaede is up for it, and after a bit of hesitation, Rena reluctantly agrees to help. She then relayed what happened with the girl she met on her walk. After that, they never found any more clues. It seems there was nothing left of the Breakup Staircase Rumor other than some gossip on the internet.

Episode Four

Iroha Tamaki, Yachiyo, and Tsuruno have gone to investigate the Séance Shrine Rumor at Mizuna Shrine. Tsuruno is all giggles and smiles because this was where the three of them first met and teamed up together. She decides to run yelling into Yachiyo’s arms again just like she did the first time. Yachiyo tells her she didn’t have to recreate that part, although it gave her a serious sense of déjà vu. The three arrive at the shrine to find it filled to the brim with people. All three of them think that the shrine feels different than before so they go to where a crowd of people are standing. There, the shrine was selling several different charms, including a “séance charm”. When they checked online, they learned that there were countless posts online talking about the Séance Shrine Rumor and about the legend of the tragic lovers who were reunited when they returned from the dead. The two legends fused and the shrine became known as a place to pray for a lasting relationship. The place became so popular that the shrine began selling merchandise based on their new mascots “Séance Boy” and “Séance Girl”.

Tsuruno points to the long line to pray at the altar while Iroha is astounded by hard the person at the front of the line was praying. Aimi Eri was practically shaking with how hard she was hoping her praying would be answered. As they wonder what to do, they hear a scream coming from the prayer line.

Episode Five

They hurry over to find that one of the girls had collapsed, although she was still conscious. They helped to take the girl to the shrine’s office to call an ambulance, but the girl swears she’s fine and had simply felt a little dizzy when she tripped on her own feet. None of the Magical Girls sensed any kind of magic nearby or at the moment, so they tell the girl to rest for a bit before she goes to pray. Yachiyo notes the dark circles under her eyes and asks the girl if she hasn’t been sleeping well lately. The girl tearfully confesses that the reason she hadn’t been sleeping was because she had argued with her best friend since childhood. Since it was their first argument she never apologized and, although they were talking again, it felt awkward and distant. Almost immediately after, her best friend had moved away so she had come to the shrine to pray for another chance to see her again and properly apologize for what happened. She kept losing sleep over it because she kept remembering what had happened so she had been coming to Mizuna Shrine to pray everyday.

Yachiyo tells the girl that she truly believes she’ll see her friend again, but suicide isn’t the answer. Yachiyo asks her if her friend had died and the girl admits this is true. Yachiyo had figured it out from the lack of details in her story (physical barriers can be easily overcome) combined with the legend of the lovers being reunited in the afterlife. The girl says she has no intentions of killing herself since her friend died suddenly from an illness. She was praying to meet up with her friend in the afterlife after living her life to the fullest in honor of her friend. Yachiyo offers to pray together with her once she’s gotten some rest. The girl thanks Yachiyo and heads home, although Yachiyo has a distant look on her face as she remembers her own friends who have departed, Kanae and Mel. Tsuruno asks if anything is wrong but instead Yachiyo tells her they can look around a bit more and leave if they find nothing else. Tsuruno simply nods and smiles, and they go to look around.

Episode Six

Kaede had heard from a friend of hers that the old man who sells the Misery Water had reappeared. According to Kaede, this old man wasn’t as energetic as before and he tended to mumble his words. However, when this old man offers someone water, he yells “no!” just as you’re about to take it and runs away. Now people are saying if you manage to drink the water then you’ll have everlasting happiness, which is the opposite of how the rumor originally went. Iroha and Felicia go to investigate this new old man, or New Geezer as they preferred to call him.

Episode Seven

Iroha and Felicia looked all over Sankyo Ward with no success. They both fondly remember how delicious the water was, even with everything that happened afterwards. Felicia wonders what happened to that other girl that was with them who had drank the water. Felicia then starts to yell about how thirsty she is and demanding to know where the new geezer is. She starts yelling for water when a man approaches them and offers them some of the water he has. Just as he’s about to offer it to them, the man yells “It’s no good, I CAN’T DO THIS!” and runs away. Realizing it’s the guy they’ve been looking for, Felicia calls after him as she chases him down. She soon tackles him to the ground while Iroha catches up to them. Iroah asks him if he’s from the water station that has an owl sign. The man denies it at first, before admitting it then denying it again. He then began to sob and told the girls his story.

He had been laid off and couldn’t find a new job until a friend of his had told him he could buy fresh spring water from Minagi. But it was all a lie and his friend had been arrested for fraud while he ended up stuck with piles of boxes of water. Since he had used the last of his savings to buy the water, he had to do something or his family would end up on the streets. He had heard the rumors about the water station with an owl sign and had tried to use the rumor to his advantage to sell the water. But everytime he’s going to sell the water, he feels bad for selling water used in a snake oil scheme. Since he can’t bring himself to do it, he just runs away without selling any. The man then asks if they tackled him in order to turn him in to the police but Iroha tells him they just really wanted some of that happiness water.

Felicia tells the man he needs to quit selling the water because selling shady stuff is bad. She tells him he needs to put it all behind him and find a new job. She goes on to explain she used to be a mercenary (Iroha clarifies she means part-time job) so she understands how hard it can be working on your own. But he has to push through and find a job so he doesn’t make his family sad. The man says he’ll try his best and Felicia offers to help him find a job by talking to some of her friends. After that, the water station rumors died down and Felicia was able to help the man find a job at Suitoku Shopping Center.

Back home, Felicia remembers what happened with the man and how precious family can be. Yachiyo tells her dinner is almost ready and asks for her help in setting the table. Felicia smiles broadly and gladly offers to help.

Episode Eight

There’s a new chat forum called “Endless Solitude”. There are only four members, called “TheForgotten”, “Eradicator”, “DownpourOfSorrow”, and the newest member “Ai”. Eradicator asks Ai how she found this place, but Ai says she had heard the rumor of the Anonymous A.I. Eradicator tells Ai she’s the third newbie to this place, but that doesn’t matter since all the people here are worthless human beings. Originally Eradicator was the only member but then the others started to show up. Eradicator had used the forum as his echo chamber so he could badmouth others.

Ai learns that the others had also been curious about the rumor, and Eradicator asks Ai if she wants to jump off the radio tower too to get to Endless Solitude. In other words, she wants to die. Ai denies it but the others claim she’s lying and begin to complain about their own lives and how sick they are of the world. TheForgotten starts complaining about how she was left out at school again and makes veiled threats about the students at her school, using the letter “K’ to stand in for what she’ll do to them. DownpourofSorrow says he wants to “K” his bosses, while Eradicator wants to “K’ his family. Ai warns them they need to stop before they do anything but they assure her they’re all just come here to talk like that and wouldn’t actually do anything. Instead, Ai says they need to stop talking like that or they’ll just continue to hurt themselves.

Episode Nine

The group already knows that, but they still want to say these things anyway. Ai warns them their words could come back to haunt them, but with such a small chat forum that has so few members they aren’t worried about that. They remind her the rules for this chat forum is anything goes, so if you get offended then that’s on you. TheForgotten whines and asks why they let her join in the first place, but Eradicator says it’s because she wanted to know about Endless Solitude. Ai tells them that this isn’t anything like the real Endless Solitude. Eradicator insists that Endless Solitude can be anywhere. Since each of them is disconnected from others and the world, each of them is their own Endless Solitude. Ai insists that’s not right and they need to stop drifting away from the world or they’ll end up truly alone for the rest of their lives until someone comes to find them. She tells them they need to stop looking down on everyone, including themselves. They then realize that Ai is talking about it like it’s a real place that she’s been so they start begging her to take them there. They ask things like if they need to die by jumping off the radio tower to get there or just straight up killing themselves would be enough. Ai tries to get them to calm down by insisting she’s just investigating a rumor. The group realizes she’s just preaching to them and get disgusted so they ban Ai from their chat forum.

Iroha asks if Sana Futaba is ok, but Sana insists she’s used to this kind of talk. Iroha urges her to let it all out if she needs to, so Sana asks if it’s ok if she rests her head on Iroha’s lap while she sobs for a bit. She’s not sad about what they said so much as she’s sad that she wasn’t able to help them. Thankfully the internet changes fast so the rumor was already being treated as old news. When she looked for the chat room again she found she couldn’t find anything. Thankfully there’d been no reports of people jumping off the radio tower so she hopes she was able to get through to them even a little.

Episode Ten

Yachiyo recalls everything that happened the last time they were at the Memory Curator’s Museum. A lot of things happened when they had learned of the existence of the Wings of Magius, and the events that happened at the museum marked a turning point in Yachiyo’s life. She wonders what Kanae and Mel would say, and imagines Mel reminding her to relax more and wishing she could do a read of the future for her. Kanae would have told her that she’s made a fresh start in her life and should be fine with her friends by her side. Lately her memories of Kanae and Mel have felt closer and she even dreams about them sometimes. If this is an aftereffect of the Uwasa, then it’s definitely not the worst Uwasa she’s encountered. She wonders if maybe they feel so close to her because she made that prayer at the shrine. Either way, it didn’t seem like there was anything odd going on with the museum anymore so Yachiyo heads home to where everyone is waiting for her.

Episode Eleven

Tsuruno and Iroha are investigating the Chelation Land Rumor. Tsuruno has a distant look on her face and Iroha asks her if this place is bringing back bad memories. Tsuruno insists she’s fine and that she was just reminiscing as if it were an embarrassing memory. She had learned about what had happened to her after the fact, about how she was brainwashed by the Magius and then fused with an Uwasa. Not only that, her heart had been so worn out at the time and then was laid bare in front of everyone, that was really embarrassing. Tsuruno gets upset at the Magius and how they were poking around the most fragile parts of her heart. More importantly, they ruined her perfect attendance at school because of the brainwashing! Tsuruno lets out a yell of frustration as Iroha sees that Tsuruno really is alright afterall. Tsuruno smiles and tells Iroha that the rumor seems to be completely gone, and since she was a part of the rumor itself she should know. Considering that, she’s been thinking a lot about rumors lately. It seems the word “rumor” came from a word that meant noise, and since gossip comes from people and people make noise, then there’s bound to be rumors in places where lots of people gather. Since that’s true, then maybe they’ll always find rumors where they find people. Nemu may have created the Uwasa, but there may also be some that she didn’t create.

She asks Iroha if she believes that people are connected, as if by an invisible force. Iroha thinks that’s a definite possibility, especially when she considers her sister Ui. Tsuruno thinks it’s a little scary, but also lovely in a way. Tsuurno decides to test out this theory by focusing strongly and trying to suss out one of these invisible connections. She focuses intently and then declares that someone is here! Yachiyo catches up to them and asks what they think they’re doing. Tsuruno and Iroha are amazed to see her and Tsuruno proudly claims she was able to tap into Yachiyo’s wavelength. Yachiyo asks what Tsuruno is talking about since she’s been staring at her for awhile now. Tsuruno admits she was just trying to trick Iroha.

The Momoko trio show up as well as the rest of Mikazuki Villa. They all report that each of the rumors seems to have left without much of a trace. Yachiyo figures this concludes their investigation of the rumors and all that’s left is for them to investigate the Wings of Magius themselves. A few days later, they ended up meeting a new Uwasa, the Rumor of the Eternal Sakura.

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