Magia Record Story Our Beginning is a Recurring Dream
Part 1
Story
The story opens with Hazuki and Nanaka at a cafe, discussing the immediate aftermath of Arc 2 Another Story 1. To recap, Meiyui and Akira have joined KMU, while Kako wants to wait and make her own decision, and Nanaka and the Azaleas turned them down, though Konoha and Hazuki allow Ayame to help her friends if they’re attacked. Hazuki is impressed that, despite all the differing philosophies on Nanaka’s team, the four of them still manage to operate as a cohesive unit.
On her way home, she reflects on their own team dynamic. While the Azaleas came to Kamihama with the belief they should remain independent of other groups, and prioritize no one but themselves, the Arc 2 war is clearly complicating such matters. If Ayame fights to protect her friends, for example, she'll likely be mistaken for a KMU member. And, of course, in that exact moment, Hazuki gets an emergency phone call from Konoha...
We cut to Ayame. She’s with Kako and Felicia, who are both being threatened by the same PB goons that went after them in A2AS1. Kako wants to de-escalate and retreat, while Ayame is raring for a fight, having already contacted Konoha and Hazuki about it. The fight soon breaks out, and eventually, Ayame pursues the retreating PB members alone. It's a trap - she's ambushed and soon overwhelmed, and suddenly recalls Konoha and Hazuki's warning that she should never go into danger alone. She braces herself for the end, and…
Konoha and Hazuki come in for the save. The PB goons realize they're outmatched and scramble away. Hazuki and Konoha scold Ayame for not heeding their promise, and move to take her home. But when Ayame confesses that Kako and Felicia were attacked, too, and that she left them behind, Hazuki says they'll escort them home as well (despite Konoha's reservations).
At home, they talk about how they need to reconsider their agreement that Ayame can help defend her friends. Hazuki points out that neutrality in this war is meaningless if Ayame's going to assist KMU anyway. They need to decide on their priorities, goals, and what they want for the future. That makes Ayame think of a book Kako gave her, about career research for students - while Ayame is interested in all kinds of different jobs it talks about, her only goal right now is to be stronger so she can keep her loved ones safe. Konoha says she can't give an answer about what she wants right now, which postpones that discussion for another day.
The next day, the Azaleas visit Mitama, who has a favor for them - to escort Nayuta, a Takarazaki native, to the Satomi Medical Center for a meeting. Nayuta talks about how the other day, she got caught up in a fight with PB goons, and now she's nervous about going out alone. She’s hoping for someone neutral to help guide her. Since Mitama and most of her clients are with KMU, she can't help, but the Azaleas would qualify - and would receive a reward for their efforts. Ayame is all for it, but it all comes down to what Konoha thinks.
This leads to our first branch: Does Konoha immediately accept the offer, or does she decline?
If Konoha accepts, she says she accepts, but Hazuki notes to herself that her conviction is not quite sincere, and you move onto the next day. This leads to an alternate route later on (see Bad Ending 3).
If Konoha refuses, before she voices her concerns, Hazuki intervenes and says they'll give their decision the next day, and you get an extra scene before advancing. In this extra scene, at home, Hazuki decides they need to have that discussion about their priorities right now. Konoha admits that her only priorities remain Hazuki and Ayame's safety, and that she would rather do nothing than risk their lives in sticking their necks out for someone else. With that consideration, to her, Ayame should not be allowed to help even Kako.
Hazuki seems to say that fighting will be inevitable no matter what they do...so why don't they take advantage of the situation instead? They can take on a job as bodyguards for hire, working with whoever hires them, and only attacking those who attack the Azaleas or their clients, be they witches or magical girls. That means they maintain neutrality, but in exchange, as part and parcel of the job, they must protect everyone for whom they're responsible - in other words, each other and their client. If a situation gets dire, they cannot simply save themselves and abandon their client - they must think of what is best for everyone involved. It's a clever strategy; if Kako or Felicia are under attack, then Ayame can intervene and fib that she was hired to keep them safe, thus maintaining neutrality. Hazuki trusts that after the scare from the other day, Ayame won't be reckless anymore and will wait for Konoha and Hazuki to back her up.
And that takes us to our next branched choice - will Konoha agree to bodyguarding, or not?
If Konoha rejects, move to Bad Ending 1. If Konoha accepts, she thinks about how she's still terrified of what will happen - but Hazuki is correct. If they remain "neutral," it's not going to end well for them at all. She says for the three of them to continue to thrive, they need to adapt, and bodyguarding will be the way to do that. Ayame gets fired up and dubs their team "The Azalea Sisters;" Konoha loves the name (because Ayame came up with it), and they call up Mitama to accept her request.
The following morning, they begin their escort quest, and shortly run into PB along the way. The goons are looking for the Kimochi stones, and recognize Nayuta as the one who "impersonated" being a member of PB. The goons go on the offense, but the Azaleas step in, explaining how they're hired bodyguards who protect anyone in exchange for due compensation.
PB calls them out, saying it's not very neutral to exclusively protect KMU girls, but they counter by saying Nayuta is from Takarazaki - she's not with KMU at all. The goons get angry and fight anyway. The Azaleas have the upper hand, even after Sakuya runs in to help. After taking some licks, Sakuya is willing to hear the Azaleas out. They explain themselves to her, and she lets them go; while she doubts they're actually staying out of the Kimochi Wars, she's now willing to wait and see if they remain true to their word.
Hazuki thinks it turned out quite well - they were given the opportunity to prove their neutrality. On their way to the hospital, Nayuta explains her whole quest, that she's looking for her dad (which hits home for the orphans), though Ayame doesn't seem to get why she’s so determined to do so. At Nayuta's prodding, Ayame talks about how she was abandoned, but Konoha and Hazuki were always there for her, so she doesn't really mind. To this, Nayuta sees her opening and says that if Konoha or Hazuki disappeared, how would Ayame feel? That sense of loss and need for answers is precisely why Nayuta is searching for her dad, and it clicks for Ayame.
The trio and Nayuta fight a witch, rescue a nurse, and chat more about Nayuta's cause (which is also to reveal the truth of magical girls to the world), which prompts Konoha to reflect on how she really can't prioritize past Hazuki and Ayame, but being a bodyguard will force her out of that role. In any case, they successfully get Nayuta to the hospital.
Some days later, after some successful jobs and with plentiful advertising from Mitama and Puella Care (for a price, of course), the Azaleas are inundated with requests, including from magical girls outside of KMU. They're now recognized as a neutral party. They adhere to three rules for taking requests - they can only take jobs that occur in Kamihama; they are a defensive group uninvolved with Kimochis (so they won’t take hit jobs against other magical girls, for example); and they need to be compensated with grief seeds. They're pretty chuffed about their new busines. From there, we get three vignettes peeking into various jobs.
In the first vignette, they take on a request from Hotori to help her train to fight witches - she found out about Ui getting kidnapped, and that prompted her to train to protect her sister and friends, and also to fight witches on her own. The situation is pretty dire, though - Hotori gets nervous and can’t land hits. Ayame coaches her, starting with the goal to land a single hit on a Witch, which Hotori eventually does, and progresses from there. By the end of their training, Hotori is now able to solo a Witch! Afterwards, Hotori remarks how while she and Ayame are both 13, Ayame is a very strong magical girl, comparing her to a super sentai hero. That gets them both gabbing about Drarangers (Hotori’s favorite show), and eventually their goals for the future - like what kind of person they want to be. Hotori wants to be like one of her sentai heroes, while Ayame, in light of Nayuta's ambitions, wants to be someone who can help everyone.
Their next request is from Chika; this seems to be shortly after the events of Chapter 4. Chika wants to escort some of Tokime clanmates back to the village and explain what happened to the adults, but with Neo-Magius monitoring the area around the temple, she's uneasy about risking the trek and revealing the village's location to NM. Thus, she has an unusual request: distract the Neo-Magius for a day so she can escape. Since it's not directly related to the Kimochi wars, the Azaleas take on the job - first, they'll evaluate the situation, then once they have a plan, they’ll coordinate with Chika to arrange her departure.
On the job, they see that they're outnumbered by NM grunts. They brainstorm ideas to draw NM's attention - perhaps feigning to be a fellow member of NM, or pretending to be one of the Tokimes? But that could jeopardize their neutrality. Hazuki comes up with a plan, though - they quickly make arrangements with Chika, and then openly approach NM, who are hiding out in some alleyway. The Azaleas lie and claim they were hired on behalf of Kagome to help interview NM members on magical girl supremacy. Hazuki says she knows the NM are a very busy bunch, so to make it quick, Konoha and Hazuki offer to interview all of the NM members around there at once - they all just need to be rounded up together. And with that secured, Chika and her clanmates sneak out. All said and done, NM is actually very happy about the interview - it's another channel to help them spread their ideals (and Hazuki was a good listener, which made them happy to talk). Hazuki reminds herself to apologize to Kagome for deceptively using her name, though.
Mission complete! After returning to Kamihama, Chika talks about how the Tokime clan is quite isolationist - as a whole, they believe they should only draw upon their own power and not rely on others. Chika kept her recruitment of the Azaleas locked down and top secret, even from the other Tokimes, to not disrupt the clan's harmony. Hazuki remarks that growing up as part of such a traditional family must be tough, but Chika says she doesn't feel connected with the bloodline itself, actually - she's connected with actual people in it instead, for helping restore her faith in humanity. For that end, and for preventing magical girls from becoming witches, she will do everything she can to support them, even if it must be secret. This resonates with the Azaleas, particularly Hazuki, which makes sense if you think back to their first event.
The next job is with Maria, the day care volunteer - this time, to slay a witch. She greets them as "the Azaleas Sisters," which upsets Konoha and Hazuki because the nickname was intended for just the three of them (but Ayame signed their response to Maria with it). Fittingly, Maria is very good at handling Ayame’s boundless energy. In any case, they agree to take out the witch that's within range of the daycare that Maria works for. Since Maria is part of KMU, Konoha asks why she didn't ask someone there for help, but it turns out no one was available at this time of night, and the witch is too speedy and evasive for Maria to take on alone.
They win, of course - Konoha using her illusion magic to disorient the speedy witch (though Ayame almost botches it by running headlong into the witch without paying attention to her surroundings). Maria expresses her gratitude for them helping save the kids, which prompts them to talk about children.
Maria explains she aspires to become a preschool teacher or get some other job working with children, remarking that while working with kids can be very difficult, it is immensely rewarding - which is almost word-for-word with what the director at the Azaleas' former orphanage once said. Konoha begins to wonder if maybe she can follow in the director's footsteps - since she's now becoming someone who cares about people beyond her inner circle, and admired the director so much, perhaps she can take on a similar role as a protector and advocate for kids. She surprises herself with her own thinking - she never expected she'd imagine herself in a job benefiting others in that way.
With all those jobs finished, we approach our next branching point.
At this point, the Azaleas have tons of bodyguard experience, to the point they have a job every single day. Even though they have a huge workload and Ayame is tuckered out, Ayame still wants to go out and do some training that day. Konoha protests, worrying Ayame is overworking herself, but Ayame says she wants to train hard so she can help and protect people when she's older.
This job has been forcing all three of them to think about their futures, though their discussion is interrupted by an emergency request - the new meguca, Sae, to whom Maria had given a referral. Sae is from Kamihama, but not a member of KMU, and the witch she wants them to take out is...one of the Mirror Witch's familiars that's grown into a full-blown Witch. They express reservations about this job, compounded by Sae pressuring them to defeat the actual witch ASAP instead of giving them time to think about it. While Ayame wants to go in guns blazing, Hazuki does not trust this new girl, stating she might be a saboteur from one of the other factions. This leads to our choice: Does Konoha accept or reject their client's request?
If Konoha refuses, go to Bad Ending 2. But if Konoha accepts the request, she surprises Hazuki through her willingness to trust this suspicious stranger. They negotiate with Sae and agree they'll analyze the situation and figure out a route that avoids the familiars. Inside, Hazuki remarks on how the new labyrinth is an exact replica of the original witch's, before they're promptly spotted by clones and overrun. Konoha forces them all to retreat, stating that if she's going to take this kind of risk, she needs to know why.
Sae explains that her sister, Sayumi, has vanished in the new labyrinth. They were both playing together when her sister lost her stuffed animal, and stumbled into the labyrinth looking for it - and Sae wasn't able to find her in her initial excursion into the labyrinth. Now they're all raring to go (though Hazuki is still skeptical - if that's all there was to it, why wasn't Sae more upfront about the reason?), and head back inside; this time Konoha casts her illusion magic on the familiars so they can move unimpeded.
Around this point, the story takes another branch, but not one that you choose here - the split depends on whether you immediately accepted Mitama’s request, or stalled. In this route - the correct one - Konoha stalled on the request, and had that discussion with Hazuki and Ayame about the job (to see what happens otherwise, see Bad Ending 3).
As they delve further, Sae remarks that she really doesn't like talking about her family - hence why she didn't mention her sister at first. Konoha doesn't pry. They chat about why the Azaleas became bodyguards, and Sae marvels over how they're working hard to accomplish their goals - she says it'd be nice if both of their goals worked out, but doesn't elaborate on her own ambitions.
Further inside, they find Sayumi's name tag on the floor, chat a bit about family (basically, the Azaleas aren't blood-related but they are a family nonetheless) before Konoha has Ayame cut the small talk, and soon find Sayumi, unconscious but alive...and a Sandbox Witch lurking about. They wonder if regular witches are passing through the Labyrinth as well, but there's no time to chat about it - they have to grab Sayumi and get out. But Sayumi's beloved stuffed animal is snagged on the Witch, and it retreats further into the labyrinth, trying to lure the gang deeper into its depths. Sae says she has to pursue it.
The route diverges here depending on whether the Azaleas had the conversation about their goals before accepting Mitama’s offer. In the correct route, where they did have that discussion, Konoha remarks that it’s dangerous for them all to go after the witch together. If it were just the Azaleas, they would likely have grabbed Sayumi and retreated by now, but with Sae here, they need to prioritize her wants, too. Still, they can't run in blindly. She limits themselves to just grabbing the stuffed animal and retreating, and Sae is cool with that. So instead of taking her client and whole family into the depths of the labyrinth, Konoha forces Ayame to stay behind and guard Sayumi, while the other three advance. They attack the witch, Sae moves to grab the toy, but gets distracted by a Maria clone, and...she dies. The Azaleas panic that the attack must've hit her soul gem, and with all the commotion, Ayame runs in to see what’s going on, a Rooftop witch gangs up on them, too, things spiral out of control...
And so the Azaleas have no choice: despite Ayame's anguish, they have to get out of the labyrinth immediately, and fail their biggest mission yet.
Bad Ending 1
This branch occurs during their conversation after Mitama’s job offer. If Konoha rejects the offer, life goes on until a certain tragedy happens, which affirms Konoha’s resolve to stay out of the Arc 2 wars. They soon fall out of the loop on greater Kamihama matters, and Ayame grows increasingly depressed and listless. One day, she begs Konoha to let her help Kako and Felicia, but Konoha refuses. Ayame runs away from home, gets caught up in a fight but doesn’t contact Hazuki or Konoha for help, and dies. Konoha breaks down and regrets her life decisions.
Bad Ending 2
In this branch, where Sae begs them to help her find her little sister in the Endless Mirrors, Konoha refuses. She argues that it's too dangerous for them to take on the labyrinth alone. Hazuki also comes up with the excuse that if they defeat the Mirrors witch, that'll be a violation of neutrality, considering that groups like PB use the labyrinth for their operations. But Sae freaks out, insisting that they need to defeat this witch immediately, and declares she'll go in alone, muttering to herself that she was a fool for thinking she could trust others.
The next day, it turns out Sae never came back from the labyrinth. Ayame insists they investigate. They do so, and find her corpse. Word gets out that they were responsible for her death by not going in after her, thus losing all their clients, and they return to as things were before - just the three of them. But this time, they've lost their hopes and dreams for the future.
Bad Ending 3
Now, if Konoha immediately accepted Mitama’s job without thinking it through, then the Azaleas never sat down to discuss the conditions of the job with each other. This includes the idea of what to do if they’re all thrown into a dangerous situation, and how they agreed that they need to act in everyone’s best interests and for all of their safety. Therefore, deep in the Mirrors Labyrinth, Ayame joins the other three in pursuing the Sandbox Witch instead of staying behind with Sayumi. Ayame and Sae attack the witch to retrieve the stuffed animal, but when they get caught in a trap, Hazuki and Konoha panic and rescue Ayame first instead of Sae...resulting in them being responsible for Sae’s death.
Konoha copes by insisting the three of them are all that matters. They bring Sae's sister home safe and sound, but word gets out about their failure to save Sae, their reputation is ruined, they have no future, and return to isolationism.
