Magia Record Story Snow Thawing Befana

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Summary

The following is a summary by bigscarythings.

Part 1

The story opens on the last day of Mikage's classes before winter break. As the bell rings to mark the end of the day, Mikage is zoned out and bored as she usually is at school, and idly listens in on her classmates heralding the coming of winter break, all of them amped up for a Christmas party. As it turns out, it's also the last day of school for their teacher - after the closing ceremony tomorrow, she will be on an unexpected maternity leave for the rest of the year. The teacher really wanted to hang in there until March, since as a sixth grade teacher, all of her students would be graduating this year, but she promises she'll be there for their graduation ceremony.

Mikage heads straight home from school, greeted by her mother; there, we learn that the students will get an early dismissal from school after the closing ceremony. Her mom says it's okay for Mikage to go out and play, but to come home in time for their traditional family Christmas dinner. As it turns out, however, Mikage has plans to go to Rabi and Nayuta's party instead. Mikage's mom realizes that Mikage is reaching the age where she's getting independence, and encourages her to go to the party and have fun. She just asks that Mikage not cause trouble for her hosts, and Mikage promises she'll be a good kid.

In a flashback, we learn about the traditional Yakumo family Christmas rules - that everyone presents new, creative dish they learned; that everyone sings a carol together before they eat, and express thanks for their day-to-day lives; that everyone gets things cleaned up by 9 PM; and that Dad can't work overtime on Christmas. Mikage used to assume that all families followed these same rules, but she was teased for them by the other kids; so now, she wants to join other families for their Christmas celebrations this year to see what they're like.

Back to the present day, Mikage runs right into none other than Sudachi and Yozuru, dressed to the nines in their Christmas costumes. They explain that they're cosplaying as the Three Wise Men, and explain the associated legend behind it; Livia is having all three girls of Puella Care dress up for a special Christmas campaign this week, where they go around town offering a free Coordination to each magical girl. They're visiting the homes of each meguca in order, and their next stop just so happens to be Nayuta's house. Mikage eagerly joins up with them, and she and Sudachi chat and fumu all the way there.

Mikage rolls up to Nayuta's front door, ready to help her set up for the party tomorrow, but as it turns out, the party setup has been put on hold. The reason turns out to be that Nayuta and Rabi found an odd present at their doorstep - a stocking stuffed with carefully-wrapped, handmade confectioneries. These aren't just ordinary candies, but complicated, professional-quality treats like macarons, which are infamously difficult to make by hand. Furthermore, there are thirteen treats - given the western origins of Christmas, and the association with unlucky number thirteen...well, poor Nayuta is pretty much convinced this is a portent of doom.

But Sudachi offers a much more grounded explanation - maybe someone dropped off the gift at the wrong house? In that case, Nayuta completely switches tracks - if this elaborate, thoughtful gift was intended for someone else, then she must get it to its rightful owner! (Poor Rabi seems to be internally sighing all the way through; knowing Nayuta all too well) The clear sticking point, however, is that they have no idea where to start tracking down the original giver or recipient...but that's when Yozuru and Sudachi step up.

Yozuru suggests that she and Sudachi do a Coordination on Nayuta - in changing a magical girl's outfit, her magic is also changed. A girl cannot have her magic customized to her liking, however - instead, while the coordinator is doing the outfit change, if a magical girl steels her willpower in favor of a specific desire, then her magic often adjusts to allow her to achieve such (ex. see the Call of the Open Sea event). They can't be certain Nayuta will get the power she needs to find the gift's recipient, but Nayuta thinks it's worth a shot. Yozuru figures with both her and Sudachi here, she can adjust Mikage as well (Rabi goes out of her way to exclude herself, given that they still need someone around to set up the party!).

To their delight, the Coordination works without a hitch - their matching outfits are a sign that they both had the same desire. When they turn to Rabi for her review, Rabi compares their outfits to those of Befana, a witch famous in picture books and in Italian folklore. Befana, in her search for Jesus that began before he was born, uses a star as her guiding light as she delivers baked goods to people's stockings, hoping one of them will belong to Jesus; it just so happens that the Three Wise Men are also tied into Befana's legend.

Mikage takes all this as a good omen, and is raring to go find whoever this present is for. Rabi puts a damper on everyone's parade, however, when she points out that Befana never found Jesus - she still wanders around the earth, searching for him... Nayuta chooses to pretend she didn't hear that.

Once outside, Nayuta immediately decides to cast whatever her newfound magic is on the stocking, figuring they'll just learn what new, unknown power they have by doing so - but Yozuru wisely warns her that since they don't know what their magic does, they should find an empty area and clear a wide berth. After finding an old, abandoned lot, Nayuta puts the stocking down, and casts her magic...and a fir tree springs up out of nowhere. They logically conclude it's a Christmas tree, but it lacks decorations entirely - foolishly, however, they touch the tree, and abruptly, it erupts into blinding light, and massive gusts blast them towards the tree...

When they come to, they're now in a silent, empty version of Kamihama - not a single soul in sight, save for the four girls. They seem to have been sucked into an alternate world contained within the Christmas tree. Nayuta realizes they've specifically landed by the train station that's closest to her house. But what on earth are they doing here? What does this magic have to do with their coordinated desire?

They get their first clue in an odd Christmas ornament by their feet - Nayuta picks it up, and the gang hears three voices - a very young daughter declaring her love for her mom and dad, and her parents doting on her. They tentatively assume that the recipient must be one of the voices they just heard...and with that, the ball shines, a thin beam of light stretching into the horizon. No matter where they turn or hold the ball, the beam always points the same way - they decide it must be a guiding light towards their next clue. Still, the city streets are complicated, and a straight line won't help navigate them too much...but Mikage and Yozuru figure that since Nayuta and Mikage have become the archetypical witch, can't they just hop on their broomsticks and fly?

Cut to them finding out that they can indeed fly - though Nayuta is a bit too discombobulated to have fun with it at first. After some banter, they get the hang of flying, and the gang lands at the destination the light shone towards, and as they suspect, another ornament is there. In this memory, they find that the little girl's name is Rei-chan; in the conversation, she's talking with her mom about what her special dish for this year's Christmas should be. Since Dad wants spicy food, maybe she should make their traditional dish super spicy this time...? But her mom scolds her for abruptly switching up the seasoning.

With little info to work with beyond the girl's nickname, they continue their journey in hopes the conversations will reveal more information. Along the way, Nayuta remarks to everyone that Rei-chan's voice seems familiar somehow - as it turns out, it's familiar to Yozuru and Sudachi as well. While it gives Mikage the creeps, she knows for sure she's never heard it before... Alas, they can't narrow down who would be someone that Nayuta, Sudachi, and Yozuru all know, but Mikage does not.

In their next destination, an older Rei-chan is talking to her mom again. As they pass by a store that will be closing up shop at the end of the year, the mom asks Rei-chan if she's going to spend Christmas with them, but Rei-chan is spending it with her boyfriend instead. As the memory ends, Mikage realizes the voice is starting to sound familiar to her - just as it becomes unfamiliar to the others.

After collecting several ornament but not learning much new info, Mikage suggests they take a quick detour to Nayuta's house. Their hands are full with all the ornaments they've collected so far, so they ought to get a rucksack or something that'll let them carry more, especially since they have no clue how many they need to find. Nayuta figures that along the way, she'd like to check something in her neighborhood as well - last time she was going around the block, she saw that there was a neighbor's house who had a family member named "Rei." Everyone thinks this must be their breakthrough - it's all too easy for deliveries to get mixed up between neighbors! Alas, once they get there and Nayuta goes to check, it turns out that the "Rei" in that household is a dude.

They're all disappointed over the mixup. Nayuta heads inside her house to grab a bag - and shouts once she's at the door. As it turns out, on her front doorstep, there's another ornament...but the one that currently guides them is not pointing to this new one. In other words, they've accidentally gone sequence-breaking here - they're not meant to find this one until much later. Even so, they figure it wouldn't hurt to take a look at this one at get it out of the way...

In this memory, they hear the voice of an old, old woman - and the voice of Kamihama's current mayor running her reelection campaign, in a campaign car passing around the neighborhood. The old woman notes clearly that she's found the right house - Nayuta Satomi's residence - and knows what she's about to do is unforgivable, but...she leaves the present at the door.

They connect some dots - the mayor's voice is from the ongoing election campaign, and Yozuru specifically notes that this car was driving around Kamihama today. They ascertain that this voice must belong to the mother from the family they've been listening to, and put together, this must be the most recent memory, chronologically speaking. They're stunned this story spans the course of decades - and more than that, the voice that they assumed was intended to be the proper recipient was actually...the gift-giver herself!

This is unheard of for Yozuru - why would Coordination cause the opposite personal magic than what the girls were trying for? They were supposed to find the intended recipient at the end of the road, not the sender. But Nayuta sheepishly fesses up - while she did, in fact, want to know who was supposed to receive the gift, she also wanted to know who sent it. The confectioneries were just too elaborate to be a throwaway gift - who in the world would go so far for someone? She wanted to make sure the giver's feelings reached the proper recipient...and Mikage figures that Yozuru must have connected the dots already, but given their matching outfits, Mikage had that same desire, too.

Yozuru apologizes if she sounded like she was too harsh earlier; she simply believes they're too kind for their own good. As Nayuta grabs the bag, they conclude that this ornament must be the final one, given that no light shines from it - which just leaves them to pick up the rest so they can get a clearer picture of what's going on.

On their way to the next stop, they all chat a bit - Nayuta really, truly does not know who this gift is from, but having heard the old lady's voice...it sounds familiar to her for some reason, but she can't place where she's heard it from. She's mortified that she might not remember the voice of such a sweet, generous old lady...but before they can get into that, they find their next ornament. And this time...it sounds like Rei-chan is pregnant! She's speaking with her mother, this time about what her soon-to-be-born daughter will be named. She's already decided on names for girls - her first daughter will be named Mitama, and if she has a second, she'll be named Mikage; the mother remarks that this ties back into the meaning of Rei-chan's name.

And now the picture is much, much clearer - this is Mikage's mother and grandma they've been hearing! The voice sounded familiar because Mikage's voice is just like her mom's as a child; and the voice is now resembling her mom's voice as an adult, which is why it's familiar to Mikage but not the others. With all these pieces in play, they figure Mikage's grandma must have been the voice in the last memory; given all the people consistently involved, Mikage decides her grandma was likely accompanied by her mom and grandpa, too. But why, though? Why would Mikage's mom want to give Nayuta a gift? It's just too strange.

As we close in on the end of Part 1, Yozuru asks Mikage why she didn't immediately recognize her grandma's voice. Mikage explains that when she was little, her mom said her grandparents had to "move to a faraway place" - Yozuru assumes this means they went abroad; while Nayuta thinks it must be the classic euphemism - that her grandparents actually passed away, and her mom was softballing the truth to Mikage...which would mean if Mikage's dead grandma gave her this gift, then they're actually involved in a horror story...? Poor Nayuta is downright spooked - but quickly figures that logically, that can't be the case, then. The more they learn, the less the know and the deeper the mystery gets - hence why they need to find every last voice.

Nayuta asks why Mikage assumed her mom left the gift at Nayuta's house, and Yozuru finds this odd, too. To make things even more complicated, it turns out that Mikage keeps her friendship with Nayuta on the down low, so her mom doesn't know Nayuta...but there's no way to explain why Mikage's grandma would be motivated to leave the gift at Nayuta's house, either. Curiouser and curiouser...but Mikage points out that they were given this magic to find the truth, so the truth they shall find! And for their next ornament, Nayuta asks it directly why Mikage's mother would assist in delivering this present to her, and...

This time, the memory is when Rei-chan is pregnant with Mikage. The grandma is furious this time - they're broke, they're poor, they can't possibly take care of this baby; the grandma begs Rei-chan to rethink this - and Rei-chan explodes that she didn't want this, either.

Everyone is dead silent. In a daze, Mikage realizes out loud that her mom didn't want her. She turns to Yozuru, asking her for blunt honesty, not kindness - is it possible that these voices are an illusion? Yozuru concludes that is not the case - they are true memories. And now Mikage thinks back to other incidents she's witnessed with her mother...her mom talking about how broke they are, or how hard it is to raise two kids; the time a stranger yelled at her mom that if she can't raise a kid properly, she shouldn't have had it to begin with...

Mikage asks that they take a break for tonight. Nayuta says yes. As it turns out, to escape back to the real world, they just need to transform out of their magical girl forms. Once back, they notice the Christmas tree has vanished. Mikage asks that Nayuta hand her the stocking...and once in hand, Mikage smashes it on the ground, and storms off. No matter how Nayuta cries out to her, Mikage just screams for everyone to stay away from her...and with that, things are left on "To Be Continued."

Part 2

TBA

External Links

• Event Part 1 Video Recording (JP)
• Event Part 1 Translated Script