Magia Record Story The Masked Student Council Strikes Back (Holy Maiden Academy Edition)
Prologue
The story dawns with Minou greeting you, the player, on the grounds of the Holy Maiden Academy, and proceeds to explain the nature of the world. It originates from a fake teaser from Puella Magi Tart ☆ Magica volume 3, and provides the usual disclaimers that everything here is a work of fiction and has no relationship with any real people or organizations. She assures you to relax and enjoy yourself - nothing in this story exists in memory or history, nor does it exist in the realm of possibility or the future. All of this is simply a "what if" fantasy...
Which is fairly obvious to us as readers and players, isn't it? But there's just one little twist in play: in this story, the characters are all aware they're in a video game world, too.
Act 1
Now, we pivot to Tart greeting the player, introducing herself and her friends. She and Melissa are the two members of the Bible Study Club, while Liz is the sole member of the Going-Home Club - a club literally dedicated to going home after school. Finally, there's Elisa, whose not a member of any club, and proceeds to explain how she ended up here.
See, last year, after transferring to the Holy Maiden Academy and losing to Melissa in their judo class at gym, Elisa scoured the school for Melissa's club, and burst in on her for a rematch, assuming it was a martial arts club - only to discover it was the Bible Study Club instead. Tart and Melissa explain while they're in the Bible Study Club, they're using the Going Home Club's clubroom. Elisa boggles over what activities they would do (with Liz abruptly cutting off her text box before the player can tap)...but no, it turned out the club really is all about going home after school. In any case, the four of them have been hanging out ever since.
We have a few more flashbacks to set up the characters - such as Monsieur Gilles de Rais, the head of the Tart Fan Club, and their arch-enemies, the masked student council, helmed by Lapin, Corbeau, and Minou. Their conflict began one year ago, and remains ongoing - and little do they know, their next clash is about to begin...
Act 2
The Masked Student Council is headquartered in the school's clock tower, where they have their army of maids who help carry out their duties. The problem with hanging out in the clock tower, though, is that every time the clock strikes the hour, it causes an ungodly racket all throughout the room - such as during the teatime they're having at that moment. Minou excuses herself as Lapin and Corbeau partake in their tea - another mysterious "factor" has manifested in the school, and she must investigate.
Meanwhile, the Tart Quartet has a breaktime of their own at the school lounge. While the drink of the day is a black tea blend, Liz orders her usual "honey café au lait," which is all but pure honey. Melissa, meanwhile, always has her homemade "grape juice," kept in the three trusty water bottles always by her side - one each for red, white, and rosé. Soon, however, Elisa notices something off with the other students - they're not speaking with each other, but simply smiling and giggling to themselves. An unusual situation is clearly at hand...calling for them to act as magical girls.
They hurry through the school to figure out what's going on, being hounded by students brainwashed into mindless joy, trying to get them to drink a cup of tea. Eventually, they meet with Gilles de Rais and Melissa's father and the school gym teacher, Monsieur La Hire. Through their conversation, the Tart Quartet learns that everyone - students and teachers alike - are affected by the tea, save for the six of them, and figures that the black tea is what's brainwashing everyone. The only people who could manage that are the members of the student council.
Tart turns to the player and breaks into a spontaneous exposition dump - in this "what if" world, magical girls have the duty to resolve mysteries caused by strange, reality-distorting objects that wind up here from alternate universes, called "If Factors." Every incident so far has involved the student council, as though they are seeking out and collecting these objects. Liz just knows they're up to some bigger plan - and speak of the devil, Madame Isabeau shows up, passing through the halls like always, giving the Quartet no heed.
The Quartet manages to wrangle one of the student council maids serving the tea to others...along with an army of brainwashed tea drinkers. After the battle, the maid rouses awake, and explains how she randomly found the teapot in one of the school kitchenettes, overflowing with wonderful-smelling tea. As soon as she had a drink, she was compelled to serve it to everyone. The maid insists the student council had nothing to do with this, but the Quartet understandably finds that hard to believe (especially given that the tea is an English blend), and head over to the clock tower - but not before dumping out the teapot, which, strangely, had somehow refilled itself during their conversation...
They burst into the student council's super secret lair, only to find Lapin and Corbeau have been brainwashed along with the others - meaning it's likely they really did have no involvement with this teapot incident. Speaking of which, the teapot had refilled itself even faster than before, prompting them to dump it out again before they run over to see if they can figure things out with the school's mysterious teacher, the one and only Ms. Specs.
There, after giving Ms. Specs the rundown, the tea refills itself yet again, which strikes Ms. Specs as dangerous. She goes on to explain the If Factors a little more - that they are the physical incarnation of people's dreams and desires - a "what if," if you will. Sometimes, these If Factors are quirky trinkets, or even powerful enough to make an alternate world/dimension, like their own Holy Maiden Academy, but this teapot is unfortunately different. Ms. Specs speculates it likely originated from an idle desire like "if only I had a teapot that could produce an endless supply of delicious tea, everyone would be happy" - and now that it's manifested in their world, it's breaking reality. In this case, at the rate the teapot is generating tea, it will drown the entire world by the end of the day.
So what can they do? Nothing. They wait for the bad end to kick in, and it does, destroying the world. Minou chuckles at your antics, and then remarks that since this is merely a "what if" world, then with a mere snap of her fingers, she can "what if" you and the world back to life.
And she does.