Pleiades Saints

"Those seven stars are like the legendary seven sisters." ~ Nico Kanna, Chapter 3.

From left to right, Nico, Mirai, Saki and Satomi

The Pleiades Saints (プレイアデス聖団, Pureiadesu Seidan, lit. Pleiades Holy Party) is a team of Puellae Magi featured in Puella Magi Kazumi Magica: The Innocent Malice. Together, they fight witches in Asunaro city.

Their name is taken from the Pleiades star cluster (プレイアデス星団, the same pronunciation), whose stars are named after the Pleiades of Greek mythology (a.k.a the Seven Sisters).

Members

The Pleiades Saints' current roster is composed of:

Kazumi (かずみ): A girl with amnesia who can't remember anything except her name. Despite this, she keeps an innocent, cheerful and friendly personality. She is also a glutton for delicious foods. Eventually she was found by her roommates and partners, Kaoru and Umika. Her wish is currently unknown because she never told it to her friends before she lost her memories.
She is the team's sharpshooter, maintaining some distance from the opponent and firing powerful magic beams when the opportunity arises.

Kaoru Maki (巻カオル): An athletic soccer player living with Umika and Kazumi. A bright older sister figure who takes good care of things. She wished for a strong, healthy body that would let her play soccer.
She fights by dealing powerful kicks and ball strikes, stunning, distracting and wearing down the opponent.

Umika Misaki (御崎海香, Misaki Umika): A popular novelist who bought the trio's house with her earnings. Her reliable, mature aura changes completely when there's a deadline looming. She is close to Kaoru and thinks of Kazumi as a little sister. She wished for the chance to meet an editor who would publish her stories.
In battle, she uses her magical book to read the opponent's mind in order to figure out it's weakness and to improve the team's chances of success.

Saki Asami (浅海サキ, Asami Saki): A mature and intelligent girl, she effectively acts as the Pleiades' leader. Cool and collected, she is apt at commanding the other girls both in battle and outside of it. She also cares not only for their safety, but for their morale.
In battle, she wields an electric rod, and can summon lightning at will from it. When transformed, her glasses become a single monocle.

Mirai Wakaba (若葉みらい, Wakaba Mirai): An impulsive girl with long, puffy hair. She is hotheaded and is not afraid to express her thoughts as loud as possible, and occasionally vents out her frustration on Kazumi by smacking her (especially when Kazumi begins doubting herself). She also thinks of herself highly, sometimes even calling herself "Mirai-sama," but deep down she is a caring girl.
She wields a staff with an elaborate heart-shaped design on the end with which she can fire magic. Mirai, while enraged, reveals that she is able to transform her staff into a gigantic sword, and she can summon a platoon of teddy bears with an attack called La Bestia (The Beasts). The bears can also fuse into a single massive bear with La Bestia Rifare (Remake the Beast).

Satomi Usagi (宇佐木里美, Usagi Satomi): A polite girl who loves animals, and wants to become a veterinarian when she grows up. Her wish was to gain the ability to talk to animals, which she uses to gather information.
Her individual abilities in battle are so far unknown. When transformed, her suit gives her a feline appearance, complete with cat ears, paws, and even a long tail. She also wields a cat shaped staff.

Nico Kanna (神流ニコ, Kanna Niko): A tech expert and arguably the most intelligent of the group. She uses several pieces of high tech equipment, most notably a
smartphone with an app that can read a witch's residual power wavelength and calibrate the girl's Soul Gems to track it more accurately. She is also able to quickly analyze situations, and notice subtle details the others don't. She is constantly seen with the same uninterested look on her face, which barely changes even when pierced with an arrow.
While transformed, she dons an aviator suit, complete with goggles, a harness and a parachute backpack.
Her wish was for "regeneration". This allows her to break down materials and turn them into something else. She specializes in finger bullets and clones. As "compensation" for her contract, she has a "spare," another Nico that turns into a witch in place of Nico herself.

History

This section may contain major spoilers for the Kazumi Magica manga!

Please refrain from reading if you haven't read the latest chapter yet.

Fili Del Toano - A quick joint attack

Episodio Incrocio, their joint bind spell.

Though Kazumi, Kaoru and Umika were present since the start, the Pleiades were only introduced in chapter 3. After a witch traps Kaoru and Umika inside of itself and takes off, four mysterious girl come to Kazumi's help. They introduce themselves as the Pleiades Saints, a seven-girl witch-hunting team of which Kazumi and her abducted friends are also a part of. Together, they search for Kaoru and Umika across town. While they search, the mysterious girl from previous chapters, Yuuri, attacks Kazumi, having disguised herself as Satomi to separate her from the rest of the team. Overwhelmed, Kazumi is on the verge of defeat, but her four companions intervene. Kazumi is then held at gunpoint, causing them to hesitate, but she screams out to them to attack anyway. They do so, and fire a joint attack at the mysterious girl: Fili Del Toano. It causes a large explosion, but the magical girl gets away. Kazumi is only lightly wounded.

They reunite at Umika's house for a strategy meeting. While analyzing the situation, Saki, their presumed leader, makes a breakthrough. She discovers the symbol the witch left across town was also on the back of a book, leading her to conclude the witch has possessed a bookmobile. After filling up on Kazumi's delicious food, they head out to the last stop on the bookmobile schedule to intercept it. They successfully do so, and, leaving Kazumi on the outside to strike at command, rescue Kaoru and Umika just in time. Together, the six of them bind the witch with Episodio Incrocio. However, Nico's GPS/com unit breaks, leaving them unable to give Kazumi the needed signal. Umika, thinking quickly, commands them to use candy flutes given to them by Kazumi. The sound reaches her, and the witch is destroyed by Limiti Esterni.

While they reunite and celebrate their victory, they are approached by Jubey, the "fairy" (妖精) that turned them into Puellae Magi. He cleans up their Soul Gems, and gladly accepts the last witch's Grief Seed, but refuses a couple of weird looking seeds, obtained from the pseudo-witches of Chapters 1 and 2, saying they were not real. Umika theorized they imitated the Grief Seed's power and were created by the mysterious girl from before, but before they could draw further conclusions, they are attacked by that very girl, Yuuri. She kidnaps Kazumi, and orders them to go to the Asunaro Dome at midnight if they want Kazumi back. While waiting for the deadline, they speculate on Yuuri's motivations. At the right time, they head to the dome, but due to a force barrier they can do nothing but watch as Yuuri enacts her plane. Yuuri states her objective is to seek revenge on them. She interprets the Pleiades' failure to recognize her as having been "just that insignificant" to the girls. She then removes her hat, causing a shocked Umika to recognize her, and proceeds to shove an Evil Nut, one of the awkward Grief Seeds from before, into Kazumi's forehead, while the Pleiades scream in horror.

However, the Evil Nut seems to empower Kazumi instead, and she fights Yuuri again. Despite her efforts, Yuuri still comes out ahead in the battle. She shockingly claims that the Pleiades Saints are a gang that kills magical girls, and had killed her in the past. The Pleiades adopt guilt-filled expressions. She says that she went after Kazumi because she was their most precious possession. At this point, overuse of her magic causes her Soul Gem to crack. Saki tells Jubey to purify Yuuri's Soul Gem, but she shoots him before he can do so. Nico realizes it's too late, and announces that Yuuri's Soul Gem has hatched as Yuuri became a witch. In her barrier, Yuuri's witch form traps the Pleiades Saints on crosses and wraps vines around them, inflicting them great pain.

The story then flashes back to the past. During the flashback, the Pleaides rescue a girl named Airi from a witch. Kazumi is not among them, suggesting that she wasn't a member at the time. After they leave, Kyubey appears to Airi and reveals that the witch was actually her friend Yuuri Asuka, and she became a witch right in front of the Pleaides Saints. Mentally shattered by the revelations, Airi wishes to become Yuuri, and declares revenge on the Pleiades, setting up the above events.

It is then revealed that the flashback was actually a vision shown by Yuuri/Airi's witch form. The witch attacks Kazumi, but she falls under the influence of the Evil Nut and begins transforming, breaking of her cross. Suddenly returning to normal, Kazumi tries to Yuuri/Airi back into a human, with horrific results. At this point, Saki shoots the witch, freeing the rest of the Pleiades. One by they attack the witch as Kazumi begs them to stop. They explain they have no choice but to stop the witch from hurting anyone, and they won't let Kazumi dirty her hands. Realizing that her friends are as pained by this as she is, Kazumi delivers the final blow to the witch, saying she'll bear this burden with them.

Later that night, we see Kaoru, Saki, Mirai, and Satomi confront a magical girl named Sumire Akane (It's unclear if Nico or Umika are present). Kaoru uses a mysterious spell named Tocco del Mare (English: Touch of the Sea), causing Sumire to scream. We then cut to a magical girl that is watching the Pleiades, and seems to want them for something. Through her binoculars, we see the Pleiades turn back to their civilian outfits as they hold out their Soul Gems. Sumire also untransforms and seems to be unconscious or dead. Later in the chapter it is learned that Tocco del Mare is used on a magical girl's Soul Gem, and it stuns their body.

The other Pleiades Saints then appear to rescue Kauzmi and Nico from Ayase and Luca Souju. Kaoru says they'll be taking the Soujus' gems. Saki tells Kaoru not to do it in front of Kazumi, but Nico says Kazumi already saw her doing it. Kaoru pulls out both Ayase and Luca's gems with the spell Tocco del Mare. Kazumi angrily asks the others why they're taking the Soul Gems of other magical girls, saying that she said earlier she would bear the burden with her friends. Against Saki's objections, Umika says she'll tell Kazumi the truth about the Pleiades Saints, but while she's saying that Satomi watches Nico's Soul Gem glowing. Nico falls over on her knees, and then the Pleiades turn to see a witch has appeared with Nico's body floating in front of it.

As Nico's Soul Gem cracks, we see background text of her thinking that that she'll die without a trace, and she wants everyone to remember. She thinks she doesn't want to kill anyone anymore. The runes coming out of her Soul Gem read "We have no future as long as he's around." The Pleiades are shocked to discover Nico has become a witch. Repeatedly shouting "Cut", the witch turns her hands into a single pair of scissors. Kaoru transforms and blocks the attack using Capitano Potenza ("Captain Power"), which encases her arms in a black metallic substance. The witch fires projectiles from its body. Kaoru turns to the others and tells them not to stand there. Umika encases herself, Kazumi, and Satomi in a barrier. Saki pushes Mirai in, but is wounded. Mirai flips out and uses her attack La Bestia ("The Beasts") causing an army of teddy-bears to appear and chew on the witch. When the witch throws them off, Mirai uses La Bestia Refare ("Remake the Beast"). The bears start hugging each other and turn into a giant bear that Mirai jumps on. The bear pounces on the witch and pulls it into a bear hug. Mirai leaps into the air, turns her wand into a giant sword, and cuts both the bear and the witch in half. The witch dies, yelling "Cut" one last time. She drops a Grief Seed (which notably looks different than Nico's Soul Gem).

Mirai asks Saki if she's alright, but she's still processing Nico's death. Mirai tells her she had to do it, but is interrupted by Satomi screaming that she doesn't want to die or turn into a witch. Jubey and Umika look at the Grief Seed, as Umika wonders how did things turn out like this. Kazumi takes the hand of Nico's body and finds it's cold. As she shouts Nico's name, a voice says "You called?" Everyone is shocked to see another Nico standing behind them. As Kazumi asks what's going on, the other Nico walks up to the first Nico's body, puts her arm around her neck, and with a disturbing expression says "Switch". She then touches the hair of the body, and it's face suddenly vanishes. Jubey, a disturbing grin on his face, says that the body was Nico's "spare" and "compensation for Nico's contract". Kaoru asks why Nico didn't tell them. Nico says that to deceive an enemy, you have to deceive your allies. Kaoru punches her, then gives her a hug. Nico then says they should cut to the chase. Kaoru tells Saki Kazumi can handle it.

The scene switches to Mirai's teddy bear museum, "Angelica Bears". Mirai says that in Japanese it's called "Ashitaba" (literally "tomorrow's leaf") and says that Kazumi came up with the name. As they walk inside, they step onto a magic circle. Umika holds out her ring, suddenly transporting them all somewhere else. Umika tells Kazumi that the museum was born from them meeting with her. The walk up to a giant door, which opens into a giant room filled with girls floating in tanks. The middle of the room contains a pile of Soul Gems. Umika explains that after they take Soul Gems, they put the empty shells of the magical girls into "the Freezer". We see one of the girls has a nametag, reading Kaede Hinata in English. Kazumi says that Ayase was right, and asks why they're doing this. Jubey says that it's their response to the magical girl system, which is full of contradictions: Rejection.

Umika explains that witches are the end state of magical girls. Umika tells Kazumi that they lied to her when they said that sometimes the Soul Gems of magical girls go out of control. Jubey, grinning, explains that Soul Gems are the extracted souls of magical girls. Kaoru admits that they're like zombies, but it's preferable to dying to a witch in one shot. Jubey then says that the Pleiades refuse to fight without feeling pain. Kaoru responds by saying that if they do that they'll cease being human. Umika explains that the magical girls they capture are placed in a barrier that separates them from their Soul Gems and puts them in suspended animation, preventing them from becoming witches. Kaoru says they hope to find a way to completely clean the gems and turn them back into humans. Until then, they'll keep fighting alone. This is their "rejection" of the magical girl system. Nico then takes out a container that has the Soujus, their Soul Gems, and the Soul Gem and body of another magical girl. The bodies of the magical girls have been shrunken to the point where they can be picked up by one hand. Nico puts into two new containers, saying they "will keep on waiting for the prince's kiss." Kauzmi asks when everyone found out about the connection between magical girls and wishes. Umika touches her forehead to Kazumi's, telling her to remember everything.

The Pleaides before making their contracts.

The story flashes back into the past. Umika, Kaoru, Satomi, Mirai, Nico, and Saki are standing on a catwalk. They are all displaying a witch's kiss on their necks. Each girl had some "despair" in her life, which caused them to be vulnerable, which is shown in flashbacks.

Umika wrote a draft for a novel that was taken by her editor and released under the authorship of a top idol. Then the editor calls her to ask if they can look forward to her next work. Umika drops the phone.
Kaoru was injured in a soccer game that left her on crutches. The girl who injured her is then rushed to the hospital Kaoru was recovering in. It turns out that girl was bullied for ruining Kaoru's career and tried to kill herself. Kaoru screams.
Satomi is given a cat on her third birthday, which she names Sare. Years later, she goes out and leaves it alone in her house, despite it's protests. It's then seen in a veterinarian's office, dead. The vets says that if the cat was brought here earlier it might have survived, prompting Satomi to think that this wouldn't have happened if she had just listened.
Mirai is shown at school wearing glasses. The other students want nothing to do with her. As she walks home, Mirai clutches her teddy-bear saying, she's not lonely because she has all of them. We then find that her room is filled with teddy-bears. As she begins sewing one of them, admits she wants friends and starts crying.
Nico is shown as a little kid, playing with her neighbors and a loaded gun. She is promptly revealed to be the Japanese kid from the news article in Chapter 7. The gun goes off, the bullet bouncing off a vase and killing her neighbors. Nico cries.
Saki is shown as a child. Her friend Miyuki shows off her lily of the valley flower. Miyuki says her dream was to grow lots of flowers and use them as a bouquet in her wedding. Saki says that dream won't come true, because she thinks no man is good enough for Miyuki. Miyuki hugs Saki and says that she'll marry her. Years later, Miyuki and Saki are caught in a horrible car crash. Miyuki is killed by a piece of glass lodged in her throat. Saki can only say Miyuki's name.

The six girls jump off, as a voice says "Everyone should just die." The voice is cut-off by a familiar spell, where ribbons wrap around the girls, stopping their fall. Their savior is none other than Kazumi, saying, "Ciao! You suicidal girls!"

Teamwork

Given that none of the Saints appear to be overwhelmingly powerful, their strength comes from a number of joint tactics and attacks they have developed to make their numeric advantage as effective as possible.

Their main strategy appear to be to take advantage of Kazumi's powerful magic beams. The six remaining girls engage the enemy, wearing it down and immobilizing it by casting a joint sealing spell, Episodio Incrocio (English: Crossover Episode). This makes it a sitting duck for Kazumi to finish off.

That is not their only joint attack. For situations that require a quick strike, Fili Del Toano is an option. It is a powerful attack that creates a large explosion on the target, aimed by laser beams fired from the girl's staffs.

Outside of battle, they coordinate their search patterns to improve their chances of finding a witch. Along with Nico's app, this allows them to cover a wide area in just a few hours. The group can also communicate with each other telepathically using their soul gems.

Trivia

"Pleiades Saints" is a pun: "Pleiades Saints" and the Pleiades Star Cluster are pronounced the same way in Japanese and, when written, differ by only one character. Being named after a star cluster also produces another Astronomy reference.
- The Pleiades Star Cluster is located in the Taurus constellation. Note that their opponent Yuuri summons a bull to attack them - Taurus is the bull constellation. In the Western zodiac, the constellation after Taurus is Gemini - the twins. As of Chapter 7, both of the Pleaides Saints' opponents have been, in a sense, twin-themed. Nico has also become somewhat twin-themed after chapter 9.
They seem to have all contracted with Jubey, who cleans their Soul Gems.
Saki, Kaoru, and Nico are the only three magical girls in the franchise whose transformed costumes aren't dresses and don't have skirts.

Speculation

This section may contain major spoilers for the anime!

Please refrain from reading if you haven't watched Episode 8 yet.

Current Speculation

In the anime, magical girls worked alone or in small groups because the Grief Seeds they needed to clean their Soul Gems were a limited resource. Magical girls could easily clash over territory and were just as likely to compete than cooperate. When the Pleiades Saints were revealed to be a seven-member magical girl team, a number of readers wondered how that could be possible in this context. It was considered unlikely that there were enough witches in Asunaro City to support seven magical girls. Chapter 4 explained that Jubey, the fairy they contracted with, can clean their Soul Gems, meaning they don't need to compete for Grief Seeds.
- What was left unexplained was why this was done. Kyubey has never demonstrated the ability to clean Soul Gems in the anime. In fact, he actively sought to have the girls corrupt their Soul Gems and turn into witches. One probable explanation is that from what we've seen, the Pleiades had fairly minor wishes and were therefore weaker magical girls. Being weak magical girls, they wouldn't become powerful witches, and thus they wouldn't produce a lot of energy when they transformed. It is then more efficient for Jubey to let them hunt Grief Seeds for him than to try and convert them into witches.
  In purely mathematical terms, a team of weak Puellae Magi capturing a more powerful witch than themselves, using team tactics to level the field, is extremely efficient when it comes to energy output.
While it is speculated that the Pleiades are hiding something from Kazumi, likely the true nature of witches, it is possible that Saki is hiding other facts. She has, in several occasions, said mysterious sentences about her past, and cut conversations short. In particular, a statement by Yuuri pertaining to Kazumi's relation with Saki caused an irate "shut up!" from her.
Chapter 7 opens with the Pleiades Saints hunting down a Puella Magi for her Soul Gem, apparently they are "gem picking" but for what reason it is unknown. The victim was Sumire Akane and her Soul Gem was lightly tainted so there was no apparent indication that she would turn into a Witch anytime soon.
- Whatever the Pleiades Saints motives, they are not the only ones hunting down Puellae Magi for their Soul Gems.
  - Chapter 9 reveals that the Pleiades have stored the bodies and Soul Gems of several dozen Puella Magi in a 'Freezer' beneath Mirai's teddy-bear museum.

Past Speculation

Yuuri, the mysterious girl who attacks them multiple times, holds a grudge against them from their shared past, though the girls appear to have no recollection of it until Umika recognizes her face. This past is apparently a very troubled one, and Yuuri believed she was being thought of as "insignificant". Note that Yuuri indicated that her name and the mysterious ghastly letter she sent was somehow related to her identity.
- The arrow that Yuuri used could also be a clue.
  - Chapter 5 explains the mystery behind Yuuri.
Despite being named after the Seven Sisters of Greek mythology, Sterope, Merope, Electra, Maia, Taygeta, Celaeno, and Alcyone are only part of the nine brightest stars in the cluster. The other two stars are named after their parents, Atlas and Pleione. Given that the current roster of the Saints is composed of seven members, it is speculated that two of them are missing. Since Nico states they are named after the seven sisters, it leaves those two members as the "parents", or the most important (or senior) members of the team.
It is likely those two are Yuuri, who has a past connection to the group, and the mysterious girl in Yuuri's flashbacks, who seemed to be a friend of hers.
- In Greek Mythology the Pleiades were companions to the goddess Artemis and they trained under her.
- This speculation was debunked in Chapter 5.
It is heavily implied that all of the Saints except Kazumi know that magical girls become witches. They seem to have accepted this fact, though it still bothers them - note Umika and Kaoru's expressions in Chapter 2 when Umika mentions that anyone can become a witch. Also note Nico and Saki's expressions when they take the witch's Grief Seed in Chapter 3, and the way Saki, Kaoru and Satomi react when Nico says Yuuri is at her limit in Chapter 4. It is very likely that they are hiding this from Kazumi.
- Going by the above theory that the Pleiades Saints used to have more members, it's possible that one of their previous members became a witch, which is how they learned that magical girls become witches. This may have also been the event that created Yuuri's desire for revenge on the Pleiades.
- Chapter 5 confirms the Pleaides knew the origins of witches and were hiding it from Kazumi. There is no evidence that one of their previous members became a witch, however.

Gallery

Satomi demonstrating her ability. Good evenyan!
Kazumi's cooking is in high demand within the Pleiades.
One of Kazumi's flashbacks features the Pleiades. Notice how the girl in the witch hat resembles Yuuri: she wears stripped stockings and her witch hat isn't curved.
Nico explaining how her tracking app works.
The Pleiades, sans Kazumi, playing candy flutes. For some reason, this is also an "attack", named Mezzanote Charmante.
An "imitation" Grief Seed, a.k.a Evil Nut. Do not feed them your Incubator. Especially after midnight.
Limiti Esterni fired at a witch bound by Episodio Incrocio, just as planned.
The Pleiades Saints named after the seven sisters.