It’s a nice life, Madoka decides. Being reincarnated, that is. She has a calm, normal life, no aliens coming down and offering her a wish for her soul. Sayaka’s there – even attending the same school as her, so Madoka’s not alone in remembering being a magical girl. Hitomi is there too, but she doesn’t remember anything about the previous universe, so it’s sort of tricky talking to her.

But overall, it’s… nice.

(Madoka refuses to use the word ‘boring.’ Sayaka uses it at least once a day.)

Of course, that ‘boringness’ becomes a lot less boring once she sees the newspaper one morning.

“Oh, isn’t it amazing?” her mother asks. “A real-life superhero. She’s calling herself Sailor V, apparently.”

Madoka’s too busy trying not to choke on her toast. She’s recognized Mami’s curls, of course.

There’s a cat on her way to school, its forehead all taped over.

Madoka picks it up gently, trying not to pull out too much of its fur as she removes the bandages.

Once they’re off, though, she stops and stares for a long minute.

“Are you going to try and steal my soul to turn me into a magical girl?” she softly asks the cat with the clearly unnatural crescent moon on its head.

“What?” the cat sounds so indignant Madoka almost drops her. “Of course not. Soul-selling is not a requirement. The only thing you’ll lose is a little sleep.”

“Oh, good.” Madoka places the cat on the ground and turns to continue towards school.

“Wait, who tried to steal your soul?” The cat stares at her a little more closely, and then sighs. “Of course. You’re one of those reincarnated ones. Where are you from? Honnouji? Alfea? Are you one of those Spirit World Warriors?”

“That’s a lot of different universes,” Madoka observes. “I, uh, don’t know what my universe – my previous universe? – was called. There was this… alien, called Kyuubey–”

“Oh, them.” The cat shakes its head. “No, this universe is much better than that one. I just want you to fight evil, not turn your emotional energy into universal energy and then turn evil. That would be hypocritical, and silly.”

“Yeah, it would be.” Madoka relaxes a tiny bit. “So, what do I call you?”

“I’m Luna,” the cat introduces herself.

“Remind me again why we’re trusting another magical talking animal?” Sayaka grumbles. “And not, oh, say, running for our lives?”

“Well, it’s the right thing to do,” Madoka reasons. “Also, weren’t you just complaining about being bored?”

“That has nothing to do with this!”

“Yes it does, Sayaka. Come on, it’s actual Evil this time! That we can fight without worrying about turning evil!”

“And become a superhero and get in the newspaper, Sailor Moon?” Sayaka waves the paper at Madoka, a blurry picture of her just below the headline.

Madoka winces. “Yes?”

Sayaka sighs. “Fine. At least tell me that I get a cape again?”

“Hey! You! In the Name of Jupiter, I’ll Kick Your Ass!”

Madoka privately thinks that Sayaka’s catchphrases need a little more… something. She’s not sure what. Tact?

“Sailor Jupiter, careful, don’t electrocute the whole city!”

“Don’t worry, Luna, I have everything under–”

Something explodes.

Madoka turns, briefly wishes that it were as easy to use magic in this universe as it was in the last universe, and rushes towards the inferno.

“Madoka?”

Madoka jumps. “What, no, don’t be ridiculous, I’m Sailor–” then she sees who’s talking. “Homura?”

Her hair is down, the way she’d worn it in the final iteration of their universe, but she’s wearing her glasses.

She also looks like she’s on the verge of tears.

Madoka panics for a brief moment before realizing that Homura’s last experience with magical girls had been with Kyuubey. “It’s okay,” she tries to reassure Homura. “I haven’t sold my soul or anything. It’s different here.”

“You’re sure?” Homura demands, rather tearily. “You’re not going to turn into a witch or…” she looks around. “Or whatever that was?”

“Definitely not,” Madoka says. “Here, come on, Luna is much better at explaining this than I am.”

“Definitely,” Sayaka agrees from behind her, making Madoka jump. “It’s actually pretty fun this time – most of the time, we can even stop people from getting permanently hurt!”

Homura sighs, tears mostly gone. “You look like you need all the help you can get. Where do I sign up?”

“Sailor Mercury, please, please, can you stop myseriously acquiring grenades? They don’t even fit with your powers anymore!”

Kyouko just sort of… shows up to one of their fights.

After she’s helped them defeat the bad guys, she walks straight up to Madoka. “Please tell me you weren’t stupid enough to sell your soul again,” she demands.

“How many of you are there?” Luna asks incredulously. “And there is absolutely no soul-selling involved.”

“Do you want superpowers or not?” Sayaka interjects.

“Hmmm.” Kyouko cracks her gum. “Sure, why the hell not. It’s been pretty boring around here.”

“Oh my god,” Kyouko whispers. “I can set things on fire with my brain.”

“We’re all doomed,” Homura mutters, readying her water powers, just in case.