#kinda wanted to use valka as a bit of a self insert for this lol

[natsumebookss]

MagiReco/Premiere Nebula EoS Crossover Story!

In the infinite cosmos of the universe, Iroha Tamaki had felt shockwaves rippling across the Record all day. Whatever a day still meant to a goddess, at least. Homura Akemi had finally abandoned this timeline for the next, and as long as that was the case, Iroha could no longer directly interfere. She could appear to other magical girls in visions, sure, but other than that, this realm was being locked off even beyond her influence now. It wouldn't be completely deleted, as a goddess beyond even herself kept it as her greatest treasure, but it would, to continue the metaphor, still go offline.

Iroha had steeled herself for such an end in the weeks leading up to the time jump but it was still...hard. Today, the final day before the event, was to be her last contact with many of the magical girls she held dear, and she'd spent most of it flitting from Puella Magi to Puella Magi, summoning them when necessary or letting them come directly to her. The holes in the timeline that Homura's jumps created, Touka had attempted to explain, allowed girls to find her in seemingly impossible ways.

And yet even then, the figure that'd appeared beside her was little short of a shock to her. If Iroha didn't know better, she would've assumed it was another goddess who'd just ascended, with its impossibly long wavy black hair, toga, and flaming blue wings. But it was just another magical girl, albeit one that wasn't supposed to interfere in this universe.

Not that Valka had ever really cared much about trifles like rules.

"So you actually went and did it," Valka started. "An automatic purification system for all magical girls, powered solely by your own magic. Color me impressed."

From the short amount of time Iroha had known the other magical girl, she could never quite be certain when, or if, Valka was truly being genuine with her words. She'd come from a place even more strategy-minded than Kamihama, and could just as easily propose an alliance as a compliment.

"It's a bit more complicated than that," replied Iroha, "but yes. It's been working well for us. We can finally live in hope, without having to hurt anyone for it. I finally feel like our struggles are over."

Valka simply gave a sad smile towards her fellow faction leader and stared out towards the skies. Whether by some coincidence of fate or completely intentionally, Iroha noticed the Actress's blue eyes moving towards the nebula that gave her own faction its name.

"Ours are only beginning, I fear. Now that Witches are out of the game, humans will have to find other ways to harness magical energy. Your plan will work in the end, and entropy will be countered with Doppels alone, but the Manufacturer doesn't know that. Likely, as magical girl contracts become a thing of the past, he'll decide to ramp up Actress production."

Even with the gentle tone in her voice reassuring Iroha that such a result wasn't her own fault, the possibility still shook her to her core. Valka's home country, Olympia, had found a way to create magical girls without a contract. They were kept inside facilities solely as weapons or left to rot until they became Witches, with no true quality of life at all. Some had even been subject to brutal experiments that made them less like the magical girls Iroha knew and more like energy vampires.

"No! Surely he knows more harm will come of that than--"

"I'll make sure he does," spoke Valka in the clipped voice of a soldier. "I'll make sure he never gets the chance to. But that's why...I can't pass on to the other world with you. I have to go back. You may not ever see me again, so listen up."

Out of all the words Iroha expected to come out of Valka's mouth, the last ones she expected were "thank you."

"F-for what? We barely even know each other!"

"Stelle hasn't had a flareup in weeks. Whatever you did works on Actresses too. Kamihama really is a place where all magical girls can be saved. I just wanted to make sure you knew that."

For probably the fourth time today, and certainly not the last, Iroha could feel tears welling up in her incorporeal eyes.

"Being a magical girl of hope is hard. I'd almost lost faith in it myself when I first came to Kamihama. But you were always there to rally the troops when the chips were down. Seeing you do that...it made me want to become a better leader to my own magical girls."

With another slight tilt of her head, Valka noticed the wormhole opening nearby her, beckoning her to her own world. A world that still needed protecting, one that not even Iroha could interfere with.

A world that, even so, she had absolute faith that Valka could save.

"Do you think we'll see each other again?" asked Iroha as the portal grew larger and larger.

"Who knows?" replied Valka. "What I do know is I'll be thinking of you this whole time. Keep making a better world for your kind, and I'll keep making one for mine. And if our paths do decide to cross..."

She crossed through the portal one final time, her wings sparkling like stars.

"I'll catch you on the other side, Tamaki-san."

✨Premiere Nebula will continue...✨