Witches Awakening Arc

The Witches Awakening Arc brings realizations to the Rinju sisters as witches seem to stir around the group for a mysterious reason. It is the only arc that doesn't introduce any new characters and is followed by the Anisa Arc.
==Plot Summary==
===Mikoto's Diary===
Alice and Esther are picked up by Mikoto Rinju, but as they are driving to Mikoto's house, Mikoto starts asking her eldest niece out about the latter's mysterious 'death'. and claims to feel something 'special' about Esther, which would reveal the truth about her death to her. When Mikoto starts telepathically communicating with her, Esther realizes that her aunt only knows the truth about her death because she is a Puella Magi herself.
When the trio arrives at Mikoto’s house, Mikoto distracts Alice by offering her her gaming console to play on and takes Esther to her room, where she shows her her Soul Gem, which has mysteriously rusted on one half. Mikoto tries to explain Esther the curse of the Rinju family, but Esther refuses to listen. Only when Mikoto explains that her brother’s behaviour is caused by this evil, Esther heeds her words.
Mikoto explains that an evil force lurks within the Rinju blood, which has attracted the Incubators for generations. When a Rinju girl makes a contract, the ‘evil’ manifests itself into a tremendous amount of magical power, but also the seed for an extremely dangerous witch. In Rinju males, the power manifests itself through madness. This very madness caused Esther’s father to act the way he acted, as well as causing Mikoto’;s father to kill himself and his wife by crashing his car. As the ‘evil’ gets stronger with every subsequent generation, Mikoto warns Esther that now that she is no longer a Puella Magi, Kyuubey has his eyes set on Alice, as well as on another Rinju girl.
When Mikoto mentions that Kyuubey will do everything to hurt the people Alice holds dear in order to lure her into making a contract with him, the critter in question shows up and tells both that he is doing all of that for the greater good of the universe. He then tries to kill off Mikoto by crushing his Soul Gem with his paws, but Esther tackles him away, causing the Soul Gem to hit the floor and crack. This causes Mikoto insufferable pain and as Kyubey flees the scene, she begs Esther to end her, as well as read her diary, hidden in a drawer.
With tears in her eyes, Esther’s crushes her aunt’s Soul Gem, killing her instantly, and orders Alice to call the police. While the cops are on their way, Esther reads Mikoto’s diary, where a fifteen-year old Mikoto expresses her desire to befriend an aloof classmate named Ruri. Her Rinju blood quickly attracted Kyubey, who managed to lure her into wishing for Ruri and her to be soulmates.
This literal wish quickly backfired on her, as she son found out that Ruri’s soul had been locked in her Soul Gem. Mikoto’s magical powers quickly became a strain on her human body and having to stay close to Mikoto drove her crazy, eventually turning her into a witch. Mikoto had to kill her, but afterwards realized that due to on of the souls in her Soul Gem becoming a Grief Seed, her own soul would never turn into a witch.
===The Disappearance of Esther Rinju===
After returning home from the tragedy, Esther decides to leave her sister and friends behind for a reason she refuses to further explain. While Hiroko desperately continues the search for her friend, Alice and Yuzuki set out to do the exact same thing, but while asking around if anyone has seen Esther, Yuzuki is pestered by a strange giggling and text messages in runes being sent to her cell phone. Spreading flyers in the park, Yuzuki ends up in a Witch’s dimension, and is chased by the various dangers it spawns. Alice picks up weird noises from Yuzuki’s cell phone and hurries to the park, where she stumbles upon a tree, colored differently from all the others: the entrance to the Witch’s dimension.
To Alice’s surprise, Kyubey shows up and tells Alice that the witch residing in the dimension is none other than the witch that murdered Esther. Alice doesn’t hesitate and hurries inside the dimension, where she tells Yuzuki what they’re up against. Once again, with a little bit of Kyubey’s help, the duo manages to escape. Meanwhile, Emiri shows Shizuko more of the outside world.
The following day, Alice tells Yuzuki everything she knows about Puella Magi and witches. The two infer that Hiroko must have been the one who made a wish and brought her best friend back. That evening, Alice tries to make Hiroko spill the beans and while Hiroko does show Alice her Soul Gem, she breaks out in tears as soon as Alice calls her out for making a wish without thinking it through, afraid Hiroko might die as well. Hiroko keeps aching for Esther and Alice asks her if she is in love with Esther, to which she responds with a tentative ‘yes’. Hiroko’s indecisiveness quickly gets on Alice’s nerves and she starts insulting Hiroko, telling her that Esther would never love an overemotional hag like her. This causes Hiroko to snap and threaten to kill Alice if she ever calls her out about Esther again. Alice compliments Hiroko for finally escaping her downward spiral and standing up for herself and the two make up. Hiroko then promises to confess to Esther next time she sees her.
Yuzuki, meanwhile, starts cooking up a plan to defeat the witch in the park herself and plans on burning down the forest-like dimension in which it resides. When Alice pays a visit to Kiki’s store, the two end up walking home together and as Kiki’s train breaks down, she has to stay at Emiri’s, where she reunites with Shizuko and Hiroko. Shizuko asks Kiki if she can have a job at the same store, but Kiki tells her that she can’t make that decision. That night, Alice receives a text message from Esther, telling her to watch out for Emiri and that their father has been arrested.
===The End of the Beginning===
The next day, however, danger strikes again. Emiri and Yuzuki vist a suspicious toy store and end up in another witch’s dimension, but are saved at the last moment by none other than Esther, who yells at them to get out immediately. As soon as the couple returns home, Alice steals one of Shizuko’s swords and returns to the toy store with Yuzuki, in order to find her missing sister. When they arrive there, however, the place has been burned down, and Esther is gone.
The incident with Emiri makes Yuzuki consider making a contract even more. Alice gets furious at her because of this and leaves for school, while Yuzuki stays at home to further work on her plan to defeat the witch. Ironically, Hiroko stays at home in order to work out a plan as well, only one to allow her to meet Esther.
During lunch break, Alice realizes that she has forgotten her lunch money, but Nobunaga awkwardly allows borrowing some from him. When returning to class, she is greeted by none other than her sister. The two sisters happily reunite and after school, the two go back to Emiri’s to pack up and return to their own home. On the way there, Esther tells her sister what she has been up to during her absence, however this is not revealed. However, as soon as Esther informs her that she will be staying at Emiri’s for a while longer to protect her, Alice breaks down and forces a kiss onto her sister, who once again quietly tells Alice that loving her like that is impossible and reassures Alice that the latter will get over her siscon crush in time.
The two then head home, where their mother greets them and asks Esther to at least stay for dinner.
Category:Act_I
Category:Story
Category:Arcs