The days blurred together.
Homura quickly fell into a quiet routine within the apartment. Mornings were spent brewing tea, experimenting with actual meals for the first time in years, and occasionally skimming through the laptop Nezu had provided. She read up on quirks, society's legal structures, and scattered news reports about recent villain attacks. None of it surprised her. People of power abusing it was a universal truth, quirks or not.
Every morning, as promised, Nezu stopped by. Sometimes it was a quick check-in to drop off some documents or news from UA. Other times, they spoke. Nothing too deep, casual things, polite questions, a few more rounds of chess, which Homura begrudgingly came to enjoy.
She kept track of the subtle games Nezu played with his words, the way he watched her. Testing. Measuring. She knew it. And Nezu knew that she knew. But neither of them said anything about it.
By the 2nd day after, the chess set had become an unspoken fixture between them.
Time crawled, but without the weight of a constant loop pressing against her mind, it wasn't unbearable. Homura spent most evenings flicking through old shows on the TV, mapping out the area on her phone, and sitting in silence with her thoughts. No resets. No deaths. No deadlines. Just time. Endless, unclaimed, almost unfamiliar.
And in those long, quiet hours, she found herself thinking of old timelines. The fragments blurred together. Victories, losses, meaningless loops where she'd spent decades chasing a girl who would never survive. She thought of Sayaka's reckless idealism (that cost way too much), Kyoko's sharp, biting loyalty, and always, always Madoka's soft smile. Her voice. The way she'd- "NOPE." Homura suddenly barked, snapping herself upright on the couch like she'd been struck by lightning. Because she did not open that Pandora's box 10 years ago, she sure as hell wasn't now.
She wasn't going there. Not now.
The ache in her chest tugged at her anyway, dull but persistent. It didn't drown her like it used to. A low tide instead of a storm. Manageable. Another reminder of something precious, or something irretrievable. She wasn't sure which anymore.
The lingering hope that she was either safe, completely, or that she would come soon, and homura would be waiting.
And so, inevitably, Saturday morning came.
When Nezu arrived, it wasn't with a chessboard this time. To her mild surprise, the absurd little creature produced a polished wooden Go set, the gleaming black and white stones tucked neatly in their bowls. He set them on the table with the same eerie, calm smile he always wore.
Homura raised a brow. "Go?" she asked, leaning forward slightly.
"A classic," Nezu said brightly, carefully placing the stones in their starting bowls. "Deceptively simple rules, but an elegant depth. Territory. Sacrifice. The subtlety of pressure. A game where raw calculation alone isn't enough. You must understand balance."
She watched him for a beat, then quietly pulled out the chair across from him and sat down. "I don't remember the last time I played this," she admitted. "If I ever have."
Nezu's brow twitched up in amusement, but his tone stayed light. "That's perfectly fine. Learning is half the joy." He gestured to the board with a small sweep of his paw. "Shall we?"
Homura gave a slow nod. "Sure."
As he placed the first stone at the traditional upper right star point, she found herself thinking not about victory, but about how… strangely peaceful this was.
And maybe, that unsettled her more than anything.
---
The meeting wrapped up the way it always did, Nezu packing up the board with practised efficiency, humming some old, unplaceable tune to himself. I didn't move from my seat. Just watched him, absentmindedly tapping my fingers against the table.
And then, a memory surfaced.
"Homura? Don't you have hobbies? And I don't mean killing witches, but something you actually enjoy?"
Madoka's voice, from so long ago. A different world, a different version of her. That timeline had been... bleak. Sayaka had contracted early, chasing her ideals like a fool with no brakes. She burned out faster than any other timeline I'd seen, her soul already cracking before she even realised what she'd done. And when she turned, just revived from Madoka's wish, - when the grief swallowed her almost instantly - it was Madoka who had to put her down... just after making a wish to revive her.
It broke her.
And with no one else left, she latched onto me way faster than usual. It was reckless. Desperate. I hated how much I loved it. I felt disgusted by how this ended up, disgusted by how I enjoyed it. But time doesn't wait for anyone except me.
She practically dragged me into her home after discovering how I was living. I tried to refuse. I really did. But Madoka... could be strangely terrifying when she wanted something. And she wanted me safe.
One night, sitting in her room ("in separate beds", she says), she tried to make conversation. She was curled up on the floor with a stack of manga, mostly the fluffy, yuri stories she adored. Plus, the odd magical girl DVD shows.
At one point, she looked up at me, frowning. "Homura, do you even read manga?" but only after the countless questions, and her increasingly getting worried.
I hesitated. It had been over a decade since I'd touched one. Novels, sure. Military tactics manuals, alchemy texts, physics theory, sure. But manga? Not since before my contract.
"I… don't," I admitted.
And I remember the way she pouted at me, setting down her book. "Then what do you do for fun? And I don't mean hunting witches, Homura. Something you actually enjoy."
I didn't have an answer for her then.
And sitting here now, watching a tiny mouse genius pack away a Go board, I realised… I still didn't. Not really.
Maybe that was why I let him rope me into these games so easily.
Was this a hobby? Did it count? I wasn't sure anymore. I had long since forgotten what it meant to have fun, long since let the concept of a hobby fade into the background noise of survival. There wasn't room for it, not when every moment was spent chasing inevitability.
And then, another memory surfaced.
"What?! You haven't been to the mall? Seriously? Okay, nope, no excuses, we're fixing that."
Sayaka's voice. That timeline. The one where I, on a whim, offered her a piece of candy the first time we met during school. A dumb, spur-of-the-moment gesture meant to lower her guard, so that I could help Madoka better. To my surprise, it worked. She didn't glare. She didn't snap. She actually smiled, called me weird, nicknamed me "stranger danger", and pocketed it.
That tiny moment shifted the whole dynamic.
It was during that loop where, somehow, Madoka, Hitomi, and Sayaka dragged me out for a girls' night at the mall. A proper one. We tried on clothes just for the fun of it—then all three of them started fighting to pay for what I picked. I remember slipping away while they bickered, quietly buying it myself before they even noticed. It was the least I could do, surprisingly stealing from the yakuza... gave you quite the amount of pocket change.
Then the arcade. Loud, bright, full of pointless noise. Sayaka took to the rhythm games like it was a battlefield - and somehow met Kyoko, it was as if some unnatural force was shoving those 2 together. (*cough cough* "nooo...")
Madoka laughed so hard at one of the claw machines that she nearly tipped it over. She kept finding the fluffiest stuffed animals she could and pushing them into my arms, giggling every time I tried to refuse. I truly didn't deserve her kindness. (shut up, homo-ra you homusexual)
I hadn't thought about that night in so long.
But maybe… maybe that was a hobby. Being dragged around. Laughing. Experiencing something new. Not because it helped with the mission. Not because it was optimal. Just… because it was there.
My gaze drifted toward the phone on the table, and I remembered the map I'd been studying all week. Shops. Parks. Bookstores. Cafes. Places I hadn't even stepped foot in yet.
For once, I didn't feel like researching them. I wanted to go see them.
I knew what I was doing today F̶e̶r̶b̶, to find me a w̶i̶f̶e̶ hobby
I blinked back into the present as the door clicked behind Nezu. I was standing there, apparently having walked him out on autopilot, murmuring some parting phrase I couldn't even remember saying.
And before I knew it I had reopened the door and peered around the frame.
I blinked, surprised by myself. What the hell was I doing? Nezu had barely taken a few steps, and yet there I was, peeking around the door like some awkward schoolgirl caught between impulse and hesitation.
He paused mid-step, turning back with that ever-pleasant, unreadable smile. His head tilted, ears perked with polite curiosity. "Was there anything else you needed to say, Akemi-san?"
My mouth opened. Nothing came out. A frown tugged at my lips. I wasn't the type to stumble over words, not anymore.
I cleared my throat, tried again.
"I… I was wondering if…" My brain scrambled for the right phrasing. The question. The plan. The reasonable, calm way to ask permission.
And instead, what came out was:
"If I could go eat!!!"
which... Um if I heard, it sounded like asking one on a date if stretched enough.
The words slammed into the air like a brick to the face.
I froze, mortified. Why!? WHY DID I SAY THAT!?
A/N
Ah yes, the whims of a socially awkward technically teen technically adult technically war vet te- no fully traumatised child.
Ahem, anyway.
I'm back, thank you for waiting, but I think, and I mean think because I barely have anything in that useless head of mine, but I think i got the story down, so there shouldn't be much waiting for ya'll.
Hope you enjoyed, please comment on what characters you'd like to see during the next chapter because... I plan on her "meeting" one during the "hobby extravaganza" (and it can be anyone, even the villains. (but obviously there are a few characters i will 100% not take because no.))
hehehe.
Basically, I give you the viewer to shape up some stuff, so make sure to comment.
Anyway, with that done, good luck with life and stay livin