The Iron Sole Alchemist and the Magical Girls (Chapter 1) A Changed World
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)

Note:
This story is an immediate sequel to The Iron Sole Alchemist and the Soul Reapers, which is part of a series of stories. Those stories introduce characters, events, and concepts. You may not understand everything if you have not read the previous stories.

Loki and I arrived back in the Incubators' world more heavily armed than I could have imagined when I left it. To an outside observer, little would have seemed to have changed. Neither Loki nor I had visible aged. I still wore my brown hair spiked up and still preferred the black pants and open half vest of my default homunculus form that showed off the oroboros mark in the center of my chest. The changes made to the transmutation circles on the soles of my boots would be difficult for even an experienced alchemist to pick out.

The most significant change to my appearance was that I'd traded in my shoulder bag for a utility belt with multiple pouches. A holster attached to the right side of the belt held a wooden wand. A carved wooden badge in the shape of a squashed pentagon with a stylized skull in its center was clipped to the belt just forward of the wand holster. The only other change to my appearance was a thin silver ball chain around my left wrist with a five barred cross dangling from it.

My loyal dog and I had appeared on the same sidewalk we'd first appeared on years ago when we were exploring this world for the first time with Sloth. I turned toward the city center and started walking with purpose, Loki trotting along at my side. My left eye shriveled up and vanished as I took a glass eye out of one of my pouches and inserted it into the now empty socket.

The heavily enchanted false eye that had once belonged to Alistor "Mad Eye" Moody could penetrate even the most powerful forms of invisibility and allowed me to see through solid matter. While I usually had the electric blue false eye track the same way as my brown organic eye, it was fully capable of rotating independently in my eye socket, even looking through the back of my head if need be. what I saw using the Mad Eye was not what I'd been expecting.

I had memories of visiting this world in two timelines. In the first, creatures born of curses and despair called witches and familiars hid inside pocket dimensions called barriers and labyrinths, preying on humans who strayed into their realms. Individual witches and familiars had unique appearances, though copies of the same witch or familiar were identical to one another. The second timeline had creatures called wraiths that looked like exceptionally tall, robed humans with multiple square shaped chunks of their faces carved out and floating off to the side of their heads. Both types of creature were invisible to normal humans.

Familiars were everywhere. Some of them were similar to familiars I'd encountered in the first timeline with minor differences, while others were new to me. Not only were the familiars out in the open rather than hiding in barriers, but they weren't attacking people.

I took a cell phone like device from my utility belt and flipped it open. The device was loaded with exotic sensors, which I'd calibrated to detect the energy signatures of Incubator technology and display locations on a map. The familiars showed up, as did a handful of concentrations of Grief Cubes that would indicate wraiths active in the city. A group of four Soul Gems and a handful of Grief Cubes were clustered together in a middle school.

"What do you think, Loki?" I asked my dog. "Should we deal with the wraiths first, then meet with the magical girls, or should we talk to the magical girls first and work together to deal with the wraiths?"

Loki yawned.

"You're right, boy," I said, mussing his floppy ears. "I could do with working some aggression out before we try to make peaceful contact with the magical girls too."

Wraiths tended to congregate in areas where people felt strong negative emotions. That hadn't changed since the last time I'd been in this world. Loki and I followed my phone's map into the red light district. We walked past women and girls selling themselves on the street and down an alley.

A wraith towered over a prostitute and her john as they had sex behind a dumpster. The wraith's hands were extended out and glowing strands of energy rose up from the couple and formed into stable Grief Cubes. As the energy flowed out of them, the two victims' movements became more mechanical and their faces took on blank, vacant stares. They were too far gone to notice Loki and I approaching.

I drew my wand and pointed at the wraith, saying, "adava kedavra!" A green bolt of light lanced from the tip of my wand to strike the wraith dead center in its chest. When the bolt hit, the creature dissolved to nothing, dropping a dozen crystalline Grief Cubes on the street. I holstered my wand and picked up the Grief Cubes.

Killing the wraith did nothing to restore its victims. Sloth's Soul Gem had the power to restore a person who'd been drained of their emotions by a wraith, but doing so always cost more in terms of Grief Cubes than the wraith had created draining them. I'd since learned to create artificial Grief Cubes and to cleanse Soul Gems without relying on Grief Cubes at all, but none of that meant I had the power to give these people back what they'd lost.

"You still couldn't see the wraith, could you, boy?" I said as I led Loki out of the alley. "Maybe I should have left you with Ichigo and the others while I dealt with this. Oh well. You're here now, and I'll keep you safe."

Loki and I approached the location of the next wraith, and though the Mad Eye, I saw beams of light shooting through the window of the warehouse I'd detected it inside. The wraith was fighting something. Among the abilities I'd mastered in preparation for coming back to this world were four different forms of high speed movement. The one I used to get inside the warehouse in the blink of an eye was called flash step. Loki followed me with a flash step of his own.

The wraith was fighting a familiar. The familiar looked like a four foot tall paper doll wielding a staff with a heavy looking ball on one end. The wraith had summoned a number of levitating prisms that fired finger width energy beams at the familiar. Taking advantage of joints that rotated all the way around, the familiar dodged the beams then leaped into melee range with its staff behind its back. The familiar swung a heavy overhead swing for the wraith's head. The wraith raised an arm to block and found that arm crushed by the heavy staff.

Neither of them were focusing on Loki and I, but since Loki couldn't see the stray shots to avoid them, I cast a shield spell between us and them. There weren't any other people in the warehouse, so I opted to stay out of the fight and watch.

The wraith looked like it had the familiar dead to rights, but an instant before its beams struck, the familiar teleported behind the wraith and crushed its head with its staff. The wraith dissolved, dropping its collection of Grief Cubes. The familiar, who's painted expression hadn't varied at any point, ignored the dropped Grief Cubes and walked out of the warehouse on its unsteady, wobbly joints. I retrieved the Grief Cubes before leaving myself.

"The familiars are fighting the wraiths," I said. "The wraiths are acting the way I remember, but the familiars are acting outside barriers, ignoring humans. Do you think one of the magical girls figured out how to summon and control them?"

I leaned against a lamp post outside Mitakihara Middle School. My phone was in my hand and my organic eye was fixed on the screen while the Mad Eye looked through the walls of the building. My appearance attracted looks, but no one approached Loki and I while I checked the school over.

"There are familiars all over the place," I said to Loki. "Four magical girls, spread through three different classrooms. No sign of Kyubey anywhere nearby. Hopefully, the magical girls will have some idea what's going on."

I waited until the closing bell rang. The magical girls divided into pairs and headed in opposite directions. One pair was with a handful of normal girls while the other pair broke off from their fellow students and headed off on their own. I shadowed the later pair until the older of the two girls came to an abrupt halt and turned to face in my direction. She had yellow eyes and curly blond hair done up in a pair of looping tails.

"You can stop pretending you aren't following us now," she said with a self assured tone.

Taking a Grief Cube out of my belt pouch, I held it up where she could see it and said, "I'm looking for Kyubey."

"You're not a girl," blurted out the younger magical girl, who had white hair and odd brown gold eyes.

"I see she isn't the only one who's observant," I said with an amused smile as I nodded toward the older blond girl.

"Who exactly are you?" asked the blond.

"My name is Greed," I said. "What should I call you?"

"I'm Mami Tomoe," said the blond girl. Gesturing to her white haired companion, she said, "This is Nagisa."

"Pleased to meet you," I said. "Do either of you know where I can find Kyubey?"

"You shouldn't be able to find him at all," said Nagisa. "How are you even able to see that Grief Seed in your hand?"

"Magic eye," I said, pointing to the electric blue glass eye in my left socket. For emphasis, I rotated the eye three hundred sixty degrees while keeping my organic right eye still. "I expect you have other questions and I'm happy to answer them if you'll do me the same courtesy. I'll even throw in some Grief Cubes for your time. What do you say?"

The girls stared at me silently for a long moment. Their expressions shifted very slightly. They were consulting with one another telepathically, and likely hadn't had cause to practice being subtle about it. After a few minutes, the blond girl spoke for them.

"Follow me. We can talk over tea."

"And cheesecake," thrilled Nagisa as she fell into line following Mami.

"That sounds delicious. Thank you," I said as I walked with the pair.

Mami led the way to an apartment building. Once we were inside, a quick glance told me she and Nagisa lived here on their own. We were unlikely to be disturbed here.

When the three of us were seated around a table with a cup of hot tea and a slice of cheesecake in front of us, Mami asked, "How do you know Kyubey?"

"My wife was a magical girl," I said, lifting my teacup to my lips and taking a sip.

"Was?" asked Nagisa after swallowing her first bite of cheesecake.

I nodded, setting my teacup down. "She had powerful healing powers that let her restore the wraiths' victims. She overtaxed herself. Her Soul Gem became fully corrupted, then it just disappeared."

"She was taken by the Law of Cycles," said Mami nodding. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thank you," I said. "I tried wishing her back, but Kyubey refused me. After that, I went elsewhere to acquire power. Part of it was the vague hope I'd find some way to bring her back. Part of it was some idea of getting revenge on Kyubey for the part he played in what happened to her."

"Is that why you're looking for Kyubey?" asked Mami.

"Yes," I said. "I get it. I used to think of him as a friend too. He came into your life and made an impossible dream come true. Its hard for a stranger like me to compete with a narrative like that."

"That's true," said Mami. "If you're Kyubey's enemy, we can't trust you."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I said, getting to my feet. "Even so, thank you for your time and for the tea." I dropped a dozen Grief Cubes on the table and walked out he door.

"That could have gone better," I said to Loki as we walked along the dark streets. "Could have gone worse too. Neither of them took a shot at us while our backs were turned."

Stopping at a landmark I recognized from my last visit to this world, I put a hand on Loki and activated the transmutation circle tattooed on my shoulder blade. Loki and I passed through the street and dropped down into the chamber below. This underground base had been home to Sloth, Loki, and I the last time we came to this world.

It had all the basic amenities, but aside from being hidden underground, there weren't any defenses. I drew my wand and laid down some basic defensive spells before heading into the kitchen. They wouldn't keep out a concerted effort, but they would slow a potential attacker down and buy me some time to prepare.

The food I'd left in the refrigerator over a year ago had long since gone bad, but a quick transmutation rendered it edible again. When I visited this world last, my homunculus body meant that food and sleep were luxuries. I could do without either and be just fine. Now, I needed food to fuel my new spiritual powers and sleep to halt the ageing of my soul.

After eating a big meal and feeding Loki, I settled into a comfortable chair in a cross legged meditation pose. with an act of will, I manifested a katana and laid it across my lap. The weapon was a unique blade forged from the power in my soul. After acquiring it, I had to train hard in order to develop a relationship with the sword's spirit, learn its name, and master its powers. I'd skipped a few steps in my training with the sword and now I was playing catch up. I'd promised the spirit of the sword, Tsumi no Rensa, that I'd train for an hour a day until I mastered the art of forced manifestation, summoning the sword spirit into the outside world. I was still years from mastering the technique, but I'd made a promise and I was sticking to it.

When I'd completed my day's meditation, I sheathed my sword opposite my wand and willed it to vanish back inside my physical body. A zanpakto is a spiritual weapon. Though it had the power to cut body and soul alike, it was invisible to ordinary humans. Magical girls, however, could see the weapon just fine, and I didn't want my plan to contact the other two magical girls derailed by the implied threat of approaching them carrying a sword.

Before I went to bed, I laid out a set of dark detectors on my night stand. The magical devices should warn me if anyone tried to attack me in my sleep. Looking into the enchanted mirror called a foelgass, I verified that Kyubey's face was still the only one reflected there. It looked as though I hadn't managed to make an enemy of Mami and Nagisa yet. That was of some comfort as I drifted off to sleep.

"Good morning, class. We have a new student joining us today. Say hello to Marcus Oren."

"I'm pleased to meet you," I said with a bow to the other students. While my head was down, my enchanted false eye flicked over the students, picking out the two girls wearing Soul Gem rings.

"Marcus' family just moved to Mitakihara," explained the teacher.

"Miss Saotome," said one of the girls in the front row raising her hand, "why does he have a dog in class?"

"Loki's a service animal," I said. "I don't know if you guys can tell, but my left eye's fake. Most of the time it doesn't matter, but my situation awareness on that side isn't very good. Loki makes sure I don't get hit by a car I can't see coming or bump into someone in the hall on accident."

"Thank you, Marcus," said Miss Saotome. "Now, please find a seat and we'll resume our lesson.

Once I took my seat, I began idly stacking Grief Cubes on the corner of my desk. I'd taken a seat close to the front so both magical girls were behind me. They recognized the Grief Cubes and reacted with surprise before reigning themselves in. As I watched their reactions behind me using the Mad Eye, I noticed a third girl react.

The two magical girls were sitting near each other. One had short blue hair and the other had long red hair. The third girl behind them had black hair and purple eyes. She wasn't wearing a Soul Gem ring and I didn't see a Soul Gem in her bag or on her person. She was wearing a black earring with a purple gem set in it that was invisible to my organic eye.

None of the girls took the opportunity to initiate telepathic contact, so I ended up waiting for a break between classes. The girl with blue hair got up and stretched while the red head cautiously got to her feet. I left the Grief Cubes on my desk and walked over to the two of them.

"You all know my name, but it's going to take me a while to learn all of yours," I said to the blue haired girl.

"I'm Sayaka," she said. Telepathically, she added, "Mami told us about you. I don't know what game you're playing, but if you hurt any of my friends, you'll regret it."

"I'm pleased to meet you, Sayaka," I replied. Telepathically, I thought back, "The only person I have any intention of hurting is Kyubey. And that'll have to wait until I can get some answers about where all these familiars came from."

"Um... hi. I'm Madoka," said a pink haired girl who kept glancing at Loki.

"Hello, Madoka," I said, smiling at her. "Loki's friendly. You can pet him if you like."

"Hi, Loki," said Madoka, crouching down to pet my floppy eared brown dog.

"I'm Kyoko," said the red haired magical girl. Telepathically, she thought, "Those Grief Cubes...?"

"You and Sayaka can split them," I thought nodding. "When I got here, i killed the wraiths I detected. I don't need Grief Cubes so I gave half to Mami and Nagisa, and the other half is yours."

"My name is Homura Akemi," said the black haired girl with the earring. She put a hand around my wrist and said, "Let me show you the campus."

Homura's grip looked gentle but she was holding on with inhuman strength. I didn't try to fight it, accepting it as the invitation it was. A quick whistle to Loki and the dog padded along after me.

When we were in an empty hall, Homura stopped. I'd let her make her statement, so I pulled my arm back. Between my homunculus body with superhuman strength and speed in proportion to the energy of red stones I'd consumed, and my spirit energy infused soul enhancing me further, I'd run out of ways to measure the upper limit of my strength. Somehow, Homura was much stronger than me, not letting my arm budge an inch without displaying the slightest sign of effort. I had ways to increase my strength further, transformations, potions, artifacts, but resorting to them wouldn't be much of a statement, and there was no guarantee it'd be enough.

"I see I have your attention," said Homura with a small smile and a mildly amused tone.

"You do," I said, keeping my expression neutral.

"I've sacrificed a lot in order to create a world where my friends can be happy," said Homura. "Whatever you came here to do, do it without involving Sayaka Miki, Kyoko Sakura, Mami Tomoe, or Madoka Kaname."

"Homura, I'm not here to hurt your friends," I said, activating the transmutation circle on my back. Rendering myself temporarily intangible, I removed my hand from Homura's grip. "I'm just looking for answers. Do you know why there are familiars everywhere? Do you know where Kyubey is?"

"If you know what they're called, you know that familiars serve a witch," said Homura. "As for Kyubey, he's been very busy cleaning up his mess."

Suddenly, Homura was holding a badly battered Incubator by the scruff of its neck. The creature looked like a cross between a cat and a rabbit. It had white fur with red markings, round pink eyes, and a pair of tentacles growing out of its ears. This one's fur was disheveled and missing in places, revealing bloody red issue beneath. Its tail wasn't moving, but I could see an occasional twitch from its limbs indicating it was still alive.

"Help me," came a desperate telepathic plea from the wounded Incubator.

"Don't you remember me at all?" I asked Kyubey. "I'm sure this wounded and helpless routine works really well on people who don't know you're a gestalt consciousness spread across multiple planets."

"These creatures are very practiced in deception, but I can assure you, his distress is very real," said Homura. "You see, I've killed all the others, and this one's too weak and wounded to make more bodies."

"Why are you keeping this one alive?" I asked, contemplating the amount of power it would take to do what she was claiming to have done.

"Like I said, I'm making him clean up his mess," said Homura. "I won't bore you with the details, but once we're finished, there won't be any more wraiths ever."

"Save me and I'll grant the wish you asked for before you left this timeline," thought Kyubey urgently.

"I thought you swore off using human emotions, Incubator," said Homura with mock affection. "After I... changed, you said it was too dangerous, but here you are, offering to grant a wish for your freedom. This is why you need me to keep an eye on you, and keep you from repeating your mistakes."

And Kyubey was gone. Just like before, I didn't sense any energy buildup, hear any displacement of air, or even see the point when it happened. The Incubator was simply there one instant and gone the next.

"I hope that answered your questions," said Homura.

"It did," I said, my mind racing as I used every bit of mental discipline I had to keep calm.

"You don't need to bother disenrolling," said Homura. "Tomorrow, no one will know you were ever at this school. Don't come back."

Now, Loki and I were standing outside on the path leading up to the school. Homura was nowhere in sight. A collection of birdlike familiars were perched in a tree nearby watching us curiously with eyes made out of buttons.

I took a deep breath and let my control relax a bit. My limbs trembled and my eyes opened wide as I let myself feel the panic that had been building up as my conversation with Homura went on.

Loki whined and nuzzled up against me. I stroked my loyal dog's head and drew comfort from his presence even as I worked through every terrifying implication of Homura's words and actions. Finally, I'd processed enough and I stopped trembling.

When my body steadied, a line of blue light ran up my body. Starting at the soles of my shoes and passing along my body until it vanished in a few sparks at the top of my spiked hair, the wave of light transformed my body. I'd returned to my full adult height as I shed the appearance of someone who wouldn't be out of place in a middle school. The school uniform was gone, replaced by black boots, black pants, and a black, open half vest. My brown hair had turned black, my dark skin pale, and my brown organic eye was now purple with a slitted pupil. My human teeth were replaced with the pointed shark like teeth of my homunculus form.

"Come on, boy," I said to Loki as I started walking. "It's time to head back to the lab and decide our next move."

Author's comments:
We are now post Rebellion in the Madoka timeline and Greed's now met the demiurge of this world.