In the days when the internet was young and the fanfiction already old, it was traditional to begin with a disclaimer. Therefore I disclaim: Puella Magi Madoka Magica is the greatest anime to air in this Winter season of 2011, and it is most assuredly not mine. Proper credit belongs to production studios SHAFT and Aniplex, director Akiyuki Shinbo, and writer Gen Urobuchi. I further suggest that if you haven't watched it to at least episode 10, the most recent episode as of this posting, go and experience the story of Kaname Madoka and her friends as it was meant to be seen. Spoilers aside, I didn't write this with the intent of having it be fully understandable by people who are not fans of the show. I further submit that I have transgressed against the domain of fanfiction: First, by writing fanfiction. Second, by writing fanfiction with a new character not of the canon. Third, by writing fanfiction in the first person voice of said non-canonical character. And then, possibly due to fevered insanity, I decided to post it anyway.

I feel that I should say this first: I, Yuzuru Reiji, definitely am not insane.

Saturday April 9, 2011, third time.

Time is repeating. For at least two times now, in the afternoon of Wed. 4/13/11, the future has become the past. Starting from that time, my position and physical state, along with everyone and everything in the world so far as I can tell, returns to where they were on the morning of Wed. 3/16/11, and proceeds to enact very much the same actions over and over. I have attended the exact same lessons, eaten the exact same meals, overheard the exact same gossip, and taken the exact same tests with each repetition.

Time is also not repeating. While everyone around me is the same, I am changing. While I would be lying if I claimed to have anything like a perfect memory, I would be a sorry excuse for a man if I couldn't repeat the same lessons with better results, and my test scores have definitely gone up. I might even be confident of my test score beating our class's curve breaker this time around, but she is also an exception.

It would not be fair to introduce Tomoe Mami without mentioning that she is a beautiful girl, blonde, large breasts, in addition to regularly getting the best test scores of our class. She's a member of the go-home club, and any boy who confesses to her gets shot down. Ordinarily, that would be all I should need to say. I would be quite a happy man if she also knew that time was repeating, because then I might have a chance with her.

Unfortunately, the reason I can't beat her test score this time is because she didn't take the test. Tomoe hasn't been in class or seen at all since Thursday. Last time around she missed getting the test results that will come out on Monday, and the first time, when I still had no idea that time was about to loop back on itself, the teacher called her to the front of the class to announce her score.

There's no reason I can see that anything should happen to her, and before she stopped coming to school this time, I at least managed to catch her alone and ask her if she'd had anything like deja vu or memories that didn't match up with reality. She thought it was a pretty lame pick up line, but I guess that answered the question I was really asking too. I can't imagine any reason why only she would stop coming to school on a different day when nothing else has changed aside from that one guy in second year getting out of the hospital, maybe. It was big news with the girls because he's supposed to be some hotshot musician or something. I'm not sure whether that's happened before or if I just wasn't paying attention.

I'm going to try sneaking a peak at the school registry and dropping by her house. It's probably nothing, but it's the only clue I've got.

Sunday April 10, 2011, third time.

She wasn't home. I ran into a couple of girls from the lower class who must have been friends of hers. They didn't know where she disappeared to, and they believed me when I said the teacher asked me to check on her.

Well, at least if time doesn't turn back again, I won't have made them suspicious.

Wednesday March 16, 2011, fourth time.

Damn. Talking to her didn't help, and looking for her after she vanished was a lame idea to begin with. I shouldn't need to say this, but I didn't find a single clue in the last three days. But Tomoe Mami is still my only clue, so this time I'll get close to her even if it kills me!

Friday March 18, 2011, fourth time.

I guess it should go without saying that my love confession didn't work. I thought I'd practiced enough to sound serious about it, but I wasn't really expecting that she'd accept me after blowing off so many before me. But at least now if she catches me following her, I can say that I tried the straightforward approach first.

Pretty sure she's avoiding me now, or at least I haven't been able to catch her on her way out of school since she rejected me. I'm going to have to step things up, even though I'm certain to be misunderstood. No, I need to be honest with myself here. I'm going to stalk her, and there's a lot of good reasons I shouldn't do it. Suppose there's nothing to learn, and time doesn't repeat this time, and I'm left with a serious crime on my record?

Perhaps I am a little crazy after all. If it comes to that, I hope my future self will forgive me.

Wednesday March 23, 2011, fourth time.

Stalking isn't as easy as it looks on tv. Maybe I stick out like a white whale on a black background, or maybe she's just slicker than a greased eel. I'd like to think that I'm not completely incompetent, though I've never done it before.

I tried another confession, with no greater success. "Blinded by the sun, Yuzuru Reiji forgets that her heart is of ice," according to that bastard Takenomiya who calls himself my friend. Don't think I won't rub it in when you humiliate yourself in front of that transfer student for the fourth time running. It's not like either of you know that you've done it before, though.

Saturday March 26, 2011, fourth time.

I suppose it was naive of me to think everything would repeat exactly. I made the mistake of teasing Takenomiya about that incident that should have happened, but apparently the transfer student never came to school this time. If I can't learn anything from Tomoe, at least this might be another clue. Maybe there's a serial killer who is experiencing the same repeating month that I am, but for some reason always targets Tomoe near the end? That's horribly morbid. It would be explanation enough to suppose that the random seed isn't being preserved with respect to some details.

I feel like I'd lose something if I let myself be satisfied with that. Someone who can write off a person's entire existence as a random event, can he really be called a man? For just this one day, I forgo stalking Tomoe to break into the school records as I did when she disappeared last time. It seems the transfer student was meant to arrive, but simply didn't come to school. Her address is on record, but Tomoe is still my best lead. I, Yuzuru Reiji, swear I will solve this mystery and escape from this time loop!

Sunday March 27, 2011, fourth time.

At last she let her guard down. Having not been followed from anywhere except school, and since I haven't visited her at home since the last reset, of course she never imagined that I was waiting for her to leave. Not sure what to think of what I did find, though. It seems she has some sort of egg-shaped knicknack that she holds in front of her and follows it around like it's leading her somewhere. Dowsing? Some sort of wierd cult? I worried about following her when she started going into construction sites and condemned buildings. In the middle of one site, where there was basically nowhere she should have been able to run away to, she somehow lost me. I should feel worse that she ditched me again. I'm actually more afraid that she's mixed up in something horrible.

But it's a clue! It may not even be the right puzzle, but I now have a second piece! It's all I can do to contain my excitement. Tomorrow, I'll visit her at home.

Monday March 28, 2011, fourth time.

Fail. I waited outside her apartment until well after dark before she returned. Whether she extended her ritual for some reason or simply did something else, I have no idea. I'm probably lucky that she decided just to confront me instead of calling the cops.

"You just don't know when to give up, do you? I'm sorry, Yuzuru-kun, but I don't have any particular interest in you. And don't you think your recent behavior has been disgusting?"

"I'll be the first to admit that my actions have been extreme, and I'm sorry if I have offended you, but my motivations have been extreme as well. I've already told you that you are beautiful, and even now I feel you are no less than the Golden Sun of Class 3-1, but the truth is that your beauty, grace, and intelligence amount only to half- no, less than half of the reason I've been stalking you!"

"So you admit to stalking me?"

"I see no reason not to call it what it is. I've been unfair to you, but I need you to hear me out. Recently, I've been having dreams of things that happen in the future. Dreams that come true." Okay, technically not the truth, but she hadn't believed the truth when I told it. "And in one of those dreams you disappear without a trace. I didn't want to believe it, but after watching you closely, I can only conclude that you're involved in something horribly dangerous. If there's something I can do to help you, no matter when, no matter what, I'd like for you to think of me as someone you can turn to."

She's got a good poker face, but I think I saw her slip when I mentioned danger. If I hadn't basically confirmed it already, I'd have been all over it. Given what came next, however...

"You want me to believe that you can see the future? That I would just disappear and you think you can save me? Even as a joke, that would be going too far! Just who do you think you are, Yuzuru Reiji-kun?"

"I am a young man who has been granted a miraculous chance to change the future of a beautiful girl. Is it so wrong to believe in miracles?"

Now that, that really pissed her off.

"Miracles? Miracles? How dare you think even for a moment that someone would grant a miracle to a lying piece of trash like you?" That cliche about getting slapped by a girl? Totally underrated. Try having one punch you in the face. "We may have to see each other at school, but never speak to me again!"

My parents weren't happy when I came home late with a broken nose. I told them I was attacked by a strange drunk. I may be a lying piece of trash, but I'm not stupid. I'm going to find out what that girl is involved in whether she likes it or not.

Friday March 31, 2011, fourth time.

"Tomoe-san?" No way. "Has anyone heard from Tomoe-san today?" I knew it might happen sooner, but this is too soon. I need to- I need to-

"I need to go." "Yuzuru Reiji-kun, what do you think you're doing?" "Skipping!"

Maybe it's already too late, but I have to know. Tomoe Mami, why do you disappear? At least let me know what's happening!