Author's note: The last story was kind of like "L in Madoka universe". This sequel will be more like "Madoka in Death Note universe"... except death notes would not exist... argh... based off of the spinoff movie "L: Change the World"... except it won't be bio-terrorism this time.

So, if you don't think you'll like it... abandon ship.

Oh yes... READ "As Time Diverges: The Mitakihara Case" BEFORE READING THIS ONE! I MEAN IT!

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25 Days Left

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"Help me!"

Terrified screams were heard all around the small village. One such villager ran, terrified, as he was chased by a ghostly cloaked creature with a head that looked like pixels. He rounded a corner, only to find another monster in front of him. He was surrounded.

The demons closed in. A scream was heard.

Far away, on the other side of the village, a small boy sat near a rock. In front of him was a rock with several complex mathematical equations.

A demon approached him.

The boy turned away from his drawing of the Fibonacci sequence to look at it. He was scared, but he didn't show it that much. He did, however, give a startled cry when the demon reached for him.

A purple light glistened, piercing the demon, who disappeared with a startled cry.

"A survivor?" the saviour said curiously. "I thought I was too late."

The boy turned at the person who saved him. It was a girl with long black hair with a red ribbon. She wore strange clothing and had a shield on her arm.

"Come on." she grabbed the boy. "We need to get out of here."

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"Everything is going perfectly, sir. The Grief cubes we have planted have attracted just the right number of demons we need. We are now proceeding into-"

"Sir!" A man yelled as he watched a screen, "We have an unknown mahou shoujo leaving the area. She has a boy from the village with her!"

A finely dressed man glared at his underling. "We don't need any witnesses. Eliminate her."

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Homura held the boy by the hand as they ran through the woods. They were near the road to a city when she felt something. Dodging to the side, she felt an attack just narrowly miss her head and hit the tree in front of her. Turning, she saw another mahou shoujo.

It couldn't be.

She had appeared occasionally before, her appearance being one of the few details that changed occasionally during her infinite time loops. The Mahou Shoujo Homura knew as Kirika Kure appeared, flanked by a dozen other mahou shoujo that all seemed to have some sort of black visor. It struck Homura on how she couldn't see their eyes. .

"Give up." she said. "We have you surrounded. We want the boy. Leave him and we'll spare you."

If it was any other time, Homura would have just left the boy to die. However, she was different now. She resolved to protect. Especially, she knew that Madoka would protect that boy to the best of her ability in this situation. So Homura made her decision.

"And if I say no?"

"We will kill you."

"Try it."

The group of Mahou Shoujo prepared to attack, but Homura got the first move. Something fell form her shield.

Kirika realized what it was. "Stand back!"

Homura bit off the pin on the top of the flash-bang grenade. As the grenade went off, Homura took the boy and ran, knocking the visor off of one of the Puella Magi while she was getting away.

When Kirika was able to see again, Homura and the boy were gone.

Oriko, she spoke telepathically to someone, I'm sorry. She escaped.

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"She got away!" The finely dressed man yelled. "How can one Mahou Shoujo escape from over a dozen-"

"Calm down, Matoba-san. She's a special one." a female voice said.

"You know her?"

"Not personally, but I have heard of her." the girl known as Oriko replied. "The mysterious Mahou Shoujo Akemi Homura... But no need to worry. She won't be able to do much, even with the boy."

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NaXlyd Presents:

24 Days- The Second Mitakihara Case

Chapter 1: Days 24 - 19

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24 Days Left

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"Alright, that concludes our class today." L said to the class as they got up to leave. "Please don't forget to do the homework tonight." He went back to his teacher's desk, surrounded by chatter on what the students planned to do.

It was technically a year since the Mitakihara case. If one wanted to be picky, then he could say it had been a year since L had regained his memories regarding magic and everything he had done in Mitakihara, everything he had done to steer fate towards the world in which Witches did not exist. Feeling something was missing from his life, he decided to get out of his investigation room and become a real teacher, such as he had done as a cover. Eccentric teacher by day, international detective by night. It worked well with him. He was also preparing to apply for a position in Mitakihara High School. At least this time, he was a fully certified teacher and was the homeroom teacher of 3-A, the one Homura was in. However, he noted that she was absent for the past few days.

She said something about Thailand. He didn't mind.

He looked at the calender. It was April 7.

24 Days until the anniversary of Madoka's ascension.

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That evening, L sat in his apartment, doing a mountain of marking. Apparently, the other teachers were scared of how efficient he was at marking. So scared that they simply handed their own tests to him, which he didn't mind.

It did get boring though. After an hour of marking two classes worth of math tests, he pressed a button on his desk. Instantly, monitors sprang up, keyboards appeared and L got down to doing what he did best: Crime solving. He was going through various cases when he came across a peculiar file. One from Mitakihara Local Police.

Tomoe Mami had been declared missing three hours ago.

Picking up the phone, he dialled a number.

The person on the other end picked up. "Akemi speaking."

"Akemi-san, this is L."

"...Ryuzaki-sensei, what is it?"

"When is the last time you have seen Tomoe Mami?" L asked, ignoring the jibe Homura slipped in.

"A few days ago, right before I left for Thailand." She replied. "Why?"

"Did her soul gem show any signs of being close to depleting?"

"No. She looked like she would last for a while longer."

"Well, this is strange. She had been declared missing three hours ago. Her teacher at Mitakihara High noticed her absence and informed the police."

Homura was silent for a moment. "I see. I'll be back there as soon as I can. Things are getting strange over at my side too."

"What happened?"

"I witnessed a demon attack on a village in Thailand, but that was not the point. The main problem is that it was a planned coordinated attack."

"You mean to say someone deliberately set demons on that village? An Incubator?" L asked.

"No. It felt to me like... it was a human coordinated attack."

"Is that even possible?" L asked.

"I don't know. I have a survivor with me."

"I see.." L nodded. "please come back to Mitakihara as soon as you can."

Without replying, Homura hung up. With that, L got back to work, looking at a mountainous stack of cases, most if not all containing some form of government corruption, assassination and international criminal organization.

Just another night at the office.

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"Ne, are you sure we're in the right place?"

"For the last time, Kazumi, yes."

Seven girls trekked through the forests of Thailand. With them, trotting on short legs, was a cat-like creature. "It's close."

"Are you sure, Jubey? This area looks deserte-"

They stopped. They got their first view of what once used to be a village. Except now it was a smouldering ruin littered with dead bodies.

"A demon attack. There is no doubt." The leader of the group, a girl by the name of Saki Asami commented.

"This is horrible..." another one, Kaoru Maki, commented.

"Saki," one of the other members said, "Look here."

The leader walked towards the dead body of a girl who had something in her hands. "She was holding something." prying back the fingers, she received a shock. She then quickly hid it. "That's the remains of a soul gem." she muttered.

"Does this mean that the demons killed her?"

"Probably not, Mirai." Saki replied. "...this was a Puella Magi's attack. There's no doubt."

"Guys! I found something!" Kazumi yelled. She held up what seemed to be a visor.

"Out of place. It may have something to do with it." one of the members, Misaki, commented as she and Saki examined the object together. Flipping it over, she found words. "Blue Ship." She read out loud.

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23 Days Left

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"Ooh..." a little girl who couldn't have been older than ten sat up in a place she had never seen before. "Where... am I?"

Yuma Chitose looked around. It seemed to be some sort of hotel room. The last thing she remembered was that she was fighting a Demon. It was about to finish her off, but she didn't remember what happened next.

"I'm glad to see you're awake." a gentle voice said suddenly next to her.

Startled, she turned.

"I'm sorry I surprised you." The owner of the voice apologized. The first possibility that ran through Chitose's mind was that the girl was some sort of princess. She had flowing white hair, was dressed in fancy clothes and had an air of elegance around her. "My name is Mikuni Oriko. You can call me Oriko." she smiled.

"U-um... Thank you. M-my name is Yuma Chitose." the girl muttered shyly. She was afraid that she might insult the princess.

Oriko chuckled. "Please, don't worry. You are safe here."

"Um, Where is this place?" Chitose asked.

"You are at the headquarters of Blue Ship." Oriko answered.

"Blue... Ship?"

"Yes. Blue ship is a government organization that works to help Puella Magi like us."

"You- you're a mahou shoujo too!" Chitose asked, excited to finally meet another one.

"Yes. I work with Blue Ship to protect girls like you." Oriko gave her a gentle pat on the head. "While you are here, please don't wander around without permission. You've been hurt in that battle with the demon and we want you to recover. Enjoy your stay." she smiled and walked out of the room, leaving Chitose alone.

"Well?" The man known as Matoba demanded from her the moment the door was closed.

"Her soul gem is fine. There is no damage. We can use her." She replied.

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L sat in his chair. It was evening now. He had just solved another large pile of cases, but the thing he had been waiting for had not yet arrived.

There was a knock on the door.

L looked up. She was here. Opening the door, L was silently relieved to see Homura alive and well.

"Who is this?" he asked, referring to the young boy who was tightly clutching her arm.

"The survivor." Homura answered as she strode in. "L, we might have a problem."

L sat down in his usual peculiar position and stared at the boy. "Go on."

Her description of what had happened in Thailand was worrisome, to say the least. First the Demons had made a planned attack on a village, and now Mahou Shoujo were trying to kill the witnesses. It seemed like something more than an isolated incident had occurred.

L mused. Could the disappearance of Tomoe Mami have anything to do with it?

Homura got up to leave. "I will leave the boy in your care, L."

L looked up. "What?"

"I don't have the resources to look after a boy like him. Keep him here."

"You realize I need to teach-"

Homura wasn't listening. She walked out, closing the door behind her.

L thought for a moment, then reached for the phone. Calling a number, he spoke.

"Watari, I need your help."

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20 Days Left

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Yuma was bored. She had been stuck for three days in the room. Sure, there were toys, books and a TV, but she wanted to go outside.

She then thought about it. She knew that Oriko would get mad at her, but it was her fault for keeping her here. Slowly getting off the bed, she opened the door. Taking a peek, she saw that there was no one there. Just rows and rows of doors.

Tiptoeing past the doors, she continued until she heard a Thump from behind one of the doors. Scared, she looked at the door.

"Is someone there?" The voice behind the door asked. Yuma nearly stopped breathing out of nervousness, but then opened the door anyways.

"Hello?" she called out timidly. "Is someone there?"

"Oh! Come in." To Yuma's surprise, it was another young girl. She couldn't possibly be any older than herself. She stepped into the room and closed the door.

She was right. The girl was no older than her, maybe even a little younger. She had pink hair and brown clothing. She had a little stuffed doll, which she was hugging while she lay on her bed.

"I'm Alice." She said with a cheerful smile, and Chitose suddenly realized that she had probably been here much longer than three days.

"I-I'm Yuma. Chitose Yuma." She said. She had been lonely for a large portion of her life and found it hard to make friends.

"Do you like sweets, Yuma-chan? I can call you Yuma-chan, right?" Alice smiled.

"Of course! And I love sweets! Especially candy!"

"Me too, although what I really like is... cheese." she admitted.

"Cheese? Really?"

"Yes!" Alice insisted. "Cheese is just so soft and fluffy, and it almost melts in your mouth..."

Yuma giggled. It looked like this place would get a lot better.

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"What do you think?" Matoba asked Oriko, who was looking at notes Blue Ship had compiled on Alice.

"I think that she is ready. Besides, she knows too much. You may not have noticed, but she had overheard our conversation a few days back."

"Why didn't you tell me!" Matoba demanded. Upon hearing silence, he threw his hands up in frustration. "Do the experiments on this Alice girl."

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L got home from Mitakihara middle. When he opened the door, the first thing he heard was a crash, followed by Watari's voice of "No, you shouldn't do that."

L walked in. His first reaction was relief that the boy had not destroyed half his files. He had only destroyed a quarter.

Taking out a lollipop, he knelt in front of the boy, offering it silently to him. The boy only stared back at him.

"This is a very interesting experience," L muttered, "But it may be a weakness. Perhaps I should take a few days off of teaching."

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19 Days Left

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"Alice, what do you want to play next?"

"I don't know... oh, I know!" Alice pulled out a math book.
"A math book!" Chitose exclaimed. "But math is boring!"

"Come on, Yuma," Alice said, "We need to keep up with school, even if we're mahou shoujo." she then thought for a moment. "I know!" She pulled out a question. "Try this one!"

She looked at the question. It was a rectangle, with a length of 24 cm and a width of 13. There was a line from one corner to one of the lengths, apparently at an angle of 40 degrees. Rounding to the nearest whole numbers, she had to find the ratio of the short section of the length to the long section of the length.

"I don't know any of this..." she muttered.

"Ahaha, don't worry... I don't either."

Just then, there was a knock by the door. Alice looked up. "Hide under the bed!" She whispered.

The door opened, revealing two unknown Mahou Shoujo, along with a tall man dressed in a fancy suit. For some reason, Chitose did not like him.

"Alice," the man tried to sound nice but Chitose noticed a hidden malice to his voice, "We need to do a medical examination on you."

"Why?" Alice asked.

"Lately, there's been a strange bug going around the building." The man replied. "Come on, let's go..."

The math question still in her pocket, Yuma waited for them to leave, then followed them downstairs.

They had taken Alice to a laboratory. To Yuma, this did not look like a place where gentle doctors would be. Hiding around the corner, she watched as Alice was put in a glassed room. Several strange objects then appeared.

Yuma's eyes went wide.

Those were grief cubes.

"Begin." The man said coldly.

"Right away, Matoba-san." a man at a console acknowledged the order before activating the process. Instantly, the grief seeds surrounded Alice. More specifically, her soul gem. Alice fell off the chair and began grasping and writhing in pain, all while Matoba and Oriko, who had appeared by his side, watched coldly.

"Foolish girl." Matoba sneered as Alice began shrieking. "Did you think we did not notice you listening in on our plans?"

There was one last shriek from Alice, then there was an explosion. And then a pink light.

"No!" Oriko yelled as she saw the pink light. "The grief cubes! Use the grief cubes!"

Suddenly, the ten grief cubes that had been lined around Alice's soul gem began to cackle, releasing dark energy. The dark energy countered the pink energy, stopping it from reaching the soul gem.

There was another explosion. Yuma nearly screamed.

Alice was dead, her cold body laying on the floor of the lab. Inside the room, through the glass, only a weird object that looked like a black soul gem was on the wall, rooted to it and glowing.

"Matoba-san, the energy levels were tremendous. Exponentially higher than anything we have seen from a grief cube."

Matoba smirked. He had found it. A method of extracting high levels of energy. "Oriko, we have done it. A grief seed."

"Yes. Soon the goddess's protection will be no more. And then the universe will be saved.

Suddenly, there was a yell. "Someone escaped!"

"What!" Oriko turned suddenly.

"One of those mahou shoujo, the Chitose girl, she ran away!"

"Yuma..." Oriko growled. She turned towards the shadows. Out of those shadows, three mahou shoujo, all with visors, appeared.

"Get out there." she growled. "Chase down and kill the Chitose girl. She saw everything."

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Chitose panted as she ran away from the building. She didn't care that she was lost. She didn't care that she was in the middle of a maze of buildings. She didn't care that she had no plan. The only thoughts in her right now were that the people from "Blue Ship" had killed her friend, turned her soul gem black somehow, and that they would probably do the same to her.

Suddenly, she felt something behind her and ducked, only to have a blast of magical energy fly right above her head. Startled, she turned behind her.

Three mahou shoujo were there. They were wearing visors. Just like the ones at Blue Ship.

They found me!

One of them was about to prepare another attack. Yuma only cringed, expecting the worst.

The blast fired, and then was deflected with the sound of a weapon cutting through energy.

Yuma opened her eyes.

"Geez," Her saviour sighed, "I took over this town temporarily while Mami's gone missing, and I see three random Puella Magi bully a little girl?"

Yuma was in awe. The Puella Magi that had saved her was definitely older than her. She had red hair tied into a ponytail, had a red outfit and a very dangerous looking spear. It looked a lot more sturdier than her own Puella Magi weapon.

The three Mahou Shoujo shifted back, looking ready to fight.

The girl could only laugh. "Really? You think that newbies like you can take me on?" With a simple twirl of her spear, she extended it, turning it into a giant chain which blasted the three mahou shoujo against the sides of a building, knocking them unconscious.

"Losers." The girl muttered, then turned towards Yuma. "You alright?"

"Um... yes... uh, tha-thank you."

"No problem." She then noticed the soul gem Yuma had. "You- you're a mahou shoujo too!"

"Y-yes..."

"Why didn't you fight back!"

"I-I'm not good at fighting..."

The girl sighed. "Well, this is troublesome... From what those Pleidas Saint girls were talking about, those three losers over there look like they're from Blue Ship or whatever they were called-"

"Blue ship!" Yuma exclaimed. "They... they killed my friend!"

the girl stared at her. "Killed?"

"They... they did something to Alice, and her soul gem went all black..."

Kyouko gave it thought."Well, if they're after you, then it might be a good idea not to be out in the open." The girl undid her transformation and offered her a pocky stick. "The name's Kyouko. Sakura Kyouko."

"Um... I'm Yuma." She muttered shyly, taking a pocky stick.

"Come on, we should get out of here." Kyouko took Yuma by the hand and led her through the streets. "The safest place would be... Ryuzaki-sensei's place, I guess."

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END OF PART 1

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Author's note: For the first time in the history of me writing fanfic, I have introduced an OC. Alice is my interpretation of what Charlotte might have been as a mahou shoujo. I would have included the cancer theory if I could, but I couldn't.

Oh, and by now, Sayaka would have disappeared already, so she won't be in this fic. Madoka WILL make an appearance. If you really want it, I can give Sayaka a brief appearance too.

Please Review.

P.S. Yes, those were the Pleidas Saints trekking through Thailand.

P.S.S... I hope you all understand the significance of what Oriko did to Alice. Especially considering what this timeline was supposed to be.