Kamihama Rumor File
Episode 1: Anything is Possible
An entire week had passed since Iroha had defeated the Uwasa of the Rule of Ending Friendships, and she had not found any clues beyond the fact that Touka and Nemu were discharged from the hospital. She lets out a sigh of disappointment after defeating a Familiar, when Momoko comes up to greet her.They go to a restaurant with Rena and Kaede, where they explain to each other how they didn't find any hints. However, Kaede mentions that she heard that many children who disappeared had returned after the Uwasa of the Rule of Ending Friendships. Rena asks where Kaede heard this, and she explained that kids in her neighborhood spoke about it. Kaede suggests that Ui might have been caught up in a different Rumor, which Iroha speculates over.
Iroha begins to recall a time when Ui said, "As long as you two are around, anything is possible in this world." This is in reference to a time when Touka and Nemu were debating about whether a story is good if it happens to be a fantasy. Ui prevents their argument from escalating by bringing up how miraculous it was for people as talented as them to be together, and that they could make anything happen if Touka makes use of Nemu's imagination. Iroha concludes that Ui being trapped in a Rumor is a possibility, and decides to look into Rumors. She asks Momoko if she heard any Rumors besides the Rumor Rule of Ending Friendships, to which Momoko recalls hearing about a dancing old man at an intersection. Kaede interrupts, saying that the rumor was real and their school sent out e-mails telling students to avoid him. Since none of Momoko's team knew any Rumors that could help Iroha find Ui, Iroha is left with no choice but to ask around about such matters.
Episode 2: The Shrine's Rumor
Iroha returns to Mitama to explain how her shyness is keeping her from trying to talk to other people, but Yachiyo shows up and suggests she isn't being serious about something as dangerous as an Uwasa. Iroha apologizes for making her worry, but Yachiyo denies that she's worried, and instead she doesn't have to explain why she would stop Iroha. Yachiyo decides to wait in a different room to have her Soul Gem adjusted by Mitama, who then asks Iroha to expand her search to Mizuna Ward. Mitama explains that she heard a vague rumor about a shrine. She also suggested having a look at the school that was there, Mizuna Girls' Academy, since it would be easier for Iroha to speak to girls her age.Iroha reaches Mizuna Girls' Academy, and is awed by how historical it looked. Nevertheless, she decides to proceed into the school. She asked some students about it, but they didn't know any details about it. Iroha stayed until it got dark, before deciding it might be easier if she found a Magical Girl other than Yachiyo who was interested in Rumors. She yelled out loud for this to come true, before shrugging it off as something that would be too easy. Surprisingly, someone yelled back, and Iroha turned around to find a tall girl in the same uniform as Momoko and her friends. She quickly introduced herself as Tsuruno Yui, the "Mightiest Magical Girl." Iroha was shocked by what just happpened, as Tsuruno went on about how dangerous Rumors were.
Iroha explained her situation, and Tsuruno responds by saying she doesn't know Ui and her friends. However, she did know about a rumor about a place called the "Séance Shrine." Apparently, anyone who went to the shrine would find any person they wanted, which Tsuruno remarked as being the perfect way for Iroha to find her sister. Tsuruno offers to work with Iroha to find the shrine, and Iroha agrees. Later, Mitama speaks with Yachiyo about Iroha's findings, and asks what she would do about it. Yachiyo agains explains that she doesn't have to answer that. Meanwhile, Iroha checks her Soul Gem and notices that there are some impurities in it, but brushes it off thinking she's ok.
Episode 3: In a Fairytale's Footsteps
The next day, Iroha met with Tsuruno to look for the Séance Shrine. Tsuruno suggests looking into an old story about a shrine at Mizuna Ward. She explains that long ago there was a couple of differing social statuses. After the man was murdered, his lover found a paper asking her to go somewhere to reunite with him. In present times, it is said that that location became a popular matchmaking area. Thus, Tsuruno plans for Iroha to walk from the man's old house to that spot, while Tsuruno goes to look at other shrines. Iroha soon realizes the stamp pad she found along the way were part of a town promotion, but continues anyway, hoping that it might lead to a Rumor.Iroha goes past Mizuna Girls' Academy, the Great Mizuna Bridge, and other locations before realizing she only had half of the map required to reach the last location. She runs into Yachiyo who coincidentally had the second half. She's perplexed that Iroha is investigating the Séance Shrine of all Rumors, but decides to see their plan through to the end. After they put the map together, Iroha runs off and accidentally drops her notebook. She briefly panics about it before Yachiyo hands it back.
They reach Mizuna Shrine, which Iroha remarks to be quite large. When they turn in their stamp sheets, they get flustered when the woman they handed the sheets to claims their reward is a matchmaking charm and that they should confess their feelings to each other. Yachiyo considers leaving, but Iroha remarks that she can never tell what she's thinking, to which Yachiyo comments on Iroha's innocence. After Iroha rephrases herself to say that Yachiyo was a nice person, she responds that Iroha can be frighteningly direct at times.
As the time reaches night, Yachiyo looks at Iroha's notebook and finds that it wasn't her homework but rather a cruder copy of her Kamihama Rumor Files. She quietly admits that she hopes Iroha finds her sister before leaving. Iroha finds it odd that someone who was acting so cold earlier would help defeat the Rumor of Ending Friendships, before concluding that it was Yachiyo's way of being kind. She later meets up with Tsuruno again, but they find that neither of them found Séance Shrine. As Iroha takes the train back to Shinsei Ward, an image of her Soul Gem is shown, now somewhat darker.
Episode 4: The Séance Shrine
When Iroha meets Tsuruno the next day, she suggest they look for the shrine separately again, and that there was a shrine on top of a hotel building that she saw from the train ride to Shinsei Ward. Tsuruno agrees to split up again, after helping Iroha to understand with an app that makes free calls on a smartphone. After Iroha reaches the building, she finds that it was abandoned but senses a strong Witch living there. She decides to take care of it alone, fearing that it might leave before she could call for other magical girls.As Iroha expected she was having trouble dealing with Familiars and considered leaving. However, Yachiyo arrives and chides her for acting expendable. Iroha rebukes that she isn't going to die in front of her and doesn't want her to say she died in vain. Yachiyo seemed a bit disturbed but changes the subject to ask what Iroha was doing. Iroha claims she's still looking for the Séance Shrine and doesn't plan to stop, while Yachiyo once again claims she doesn't have to explain why she was there.
As they continue fighting towards the Witch, Yachiyo notes that the Familiars were stronger than even she expected, but that Iroha had also become stronger. Once they reach the Witch, they initially agree to cover each other, but notice an unconscious person nearby that they decide to prioritize rescuing. After bringing him out of the Witch's Labyrinth, Iroha decides she wants to go back to deal with it before investigating the shrine. Although Yachiyo had lost track of where it went, Iroha thought ahead by shooting an arrow charged with her magic at it and tracking that instead. They follow it to a shopping mall where Yachiyo notes a sale is going on.
After they beat the Witch, Yachiyo lets Iroha take the Grief Seed it dropped to clean her Soul Gem, which had gathered a lot of impurities. Without specifying what would happen, she insists that Iroha use it before it's too late. However, Iroha decides to save it for later rather than waste it. Before Iroha could go back to the abandoned shrine, Yachiyo gets distracted by another sale before having a "Eureka!" Moment over the Séance Shrine. Since ghosts are said to appear at night, it's likely that the Rumor required that they go back to Mizuna Shrine at night. Yachiyo suggests that Iroha come along since Iroha proved to be capable enough. Iroha agrees but asks if she could bring someone calling herself the "Mightiest Magical Girl" with her. Yachiyo briefly gasps but reluctantly agrees to see her too. Later on, Yachiyo thinks about what Iroha said about not dying in front of her and reminisces about an old friend's similar words.
Episode 5: The Shrine Visit
Iroha wakes up excited about meeting Ui at the Séance Shrine, and later explains to Mitama that she's investigating it with Yachiyo. Suddenly, Tsuruno barges in with her usual fashion to greet Mitama before congratulating Iroha for finding the Shrine, before leaving with Iroha. Mitama notes that it's strange for Yachiyo to have those two working with her, and that she would have told her about the Rumor herself if Mitama knew things would turn out this way.Iroha waits at the train station where Tsuruno had rushed off to and finds Yachiyo. Iroha remarks how nervous she was about meeting Ui, but Yachiyo repeats what Mitama had said before Iroha left: don't get too invested in rumors. It's still not known how they came to be or if the Shrine's Rumor would properly show them the person they are looking for. Yachiyo correctly guess that Tsuruno was the one Iroha brought with her, just as Tsuruno runs out of nowhere to give Yachiyo a suffocating hug. Yachiyo is disappointed but Iroha counters that she didn't know they used to work together.
The group arrives at Mizuna Shrine, which Iroha felt was quite creepy whereas Yachiyo thought it felt peaceful... at least when Tsuruno wasn't there. Iroha is hesitant about trespassing, but decides to sneak in with them anyway, hoping they don't get caught by a priest. After they get to the center of the shrine, Yachiyo recounts the Rumor of the Séance Shrine: to reunite with a person one is looking for, they are to go to Mizuna Shrine and write that person's name on a wooden plaque to pray to the Shrine's god. However, the one writing on it could get lost in bliss and never leave. Yachiyo prepares some plaques, but Tsuruno realizes that she wasn't given a third one. She decides to let it slide since she assumes she and Yachiyo are looking for the same person, and decides to act as a shield against any Uwasa.
Iroha considers writing down both Ui's full name as well as the full names of Touka and Nemu, but by Yachiyo's suggestion decides to stick with just Ui's name in case being greedy causes it to fail. Iroha prays that she can bring Ui out of the shrine so that they could live and attend school together. Tsuruno suddenly yells for the Uwasa to show itself, while Yachiyo warns her not to provoke it. Just then, a labyrinth forms and several Uwasa appear to attack Tsuruno. Iroha and Yachiyo complete their prayers just as the Uwasa overwhelm Tsuruno enough to go after them, and vanish before her eyes. As she wishes them good luck, an image of Iroha's Soul Gem is shown, now appearing very tainted.
Episode 6: The Two They Long For
Iroha finds herself alone and decides to go look for Ui. She finds many strangers sleeping peacefully, but realizes them not going home could cause problems. Suddenly, she hears a familiar voice and follows it to what seemed to be Ui. She is at first relieved that the Rumor worked, but is confused when Ui could only repeat the statement: "To change your fate, come to Kamihama City. Here, Magical Girls can be saved." Iroha yells for the person to explain herself, but the impostor simply vanishes. She decides to go look for Yachiyo, who had also found who she was looking for.Iroha finds Yachiyo with the friend she had been searching for, Mifuyu Azusa, but Iroha realizes Yachiyo was starting to fall into a trance. After dealing with an Uwasa that tried to block her, Iroha asks Yachiyo to snap out of it. The latter decides that the only way left to convince herself that she wasn't looking at Mifuyu was to ask Iroha to fight her. Iroha obliges, and defeats the fake Mifuyu before using her Grief Seed to purify Yachiyo's Soul Gem. Yachiyo is initially upset, but thanks Iroha before admitting that Mifuyu was a childhood friend that she hoped to find.
The two decide to leave and meet up with Tsuruno, and explain how the Rumor only took advantage of their feelings. Yachiyo remarks that rejecting who she searched for before leaving meant that the main Uwasa would appear at any minute to punish them. It then appears, speaking of deception and how they deserved death, but the Magical Girls rebut that it was the one that was deceiving them. Unfortunately they find that their attacks seem to be useless against it. Tsuruno theorizes that if brute force cannot work on a Uwasa meant to be a wish-granting god, then perhaps curses and impurities could, but Iroha counters that they don't have that kind of power. They eventually decide to retreat, but Iroha suddenly feels weaker due to the impurities in her Soul Gem, forcing Yachiyo to carry her while Tsuruno tries to fend off the Uwasa.
Episode 7: The Tainted Soul Gem
While Tsuruno and Yachiyo struggled to fend off the Uwasa, Tsuruno decides to find the nearest exit. However, Yachiyo is horrified to find that Iroha was starting to lose consciousness. Iroha thinks to herself about a cold feeling beginning to creep into her heart; that she was about to be swallowed by something. Iroha asks what would happen to her, but Yachiyo denies that anything bad would happen and that they'd go straight to Mitama. The main Uwasa suddenly catches up with them when Tsuruno comes back to continue fighting it off after finding the exit.The Uwasa manages to get past Tsuruno and charges towards Iroha and Yachiyo. At this point Iroha could only feel herself being dragged into darkness, as her Soul Gem becomes completely black. Her vision begins to fade but she barely notices that the Uwasa had knocked her off of Yachiyo's back. Just when she thinks she's about to die, something else begins to rise from the dark. It appears as a large bird-like creature growing from Iroha's hair, and destroys the Uwasa in one blow, before fading away with the Uwasa's Labyrinth. Yachiyo comes over to Iroha and they are startled to find that her Soul Gem was completely clean, as if it never gathered any impurities. Tsuruno is impressed that Iroha found a new Magical Girl technique by releasing impurities, but Yachiyo could only feel confused by what she saw. Just as they decide to get to the Coordinator, another Magical Girl with yellow twintails stops them and introduces herself as Mami Tomoe of Mitakihara.
Apparently she only came to the Labyrinth just in time to see Iroha release the Witch-like creature, so she assumes that Iroha was a Witch in disguise. Yachiyo and Tsuruno wasted too much magic to defend Iroha, but Iroha agrees to fend Mami off herself. Mami couldn't help but feel impressed with Iroha's consideration but fights her anyway. Momoko then appears to block one of Mami's attacks, disappointed that two of the strongest Magical Girls she knew are just watching the fight. They explain that they're too tired to help, so Momoko decides it was Mami's fault and gives her a count to ten to leave. She agrees to leave but insists that her only enemy here was Iroha. Momoko is a little upset that she was too late to fight the Uwasa, but decides to go home. Yachiyo asks Iroha to come to her place, agreeing to call Iroha's mother about Iroha being late.
The latter is surprised that Yachiyo was able to convince her mother to have her stay at Yachiyo's home, a boarding house owned by her late grandmother known as Mikazuki Villa. Iroha was initially going to ask if they could continue investigating Rumors together, but Yachiyo was a step ahead of her by deciding to use her home as a base of operations. As long as Iroha acknowledges that she's just an assistant and not a partner, Yachiyo was willing to work with her to find Ui and Mifuyu. Iroha remarks about Ui telling her that anything is possible in this world, and Yachiyo remarks that it could apply to Kamihama. Tsuruno comes by with some bowls of ramen from the Chinese restaurant her father owns, Banbanzai. She came by after remembering that Nemu was a regular patron of that restaurant. Later on Iroha goes back to her home, and queitly asks Ui to wait for her.
Tropes:
- Arc Words: "To change your fate, come to Kamihama City. Here, Magical Girls can be saved." This statement was first heard by Homura in the tutorial/prologue before Iroha is introduced.
- Catchphrase: Yachiyo saying "I don't have to answer that" becomes apparent throughout this chapter.
- Damage Over Time: The Uwasa of the Commoner's Horse has a skill that applies poison onto Magical Girls.
- Defense Mechanism Superpower: Doppels are introduced in this manner when it's revealed that releasing one would clean a Magical Girl's Soul Gem instead of causing it to turn into a Grief Seed. Naturally, Yachiyo is suspicious as to how this happens.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Yachiyo is distracted by a "limited time" sale but realizes that the Séance Shrine Rumor only works at nighttime, which is when Mizuna Shrine is normally closed.
- First-Name Basis: When Iroha met Tsuruno, Iroha intially calls her by her last name, but since Tsuruno thought that felt stiff, Iroha decides to use this trope instead.
- No. Just... No: When Tsuruno initially suggests hitting the Uwasa with a tree...
- Running Gag: Iroha's lack of knowledge with new technology is brought up again when she has difficulty giving Tsuruno her contact info, and knowing how to make free calls.
- Skewed Priorities: While Iroha and Yachiyo were tracking down a Witch, they go into a shopping mall when Yachiyo realizes something she initially deems serious: a special sale for every purchase was up. They get distracted before realizing the Witch moving there was a consequence of the sale and that a lot of people would be in danger.
