To the Stars

To the Stars is the story by Hieronym and focus of this very wiki.

It tells the story of Shizuki Ryouko, one of our protagonist, as she becomes a Magical Girl and deals with the world, the invading aliens, love and the fallout of her wish.

To quote the author:

Synopsis

After centuries of turmoil, a Utopian AI/human government has seized control of Earth, heralding a new age of post-scarcity and space colonization. An unexpected encounter with a hostile, technologically superior alien race has broken the peace, forcing magical girls to come out of hiding to save human civilization.

In the midst of it all, Shizuki Ryouko, an ordinary girl, looks to the sky, wondering at her place in the universe.

—Hieronym

If you want to avoid spoilers, be advised: This wiki as well as this entry will be kept somewhat up to date, so events and twists in the story in parts you have not yet read may be present without any warning. You have been warned.

Synposises

Volume I: Quantum Entanglement

The main characters Ryouko, Kyouko and Mami are introduced, the world is established.

A Wish 1

Ryouko wakes up to some kibble her family has about an Alloc cut. Her grandfather want to join the military and leave Earth. In school Ryouko meets up with childhood friends Ruiko and Chiaki as well as her recent friend Simona. Ryouko thinks about and looked up information on Magical Girls.

After making a random appearance near Ryouko's school, Mami meets up with Kyouko at the Church. They discuss a worrisome discrepancy in grief cube handling discovered in a recent audit. Mami promises to look into it.

Ryouko gets asked out for a movie and flabbergastedly agrees, bemusing her friends. She remembers her grandmother leaving Earth and trying to explain her reasons. On the way home, Ryouko leaves her friends behind, only Simona joining her for a talk, both opening up to each other. Simone is about to confess, when they're both attacked by demons. They manage to flee with some difficulty, Ryouko helped by her Emergency Mode. Not able to keep avoiding the attacks, Ryouko is given the choice to sacrifice herself to give Simona a decent chance of survival, only to be saved in the nick of time by Mami. The latter was traversing Mitakihara with Kyubey when they sensed the miasma and moved to engage.

After Mami neutralized the immediate threat and evacuated the two, she talks to them and takes note of Ryouko's behaviour. Kyubey reappears and offers her a wish.

I wish I could leave Earth, and explore this world. I want to go where no one else has gone before and find my place in this universe.

Kyouko appears, wishing Ryouko well.

Just before her wish, Ryouko saw a single woman walking far outside the miasma, leaving the premises.

Fantasma 2

After Simona disagrees with Ryouko on her recent contracting, Mami takes Simona back to her home, Kyouko remaining with Ryouko. She inducts her newest protégée into the world of Magical Girls, taking note of her teleporting range, and leads them to battle the original group of demons that attacked Ryouko, assisting the by now arrived rapid response team (consisting of Maki, Patricia and Asaka).
The battle lust Ryouko exhibits worries Kyouko somewhat. Despite the expected rookie mistakes, Ryouko shows aptitude for unconventional power application.

Mami meanwhile talks to Simona and advises her on how to deal with the soon-to-be departure of her love interest. She then leaves to spend the rest of her vacation to watch Akemi.

In the aftermath of the demon fight Patricia finds a small number of supersaturated grief cubes close to where Ryouko and Simona had originally been sitting, rising suspicions in Kyouko. She and Ryouko then head for the latter's home.

Mami Watches a Movie, Part One 3

Mami goes to watch the movie Akemi in disguise. In the lounge she is about to ask a random person (later identified to be Joanne Valentin) to join her for a shared viewing, when her alias persona is being randomly invited by Nodame Riko to join her and her friends for a shared viewing.

The movie, for which Mami, Kyouko and Yuma had been interviewed, begins with an the infant Akemi being left at the steps of a nunnery. Sick from a young age, Akemi is shown praying, being treated without success and over time leaving her faith behind. The last treatment shows success and Akemi is of age to be discharged, disillusioned.

It then shows how Kyubey's opinion on the unaware Akemi and her potential as well as what Kyouko and Mami think of her so far.

Meanwhile Akemi is wandering in the funk of a depression, wailing at the world, when demons show up and attack her. She has a vision giving her hope. Just as the vision passed, Mami and Kyouko are seen violently dispatching the demons. They explain the magical girl system to her and Akemi makes her wish to protect this world which God has abandoned, and defend it against everything that threatens it. Mami notes that, even though Akemi's wish had been kept secret all these years, the movie writers had unbeknownst to them been essentially right.

Mami cringes at the necessary propaganda and false information in the movie in regards to the magical girls. Akemi's power, an auro reducing soul gem corruption is revealed. Miki Sayaka enters the plot, but her significance especially in regards to Kyouko is downplayed, if mentioned at all. Sayaka's death induces another vision for Akemi, this time returning her memories of former loops, signifying a change of character in her, as well as handing her the Ribbon.

Yuma is introduced next, joining the three reluctantly as the last surviving member of the Southern Group. She is the first to be befriended, if shown in a somewhat tamer version.

Ten years later, under the auspice of the Mitakihara Four representatives of various magical girl groups around Mitakihara meet to discuss an alliance. Akemi argues for the financial benefits. They unanimously agree and sign the founding of what evolves into the MSY.

Timeskipping to the Attack on Aurora and the very beginning of the Contact War, the MSY is in an emergency session. Concluding with a speech by Akemi, the Mahou Shoujou Youkai votes to shed the veils of secrecy and make a stand on the next world to be attacked: New Athens.

Interlude I: Underworld Dreams 17

The story of Japanese police inspector Kugimiya Ito dealing with the case of a missing girl and coming to term with his long lost teenage love

Interlude II: Madeleines 33

A story of Shirou Asaka and the love of her life, Alice Lynwood, and of learning to let go. The chapter name is a reference to In Search of Lost Time, a famous French novel noted for its length and its theme of involuntary memory.

Volume III: Ontological Paradox

An Ontological Paradox is a seemingly conflicting line of events in the likes of the Grandfather paradox—travelling back in time to kill your own grandfather—but the ontological paradox is rather the inverse: information from the future causes events that at a later point necessitate to or inadvertently sends information back in time.

Interlude III: Manifest Destiny

Pure speculation: A tale about the expansive phase of the MSY, when it reached beyond the island nation of Japan and maybe how it dealt with rivalling organizations.

Volume IV: Einstein-Rosen Bridge

An Einstein-Rosen Bridge is a currently hypothetically proposed way of connecting two spacetime coordinates.

Interlude IV: Ubermensch

Übermensch is the term philosopher Nietzsche used to describe the goal humanity set for itself. In these circumstances it may refer to clinical immortality, genetic engineering and implants used in the course of history.

Volume V: Dark Energy

Dark Energy is undetectable energy the current understanding of physics requires to exist for the great theories to work; there is hitherto no evidence for its existence and it is thus merely hypothetical, if somewhat accepted by scientific consensus.

Interlude V: Destroyer of Worlds

"I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" was a quote by J. R. Oppenheimer after witnessing the first test of his atomic bomb.