The bizarre way that a real life coincidence and my sudden revisit to an anime series afterwards imply to connect with each other

It was night out at my campus, about 7PM. I have just finished a replacement class before the final exam weeks.

I travel to campus and back home by a regular motorcycle-taxi on monthly subscription; and since he hasn’t arrived yet, I decided to roam around the front gate of the old campus that I rarely visit as a student of a computer-related major who is supposed to attend classes at the newer campus building just one turn and few meters away in this busy, narrow streets. No form of chairs are available, so I just looked around and take in the bustling sight in the area.

People were walking by, many looked like they’ve just finished their class just as I do at this last night shift; others were wearing very casual clothes — shorts, shirts, the kinds of outfits that the school forbids us to wear to campus — understandably because there are a lot of boarding houses, stores and restaurants around. Vehicles passed by in two different directions very narrowly, side by side — the ones right in front of me were all going to my left. I side-glanced at the medium-sized gutter to the left of those vehicles passing by about five centimeters away from my face. That extensive gutter right in front of the school fences had grimy, dark and shallow water with some small, plastic garbage lying about its surface, visible even in this dim environment.

I would’ve complained at the sight, if I hadn’t dismiss it right away because of how common such a view is in this overpopulated city.

Not bothering it, I walked back a little into the campus; immediately seeing the car barrier gate and ticket dispenser, in front of the few motorcycle parking slots. Behind the campus fence, opposite of the gutter earlier, are spaces for bicycles to park. Only one bike was left that night.

But between the two-wheeler parking slots, a tiny creature caught my eyes. Walking towards my direction through the poorly lit space — it was a striped, tabby kitten.

I didn’t get to check its gender, just as I always do. I only care of its playfulness, furriness and… general cuteness. I immediately approached it as casual as the kitten walked under the night’s full moon that shined brightly above its head. It seemed to notice my directed attention to it, and by the time I got close to it, I bent my torso down to scratch at its neck. It didn’t enjoy it as much as some other stray kittens I met at sideroads, but it replied the appreciated scratch with a few purrs.

I gave it a small pat on its head; once, twice, before standing back upright and smile at it as it meows in a high pitch. I decided to play with it a bit more — I abruptly side-stepped in front of the surprised kitten to catch its attention and invite it to play. Another sharp side-step, and another; and yet the kitten doesn’t seem to amused by it, meowing at me instead. My lips broke into an asymmetrical smile, letting an inward sigh.

I decided to idle and look at the moon. The effect from my mossy five-year-old prescription glasses’ lens made it look like its bright, majestic light encompass a wide area; but it didn’t feel bright enough. I then continued to look at the dark spots of the moon, curiously trying to picture the legend of mochi-pounding rabbit that Japanese people like to talk about. However, only a few moments passed and I gave up on the idle search and looked down to pay my attention back to the kitten.

Unfortunately for me, I was merely greeted by the uninteresting grey road bricks. It seemed to have gone somewhere else.

Casually dismissing the matter, I checked my wristwatch, gave my unusually light backpack a correction into a more comfortable position, and walked towards the gate once more.

A few steps forward and I was quickly reunited with the tabby kitten again. It was walking in a way that looked unassuming.

A second later, I got taken aback by the looming, gigantic shadow in the shape of a bus moving rather slowly right above the cat’s minuscule size in comparison.

Strong shock ran through my being, my eyes widened as milliseconds passed and see that the kitten hadn’t nudged away properly from the pair of huge rear tires proceeding together side by side, inching dangerously close right towards the poor kitten.

And then the moment came.

I saw the startled cat suddenly trash about for just a moment before my line of sight was filled with only the two large tires. On the back of my mind, a panicked whisper hoped that my eyes were just seeing things and that the cat wasn’t really pulled in below it.

As the wheels ran through the small area I was focusing on, the result was clear.

Red and white semi-liquid blotches were visible, followed by the striped tabby coat with a pair of pricked cat ears they were presumably from.

My hands darted towards my mouth, eyes still rooted unwillingly to the unsightly view as more and more parts of the young existence revealed under the running wheels. My surroundings seemed to mute, where I only heard a muffled exclamation seemingly from the security guard opposite of me, while I then got taken by surprise from the sudden wild convulses that the incomprehensible being I saw was doing. Panic hit me like a train, my stomach that was empty since that morning felt like it concave by a bit, while my mouth let out lines of completely impolite phrases as my lips inappropriately twisted upwards into another asymmetrical smile out of a completely different emotion from minutes earlier.

My brain quickly realized the lasting effect this scenery could have on me and commanded my intact body to trot along the gutter to the far left, eyes finally peeled off from the view. Not long after, as I ready to head across the road into the convenient store that me and my motorcycle driver promised to meet at, I took another glance at the kitten.

This is the real deal. It’s not the varying state of dead rats I’d usually pass by every morning on my way to campus. It’s an innocent kitten.

Should I have rescued it? Probably. I felt a slight urge earlier, to extend an arm to shoo the kitten further towards the middle, safe from the path of the wheels. But, no. What if the clueless cat didn’t react much to it? Flashes of thoughts about the upcoming exam, its importance to my family that is in currently unfortunate state, and thus the importance of my arm to write, pulled back my urge and my arm to its safe place at my side.

I took a last glance across the road to the place the poor thing laid, searching between passing windows of cars and of people’s heads. The kitten’s body then only occasionally convulsed as if in a faint attempt to stay alive.

I faintly remember seeing the security guard waver about picking up the kitten to a safer place despite its state that outright said that it’s far too late. I ran the palm of my right hand over my face before retreating mournfully into the convenient store; intending to buy a comfort food to the young adult that is me.

Back at my house, my dad’s side of the family that consists of four people — excluding me — were lying in the parents’ king-sized bed which bedroom door was wide open; right beside the children’s bedroom which door was in a similar state. As I was chatting with my dad, my two little step sisters who were playing around eventually went to the place I was standing, in front of the bedroom. I peek at them, where my gaze then wandered up toward an area in front of me and stayed there. Visions of the cat flashed back — how it convulses hard at first, then it weakened while occasionally stop moving altogether.

Before I knew it, my step mother passed by and questioned my frozen state. I simply replied with a curious smile.

“…I saw a kitten that got run over by a bus just now.”

A short silence only between us, accompanied by the ever-continuing argument of the kids, lasted only a while before she followed by a short but somewhat understanding, “….ooh.”

Whilst she walked back into the parents’ bedroom, she continued with a kind and competent-sounding suggestion, “in that case, you should probably wash your face off the unsightly memory”. I simply gave a small nod — still with the odd, weak smile — before proceeding to take a shower instead, not minding the time nor the lollipop that I bought still stuck in my mouth, even when I showered.

The thousand-yard stare is real.

Moments went by as I typed my feelings out into a certain social media in a discreet short story, modified from the tragic musical story of Hibiya Amamiya, Hiyori Asahina and a stray cat; going by the famous title, “Kagerou Daze/Days”. Hibiya wasn’t included in my story for the personal representation of him is currently overseas, and the altered story only consisted of Hiyori the pigtail twelve-years-old girl fated to die in every loop of the same event in the heat of August 15th, and the cat that led to her repeated death on the streets.

I’ll leave the imagination to you on how I typed the story.

Another moment passed as I slowly try to forget the memory — with minimal effort, to my minor surprise — whilst my eyes went through a timeline filled with fanmade artworks of an anime titled “Puella Magi Madoka Magica”.

To those who aren’t as insightful yet about this particular show, it is about magical teenage girls trying to save the world from an incoming magical doomsday.

Sounds heroic, cute and perhaps a bit childish?

If you begin to think otherwise by this second, you’re correct.

If you begin to think that this is the anime title I was referring to in the title of this post and begin to get an implication that this anime is as tragic as the traumatizing event just now, you’re very correct.

And as I ran through the list of tweets with personally pleasing pictures, I stumbled upon one picture-less but interesting tweet about a new, fourth movie of the anime. A short check at the linked video revealed that it was merely an April Fools prank; but the other link that goes into a discussion thread contained an interesting line. “The actual leaked short (which you can find by a google/youtube search for something like “madoka concept” to get whatever version hasn’t been takedown’d yet) will provide original music and tons of new…“

The rest of the line didn’t matter as my fingers swiftly pressed Ctrl+T to open a new browser tab and searched the internet for “Madoka concept”.

A small set of fresh-looking, official images of the familiar characters that were dear to me got me into a state of euphoria. Long story short, it turned out that the announcement started back from November last year in Tokyo, and then in Osaka. Speculations say that the project may highlight the mature senior in yellow colour theme: Mami Tomoe.

…Hold on.

Mami Tomoe…

The character with the famous…

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…life spanning over only the first 3 episodes with a gruesome death as the meal of a towering snake-like polka dot Witch with a bottomless stomach for desserts… and humans.

The image of Mami’s normally mature self just standing motionless in shock of the unexpected comeback of the Witch that was initially a stoic, but cute and colourful doll with pink, candy wrapping-shaped hair with an overall size of a soccer ball.

Just as the kitten did, whom did no effort in escaping from the seemingly obvious death right in front of it.

And then the following scene after the witch named Charlotte gladly opened its jaws wide at her face, showed Mami’s body dangling lifelessly at the top of the screen, conveniently censoring her head that is being happily consumed. The scene zooms out and shows her body without her head, falling to the ground, only to be munched down to her bone by the innocent-looking witch that glided straight down to what’s left of her.

All the while, her two, new middle school juniors and friends, watched from the sidelines in utter horror.

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So then I thought a little bitterly.

Huh…

A tragic life event, followed by an ironically exciting news of a tragic show that I love?

How much more bizarrely amusing can this reality be?

I thought, with yet another odd smile on my face that night.