Stars Above
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Homura: "Now, one last time before we begin... give me your word that you won't offer to make contracts with them." —From the prologue
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Stars Above is an ongoing fanfic written by tropers BHS and Forzare. Based loosely on the events of the Kagami Hiiragi Snuggling After Sex RP on the TV Tropes Forum, the story is a Puella Magi Madoka Magica/Lucky Star Intercontinuity Crossover.
A typical day at Ryouou High takes a turn for the strange when a mysterious transfer student enters Kagami's class: Homura Akemi. The new girl doesn't show emotions and doesn't speak a spare word to anyone, but whenever Kagami looks her in the eyes she feels something she can't explain. On the train ride home from school, Kagami, Konata, and Tsukasa are attacked by a terrifying creature. Homura appears and kills the monster, then apologizes to Kagami, saying that the attack "wasn't supposed to happen" before wiping her memories of the incident.
The problem is, the memory wipe doesn't take. The next day at school, Kagami demands answers... and the truth is stranger and more terrible than she could imagine. Coming back from two years post-Ascension, Homura and Kyubey have fled from their own world, which is on the verge of death due to Kagami's Alternate Self transforming into a Demon and attacking the Earth. They have crossed over to this new timeline to prevent the apocalypse from happening again... but the Demons have crossed over at well, and are targeting Kagami and Tsukasa.
In the midst of the growing chaos, an impossible friendship starts to bloom into something more...
A Yuri Genre Crossover Ship fic that aims to be "as awesome as possible", according to the authors.
You can read it ere.
There is Bonus Material for this story, in the form of profiles for each of the Demons of the Nine. You can check it out here.
You may also want to check out Tasakeru, an original work written by BHS, who wouldn't even think of indulging in Shameless Self Promotion.
WARNING! There are unmarked Spoilers ahead. Beware.
Tropes used in Stars Above include:
- All Deaths Final: The Puellae Magi are well aware of this. 2012!Kagami, however...
- All There in the Manual: The names, natures, origins, and background information about the Nine are explained largely though their profiles, written in the style of the Madoka website's Witch Cards.
- Apocalypse How: Vittoria's attack on Earth in the Madoka-verse resulted in one of Scope Level 3 (Planetary). The Severity is Level 2 (Societal Collapse), verging on Levels 3 (Species Extinction) and 4 (Total Extinction) due to the damage to causality and the climate. Only one or two billion people are left, and every city and town is said to be in ruins. The Demons are now aiming for an Omniversal Physical Annihilation.
- Apocalypse Maidens: Both of the Hiiragi twins.
- Beta Couple: Tsukasa and Miyuki. Except not, as Miyuki has been replaced by a shapeshifting Demon.
- Big Damn Hero: Homura's rescue of the Hiiragis and Konata on board the train.
- Bonus Material: The Demon profiles.
- Break the Cutie: 2012!Kagami.
- Break Them by Talking: The Second is fond of this.
- The Cameo: Madoka appears to Kyoko to take her Soul Gem when she runs out of power.
- In Chapter 5, Nurse Amahara from the Lucky Star manga makes an appearance. Minoru Shiraishi has a single line in Chapter 6, when he informs Miss Kuroi that Miyuki has been gone for a long time.
- Cameos of the Kazumi and Oriko characters are found throughout the 2012 flashbacks in Chapters 7, 8, and 9.
- Every Magical Girl ever appears in Kagami's dream in Chapter 12.
- Caught with Your Pants Down / Interrupted Intimacy
- Conflicting Loyalty / It's Not You, It's My Enemies: The reason why Homura decides to take some distance from Kagami. She thinks that she's betraying Madoka by falling in love with another girl after Desideria goads her about it, but she also doesn't want Kagami to get hurt in the crossfire that keeps getting violent. The later situation is ironically not unlike the events of Madoka Magica.
- Continuity Nod / Mythology Gag: The first line of Chapter 1 is "... and it really stinks, doesn't it?"
- Konata's text to Kagami reads in part, "EVENT FLAG GET!" As in the anime, Kagami still has no idea what she's talking about.
- Sayaka is indirectly mentioned in Chapter 3. The beginning of her tragic breakdown is recalled in flashback in Chapter 9.
- Kyoko remembers a scene from the Madoka anime's finale in Chapter 4 as she dies.
- The "You Are Not Alone" message is repurposed as a sacred prayer known by all Puellae Magi.
- Nyamo, the white cat seen yawning and sleeping in the eyecatches of every Lucky Star episode, is mentioned as Tsukasa's pet in 2012.
- Airi Anri and Yuuri Asuka, and Umika Misaki and Kaoru Maki from the same series, are couples in 2012, as are Oriko Mikuni and Kirika Kure.
- 2012!Kagami turns up her nose at a can of Morning Rescue.
- Anime Tenchou is briefly mentioned in Chapter 12.
- Cosmic Horror / Eldritch Abomination: Vittoria.
- Crossover Shipping: The story was totally not written with an ulterior motive of promoting the authors' Kagamura ship.
- Dark Magical Girl: Homura, obviously.
- Dead Twin: 2012!Tsukasa.
- Demonic Possession: Konata in chapter 15.
- Despair Event Horizon: 2012!Kagami crosses it in heartbreaking fashion when she learns that Homura can't make the pain of losing her sister go away.
- Determinator: All of the Puellae Magi, especially Homura. They fought on until there were only four left.
- Dies Wide Open
- Dope Slap: First with a bento box, then with a pillow. Both times Konata is the recipient.
- Emotion Eaters: The Demons feed on a person's Heart, the core of their emotions.
- The End of the Multiverse As We Know It: This will occur if anything happens to Kagami and Tsukasa, the "multiversal focal points".
- Enemy Within: It seems like Vittoria already exists in Kagami's head, clouding her mind and making her almost lash out at the already beaten up Homura for letting the red monks take Konata hostage.
- Everybody's Dead, Dave: Every Puella Magi on Earth teamed up to battle Vittoria, Kagami's Demon form. Only four survived.
- Feel No Pain: The mechanism of this one nature of magical girls is explained as the 'pain switch', where in an extreme case, a magical girl sacrifices her movement and speed for numbness of their body. An example of the technique is when Homura takes a spear that almost severs her torso without dying, and lets Kagami hit her with her bokken to destroy Demon Spawn that latch on all over her body.
- Genre Savvy: Konata, of course. She recognizes what kind of fic this is before anyone else does. But said genre savvy bites her in ass when she realizes that Homura is a standard Mysterious Transfer Student like in anime and follows her around the town to see her secret, and effectively gets caught in a crossfire.
- The Heartless: The Demons.
- Hell Hound: Ciacco, the Third.
- Heroic Second Wind: Homura's Soul Gem is already blackened before the Third's battle and she is supposed to fade per the usual Law of Cycle, but not only does she not fade, her Soul Gem becomes bright again. Kyubey, who is understandably confused, discusses it with her.
- Idiosyncratic Chapter Naming: Just as in Madoka, the title of each chapter comes from a line of dialogue within it.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Homura at the end of Chapter 10. She gets Taken for Granite immediately after.
- Imprison And Replace: The Second's MO.
- Improvised Weapon: Kagami's school bag in Chapter 4.
- Intercontinuity Crossover: Between Lucky Star and Puella Magi Madoka Magica. The first work of its kind to do so. The story also unites characters from the Madoka, Kazumi, and Oriko timelines in the Madoka-verse.
- Is That What You Told Her?: Said by Kyubey in Chapter 5. Homura's explanation as to what happened to her timeline's Hiiragi twins wasn't entirely truthful...
- The Juggernaut: Gaspare, the Fourth.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Tsukasa, and one chapter later, Kazumi, as the first victim of Vittoria.
- Love Hurts
- Meaningful Echo: "Believe in us" and "Do your best".
- The Multiverse
- New Transfer Student
- Not What It Looks Like: The title of Chapter 5, said when Tsukasa misinterprets Kagami lying in Homura's lap.
- Oh, and X Dies: Tsukasa in the alternate timeline, leading to Kagami's Start of Darkness.
- Rage Against the Reflection: A variation of this. The reflection Homura rages against is the Second, having shifted into a doppelganger of her past self.
- Screw Your Mission, I'm Doing What's Right: Said by Kagami to Kyubey in Chapter 4.
- Second Love: In a literal fashion for Homura, and a punny one for Tsukasa.
- Secret Relationship: Tsukasa and Miyuki, until Chapter 13.
- Shape Shifter: The Second, who imprisons Miyuki in the lens of her own glasses and assumes her form. Airi Anri also this, and she's in the force of good now unlike in her series.
- Shout-Out:
- Konata talks the Hiiragi twins' ears off about Code Geass in Chapter 2. The first season was airing at the time the story takes place.
- Kagami's ringtone is the OP from the first Full Metal Panic! anime.
- Mami and Kyoko's relationship, hinted at in Chapter 9, is a shout-out to one of the authors' favorite fanfic writers, who specializes in writing about that couple.
- Konata quotes Fist of the North Star when showing Homura that she means business in Chapter 13. She also lets out Kenshiro's trademark Funny Bruce Lee Noises and pulls off some Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs before being abducted one chapter later.
- Kagami changes her ringtone to the first Bleach ED theme, "Life is Like a Boat".
- Start of Darkness: Chapter 9 shows Kagami's gradual descent into Demonhood.
- Supporting Leader: Oriko Mikuni in the 2012 timeline
- Swallowed Whole: Kagami gets eaten by the Third in Chapter 15.
- Tall Dark and Bishojo: Homura.
- Taken for Granite: Homura, temporarily.
- The Stoic: Homura, though she's a little more free with her emotions than she was in the Madoka anime.
- Title Drop: Done twice in Chapter 5, the first time by Oriko and the second by one of the Demons.
- Tsundere: Kagami, as always. Konata mentions this by name.
- Visions of Another Self: Oriko reveals to Homura that she has dreams of the other timelines, and knows of all the hell Homura's been through as a Puella Magi.
- Weirdness Magnet: As "multiversal focal points", Kagami and Tsukasa are living WeirdnessMagnets, and irresistible targets for the Demons.
- Wham! Line: Two in rapid succession in Chapter 4: "We're all that's left," and "Neither of us killed that Demon... you did."
- Whole Chapter Flashback: Chapter 9.
- Wooden Katanas Are Even Better
- World's Strongest Puella Magi: Homura is explicitly called this, and thus tasked with the protection of Kagami in the 2012 timeline.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Homura and Kyubey's trip back from the 2013 Madokaverse was one-way. It took a significant power boost to go back that far, and there's no way to return to their own time or universe.
