Sarasa Hanna

Hanna Sarasa is the one of the original characters of the 2017 mobile game Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record. An introvert, this Magical Girl isn’t good when it comes to people. Oppressed at both home and school, she hates the world. After her contract was made, she encountered something that changed her strange fate even further. Although eccentric, she loves animals. Hanna narrates that her childhood was miserable. Her drunkard father was a petty criminal who gambled away what little money he made and would beat Hanna to relieve his stress. Her mother, who was his main target before Hanna was born, simply pretended nothing was happening. One day Hanna’s father started an argument with someone who stabbed him to death, and her mother began drinking and walking around at night to celebrate her newfound freedom. While drunkenly walking the streets one night, Hanna’s mother was hit by a car and killed, leaving Hanna alone. Hanna’s relief was short-lived, however, as her school life became just as miserable due to the torment of bullies. Due to everyone at her orphanage avoiding her, she had no one to confide to. She took to writing all her negative feelings in her notebook, cursing her tormentors and fantasizing about revenge, which became one of the few sources of joy in her life. Kyubey arrived and offered Hanna a contract. Hanna was initially skeptical but took the opportunity to wish her bullies out of existence, erasing them from everything but her own memories so she alone could revel in knowing everything they did was pointless and forgotten. Caught up in her victory, Hanna was dismissive of Kyubey telling her that in exchange for her wish being granted she must become a magical girl. However, she struggled with her newfound power, barely being able to defeat familiars. She took her new duties as a magical girl very seriously but couldn’t figure out how to fight efficiently, and eventually became overpowered in a labyrinth. She was saved by another magical girl she had never seen before, who introduced herself as Mikoto Sena. Despite Hanna’s extreme social awkwardness, the two decided to team up and fight together going forward, as Mikoto was nervous about fighting on her own and Hanna was struggling in combat (and viewed Mikoto as useful so she herself could do less work). If becoming a magical girl was the first turning point in her life, Hanna narrates in the present, then meeting Mikoto was the second. Mikoto explained to Hanna that her magic was mind control, which she discovered by accident shortly after contracting. Hanna was amazed by Mikoto’s magic and even more amazed to discover, much through the same means as Mikoto, that she could also make others do what she ordered. Mikoto initially believed that Hanna possessed mind control magic as well, but Hanna was suspicious of how she only discovered this power after meeting someone with the same ability. She tried teaming up with other magical girls to test her hypothesis and found that she could use their magic as well, confirming her suspicions that her innate magic was to copy that of others. However, she found she could only use one ability at a time, as copying a new ability would overwrite the previous one. Mikoto found Hanna’s magic incredible and described its potential for experimentation, but Hanna replied that upon trying different kinds of magic, she found that Mikoto’s was the best due to its convenience. Mikoto was surprised and proud, which made Hanna happy as well. Hanna breaks from the story to narrate that of all the magical girls whose abilities she had copied, only one is still alive. Hanna calls this magical girl “the girl who talks funny”, and explains that she and Mikoto first encountered this girl on the roof of the Daito Apartment Complex where Mikoto lived and which Hanna and Mikoto used as a hunting ground for witches. One day, while fighting a witch on the roof, Hanna and Mikoto bumped into this girl, Kanagi Izumi, and worked together to defeat the witch. Hanna was distrustful of Kanagi due to her overly formal way of speaking, finding it suffocating, while Mikoto was grateful and unguarded. As Mikoto was talking to Kanagi, Hanna decided to try and test something she’d been thinking about for a while. After Kanagi left, Hanna followed and confronted her, asking her to forget about meeting Hanna and Mikoto and citing that Kanagi “smelled like trouble”. Kanagi replied that memories didn’t work that way, to which Hanna responded by transforming and using her magic to order Kanagi to forget the encounter. Afterwards, Kanagi wondered where the witch she had been tracking went, having forgotten beating it alongside Hanna and Mikoto, and decided to search elsewhere. Delighted, Hanna felt like she had been granted another wish, realizing that she and Mikoto could use their power to disappear from the world whenever they wanted, living “like ghosts”. Hanna decided that she was going to follow through with this idea and erase memories of her existence, along with Mikoto. Hanna noted that although she’d only intended to use Mikoto at first, at some point Mikoto had become very important to her, and that her friendship with Mikoto was her only real relationship. She couldn’t wait to tell Mikoto her plan, but struggled to figure out how exactly to say it as Mikoto was passionate about her duty to help others. At this time there was an extreme shortage of witches, and Mikoto refused to stop using her full power to kill as many familiars as she she could find. Hanna expressed concern over how much energy Mikoto was using and requested they try to fight less, but Mikoto adamantly insisted they continue fighting as they had been. Hanna eventually gave in, realizing that Mikoto would never accept her plan to vanish from the world. After defeating another familiar on the Daito Apartment Complex rooftop, Hanna worriedly lamented that they had come up empty again, to which Mikoto didn’t respond. Hanna assumed Mikoto was lost in thought as usual and told her that even though the view from the rooftop was pretty, they needed to leave. After Mikoto still didn’t answer, Hanna prompted her again. Mikoto stated that she felt weird, and Hanna realized something was wrong. Mikoto began screaming in pain, begging Hanna to help her. Hanna told her to stay calm, but noticed that Mikoto’s soul gem had become completely corrupted. Mikoto asked Hanna what was happening to her before becoming a witch. In the present, Hanna notes that the world is never done being cruel to her, but that at this point she’s used to it. After escaping Mikoto’s witch, Hanna was approached by Kyubey, who attempted to explain the magical girl system to her. Hanna didn’t take it in, only being able to fixate on the fact the witches come from magical girls. After Kyubey’s explanation was finished, Hanna started smiling and suffered a complete mental breakdown, laughing hysterically and bashing her own head into the floor repeatedly. Kyubey asked if she was alright, but Hanna only continued laughing madly, wondering what had become of her and claiming she could see everything. Kyubey asked what she meant, to which Hanna responded that she felt fantastic. Grinning wildly, she stated that she hated the world and took Kyubey’s offer because she didn’t care about anything. Unexpectedly, becoming a magical girl improved her life greatly, and she came to believe she could put her past misery behind her and start moving forward. Having seen the fate of a magical girl, however, Hanna finally realized that happiness was never going to be hers. Watching Mikoto die right in front of her was the final straw. Becoming depressed, she said that while she used to think she should just die, she couldn’t have imagined her fate would end up being something even worse. Hanna said that after spending her entire life running, she had finally felt like she’d gotten away, only to find this end waiting for her. Laughing wildly again, Hanna claimed this revelation to be the funniest thing she’d ever known. Kyubey asked Hanna what she wanted to do going forward. Hanna smiled and contemplated the question before answering that if her life was doomed to be (and end) miserable, she wanted to have as much fun as possible while she could. Kyubey questioned what she meant by this, and Hanna responded that she would start rebelling against the incubators by doing things that would get in the way of their plans. Hanna claimed she would befriend witches instead of killing them, before realizing she would become a witch herself without grief seeds. She amended her statement to say that she would befriend some witches and kill others, concluding that anything was possible with her magic. Kyubey was baffled, but Hanna ignored him and gleefully used her magic to bind Mikoto’s witch to the Daito Apartment Complex, telling it to spread as much despair as it wanted and promising to come visit. Breaking down laughing again, Hanna wondered what to do next. In the present, Hanna finishes her story and is revealed to have been telling it to a witch. She remarks that she enjoys recalling her past now and again, as a reminder of how she became who she is now. She thanks the witch for spending time with her and attempts to kill it, before changing her mind and deciding to mind control it to spread despair. Hanna tells the player to forget about her, as she has plans and doesn’t want anyone to know about her existence.