Mirai Wakaba

""Don't just randomly turn Umika and Kaoru into constellations!""

- - Mirai Wakaba

Mirai Wakaba is a character in Puella Magi Kazumi Magica: The Innocent Malice. She is a member of the Pleiades Saints and a magical girl. Her wish was to build a museum to house the hundreds of teddy bears she made.

Personality
An impulsive girl often depicted frowning. She is hotheaded and is not afraid to express her thoughts as loud as possible. Occasionally, she vents out her frustration on Kazumi by smacking her on the head (especially when Kazumi begins doubting herself). She also thinks of herself highly, sometimes even calling herself "Mirai-sama". Deep down, she is a caring girl.

Mirai can become enraged, but she also calms down quickly. She seems undisturbed by own rash actions during these times, until she notices others' reactions. She also greatly admires Saki, to the point where it sometimes interferes with the Pleiades' witch-hunting efforts. Harm befalling Saki is one of the few things that can consistently anger Mirai.

History
Mirai first appears in Chapter 3, alongside Saki, Satomi and Nico, after Umika and Kaoru are abducted by a witch. They introduce themselves to Kazumi and work to track down the witch. Mirai, along with the others, rescues Umika and Kaoru just as they're about to give up hope, and the witch is defeated.

As they celebrate their victory, they are attacked by Yuuri and Kazumi is kidnapped. Having received an ultimatum from Yuuri, the Pleiades head to Asunaro Dome at midnight, and watch helplessly as Yuuri implants Kazumi with an Evil Nut. However, Kazumi is able to free herself, and engages Yuuri. Unfortunately for all involved, Yuuri runs out of magic during the fight and becomes a witch. Along with the other Pleaides, Mirai is trapped on a cross in the witch's barrier, and is enveloped in thorny vines.

The magical girls are then shown a vision of the witch's past as Airi. After that, Kazumi falls under the influence of the Evil Nut and breaks free. However, Kazumi is unwilling to fight the witch and even attempts to change her back. The Pleiades then break free and attack the witch; Mirai, crying, explains to Kazumi that they have no choice but to kill her now. The witch is defeated, and the Pleiades let Kazumi be for the rest of the night.

Not long after, Mirai is seen with Kaoru, Satomi, and Saki (and possibly Umika and Nico as well), confronting a magical girl named Sumire Akane in a dark alley. They remove her Soul Gem.

Along with most of the other Saints, Mirai next appears to rescue Kazumi and Nico from Ayase and Luca Souju at an amusement park. The Pleiades incapacitate the Soujus and remove their Soul Gems, but Nico's Gem abruptly breaks open and she becomes a witch. Saki tackles Mirai and pushes out of harm's way, but suffers a glancing injury in the process. At this, Mirai screams and attacks the witch with all her might, killing it in one blow.

Though Nico seems to be dead, a duplicate of her appears, which Jubey identifies as a "spare" created by her contract. Satisfied that Nico is still alive, the Pleiades take Kazumi to Mirai's teddy bear museum, "Angelica Bears". Mirai comments that Kazumi was the one who named the building. Within Angelica Bears, the Pleiades show Kazumi a room known as the "Freezer", where they have been keeping corrupted Soul Gems in stasis. Umika explains things to Kazumi, and then restores her memories with magic.

In her memory, Kazumi sees Umika, Kaoru, Satomi, Mirai, Nico, and Saki, standing on a catwalk with a witch's kiss on their necks. The story flashes back to each girl's "despair" in turn. Mirai's despair is that she had no friends and was bullied in school, and only found companionship in her hundreds of handmade teddy bears. The girls standing on the catwalk all jump off together at the witch's command. They are suddenly rescued by Kazumi, who snags them in midair with ribbons and greets them cheerily. She then opens up the witch's barrier and orders the six of them to fight off the familiars. During the battle, Mirai shields Saki from the familiars. Kazumi saves them from the witch at the last second, and later takes them all back to her house.

The seven new friends eat together at Kazumi's house. Kazumi then tells the Pleiades how she became a magical girl. After listening to her story, Jubey mentions that the Pleiades can become magical girls as well, to which they all agree. Kazumi cheers over having new friends. Jubey tells the girls to give him their wishes, but Mirai says that hers has already been granted, as she has six new friends already. At Saki's suggestion, she uses her wish to construct a museum to house the teddy bears that she had made up until then.

Their contracts completed, Kazumi dubs the team the Pleiades Saints, and they happily fight witches together for some time. One day, Kazumi loses her grandmother's earrings while fighting a witch. Saki later gives her a pair of duplicate earrings, as Mirai can be seen glowering in the background.

As the story returns to the present, Kazumi faints, and the Pleiades return to Umika's house. Satomi, becoming increasingly worried about the prospect of Kazumi "failing", takes control of Saki via magic and kidnaps Kazumi. Satomi explains to Kazumi that she is a clone of Michiru Kazusa and that her memories from Umika are fake. Mirai crouches nearby, listening intently as Satomi says that Saki couldn't bring herself to kill the other clones because she loved Michiru so much. Satomi becomes a witch and is killed by Kazumi. As Mirai is tending to Saki, the other Pleiades run up. Kazumi is horrified at what has happened, and despite Saki's attempts to calm her, she flees.

The Pleiades return to the house, unable to locate Kazumi. Mirai insists to Saki that her failure to dispose of the clones wasn't her fault, and backs her up when she announces her intention to revive Michiru at all costs. Later, as they walk home, Mirai says to Saki that while she understands how she must have felt about Kazumi, she's more monster than human.

Some time later, the Pleiades receive a signal from Kazumi, who demands that they confront her at the Freezer lest she unseal all the Soul Gems there. There, Kazumi speaks with them, ordering them to kill her and try their hardest to revive Michiru. She then transforms into a monster and engulfs the room in a barrier. Midway through the battle, Kaoru holds Saki back, having realized that Kazumi is simply creating an illusion so that they'd have no choice but to kill her. As the others stand before Kazumi in shock, Mirai charges up and cleaves her in two. Kazumi's corpse turns into a balloon-like doll of Nico, as does the Nico that she incapacitated beforehand.

The real Nico steps into view, with the real Kazumi safely in tow. Before the Pleiades can overcome their shock, she shoves an Evil Nut into Saki and causes her to become a witch. Mirai runs up and hugs Saki, despite the huge surge of electricity produced by her attempt to resist the Evil Nut's effects. She begs Jubey to purify Saki's Gem, but he shouts back that it's already too late.

The story briefly flashes back to a scene of Mirai and Saki at the beach. Mirai mentions to Saki that nobody liked her because she spoke in a tomboyish way (using "boku" as a first-person pronoun). Saki replies that she actually used to speak like that herself, and that Mirai reminds her of herself as a child.

Back in the present, Saki's strength gives out and she becomes a witch. Mirai makes no attempt to fight back, and is decapitated by it.

Right before she dies, Mirai also casts her La Bestia spell, sending several teddy bears to retrieve Soul Gems from the Freezer and use the witches that hatch from them to defend Saki's witch.

Powers, Weapons & Abilities
Mirai wields a staff with an elaborate heart-shaped design on the end, with which she can cast fire magic. This staff can be transformed into a gigantic sword, and she can summon a platoon of teddy bears with an attack called La Bestia (The Beasts). The bears can also fuse into a single massive bear with La Bestia Rifare (Remake the Beast). It can be used to control existing animals and familiars as well, as demonstrated by Kazumi.

The effects of La Bestia can remain even after her death, as demonstrated in chapter 19.

Trivia

 * Her last name means "new leaf".
 * Her last name can also be used as a first name.
 * Her first name is written in hiragana which has no particular meaning. However, *when written in kanji, it can mean "future" (未来).
 * Mirai has heart decorations on her headband, collar, shoes, and on the back of her dress when transformed, matching her staff. Her bears also have heart decorations on their ears, and the largest bear has them on its ears, tail and collar, as well. *This symbol can also been seen on the collar of her school uniform. Her costume originally featured a witch's hat, but it no longer appears for unknown reasons.
 * Her outfit while transformed somewhat resembles pajamas.
 * Mirai owns a teddy-bear museum called Angelica Bears, first seen in chapter 9. The Pleiades Saints' 'Freezer' facility is concealed below the building.
 * The museum was created as a result of Mirai's wish, and was also named by Kazumi.
 * In Chapter 12, Mirai can be seen glowering while Saki gives Kazumi replacement earrings as a gift.
 * A single panel in Chapter 12 shows Mirai unexpectedly wearing a witch hat while transformed. This hat matches one of the Pleiades' silhouettes from Chapter 1, though Mirai has never been seen wearing it at any other time.
 * The panels of the manga show that Mirai's magical girl costume has polka dots on it. However, in all of the official colored images of Mirai, her costume is solid pink with no traces of polka dots.