giggle. "Yeah, I definitely see what Emily was saying about it looking a little awkward. But that's not bad at all compared to some of the sequences we've seen. Four stars."

Bella takes a bow. "Do I even want to know what the worst ones are like?"

"Musical Star Prism has a three-minute long one that makes terrible puns on musical terminology."

"Oh dear. That sounds really inconvenient."

"It kind of is! I assume so, anyway, she doesn't spend a lot of time actively griping about it."

"I mean, if I were a villain fighting a girl with a three-minute-long transformation sequence, I would make sure I had contingency plans that took less than three minutes to set up."

"If a magical girl is transforming anywhere near the villain, she's probably doing something wrong. Standard operating procedure is to be in skirts well in advance of any actual fighting."

"Oh, fair enough. Is there any limit to how long you can sustain the transformation?"

"No. Synchronicity's difficult because it breaks if the two minds start deviating from each other too much. Sustaining a transformation can be tricky before you get in the habit of not letting go of the power unless you mean too, but it's not like casting spells where you're going to tire yourself out."

"How much does one tire oneself out casting spells...? If I have to teleport all over the globe all the time to break the puella magi dependence on witches..."

"It's like having a new muscle, basically. How much you can do depends on how much you metaphorically work out."

"Is there an upper limit and/or metaphorical steroids?"

"Not as far as I know. To either of them, that is. There are metaphorical muscle soothers, I've seen spells that work like that."

"Oh well. I'll deal. I've got all the time in the world."

"Yeah."

"What's the story behind the guy who's currently cooling his heels in Security, anyway?"

"Magical Girls aren't the only kind of magic in our world. There are magicians, who use formulas and things to harness raw magical force, and artifact users, who get specific powersets from specific magical objects. The Gem Guardians, of whom the Golden Diamond General is the strongest, are a quartet of artifact users who are the lieutenant of a magician who calls himself the Obsidian Magus, which just goes to show it's not just magical girls who are over-the-top about these kinds of things. I'm not sure what it is he's trying to accomplish, exactly, but I think it involves a lot of really unethical magic science." She sighs. "The Black Opal Guardian--wasn't there willingly."

"Oh dear. ...Where do the artifacts come from?"

"Every now and then a set or a lone one turns up from some kind of ruins or something. No one really knows where they come from originally."

"Weird. ...What happened to the Black Opal Guardian?"

"We didn't have to kill her. They arrested her. She let me do some mind magic to prove she wasn't working for the Obsidian Magus willingly, so I'm going to testify on her behalf at the trial."

"It's admissible in court and everything?"

"If it's ever learned I magically perjured myself under oath the consequences are really, really nasty. But yes, the result of information-gathering magical girl spells, consensual application of mindreading counted therein, have been admissible as witness testimony since 2005."

"...What year is it by you?"

"2017."