"Yeah, that can be tough.  It's worse the younger you start, I think.  But they're safer not knowing anything about it."

"Do you think it'd be better if the general population knew? Like, if everyone knew the signs of a witch's kiss, and to call their local magical girl."

"Mmmm, I never thought about it that much," Tobi says.  "Maybe if everyone had known from the beginning.  But if we tried to go to the newspapers now - well, if anyone even believed us, there'd probably be all kindsa mass panic.  Plus, we don't really know what makes witches target people who know about stuff, but - depending on what it is, everyone knowing might make it worse."

"Yeah. Good point."

"Do we know anything about what makes witches target people who've been clued in?  The ones I've fought don't seem very intelligent, I'm not sure whether they could keep up a masquerade."

"I think it might actually be that people who know are weaker to the witch's kiss. Or that - some of our magic rubs off on them somehow, witches will sometimes come for magical girls and potentials specifically, and it's possible that someone in the know counts as - sort of half a potential."

Kaylee nods.  "I'm tempted to say, if everyone knew, then everyone's an equally big target, which is the same as if everyone doesn't know, but - I wouldn't want to bet on it.  Plus that doesn't help if knowing does make you weaker to the kiss."

"Yeah. We could just as easily end up with more people impacted. It's - a tough call to make, especially when we don't know all that much."

"I'd ask Kyubey about it, but - "

She glances at Lianne.

"I honestly don't feel like - the one me and Lianne have been talking to - is very trustworthy."

Lianne nods. "He keeps not telling us safety information, and he's been trying to discourage us from trusting each other. He didn't want me to learn magic, and won't tell us things about other Kyubeys. ...Also when I initially wished he showed up only after Kaylee'd been hurt."

"Yeah, that sounds... sketchy, kinda.  Although, honestly - I don't really think magical girls are - supposed to work together.  I always got the impression that we were just more solitary than ordinary people.  Teams like this really do disintegrate astonishingly often, in my experience.  I'm kind of astonished that you guys work as well as you do."

"I've had a team previously, so I have experience with keeping people together. We also work at it. But - I firmly believe magical girls should work together, even if we're not always temperamentally suited. The benefits outweigh the drawbacks."

"I'm not saying it's not a good idea if you can get it to work, just, their Kyubey might not be doing it maliciously.  Mine warned me against trying to make a team of magical girls work too, and I don't think he was doing it for sketchy reasons.  ...I guess you could pick at any of the individual things, though, and when you line them all up it's kinda..."

"What did you mean by, didn't want you to learn magic?  Like, he didn't want you to practice your magical girl abilities?"

"The safety problems were the biggest red flags for me... And I asked if I could learn magic beyond just summoning swords and ribbons and stuff, and he pretty much said no in an awful lot of words. But when I was just starting out, I wasn't confident in my fighting ability, and I asked him if I should practice, and he said I should just jump straight into fighting witches. Practice has ended up helping me a lot though, it's hard to innovate in the middle of a witch fight."

She nods.  "I mean, mine told me that the best place to learn to fight was - you know, on the job - too, and I might have said the same thing to you if I hadn't seen," she gestures around the room, "how well you guys work.  But - yeah, not keeping you in the loop on safety issues sounds suspish.  And like I said, you can always pick at the details, but."

"He was kind of - he was really - it's hard to explain, exactly... looking back, he was really... pushy, about getting us to wish.  I might have waited longer if he hadn't been so..." she trails off.

Nod. "He didn't explain anything at all to me, and waited until I was in the middle of an active crisis."

"Whoof.  I'd introduce you to mine - he was more up front about a lot of stuff - but he's usually keeping an eye on Tag.  Do you all work with this one, have you been keeping track...?"

"I work with a different one. He's more - straightforward, and better at actually answering questions."

Taylor pipes up with, "I definitely work with a different one, mine's really nice! And he's not as down on the team as y'all's, he thinks it'll be good for me!"

Sophie nods, says she has the same Kyubey as Taylor.

Alex looks thoughtful. "I don't really talk to my Kyubey much. He tells me about opportunities like this, but other than that we go our own ways. I think he's an older Kyubey though."

She looks at Mallory.  "Have you ever tried to get them to come to the meetings?"

She looks thoughtful. "No, though that's certainly a good idea. They might have something to contribute."

"Worth a shot, anyway."

There's a lull, and Kaylee takes the opportunity to ask: "Tobi, you said you wished at fourteen, right?  Do you think you were - too young?"

She looks thoughtful.  "Dunno.  It's not the youngest I've ever heard of, definitely, and I don't think I regret it."