She still doesn't quite believe that Kaylee likes her like that, and occasionally has to pinch herself. 

She does quietly tell Alex during some downtime Saturday, and awkwardly reciprocates the resulting hug.

She thinks it might be okay to tell the other girls, but... But she doesn't know how they'll react, and not everyone is as accepting as Alex. See: most of their school.

(Lianne's probably going to crack soon, hiding it feels cowardly and she doesn't like that, but... But.)

Anyways, she's dating Kaylee! She's never dated anyone before so she's as nervous as she is excited, but Kaylee seems plenty happy, so!

That night, Kyubey shows up at her window.

...She lets him in. 

'Hey,' she says over the telepathy network.

'Hello,' he says.  'Some of your oldest grief seeds are probably getting ready to hatch.  I'm here to collect them for you.'

'Oh, okay, yeah. Thanks. They're over here.' She walks over to her dresser, where she'd hidden the grief seeds, each wrapped up separately. (Her mom and sister at the very least don't go through her clothes.)

Kyubey hops up onto the top of her dresser and starts taking grief seeds from her, one by one, somehow balancing them right on the tip of his big fluffy tail.  The red egg-shaped symbol on his back pops open like a hatch, and he deposits each one of the grief seeds inside.

...There's something distinctly - freaky about that. Like, what sort of animal has a hatch? Lianne isn't versed in xenobiology, but she's pretty sure evolution doesn't work that way.

Maybe Kyubey's society's just advanced enough to have AI robot people. But. Still.

'How do you destroy the seeds?' she asks idly.

'It's hard to explain how I destroy a grief seed without a lot of background understanding of magic that I'm not really qualified to impart,' Kyubey says.

'I mean, do you like feed it to a machine and press a button? Does it remove the - yuckiness - and purify the seed, or demolish it? Or do you like throw it in a black hole or something."

'It's more like feeding it into a magical device that destroys it.  Dropping a grief seed in a black hole would probably destroy it, but by using magic it's easier to be sure.'

'Alright! Is there anywhere I can learn more about magic?'

'There aren't really facilities set up to teach humans to do our kind of magic.  Learning about magic would take time away from hunting witches and training as a magical girl.  Plus, we have kind of a natural knack for it - it would be harder for you to do very much with it.'

'So there aren't, like, books?'

'Not ones in a language you could understand, no.'

'I couldn't learn the language? Or use translation software?'

'You could in theory, but it would be harder than learning just about any other language.  There's no translation software set up to translate between our language and English.  Even if you did, though, I don't think you could improve very much on the system we have.  It'd be better to focus on hunting witches.'

'I'm not hunting witches 24/7, I could study in my downtime. Even if it takes a while.'

'It would still split your focus, and like I said, I don't think it would help very much.  It could take years of study before you even understood how to do anything with it, and understanding is the easy part.'

'I mean, basically all it'd be taking away from is browsing the internet. And I'd like to know something about what I'm doing.'

'I'm happy to try to answer any questions you have, as much as I can!  But it's a complicated subject.  I'm not sure there are even any resources dedicated to teaching humans our language.'

'I can't think of any questions right now, but I'll let you know when I have some?'

'Okay!'

And she finishes handing off the grief seeds.

'See you later!'

He departs.

That conversation was... Weird.

She quietly relays the conversation to Kaylee during gym class Monday. "I'm not actually that super interested in learning magic, but that he kept trying to discourage me felt... Off," she says. "Also he has the weird hatch thing in his back that he puts the grief seeds in. Unless alien biology's really, really different, it didn't look organic."

"...yeah, that seems a bit... if he's just bad at this he probably wouldn't try that hard to turn you off to learning magic.  From the way you describe that conversation he seemed kind of - slippery."

"I know! He didn't even try to discourage me in a reasonable way, it all felt like excuses. And, like, magical girls learning magic would probably help. Even if we're so behind the aliens that it'd take us years and years, well - maybe we'd have a novel idea early on, we are different species so obviously we'd take different approaches, and there are human prodigies who could probably pick it up really fast."

She nods.  "That makes sense. I can't imagine what he could be hiding about magic in particular... was there anything else he was always weirdly evasive about?  He was always really down on magical girls working together..."

"...Details about his people maybe? I don't really remember much beyond that, though he was super evasive about the dangers of being a magical girl when we started out."

"Dangers of being a magical girl," she says, counting on her fingers, "details about magic, details about other Kyubeys, and he discouraged us from working together... that's... really really sketchy now that I say it out loud but I don't really see, like, an obvious pattern..."

"I mean, either he's really terrible at helping, or he wants us to get ourselves killed. Which would be bizarre, why invest effort and resources into us just to let us die?"

"I don't know.  I don't... understand any of this."

"I don't either... Maybe Mallory knows something? She's been working with him for longer. Though she didn't strike me as the type to hide things..."

" - didn't you say once, it seemed like she knew more than she was letting on about Kyubey?"

"I don't know. I mean, I don't think she'd hide anything super important, but maybe just not mention something she thinks is minor, she did tell us about the dangers... I didn't know her as well or trust her as much back then, I think. She's been nothing but helpful with us..."

"Yeah.  I don't know."  She sighs.  "Do you think we should... try to warn the other girls about him?  Taylor and everyone?  Like, he's gonna try to get you not to trust the group, don't listen to him?"

"...My gut says yes, but... Couldn't he twist that against us somehow? Like, if we make the first move - I wouldn't necessarily trust someone who told me not to trust someone I liked. But I don't know what the other girls would think..."

"I just don't like the idea of him... stringing them along.  I talked to Taylor about it a bit, and - it kind of seems like - the thing he does - is working on her, you know?"

"Yeah. I don't think she'll fail to trust us, but - she's a trusting person, and I think Kyubey's gonna take advantage of that. I definitely think they should know that he's sketchy, I just don't know how to convince them if they already believe him."

"Maybe if we presented it less as - hey, he's going to try to turn you against us - and more like, I've had kind of sketchy experiences with him, has anyone else noticed that?  That might be - less like a mirror of the thing he does, at least."

"...That could definitely work."

"Okay.  Yeah.  Let's... do that, next meeting.  It's at least - not just doing nothing about it."

"Yeah. I feel better now that we have something of a plan, at least..."

"Yeah, I know what you mean."

She can't really think of an answer, so she lets the silence stretch on a bit, then changes the topic to something less heavy - mostly (not mean spirited) gossip about their classmates. 

Gym ends soon after, anyways, and she bids Kaylee goodbye with a heavy heart and an anxious stomach.

Days pass, as they anxiously await the next League meeting.

Before then, though, just after lunch period on Thursday, they may perceive the familiar, unpleasant sensation of an approaching witch.

Shit shit shit. 

Lianne turns on her heel , pretends she needs to get something out of her locker to her friends, and sends to Kaylee, "You feel that too?"

Kaylee slips away from her classroom into the crowd.

'Yeah - can you tell where it is - '

'Head for the buildings out back, behind them's the best way to slip away from school - '

And discretely dowsing - 

it's getting closer.  It's hard to tell, but - it seems like it's headed for the school.

'I'm on my way.'

She relays this, then slips around back and into the woods when no one's looking, trying to pinpoint the exact location.

'We should probably wait to costume up until we're in the barrier proper, it'll be hard to explain our outfits if we don't. Right now it just looks like we're skipping.' 

And they're not the only ones - she can hear a couple of people laughing through the trees, and a light breeze brings the smell of cigarette smoke over to her.

'Right - '

She's sprinting toward the woods now, trying to catch up with Lianne.  (In the back of her mind, that electric excitement...)

'There's people around, can we - get them inside, say we saw a bear or something - are there bears here - ?'

'Nope. They won't listen anyways, I know this crowd - maybe say you saw a teacher coming? But we need to destroy the witch asap, the whole school's at risk, walls won't do anything against a witch - '

It's not long before Lianne finds the entrance to the barrier, before Kaylee's caught up to her.

Ahhh - 

'Kaylee, I've found it, over here. I'll wait for you.'

'Do I have time to catch up?  Is it moving?'

It is, inexorably, in the direction of the school.

'It's headed for the school - how far are you - '

'I'm not sure, I only just made it to the woods - at least a few minutes I think - '

How big does it feel (or, can she take it alone?)

It'd be a long shot.  But it's moving pretty fast.

'I'm going in, to at least start on the familiars. It's approaching you, though, so you might be able to catch up, or rescue anyone with the mark - '

'Okay.  I'll get there as fast as I can.  Good luck.'

'Thanks. You too.'

And in, outfitting up once she's past the barrier.

Like a cross between an oil refinery and a construction site - labyrinthine buildings all girders and railings tower around her, the sky is choked with black smog belched from enormous smokestacks, the air is cold and dry and smells of diesel and machinery.  Everything that isn't exposed dark metal is painted bright dump-truck yellow-orange.  Tall, slender humanoid shapes, cobbled together from tailpipes, emitting plumes of gray smoke, stalk the alleys between buildings.

She's going to prioritize moving fast over mopping up familiars - Kaylee can take care of that, or she can get them after the witch isn't a threat anymore.

Quickest path to the center?

Her barrier-sense leads her through alleyways and passages; every so often a pipe-figure will drop onto all fours and start sprinting after her like a cheetah, but they're not hard to take out.

Then up one of the towers, where more pipe-figures are camouflaged with the walls; apparently the correct path through a tower will spit her out into an entirely different labyrinth of buildings.  That gets her closer, but it seems like she'll have to navigate at least a couple more towers.

What do these things have against straight paths.

She proceeds, trying to strike a balance between conserving magic and moving as quickly as she can.

Soon, a ping from Kaylee: 'I'm inside.  Which way did you go?  I'll see about catching up...'

She relays her path so far. 'I'm pretty much bee-lining for the heart as much as this stupid thing will let me.'

She frowns.  'I think the maze must have - shifted, or something, since you got here - that doesn't feel like a straight path to me.  I'll try to meet you at the center?'

' - I hadn't known they do that. Take the fastest way here, then, these familiars aren't too much trouble.'

'See you soon.'

Shortly, Lianne's barrier-sense leads her to the edge of one of the towers, with no ground in sight below, and bids her jump across to the next tower over.

Good thing she's not particularly afraid of heights.

Over she goes.

As she jumps, a pair of familiars spring off of the opposite tower, one on either side of her, on a course to slam into her in midair.

She spins, sword out, angling to slice through them.

She hits them both, and they explode into clouds of exhaust smoke, but the spin leaves her at an awkward angle while she lands, and when she touches down a third familiar bull-rushes her.

And concentrate - 

She summons another sword intersecting with the familiar.

Success.  Familiar vanishes.

Her barrier-sense leads her across several more chasm-jumps, and up and up and up.  She's getting close.

'Kaylee, how far are you? I'm nearly at the heart.'

'Getting there.  You'll probably get there before me if you keep going but I can catch up quick if you do.'

'Alright. I want to end this thing as quickly as possible, so I'll get started without you.'

She proceeds.

Soon she emerges into a great spherical chamber made of the roofs of a hundred towers like the one she's just ascended - it's not quite the center of the barrier, but it's close.  Gravity is misbehaving, down is toward the inside surface of the sphere; opposite her is an enormous creature like a cross between a spider and a sea urchin, backhoes for legs and folding tower cranes for spines jutting out at a hundred precarious angles.  It is, unmistakably, the witch, and it's crawling toward her across the surface of the sphere.

Vulnerable to a giant flying sword?

It probably wouldn't notice a single thrown sword unless it was really big.  Dangerously big, larger by far than anything she's seen before.  If she doesn't want to take that big a hit to her soul gem, the other option is probably closing in and hacking away at innards.

That's gonna be dangerous, but she has an advantage on healing, so.

She bounces up, avoiding moving parts, trying to move at the witch's innards - and when she gets close, aiming a sword at whatever looks most vulnerable.

As she approaches, it swings wrecking balls at her, but she's fast enough to dodge.  When she wounds it, it screams, a horrible sound like a metal girder tearing, and begins to claw at her with enormous backhoe-legs.

She dodges what she can, parries what she can't, and tries to cut off a few legs at the joint for good measure. 

She takes out a couple before a backhoe with a shovel-claw as big as her entire body scoops her up and flings her across the sphere.

It shudders, then begins tearing open the tower its standing on, folding up its spines and burrowing downward.

She slows herself down midair, bounces back over, and pursues.

By the time she gets back over, the tunnel the witch carved is seething with familiars.  As soon as they see her they start swarming toward her on all fours.

Swing through those, manifest a sword to skewer that conveniently clustered group, toss that one away from her with ribbons when it nearly gets behind her - 

She has the feeling that Kaylee will catch up before she makes it through this.

And, indeed:

'Lianne, I found the witch, it's on the inside of a big globe, coming up out of the floor - where are you?'

'Trying to follow it, I don't know how quickly I can get through these familiars - be careful, it's pretty difficult to take on at range.'

'I'll see what I can do.'

She leaps and rockets through the air toward the witch, conjuring up arrays of knives in midair and sending them spinning through the air toward it.  As she gets closer, she conjures a pair of Bowie knives, but before she can close the gap it swats her aside with one of its legs, then heaves and twists its entire body to send three enormous wrecking balls in her direction.  She only just manages to scramble to her feet and jump backward out of the way.

She goes in for another approach, this time from above: she leaps into the air and springboards off of nothing in midair, shooting down toward it at an angle that she hopes won't let it send another wrecking ball toward her.  Instead, it scoops up a bundle of familiars and hurls them at her; she stabs one in midair, springboards off another, and flings knives toward it and the remaining two as she shoots away.

She lands some distance clear of the witch, and grimaces.

She spots a flash of gold rocketing across the chamber toward the witch.

"Lianne?" she calls out, in ordinary speech.

But no, it isn't Lianne - the color scheme's the same, but the new girl came from the wrong direction, and Lianne isn't that fast...

Whoever it is has a long, slender sword in each hand, and manages to slash apart three or four more flung familiars in midair before she lands on the witch.

"Who the hell's Lianne?" she calls back.  "Listen, I don't care if this is your territory - " she stabs another familiar and leaves the sword embedded " - I've spent months tracking this thing down, it's mine, get your own."

"I'm not - we can work together, can we work together?"

"You any good at range?  Keep these crawly fuckers off me!"

"Got it!"

She is pretty good at range, in fact, and she's been practicing taking shots from midair; she manages to jump and hover and prevent any spare familiars from getting close to the mysterious new girl.

'Lianne, somebody new showed up, she's taking care of the witch and I'm keeping familiars off her but I don't know if she can finish it on her own or not, how are you doing?'

'Just - about - there!' And she slices through the last familiar, then darts for Kaylee and the witch, clearing her grief seed as she goes.

When she gets into the sphere, she takes a moment to orient herself, then leaps for the witch, sword at the ready.

A few more familiars head toward her but Kaylee manages to head them off from afar, and she lands successfully on the witch.

"You must be Lianne," new girl deadpans.  (Up close, it becomes clear that she's a few years older than either of them.  Also, her weapons aren't exactly swords - they're sword-like, but the handles are just about as long as the blades.)  "Your friend's got us covered pretty well.  Let's take this thing down."  She nods to the middle of the giant cluster of cranes and starts climbing downwards.

"Let's."

Lianne follows, occasionally sticking a sword in a joint, at the ready in case the witch retaliates.

It does: once again it starts clawing at the interlopers with enormous mechanical claws.  The new girl is fast and nimble enough to dodge out of the way as she climbs down.

Lianne isn't always, but her swords are sturdy and she swings hard, and now she's on the look out for the trick from earlier.

Soon they're near enough to the center or the witch for New Girl to start doing her level best to turn its insides into a gold sword-staff pincushion.

She can be joined by Lianne's giant swords, as many as she can economically summon, applied as strategically as she knows how - mostly fouling up joints and in anything delicate-looking. She grabs existing swords and yanks them out before throwing them elsewhere on occasion.

Stab!  Stab!  Stab stab stab!

The witch's screams get progressively more pained and ear-rending, until eventually - 

"Shit, get clear - "

 - the witch's body starts collapsing around them.

Screw economy, she's cutting her way clear, summoning swords left and right to prop up an exit.

New Girl doesn't bother trying to cut anything out of the way, just springs and leaps and dodges through the air as fast as she can.

They escape just as the witch collapses into a pile of rubble.

The labyrinth shimmers out of existence, and leaves them in the middle of the woods.

"Yeah, motherfucker!" she yells in the general direction the witch had been a moment ago.  She cackles triumphantly.

Lianne drops her outfit, then eyes her soul gem. It's hovering around half brightness - she'd summoned a lot of swords, and towards the end there she hadn't been being as careful as normal. She goes ahead and clears her soul gem, then looks around. 

"Kaylee, you okay?" she calls out.

She landed a ways away, but appears in one piece.  She walks over.  "Fine.  You all right?"

Small smile. "Yeah." Then she turns to the new girl and says: "Hey, thanks for helping. Not sure we could've taken that all on our own."

"Don't mention it."

She picks up the grief seed from the ground, taps it lightly to her soul gem, then detransforms and pockets it.

"Hold on, I gotta," she gestures with a cell phone and then dials a number.

"Hey, Tag."

...

"I took some big fucker down, think it was yours."

...

"Routine.  Met a couple local girls, they were friendly.  Keep an eye on, where am I, Jackson?  For the next couple days, hedge our bets, but I'm pretty sure that was our target."

...

"See ya."

She hangs up and turns back to Lianne and Kaylee.  "Yeah, no problem.  Everyone okay?"

She's guessing this girl's planning on keeping the grief seed, then. Not that she minds, she still has extra, and it sounds like the other girl was tracking this witch anyways.

"We're good. Did you just move here, or are you passing through?"

"I'm a nomad.  Sorry," she adds, flashing a grin.  "This is your and - Kaylee? - Kaylee's city?  I'm not sticking around."

"We're glad you were here to help. Not really ours - not too many witches out here, so we mostly hunt with a group in the nearest big city. We were here because this thing decided to attack our school... Annnnd I'm gonna be in a lot of trouble for skipping class. Um, anyways, do you want to keep in contact? We've been trying to build a network, we could share intelligence and stuff. Maybe occasionally get together for a particularly nasty witch."

"You've got a team?  How'd you manage that?"

"Mallory organized it - she's in, like, her twenties, and runs what's officially a scouting group. There's six of us total. We're trying to coordinate with girls in other cities, but no real luck so far."

"Still, that's pretty impressive if she gets it to work.  Groups like that tend to break down pretty quick in my experience."

"A lot of us already knew each other, so that helps, I think, as does having someone older to - kind of moderate the group. Keep us on track and all. But, yeah, Kaylee and I've run into some really unfriendly girls before."

"Sounds about right," New Girl grins.  "Oh, uh, I'm Tobi, by the way."

"Lianne and Kaylee. Nice to meet you, Tobi."

"You too.  Uh, I guess you guys cut class to come fight this witch?  You should probably get back, huh?  That's what an adult would say in this situation I bet."

"Ah, we'd probably just be sent to in-school suspension for the rest of class, there's no benefit to going in before next period. We get in the same trouble either way."

"Oh jeez, I didn't even think about that, I just - completely panicked as soon as I felt the witch."

"Hey, whatever trouble you get in can't be worse than fighting witches, probably."

"I guess."

"You haven't met my mom," Lianne says, only half joking.

"She sounds fun," Tobi deadpans.

That gets a small smile. "Very."

Tobi laughs.

"So who else is in your group?"

"Well, me, Kaylee, Mallory, then three others about our age - Alex, Sophie, and Taylor."

"And you all just get together every so often to fight witches?  Sounds fun."

"We've been meeting once a week - and we find decent sized witches most times, they seem to like this city. Though Taylor's young, she isn't helping fight yet."

"How old is she?"

"Like, fourteen I think? She also just wished, and has no real idea what she's doing. Mallory thinks she should be focusing on school and stuff until she's like fifteen or sixteen."

"Oh, fourteen, I was picturing one of those girls you hear about who wished at, like, ten.  Fourteen's not that young for a magical girl, is it?  I think that's how old I was when I started."

"Ten?"

"Yeah. I think it's mostly that she's a bit immature for her age. Really hopeful, and none of us want to see that stop. Plus Mallory's got a point, fourteen's young to be risking your life. She'll be older soon enough. And... Kyubey seriously lets girls wish that young?"

"I mean, I don't see mine pulling something like that, and I've never actually met someone who started that early I don't think.  But I guess it happens sometimes."

"I'll ask Mallory. She probably knows, she's met a lot of magical girls... And I could see ours doing something like that. He's - either plain horrible at his job or incredibly shady."

"Shit, that's gotta suck.  I'm sorry.  Maybe I should introduce you to mine some time."

"Yeah, maybe. We haven't actually got to meet any others yet."

"I mostly talk to mine, but I think most of them are okay.  But every so often - you hear some shit."

"I suppose they're probably about as varied as humans, really..."

"That'd make sense."  She takes a deep breath.  "Shit, I'm starving, I always get hungry after a tough fight.  I gotta get back to civilization and get something to eat.  - When's your group meet?  I might drop by."

"Saturdays at five, in the community center over in Jackson, room 2a. We'd be happy to have you. And we just had lunch, but yeah, I know what you mean."

"See you there."

And away.

She relaxes slightly when Tobi takes off, then turns to Kaylee. "So, since school's incentives for not skipping are horrible, and I can hardly get into more trouble, do you want to go get food?"

"I - kind of want to get back, to be honest."

She's never skipped class before.  It is, somehow, much more unnerving an experience than facing down any number of terrifying familiars.

"Alright. How about we wait until next period, though? I don't particularly want to get suspended, and we wouldn't be allowed back in the classroom anyways... It's kinda a terrible incentive system, really."

"Thanks.  - Sorry, I know it's kind of silly, just."

"It's okay. I - don't like breaking rules for the sake of it, either. It's not silly at all."

"Thanks."

So hang out until the bell rings, then back to class?

Sounds like a plan to Kaylee.

Lianne does, in fact, get into a ton of trouble. She isn't banned from her 'scouting group', but only just barely, and she's otherwise grounded for three weeks - no computer access other than for school, no phone while in the house, and definitely no going places with friends.

Still, Saturday does roll around like a breath of fresh air, and she climbs gratefully onto the bus when it gets to her stop.

Kaylee spends the rest of her Thursday quite honestly terrified of her parents talking to her about skipping class.  She feels silly admitting it to herself, but - she's never gotten in serious trouble with her parents before, and the thought of it is scary.

That night, her dad Sits Her Down to have a Talk.  He doesn't chew her out, though, at least not at first.

"So, I heard you cut class today," he says, in textbook Parent Casual.

She can't think of anything to say, so she doesn't say anything.

"Kaylee..." her dad says heavily.  "Is there something going on that you want to talk to us about?"

"I - "

She can't tell them but she can't not tell them but she can't say it's just nothing but she can't make something up, it's one thing to just not talk to her parents about magic stuff but having to make up a lie as cover is...

"It's not just today, Kaylee.  Your grades have been slipping, you've been skipping your extracurriculars more and more often.  And you might not think we can tell, but you've been more distant from me and your mom.  I know you're afraid of getting in trouble, but if you're having problems at school, you know you can talk to us about it, right?"

She can't think of anything to say, so she just nods.

"Are people at school giving you trouble for going out with Lianne?"

She shakes her head.

"Is one of your teachers giving you trouble?"

She shakes her head again.  "I can't - I don't think you can - help me."

Her dad puts a hand on her shoulder.  "It's really easy to think that no one can possibly fix whatever problem you're having," he says.  "It's something people believe, and especially, no offense, something kids believe, a lot more often than it's actually true."

Saying it would put you in danger would really really not improve this conversation.  It's true - or at least, Kyubey claims that people who know about witches become targets for them - but she can't say it, there'd be no way she could stop her dad from trying to get involved and then inevitably a witch would -

She can't continue having that thought, so instead she says, "I know."  Her fists are clenched, nails digging into her palms.  "I don't - know if - I'm ready to talk about it."  That's sort of true, they're gonna go public eventually, just not yet; it's more bearable than telling a direct lie.

Her dad sighs.  "I understand."  He rubs her shoulder, and she leans into his fatherly side-hug.  "Just remember - it's our job to help you handle - anything.  And I really do think that talking about whatever-it-is would help.  Even if you don't think I can give you advice.  I know I'm surprised sometimes by how much it helps to talk stuff over with someone."

"I - yeah.  Thanks," she says.  "Just - not yet, okay?"

"Okay.  Promise you're not gonna cut class again, though?"

She nods, and then has to swallow a lump in her throat, because, well, she's hardly going to sit around and do nothing if another witch attacks the school.

She stands up abruptly.  "Thanks for talking.  I've - got homework."

" - all right," her dad says.

She does; she hides in her room and works, and thinks.

Friday passes; in trying to avoid talking to her other acquaintances about why she cut class, she ends up being pretty withdrawn from everyone, even Lianne.

Saturday arrives.  She meets Lianne at the scouting group.

"Hey Kaylee," she says when they meet. "Got grounded. For three whole weeks, I've never seen mom that mad. I won't be able to hang out on Fridays for a while. Luckily mom's letting me keep clubs and scouting, since they look good to colleges... How'd your parents take things?"

"My dad was - actually really nice about it, considering.  But.  He knows something's up with me, and I don't know how long I can keep him in the dark about what."

"It's good he was nice about it, but it does kinda stink that he's getting suspicious. At least my mom doesn't pay too much attention to what I'm doing... I don't know about my sister, though, I might have to come up with a reasonable-sounding excuse eventually."

"...Do you think Kyubey was right, that we should keep it a secret?"

"I honestly don't know. If it's true that witches target people who know... But if everyone knew, I don't think that'd change attack patterns? Though it might cause a panic. But people have the right to know when they're in danger."

She nods.  "I guess I just... I hate lying to my parents about something this big.  If there's some way to - safely clue in just a couple of people... I don't know."

"We can talk to Mallory about that?"

"Yeah.  Speaking of which - " she gestures toward the door.  "Shall we?"

"Let's."

In they go.

Everyone's there. Mal smiles at the two girls when they walk in.

"Hi everyone!" Kaylee says.  She's perked up already, being around a group of people she doesn't have to keep so many secrets from.  She glances around, but it looks like Tobi hasn't shown up yet.  "Are we late?"

"No, we're all just early. How was your week?"

"Well, a witch showed up near the school on Thursday..."

"Yikes. Is everyone okay?"

"No one got hurt, we managed to take it down in time.  We were lucky, though, another girl showed up and helped us out."

"That's good!" There's nodding all around. "I didn't know there were any other girls in the area, though."

"I think she was from out of town, actually.  She said she'd been tracking that witch for a while."

"It's good she was friendly. And tracking witches can be hard, it's good she was able to. And that no one got hurt."

She nods.  "She said she might show up to the meeting, actually, Lianne gave her the address."

As if on cue, someone knocks on and then opens the door.  "Hey, uh."  She glances around and her eyes fall on the adult in the room.  "You Mallory?  Is this the - "

She waggles the fingers on one hand meaningfully, showing off a ring that, to magical girl eyes, is very distinctly a soul gem.

"Hi! Yes, I'm Mallory, and I think you're in the right place. Come on in!"

"Thanks."  She enters properly, shuts the door and sits down.

"I'm Tobi - did Lianne and Kaylee mention me?  We met the other day."

"They were just telling that story - we're glad to have you here, though."

"Thanks!  So, Kaylee and Lianne I've met, you're Mallory obviously - " she gestures to everyone she names, in turn - "who's everyone else?"

Sophie, Alex, and Taylor introduce themselves.

"Nice to meet everyone.  I'll let you guys take the lead, cuz, I have no idea how this works."

"Alright. We usually talk about how we've been doing, or other topics, for a bit, just to socialize and unwind, then we go out to train together, discuss tactics, that sort of thing. And then we go try to find as big a witch as we can together."

"You have to pick a superhero name, though. Speaking of, Taylor still hasn't..."

"Superhero names are hard!"

Tobi raises an eyebrow at Mallory.  "A superhero name?"

"We're apparently a superhero team. The League of Magical Girls."

She chuckles.  "I'm sure I could think of something.  I'm probably not gonna stick around for more than like a week or so, though."

"Aww..."

"That's alright. Do you mind keeping in touch, in case of an emergency on either of our ends?"

"Sounds like a good idea."  She gives Mallory her phone number and email address, plus some contact information for "a guy named Tag Morgan, he keeps an eye out for roving crime waves for me as a way of tracking down big witches.  He'll probably be able to get my attention if you can't reach me."

"Okay, thanks."

"...You've told someone? About the witches."

"Yeah.  He's good about stuff like infosec, though, and my Kyubey watches his back when I'm not around."

"That's good. We've been hesitant, Kyubey said if we tell non-magical girls or potentials they're at higher risk..."

"Yeah, I guess if too many people other than magical girls are in on the secret they can become targets.  Plus, if you're still a kid and you tell your parents, they'll try to make it their problem, and that never ends well."

Nod.

"It's easier all around to just keep stuff secret."

" - if you were gonna tell someone, though," Kaylee said, "how would you make it... less dangerous?"

"Hmm."  She frowns.  "Well - in my opinion, anyway - it's really the sort of thing you should only do if the person you're telling can help you out from the outside.  Tag's good at keeping track of crime stats all over the country, so he's a valuable ally, and I've known him since before I wished, so I know I can trust him with it.  He doesn't want other people I meet through," she gestures vaguely around herself, "this kind of thing, to know where he lives, but it's out in the suburbs, because witches prefer the big city, and it's suburbs of a city that's got low witch activity already.  He knows the kinds of places witches like to lurk around, he knows the signs of a witch's kiss so if he sees them in someone else he can run really fast in the other direction and get me on the phone, and he knows how incredibly stupid it would be for him to try to take on a witch on his own.  So that's my advice."  She directs her gaze meaningfully toward Mallory.

"I don't have anyone I've told, other than potentials, of course. Those all sound like reasonable precautions, though."

Kaylee nods.  "I didn't really... have a plan for making someone my ally, or anything like that," she admits.  "I just - it's been kinda hard for me to lie to my parents about this stuff."

"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."

"I don't feel too young at all."

"Well, there you go.  Some Kyubeys I've heard will go as young as ten or eleven, which I'd say definitely is too young, but - I think people underestimate kids sometimes."

"...It's young. I wished at that age, and so did my best friend, and we - weren't even slightly prepared. Kids should get to be kids, and - kids don't have the best control over their magic."

" - shit.  Are you - do you still work with the Kyubey who - wished you - that young?"

"He's the same one I work with now. He wasn't like Lianne and Kaylee's, he told us about most of the dangers upfront, we just didn't listen."

She nods.  "Shit.  I'm - sorry."  She doesn't ask about the best friend.  She can fill in the blanks.

"I don't think they mean anything bad by it, but - they're zealous about fighting witches, and according to my Kyubey, pre-adolescents in their species are actually able to be trusted with magic, so I don't think they're properly modeling how youth impacts humans."

"That - that's horrible. ...What happened?"

(She's not so good at filling in the blanks.)

"My friend, Tess, didn't have good control of their magic, and - events happened, and they fell into a despair spiral and lost control."

"...Shit."

"I'm so sorry."

"It happened a long time ago, now. I'm - mostly over it."

"I can see why you'd be concerned about people wishing too young, though."

"Yeah. I don't trust Kyubey to make maturity calls accurately."

She nods.

"Anyways... Do you mind sharing how you've been tracking large witches, Tobi? It might be useful if we ever decide to broaden our scope some."

"Tag's got a whole system.  The overview is - he's got this huge setup of, like, news alerts from big cities all around the continental US, and web crawlers or whatever, looking for the kinds of stuff witches tend to cause - violent crime and murder and suicide and disappearances.  Plus he knows a guy who's got an internship at the FBI who can sometimes get more up-to-date crime statistics for some city or other than they release to the public.  Just have him say, you know, so and so wants such and such data for some shit I don't know about.  So, occasionally you'll get a big witch that kind of wanders - mostly they stay in one place but sometimes you'll get one that likes to trek from city to city.  And they don't like to stay in the wilderness too long, so they tend to go from one big city to another nearby one.  So if you see an inexplicable spike in crime in one city, and then an inexplicable spike in crime in the next one over, and so on, that's a hint that maybe there's a big witch on the move.  And if it looks like it's moving in a predictable way, Tag lets me know and I head out to the next city in the line, and then I just look around for the biggest witches I can find.  And once I've taken those down, we wait and see if the spikes in crime keep happening, and if they don't, mission accomplished."

"Might not be ideal for us, we're too stationary at the moment," she admits. "Do you mind letting us know if any big witches start heading our way, though? And you can let us know if there's one that's big enough to give you pause, and we'll see about joining you. I definitely can, for the others it might depend on school schedules."

"Sure thing."

"I'm graduating this year, so I'll be able to help out more in the future, too."

"Oh cool, congrats."  She raises an imaginary glass.

"Thanks! Yeah, I'm super excited. Freedom, here I come."

"It's another year before I get to graduate, I can't wait to be out of grade school. Like, I'm probably gonna take classes parttime at Jackson State, but that shouldn't get in the way too much."

"Honestly I kinda started bailing on school once I became a magical girl.  I mean, I wasn't exactly studious before, but."

"I'm hoping to get a mobile enough job that I can spend my days hunting witches while still affording to eat. A writing gig like Mallory's would actually be ideal, but to compete with everyone else looking for writing work I'll want an associate's."

"My school lets me do mixed in-person and distance learning, it's awesome, I get to spend Tuesdays and Thursdays hunting since online classes take so much less time."

"I talked my parents into homeschooling me - well, letting me self-school more like - but I remember enough of middle school to sympathize."

Tobi laughs.  "Sounds about right.  I kinda cheated at the job thing, though.  I wished to win the lottery."  She grins a bit sheepishly.  "I'm still coasting on that."

"Oh, wow, that's brilliant, how come I didn't think of that?"

She laughs.

"I'm glad I made the wish I did, but, yeah, straight-up money's probably more useful than most things."

"Yeah, it helps with the magical girl thing if you don't need to worry about holding down a job."

"I can imagine."

There's not much else to say or much time left in the meeting; soon the group heads out to spar.  Tobi bows out and heads back to her hotel, so it's just the usual suspects.  Sparring proceeds.  Afterwards, the group manages to track down and slay a relatively weak witch - no match, yet again, for a unified squad five strong.

Magical girls head home.

"We might want to start splitting up into teams, nights we can't find a big witch right away, the witches are getting almost too easy. I'm slightly worried about not having enough grief seeds to go around..." she remarks to Kaylee on the drive back.

"Sounds like a good idea to me.  We usually do okay just the two of us on our Friday hunts."

"Yeah. Those first few witches definitely were worth going up against as a team, especially since we were all new to each other, but nowadays it feels less important?"

She nods.  "What do you think, Mallory?"

"I think you girls are definitely ready for splitting up some, if the team agrees."

"We'll bring it up more formally at the next meeting?"

"Works for me."

"'Kay."

Eventually the car arrives at Kaylee's house; she gets out and says "See you Monday!" to Lianne, and heads inside.

"See you!"

And home. (Where the rest of her weekend passes incredibly boringly. She hates being grounded).

The group agrees to split up, Alex and Sophie in one team, Kaylee and Lianne in another, Taylor finally wheedling Mal into taking her into a familiar. The fights go well enough, and they depart in high spirits.