'What's up?'

'You're really sure magical girl teams don't work?'

'Sadly, yes.'

'Why, exactly?'

'Magical girls just aren't meant to work together; the best magical girls are the best because they work alone.  When you do try to work together, the stresses you're under tend to drive you apart and turn you against one another.'

'Something I never understood about that is - ordinary humans tend to work better together than alone.  We're a social species, you know?  Lotsa people deal with stress better if they've got someone to help them through it.'

'That's true,' Kyubey says. 'But magical girls are under different kinds of stress than most people.  In my experience, that makes a lot of difference.'

'You think people - just deal with fighting witches differently?'

'The best magical girls do.  I've been doing this for a while.  I know how to keep magical girls well-adjusted, and functional.'

' - The reason I ask is, I actually ran into a team of magical girls a few weeks back.'

'Really,' Kyubey replies.

'Based outta Jackson, Tennessee,' Tobi says.  'One of them's in her 20s, the rest are kids.  They seem really well-adjusted.'

'Hmm.  How long have they been together?'

'Not sure.  Few years or so, I think.'

'Well, there's no guarantee they'll stay together, you realize.  Based on what I've seen of magical girl teams in the past, I wouldn't expect them to.'

Tobi shrugs.  'Uh, I just shrugged to myself meaningfully, guess you couldn't see that.  They think Mal - she's the twentysomething - they think she's better at keeping them together because she's older.'

'I suppose it's not impossible,' Kyubey says.  'I'd certainly expect adult magical girls to be better at keeping a team together.  But better doesn't necessarily mean good.  In general, magical girls who survive to adulthood are still at their best when they work alone.  You've been doing pretty well solo, haven't you?'

'Guess so.  How's Tag doing?'

'Safe, healthy.  Michigan is quiet.'

'That's good.  You got anything to report?'

'Nope.'

'Okay.  Talk to you later.'

February becomes March.  Kaylee's hunting more and more often, to keep her supply of grief seeds up.  On one outing with Lianne, she asks, 'Have you noticed your mood being affected by using up magic?'

'...Now that I think about it, kinda? I'm always - more down when my soul gem's low. Don't get any runner's high after a fight until I clear my gem.'

(She's finally no longer grounded, so she's able to join Kaylee more often. Not as much as she'd like, though.)

'Yeah.  Sometimes I - let myself get low, accidentally, and stay that way for a bit, and I'm always a lot more worried about everything, or everything feels like a big drag, until I realize I haven't cleared my gem in a while.'