"I've noticed something similar, too."

" - did any of you guys hear about it from your Kyubey?"

"Nope."

The others all shake their heads.

She frowns.  "Ours, mine and Lianne's, seemed really - bad at being up front about dangers, I guess.  He never told Lianne to always keep her soul gem with her, he only told me.  And I had to nag him to tell me what happens if you don't."

"...Wait, you need to keep your soul gem on you?"

"If you don't, you might pass out, I think.  Your Kyubey never told you either?"

"Nope. I wonder why you need it? I'd been keeping mine with me anyways just so no one'd find it, but..."

"I don't know."

"Maybe one of us can ask ours sometime, then."

"Might not be a bad idea.  I've been - avoiding contact with mine, though."

"Mine's kinda busy, but I can try to catch him sometime?"

" - Sure, if you want."

"I think mine's more on the up-and-up than y'all's."

Kaylee grins a little.  "I hope so."

"He's pretty nice, really."

It is, in fact, a couple weeks before Taylor manages to get in touch with her Kyubey.

"Hi Kyubey! How've you been?"

'I've been good!  How about you?'

"Great! Though I had a question. Why can't we go too far from our soul gems? It's kinda weird."

'Your soul gem is where your magic lives.  If you go too far away from it, your magic gets harder and harder to access.  That's dangerous by itself, of course, if your fighting a witch, but not being able to access your magic can also put stress on a magical girl directly.  You might even pass out, if you're not careful about it.'

"Oh, that makes sense! I was kinda worried it was something bad."

'Well, it is something to be careful about.  But it's hard to lose a ring, or a gem set into your outfit.  You just need to be careful with your soul gem in its bauble form, which I'm sure you already are.'  He smiles encouragingly.

"Yeah, I don't keep it in the bauble form too much. Seems too precious to be careless with, you know?"

'Exactly!'

March passes into April; spring break comes and goes.  Kaylee uses her free time to hunt almost every day.  Her parents make a few cautious probes about the whatever-it-is that briefly caused her grades to slip, but she evades them every time; and since she's doing so well once again, they don't press the subject.  She can sense their worry, though.

With only a month and change left of the school year, the atmosphere is electric with anticipation of summer break.  Even Kaylee feels it; and she realizes, then, just how disconnected she's become from the other students, other than Lianne.  She can't remember the last time she bothered showing up to a GSA meeting, or creative writing club.