One night, there's a disturbance over that way, as Tobi's passing one of the parks. Feels magical.

Hmm.

She glances around.  No non-magical-girls around that she can see.

She transforms and heads toward the scuffle.

There's a fight going on, between a girl in white edged with sea-green wielding a trident, and a slightly older girl in various shades of lavender wielding spiked brass knuckles that she can apparently shoot spikes out of. 

They're not talking, but the trident girl is being significantly more aggressive with her attacks. Neither seems to notice Tobi.

Jesus.  Territory dispute?  Maybe she can break it up - 

"Hey!  Hey!"  She rushes toward them.  "What's the - what the fuck, guys?"

They glance at her. "She started it!" accuses trident; she looks mid-teens at the absolute oldest.

Brass knuckles frowns. "I said I'd leave, though it's not like you'd miss one witch."

She can be fast when she needs to be.  She flash-steps between the two of them, giving them both a shove away from each other, and conjures a pair of swordstaffs to hold pointed at each one.  A warning, but she's also not exactly standing in a combat stance.  "We got enough enemies without fighting each other, yeah?"

"But this is my territory!" trident says, clearly frustrated.

Brass knuckles is backing off, though she's keeping a wary eye on both other girls.

At least they're not actively fighting any more.  She lowers the swordstaffs.

"Look, mint, I got spares - " she sticks one swordstaff into the ground for safekeeping, then retrieves a grief seed from her belt and tosses it in mint-trident's direction.  "There.  Payment.  But come on, you couldn't harvest every single witch in your territory if you tried, right?"

Trident crosses her arms. "That's not the point. Who're you, anyways? Another nomad?"

Knuckles rolls her eyes. "The point's getting rid of witches."

"Look, it sounds to me like Knuckles here was gonna leave the witch for you to nab before I came along anyway.  Plus you've got the extra seed I gave you.  Right now you're coming out on top.  Wanna keep it that way?"

Without waiting for an answer, she turns to the other girl.  "Hey, Knuckles, wanna get out of here?" she asks, in a lower voice.

"Then leave!" the other girl declares, scowling.

Knuckles gives Tobi a flat look, but says, "Sure," and backs further away from trident.

"Happy to."  She vanishes her swordstaffs and leads Knuckles away.

Who keeps her guard slightly up, but follows.

"Thanks for intervening," she says once they're clear. "I'm Sasha. You?"

"Tobi.  Are you low?"  She gestures with a grief seed.  "I do have spares."

"A bit more than I like to be, yeah, if you don't mind."

"No problem.  I just took down a big one the other day, so."  She hands off the grief seed.

She clears her gem, then hands it back. "Thanks. That'll tide me over a while." She drops her costume, then. No sense in wasting the magic. "You a nomad, too?"

"Yep.  Got here from Jackson.  Not one for farming?"

She makes a face. "No. Ick."

"Yeah, I know how you feel."

"I'm from just over the Appalachians. Surprising number of witches in nowheresville, but not quite enough, so. Decided to see about wandering. Always wanted to do a road trip, anyways. 'S kinda nice, just me and my dog and the wide wilderness, though you get to missing people. Well, decent people."

"Yeah.  I'm from - well, the suburbs, but it's a secret which ones.  Friend of mine figured out a way to track really big witches as they move between cities, I go after them when I can."

"You know, if you're headed in that direction, I actually met a team of magical girls in Jackson.  They're doing better than teams usually do.  If you're looking for decent people."

"A team, huh? I'll check them out. Not sure I'll stick around, but you never know. ...Hey, want to trade phone numbers, just in case? So I can return that favor if you ever need it."

"Sure thing."  She gives Sasha her phone number - not Tag's this time, though.

And she gives hers.

"Thanks again for helping, and for the heads up about the team."

"Hey, no problem.  We do have enough enemies."

"Yeah. I'd expected less - infighting - when I wished."

"Me too, honestly.  My Kyubey warned me that lots of us don't get along, but I didn't really realize how bad it was until afterwards."

"I think I have more faith in people than's generally been held up, too."

"The League seems pretty decent.  - that's what the team I met calls themselves.  But.  Yeah."  She shakes her head.

"That's good, at least."

She nods.  "You want me to stick around, or?"

"I think I'm good. Thanks, though."

"No worries.  I'll see you around, maybe."

"Definitely. I'll be heading towards Jackson next, I think." Friendly magical girls sounds like a nice change of pace.

"Have fun.  Think I'm gonna find a hotel here, loiter around Nashville for a bit."

"Most of the magical girls around Nashville aren't as annoying as that one, at least not that I've run into. Good hunting, though."

"Thanks.  You too."

With that, they part ways.

She heads back to her RV for the night, then to Jacksonville the next day. (The team is indeed very nice. She lingers for a bit, trades contact info, then heads on. The road is calling.)

Tobi does indeed stick around Nashville for a few days.  She manages not to run into wintergreen-trident again, thankfully.  Then, she too moves on.

Sasha arrives in Jackson on Saturday, runs errands, finds a parking lot to park in while she's here, walks her dog, and settles in for the night.

Sunday night, she goes hunting.

Mal is running patrol for the night. It's been calm, mostly - she's taken down a familiar, hasn't found a witch yet.

She spots a flash of purple on a rooftop in the distance, and goes to investigate. When she finds the new girl - woman, really - she slows down and waves, calling out, "Hello! Haven't seen you around before."

Sasha turns at the greeting and smiles slightly. "No. I'm a nomad. Someone I ran into mentioned there were some friendly magical girls in these parts."

"That'd probably be me and my friends. We have a group going, meeting on Saturdays. You just passing through, or are you thinking of sticking around? We'd be glad to have you if so."

"I'm not big on staying in one place, so I'll continue on sooner or later - I've been thinking of doing part of Route 66 while it's not too hot out. But I might swing back by on Saturday, depending on how my mood goes."

"Alright. Just stick clear of hunting too much in Memphis, some of the girls there are aggressive. You're welcome to hunt as much as you want here, there's plenty to go around."

"Thanks for the tip, I'll keep it in mind. And for the permission."

"It's no trouble at all. Do you want my contact info in case you decide to come by, or if there's an emergency? This area sometimes throws big witches."

"Sure." And contact info can be exchanged.

Sasha says goodbye afterwards, and heads out to continue her hunt.

In Jackson, Kaylee's sacrificing extracurriculars in favor of keeping her grades up.  She's noticed she tends to feel worse on days when she's low on magic, so she's been clearing her soul gem more and more often.

She spends a lot of time thinking about her wish.  She can't even remember exactly what it was she said.  To be less afraid of witches, to be able to fight without being terrified or anxious...

She still hasn't told Lianne about it yet.

"Hey Kaylee," Lianne says Monday when she gets on the bus. After initial pleasantries are exchanged: "Your recital's Wednesday, right?"

"Yep!  Will you be able to come?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world! I'm super excited."

Blush!  "I'm really looking forward to playing for you."

Blush! "That'll be really nice."

"Yeah."

She's been hesitant about kissing Lianne in public, since Lianne doesn't want to be public about it yet, but she does take Lianne's hand and squeeze a little in an affectionate sort of way.

Ahhhh.

Lianne squeezes back. Over the telepathy, 'I think I want to tell the rest of the League. It's - I dislike hiding this from them. Hiding you. You're amazing, the whole world should know about how awesome you are. How lucky I am.'

Oh gosh!!!  Kaylee's actually speechless for a moment.

'I - wow - if you want to I'd love for people to know.  I'm really - thank you, Lianne.  You're really great too, I've been so happy to have you as my girlfriend...'  She grins even more widely on the word "girlfriend."

Squeeze. (And not kissing her in front of everyone is really really hard). She's pretty sure there's an incredibly sappy look on her face.

'You've been the best girlfriend I could imagine.'

Aww!

She leans over and gives Lianne a quick sideways hug.

Eee!

Lianne returns the sideways hug, and is quite content to side-ways cuddle until they reach the school.

Cuddles are had.

Eventually they have to part ways, though.

"I'll see you around, Lianne."  At the same time she say Lianne's name she telepathically sends the word 'darling.'

Aww.

"See you Kaylee!" And then: 'Lovebird.'

Eee!

School goes well, and eventually Wednesday rolls around. Lianne makes sure to arrive early for Kaylee's recital, enough to grab front-row seats. She ends up dragging her sister along, since she doesn't exactly have her own car.

Kaylee catches Lianne's eye as the curtain comes up.  She doesn't wave, but she pings her to say, 'Glad you could make it.'

'I'm glad too! This'll be great! - No pressure, though.'

'Thanks.'

After that, though, she has to focus on playing.  They're mostly classical pieces, subdued and dignified but not melancholy, with a few higher-energy interludes.  Kaylee mostly plays, well, cello parts, but in one or two of the songs she has a brief solo.

Right before the orchestra launches into the opening theme from Amadeus, probably this concert's most exciting song, she pings Lianne again: 'This one's for you, darling.'

Eeee!

Lianne listens intently.

It's a gripping piece if you let it carry you along, by turns ominous and thrilling and energetic and somber, and this arrangement gives every section the chance to shine.

With that, the recital ends.

Lianne claps very enthusiastically! 

The whole orchestra takes a bow, and Kaylee manages to catch Lianne's eye again when she does.  She grins.  'Glad you liked it.'

'I loved it! You're really good.'

'Aw, thanks!  I've gotta help the rest of the orchestra get cleaned up, but I can probably sneak off to say hi properly if you want!'

'Don't get in trouble on my account; I don't mind waiting at all. You're worth it.'

'You're sweet.  See you in a minute.'

She does emerge after a few moments, dragging her big wheeled cello case after her.  She waves.  "Hi Lianne!  Enjoy the concert?"

"Yes. Very much so!"

Her sister, who's staffing nearby, mentions off-handedly that she was also impressed. "You guys are good, for a high school orchestra."

"Glad you had fun!" she says to Lianne, and to her sister, "Thanks, Emma."

"I can't wait to see you perform again!" Lianne says.

Her sister just replies, "Sure, you're welcome."

"I think the next one is in May," she says.  "I'd love to have you in the audience!"

"I'll be sure to be there!"

"Looking forward to it!  I should go see my parents now though - " she gestures toward the crowd.  "See you tomorrow!"

"See you!"

Kaylee's parents hug her and compliment her performance and help her negotiate her cello into their car, and then head home.

The next day's a half day, thanks to a parent-teacher conference in the afternoon (which Lianne is so not looking forwards to the results of), and they have the Friday after off.

'Want to go hunting this afternoon, since we don't have school tomorrow?' Lianne asks Thursday morning. 'Emma's going to be going out, mom'll be at the conference and then work until late, I can slip out pretty easy.'

(She's usually fairly rule-abiding, but the long grounding's unfair. Her mom should probably just be glad she didn't try to sneak off a week ago.)

'Sounds good to me!'

So after she gets home, she waits for her sister to leave, then just - walks out the front door. It's not like there's anyone home, and her neighbors don't know she's grounded. She pings Kaylee, 'So where do you wanna meet? I can manage anywhere near the bus line. The mall again might work.'

'Yeah, let's meet at the mall.  See you there!'

She tells her parents that she's going to go meet some friends in the city and heads out.

The bus takes a bit, but not too long, luckily. Lianne hangs around the entrance to the mall until Kaylee arrives. She waves at her girlfriend when she spots her, grinning broadly.

Grin!  Hug!

Kiss?

Hug! Quick kiss! 

"I don't have long before Emma returns, unfortunately," she says after they separate. "We probably have enough time to just hang out for a bit, but it might be smarter to go out looking right away."

"Go on our search first, then see where we are?"

"Works for me."

And so the hunt begins.

They're less active in the early afternoon, it seems.  But if they look for a while they can find someone stumbling, in a sort of daze, through a back alley.

"Is he..." Kaylee murmurs.  "He looks like he's been - Kissed."

"Yeah. Let's check it out." Does she sense anything?

There's something, that might be a weak witch, but it's a way away.  If it's responsible, it did it to him a while ago, and let him wander away.

He stops walking but doesn't otherwise react to his presence.

She goes up to him, somewhat warily. "Are you okay?"

He doesn't say anything.  There's magic on him, though, she can tell; and he looks a bit like Kaylee did when she was Kissed, sort of airy, not bothering to react to most things.

...Can she feel how to dismiss the magic?

It wouldn't be effortless, but there might be a sort of shove she can give...

She tries that.

It works.  He gasps, and sags, and almost falls over, but they manage to catch him in time.

"What... who are... you?" he murmurs.

...Kaylee tries to ping Mallory: 'Mal, we found a guy who had a Witch's Kiss and Lianne managed to cure him.  Should we - tell him about stuff, or...?'

'He'll be in a fugue state for a while. Probably best to tell him he's having a bad dream, and that he should return home.'

She relays this to Lianne, but adds, 'I'm not sure how I feel about telling him it's a dream, though...'

'Yeah. It's probably what's safest and least distressing for him, though...'

'Maybe.  Yeah.'

'I hate lying though. But... We don't want him to be a target. If he knows. So.'

She turns to the guy and says, "You're just having a bad dream. It'll end when you go to sleep at home."

He nods.

"Do you know where you live?" Kaylee asks.  "You know how to get there?"

He nods again.

"Okay.  Don't get lost."

He wanders off.

'I think I want to follow him home,' Kaylee says.  'Make sure he gets there okay.'

'Yeah. Let's.'

He's out of it the whole way, but he doesn't get into any trouble.  Eventually he goes into a shoddy-looking apartment building.  Kaylee visibly relaxes when he does.

'That was,' she says, and sighs, and doesn't say anything else.

'Yeah.' She shudders slightly. 'At least now we can do something about it.'

She puts an arm around Lianne's shoulder.

Hug.

Hug.

"We should get home, huh."

"...Yeah, we should. Emma'll be back soon-ish."

They head home.  It's a somewhat more subdued trip.

That was... yeah. 

'Want to try again tomorrow?' Lianne asks. (She doesn't like giving up. And, hey, at least they saved a guy last time.)

'Yeah, let's.  Think you'll be able to get away?'

'...Maybe. We'll see.'

'Yeah.  We've still got the scouting group, though.  And if you can't, I'll go hunting myself and kill an extra witch for you.'  She offers Lianne a small smile.

'Heh. Yeah.'

Kaylee does end up going hunting alone on Friday, and a handful more times while Lianne's still grounded.  They both keep hunting with the scouting group as well; they never seem to run out of witches to kill.  Weeks pass.

Tobi makes her way across the American south, at a leisurely pace, stopping frequently in cities to hunt and refuel and spend a couple days in a real bed.  She's heading toward the Carolinas; Tag's noticed some odd suicide epidemics that may point to a wandering witch.  She makes the trip in a ridiculous enormous heavy-duty matte gold Jeep, her pride and joy, bought a couple years ago with lottery money after she finally got her driver's license.  She alternates between, on the one hand, posh suites in fancy hotels, and on the other, driving a ways offroad into the desert, locking the doors, and sleeping curled up in the backseat.

One night, sprawled out on a hotel bed, she tries pinging Kyubey.

'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.'

'That sounds bad. I haven't been letting myself stay low, but... There's definitely something going on.'

Kaylee nods.  "Kyubey never told you about that either?"  Under her breath, but out loud, in case he's listening.

"Nope."

She sighs. "We should bring it up next meeting, in case Taylor or somebody doesn't know."

"Yeah. Definitely."

She gives Lianne a side-hug and rubs her shoulder.

She leans into the hug. "It's like - we keep finding more and more negative things. Just... I knew in my head that the world's not fair, but it's something else to be confronted with that."

"I know.  Every new thing we figure out about being a magical girl seems to make it more horrible.  And this isn't even a big deal, when I think about it, I can be conscientious about keeping my soul gem topped off.  But it's another thing he didn't tell us."

"Especially with what Mallory said about a bad mood making magic harder."

"And if you run out of magic you - you die - so if we're ever not careful, we could end up in like a feedback loop, and..."

"...I'm... Going to be a lot more careful."

Kaylee hugs her properly, then, tightly.  "Me too."

Hug! "We definitely need to warn the others - Taylor's so reckless with her magic - "

"God, you're right - the next meeting's tomorrow, we can tell them then - "

"Yeah. That's - a good plan."

She nods.

Saturday rolls around, and Lianne waits for Kaylee before heading into the meeting.

The usual crowd's here, at least.

Kaylee's pretty prompt today.  "Hey.  Shall we...?"  She gestures to the door.

"Yeah. Let's."

They're the last ones there, and are greeted by a chorus of voices when they enter.

She smiles, almost in spite of herself, when they enter.  She waves.  "Hi, everyone!"

She takes her seat, and takes a deep breath.  "So, uh, something Lianne and I noticed about using up magic..."

"What?"

"Being too low on magic seems like it can - affect your mood.  Whenever I let myself get too low, I always feel - anxious, and - constantly exhausted.  Sort of, emotionally.  And, with what you said about your mood affecting your magic - it seems like it'd be important to watch out for the possibility of a - feedback loop, sort of, where you get low on magic and then get depressed and that makes it harder to hunt enough witches to maintain a supply of soul gems."

"Wow, I hadn't thought about that. I haven't really noticed anything though..."

"It sounds plausible to me. Not something I've strongly noticed myself, since I'm careful to stay topped off, but now that I think about it..."

"I've - let myself get lower than I probably should, from time to time.  And whenever I got around to refilling, I'd always feel great five minutes later, and only then realize how bad I'd felt."

"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.

Lianne has stopped going to clubs entirely. She needs to study, and when she's not studying she's hunting. She goes out with Kaylee when their schedules line up, but she gets closer with the other girls from the League - Alex, Sophia, and Taylor - and starts going on joint hunts with Sophia and sometimes Taylor, who live not too far. (Alex she solo hunts with once, taking the bus to meet her more-or-less in the middle. They're too far for frequent meetups, so they stay connected through social media).

She drifts away from her non-magical friends, though once she notices she has she starts trying to connect more. It's hard, though, talking around what she does with her time. She talks to her mom even less, though that's partially because her mom gets busier with hospital work.

It takes her a bit, but she does notice Kaylee being distressed. "Hey, you alright?" she asks one day.

"Yeah," she says, unconvincingly.  "Just - no one knows about - magic stuff.  And it's so hard to talk to anyone who doesn't, they just think everything's okay, they just - worry about ordinary people things - and I have to keep it secret from them - "

She sighs.  "It's hard."

Hug?

Hug.  Nice long hug.

"I've been getting some of that, too," she says quietly, "I hate lying. Hate it so much. And I haven't been doing clubs, so I'm not seeing as many people in person outside of lunch, and social media's a terrible substitute for just talking..."

She nods.  "I haven't been going to clubs either.  It's just so hard to - scale myself down, to pretend the biggest thing on my mind is grades.  The school almost got attacked, and it might get attacked again, and we're the only people around who could deal with it.  And - my parents know something's up, I can't pretend to be okay well enough to fool them, I have to just - not talk about it, and keep not talking about it, while they worry, while they probably could help at least a little..."

"That sounds rough. My mom's not really worrying at all, especially now that my grades are up."

" - That sounds even worse, honestly, for them to not even notice..."

She puts an arm around Lianne, and rubs her shoulder.

Lean. 

"I'm used to it, and it makes - everything - a lot easier. But yeah."

Kaylee plants a gentle kiss on Lianne's head.  "It sounds - really tough - to me.  I want you to be okay."

Small smile. "I will be."

Squeeze.  "Good."

Lean. Sigh. "I can't think of how to fix things with my friends, too. We just keep getting further and further apart..."

"I know.  I think... we might not be able to.  This might just be - what it's like."

"I don't want it to be like that."

"Me either.  Someday we'll be able to go public, but..."

"Yeah. Hopefully."

Tobi has a target: Tag's pretty sure he's identified a small wanderer hopping between small towns.  Now, instead of winding her way across the southern states, she's taking a straight shot south through the wilderness to try to intercept the wanderer-witch in the most likely next small town.

There's a woman, perhaps late teens or early twenties, running a search pattern when Tobi gets close. She isn't in costume, but has her soul gem out for dowsing; she closes her hand around it when she spots Tobi. 

"You here for a reason?" she asks the other girl.

Tobi's not in costume either.  She thinks she saw a soul gem in the other girl's hand, but just in case - 

Her own soul gem is in its ring form; she slides it off and flips it like a coin.  If she can't see it's a soul gem it'll hopefully just look like an idle gesture.

"Just passing through."

She pauses for a few moments, then briefly shows her soul gem clearly. "You got somewhere to stay?" she asks. "This's my territory, but it's pretty large. I don't mind others wandering in every now and then."

"Appreciate it, but I'm in a hurry.  There's a witch headed for a small town near here - I guess it's probably yours, if this is your territory?  I'm hoping to intercept it before it gets there, or at least before it kills too many people."

"What's the direction on that? I can probably move faster, I managed to get cheap flight, if you think it's an eminent problem."

"It's a ways south of here.  I'll take any help that's on offer, I don't know how big it is."

"Right. I'll call my friend, see about meeting up if it's too big for me to take safely."

She pulls out her cellphone, dials, informs the person on the other side of what Tobi passed on, then transforms in a shower of light. Her costume is reddish orange, like a fox's fur, and she has an ornate war fan on each hip.

The person on the other side says she'll be there as soon as she can.

"Thanks.  I'm pretty speedy but if you can fly for cheap you'll probably get there before me, so I'll be behind you in case it turns out to be a giant."

"Alright. See you there."

And shes off, flying low above the trees, dowsing with her soul gem as she heads south.

She'll find it easily.

The witch's barrier is a complex of great oversized rafters, rotting wooden bars and spiderwebs and mouse holes in distant walls, suspended over a void of dark roiling color.  She can guess the path to the center easily; it's long and ungeometrical, but not too hard for an experienced magical girl to navigate.

She tries to get a general idea of its size and power, circling around if she needs to, and checks if there's anyone in immediate danger.

It's - big.  Big enough to be unwise or at least risky to take it one-on-one.

She calls Bryce with an update on its location, then settles in to wait for backup, keeping her senses open for anyone trapped by the Kiss.

Tobi zigzags her way toward the witch, trying to get a feel for its size.  She shows up before long.

"This thing's big, I'm glad I ran into you.  Your friend on her way?"

"Yeah, she's headed over. Thanks again for the heads up, and the offer to help."

"Don't mention it."

Bryce shows up not too long after, already in her black-and-gray magical girl outfit with a weapon out; she's holding a sickle attached to a fine chain that's wrapped around the palm and wrist of her other arm.  "Raine, hi - you must be ...?"

"Tobi."

"So, thoughts on approach strategy? What're you good at, Tobi? I usually try to stay mobile, hit where the enemy's not expecting it, while Bryce focuses on deflecting attacks. We tend to try to bind enemies when we can, it's something we're both talented at. A witch this big will probably be hard to pin down, though."

"I'm speedy - I'm probably faster on the ground than you, and I can fly okay, but not super-cheaply like you can - and I can hit hard with my swordstaffs, but I'm fragile.  I can deflect okay with my staffs and this guy," she gestures with one of her gauntlets, "but I can't take a direct hit to save my life.  When I'm working alone, I tend to try to get in and out of fights as fast as I can.  I can take down lots of little guys quickly, and if I'm up against a real giant I can play housefly and try to get in some critical hits.  It sounds like you guys would be better than me at engaging a mid-sized enemy for a longer period, so if we run into any bulkier familiars I can keep the littler ones off your back while you take down the big guy?"

"Works for me. Ideas for the witch proper?"

"I'd say it depends how big the body is.  We might be able to handle it the same way we'd handle a bulky familiar.  But if it's really huge, I'm good at being too close and fast and irritating to hit - Raine, if you've got practice hitting from behind and you can fly lots, you might be good at that too?  And Bryce can take over for me with running interference."

Bryce nods.

"Sounds like a plan. And, yeah, I can do hit-and-run pretty well. Alright, then, let's get this show on the road."

Tobi transforms, and a garment a bit like a cape or a trench coat unfurls behind her; she rolls her neck, cracks her knuckles, and unsheathes a pair of swordstaffs from the empty air.

And in they go.

Raine draws her war fans, and keeps her eyes open as they go in, hovering above and to the back of the group if she can to get a better vantage.

The way is quiet, at first; the path to the center bids them climb over or float around rafters and trusses.  Sometimes things seem to move in the darkness, on the edges of their vision, but it's a while before the first familiars make themselves known: dark rat-shapes the size of cats, tangles of dark hair and bone, like animate owl pellets.  They chitter and scamper towards the party, screech and leap through the air - 

"Ha!"  Tobi skewers one in midair, and flicks her swordstaff to send it sliding off the blade as it bursts and shatters.

Raine moves nimbly among the familiars, fans easily slicing through them, a small smile on her face.

They don't pose much of a problem until several of them leap onto one another and merge into a slender humanoid form, hunched over on the rafter between Tobi and Bryce.  It extrudes an animal skull from its face that bares its teeth and screeches, gamboling toward Bryce - 

Who catches its mouth with the chain of her kusarigama before it can make contact, and then kicks it in the stomach, sending it stumbling backward along the narrow rafter.

Raine darts in behind it, aiming for its neck.

The strike connects, and the familiar's head is severed; it catches its own head in midair, spins around, and fastballs it at Raine point-blank.

She mostly dodges, the head barely clipping her arm, and curses, throwing herself back for more distance.

While it's distracted, Bryce whips her kusarigama towards it and lassos it - 

- and it disintegrates back into seven or so smaller, cat-sized familiars.  A handful go for Raine, one still mostly hand-shaped; a handful for Bryce and Tobi.

She jumps, starts floating a few feet off the ground, and fiery ribbons burst from her hand, lancing at the familiars, aiming to slice into them. 

Most of them go down, but one gets through, latches onto her leg, and bites down.

With a yelp and a flick of her wrist, Bryce skewers it and rips it away from Raine's shin.

The handful that went for Tobi are lanced, in quick succession, by one of her staffs; once they're all taken down she twirls it, one handed, sending them spinning into the darkness.

"Raine, are you okay?"

"Yeah," she says, focusing for a moment to heal herself. "I just need to work on my speed with those ribbons some more. Thanks for taking care of that familiar."

"No problem.  - Let's keep moving?"

Tobi nods in agreement.  "This complicates the plan a bit.  I'll try to run interference if I notice a buncha little rats coming together."

"Keep moving sounds good to me."

Deeper and deeper; rafter-passages split and splinter at impossible angles, cavernous mouse holes spiral back on themselves without intersecting.

Periodically, familiars will emerge from the darkness, splitting and coalescing. Tobi scatters them as well as she can, flashing in and out of clusters of little ones faster than they can react, jumping away if they merge into a creature too large for her.

Rains takes on the larger familiars, darting in to take out the familiars on the edges when they split. She mostly manages to avoid further injury.

There is, after a time, a sense of many paths converging: they're nearing the center.

"All right," Tobi says, once they're only one twisting mouse-hole-passage away from the central chamber, "you guys ready for this?  It's gonna be a big one."

Bryce nods, gripping the handle of her weapon tightly.

She rolls her hands, holding her fans in a ready grip, and nods too.

The center of the maze consists of twenty-four wooden pathways radiating outward from a central pillar and a straw nest, suspended above a vast emptiness.  In the nest -

Barn owls, or a mutated owl-creature, feathers and talons and beaks and staring black alien eyes; it spreads an illogical array of wings, screeching and leering, its heads cocking and swaying strangely.

"Ah shit, there's people - "

A few of the suspended wooden paths do have humans on them - outsiders, not magical girls, staring enraptured up at the owl-shape or walking slowly forward.

"I'll try to keep them away from the fight, can you guys handle the witch for now?"

"Sure thing." She glances at Bryce, then takes off for her usual hit and run opening, pouring on more speed than usual.

Bryce leaps from path to path, aiming to circle around and flank with Raine.  She cards her hands through the empty air; thin chains trail out from between her fingers, and she lashes them through the air, aiming to bind it.  It's not much bigger than a minivan - 

Or, now it is; it's growing as it moves, like an owl-fractal expanding in size and complexity, extruding and detailing limbs with which to pull itself forward, whipping out with something wing-like and claw-like to catch and tangle Bryce's chains without becoming entangled in them.

A scaly leg reaches out and blooms into a thousand talons that reach out to grab at Raine -

She moves, and she's fast - faster than an unaided eye can track, possibly one of the fastest girls alive (she'd wanted teleportation; this is nearly as good) - and she's out of the way of the talons, slashing at what looks like the weakest point. Her soul gem actually dims noticeably for the first time in the hunt.

It screams, beaks and faces sprouting along its mass.  Bryce conjures three kusarigama, blades hooked to catch the witch's flesh, and lashes them in its direction; they catch its back and two of its limbs, and she pours magic into her legs and arms and spine and pulls back as she shortens her weapons' chains, trying to restrict the witch's movements.

It rears back, sprouting new limbs from its chest, but it can't seem to make them big or strong enough to attack with right away, giving Raine a window of opportunity.

She's there, taking advantage almost as soon as the opening appears.

If she's quick, and she is, she can avoid the thrashings of its miniature limbs.  But up close, the smaller limbs pose more of a threat, and they're still growing.

She takes a few nicks - her speed's currently faster than her reaction time - but she dodges the worst of it.

They switch from slashing to grabbing at her; faces slide weirdly along its body with inorganic symmetry, and beaks merge into a snapping maw that distends and lunges at her like a fish's mouth.

She dodges and slashes and lances out with ribbons where appropriate, only mostly avoiding injuries. 

She tries to identify any weak points, something she can attack with greater strength.

If it has, it's not smart enough to protect them; its maw is ringed with glitteringly black eyes, its tongue visible inside its enormous beak.

Her fans are so not designed for range.

She slashes at the eyes, throws a fan discus-style into the maw, tries to lacerate its center with ribbons, and she'll need to try and find an opening to clear her soul-gem sometime soon-ish.

With the hooks of her kusarigama still embedded in the witch's back, Bryce starts her way around the witch in a circle, adding just enough length to her chains to let them wrap around the witch's body.

"Tap out if you need it, I can keep it occupied - "

She doesn't quite yet - even with giving herself a hell of a lot of wiggle room - but she does press a flurry of attacks, trying to aid Bryce's efforts in binding it with a combination of 'being really distracting' and 'ribbon. Lots and lots of ribbon.'

Out of the beak leaps an owl-shape like a miniature version of the original witch, and the rest of its mass dissolves into loose feathers and down - but as the new form tries to escape it gets tangled and caught in Raine's storm of ribbons, and falls to the ground on the central pedestal.  If she can get it while it's small - 

She'll certainly try, though she'll need to tap out if this doesn't work.

This strike wounds it, and wounds it grievously - it begins to grow, once again, but it grows broken, a thousand distorted images of bloodied, broken-winged birds, and it gives up on expanding itself before it's even larger than her.

Hooks and blades land and sink into its flesh - 

- and then a flash of gold, and it is impaled on a swordstaff - 

- finally, it crumples, and bursts, and feathers rain down on the three magical girls as the barrier dissolves into mirage and nothingness around them.

The forest returns.

"Sorry I'm late," Tobi says, panting a little.  "Finally got everyone herded into a mouse hole.  They're, uh," she gestures, "over that way."

"Thanks." She leaves finding the grief seed to Bryce, clears her own gem on one of her spares, and starts slowly healing herself.

And over there are her people, so she goes over to them to handle the 'go home, this was all a bad dream' conversations. ...She might have to fly some of them home, come to think of it.

"Need any help herding the kittens?" Tobi says, nodding toward the dazed Kiss victims.

"I think I got it, but thanks for the offer."

Once kittens are herded, Tobi says to Raine, "So, you mentioned having a place to stay?  I wouldn't mind going into town and finding a motel, but if you're offering..."

"Yeah, you can crash with us, if Bryce doesn't mind?"

"That's fine.  How long are you sticking around?"

"Couple days, week at the most, probably.  I like to keep moving even when I'm not chasing anybody."

"Works for me, then. Thanks again for the help."

"Thank you for your help.  Where's your place?  I gotta go rendezvous with my car, I can meet you there if that works for you guys."

She gives the address!

"Awesome.  See you in a bit."

Later that afternoon, a gaudy matte-gold Jeep pulls up next to Raine's place.

Raine comes out to greet her.

The place is a pretty isolated house in the woods - you can see the neighbor's roof kinda, but that's about it. The house isn't very big, but it looks homey. 

"Hey, Raine.  Nice place.  Is Bryce around?"

"Thanks. She's in her room; she likes to rest a bit after fights. Oh, come on in, make yourself at home, all that."

"Yeah, thanks."

She enters, takes a look around, drapes herself comfortably over a couch.

The living room's a bit eclectic, most things in it brightly colored and patterned, which mostly doesn't manage to clash. The couch is very comfortable, with a surfeit of pillows. Overflowing bookshelves line the walls not taken up by furniture, and two side tables have been taken over by book stacks. There's two doors leading out of the room, in addition to the front door, both of them shut. 

"Want anything to drink? There's water, a couple sodas, some fruit juice."

"Soda sounds good, thanks."

Sodas can be produced! There are options; Raine seems to have a passion for odd sodas, though there's also Bryce's and a few popular brands kept around for occasional visitors.

"There's not any TV, sorry about that, and the place isn't really big enough for a guest room, but the couch pulls out and we have spare bedding," Raine says after getting Tobi and herself sodas (hers is in a glass bottle, light purple, and probably homemade, and smells faintly of lavender).

"No worries," she says, "I'm okay as long as I can plug in my smartphone."

Tobi's pretty middle-of-the-road as far as sodas go.  She pops the top of her can and takes a sip.

"So what brings you guys out to the country?  I didn't think there was a lotta witch traffic outside of cities."

"Not a huge fan of large crowds of people, honestly. Places like this - there's a lotta despair, a lotta people going nowhere. Tends to attract witches. We're between some cities, too - I picked this place partly because it's kinda a thoroughfare, we get a ton of migratory witches. Plus with my flight, it's pretty easy to maintain a large enough territory."

She nods.  "Do you and Bryce hunt in the cities too?  Any competition, or is it just you and her out here?"

"We don't hunt in the bigger cities, but there's - pretty much a town that outgrew its britches we occasionally hunt in. There's another girl there, she trades letting us hunt every now and then for heads ups about big witches swinging her way. And alcohol. Not too many magical girls over 21 out here."

She laughs.  "Man, I've had really good luck with running into random strangers lately.  You hear all these horror stories about super territorial lone wolves with enormous witch farms, but this is the second, like, healthy well-adjusted not-at-each-other's-throats magical girl network I've run into in, like, a month."

"One of our neighbors is like that; I'll point out her territory on a map so you don't run into her? But, wow, there's a network? Where?" Not that she'd be letting Bryce anywhere near it, unless something truly bizarre happened.

"Up in Jackson.  They're run by a twentysomething named Mallory, call themselves the League of Magical Girls.  I didn't think teams ever really worked out, but they seem to be pulling it off so far."

"I've heard of other duos once or twice, isn't ultra uncommon if two girls knew each other before wishing, but a proper team sounds - a lot rarer. I heard a rumor of one up north, like Oregon area once back when I was traveling more, but never spoke to anyone who'd actually met them."

"Shit, long as they stay together we're two for two, then.  Maybe I should settle down here," she jokes.

"Maybe you could." Assuming she's not a 'personality mismatch' that is.

Bryce emerges from around a corner, then.  "Hi Raine, hi Tobi.  Mind if I join you?"

Tobi makes room on the couch.  "Hey, fine with me."

"Hey! Want something from the kitchen, Bryce? I'm still pretty thirsty, so, as long as I'm up... Same for you, Tobi."

"I'm okay.  Thank you, though."

"I'll take another soda, sure."

Raine fetches another soda for herself (blueish purple) and Tobi. "You holding up okay?" she asks Bryce as she gets settled back in.

"Yeah.  You?"

"Great. Tobi apparently ran into a network of magical girls down in Jackson, near-ish Memphis, so we've been chatting about that sort of thing a bit. Exciting, huh?"

She nods.  "Sounds like it.  Are they - they don't farm, do they?"

"Nah, they're on the up-and-up.  Nice folks.  Couple of 'em helped me take down another big witch I was tracking."

"Huh. Cool that they're willing to share kills like that."

"You guys should get in touch if you're ever in the area.  I guess you don't travel much?  But still."

"Yeah, we like staying where we are. We'll think about it, though."

"I didn't think big teams usually worked out?"

"That's what I said."  Tobi grins and shrugs.

She has her own suspicions about that, given that humans are hella social and teenage girls are usually able to form cliques bigger than two even in the crucible that is high school. But, hey, Kyubey's welcome to manage most girls anyway he feels, and if that means playing the ones too stupid to notice off each other, then who is she to try and stop him?

"Might be local pressures are different. Last time I swung through Jackson - years ago, back when I was still a nomad - there weren't any active girls there, but it was a deathtrap lousy with overgrown witches. One of those outlier cities. It's possible that any girls not willing to team up just plain didn't make it."

Tobi has no such suspicions.  Why would the adorable cat creature who gave her awesome superpowers and awakened her to her magical destiny have any reason to lie to her???  Nonsense.

"That could be.  I guess selecting out all the most solitary girls is one way to get a group who can work together.  At least a couple of them were late arrivals, though, after the area had already stabilized, and they seemed to get along okay too."

Shrug. "I think most girls, if the established culture was cooperation, would probably be a bit less antisocial, too. We're probably just in a feedback loop - girls start out all bright-eyed and bushy tailed, find a hostile world, and let the culture change them."

"Makes sense.  Kyubey, my Kyubey, seems to think it's got something to do with the way we're wired, like magical girls are just supposed to be solitary predators in a way that humans aren't.  But that could be part of it too."

"Unless something about wishing changes us, I find that unlikely."

Tobi shrugs.  "Who knows.  Kyubey never mentioned anything like that to me, I don't think."

"I didn't feel different when I wished, but that might not be the type of thing you notice."

"Yeah, me neither," Tobi says, sounding unconcerned.  "What about you, Bryce?"

She shakes her head, looking a little distant.

Comforting lean and a concerned glance. "Anyways, are you heading anywhere particular, or just wandering?"

"This was the end of the line, actually," Tobi says.  "I caught up to the witch I was tracking here, I don't have any plans from here on out yet."

"Well, if we all get along you could hang out here a bit, or there's some nice places more westwards. Have you been to California? San Diego and San Francisco are fun, though at least a few years ago they didn't have the friendliest girls."

"Never been that far west, but I'll keep it in mind.  You guys seem cool, though, I wouldn't mind sticking around."

"The house isn't getting any bigger anytime soon, but if you don't mind the couch, you're welcome to stay."

"I've slept in worse places, don't worry.  Thanks for putting me up."

"Yeah, I remember my nomad days. Anyways, it's no problem whatsoever, it's nice to meet new girls every now and then."

She raises her soda in a mock toast.  "I'll say."

"Here's to not running into assholes on literally every corner." And she raises her glass a bit, too.

"Cheers."

Sip.

"So, uh, what do you guys usually do for dinner, anyway?  I'm getting a bit hungry."

"Hm - lots of things. I'm big into home-cooked stuff, we have some leftovers from last time I cooked I think, but we also have some frozen TV dinners and instant noodles for when we're feeling lazy. What're you in the mood for?"