"I think I'd want to go with something that aims more like my stardarters, so I can reuse some of the muscle memory. Of course you have crossbow stardarters, so that's sort of an argument in the other direction for you."

"Yup. Just let's not overstandardize," says Larissa.

"Yeah, I think we can do it on the honor system. If someone will pass a message to Hattie, we can all try to have nerf by next week?"

"I'll tell her," says Mariposa.

"Great!" And with that concluded, club breaks up for real.

At home, she tells her parents excitedly about the planned nerf gun fight while finishing her homework, then starts planning the weekend. Any chance the DMV is open between now and Monday?

The DMV nearby is not open on weekends but there's a faraway one that has weekend hours.

Well, is it within flying distance? She was planning on lots of exercise this weekend anyway, and if the weather is nice she can stop in a park and rest partway there if she needs it.

She could fly there in under an hour.

Then on Saturday she will wing her way there.

There is a long line.

This was only to be expected; she brought a book. Is she the only magical girl in line today?

Yup.

That is also unsurprising. She'll take a number and read about the history of the Coast Paladins until it gets called.

The Coast Paladins in their modern form were founded as an arm of the Coast Guard in the late 1700s to protect the ships that were sailing around enforcing tariffs. The organizations split up during Westward Expansion when more kaiju were encountered in the open spaces of the American West, and it became clear that seeking and destroying kaiju proactively was worth the cost needed to hire squads of combat-ready magical girls. The Coast Paladins became their own government organization and were joined by the Rockies Paladins; a new division of the Coast Paladins was opened up when the western seaboard was colonized; there are also Alaska Paladins who handle both Alaska's coast and tundra, and Island Paladin divisions for Hawaii and other United States island territories, who are basically like Coast Paladins but have an area more than a line to hold. Paladins must perform at the absolute top of their game; they need combat- or support-applicable power sets and exquisite, personally tailored costumes appropriate for all outdoor lighting conditions and weather. There are photo insets of some prominent Paladins and their day combat gear, night combat gear, and storm combat gear, which often don't look anything like each other. They work in squads of five to twelve depending on power synergy and personality compatibility; more than that and it gets harder to handle the tactics in their heads. Their helicopters and boats have sound systems that play individually composed theme music so they can wring out that aesthetic benefit too; they usually name and call out their attacks.

This is all extremely cool. And they're doing such a noble and important job! Margaret doesn't have any magical attacks, but she wonders if being able to tell what a kaiju is going to do before it does it is a useful suport power. She resolves to try to ride along with the local emergency squad and find out.

Eventually it is her turn and she can fill out a form and be asked for her birth certificate.

Form: is filled. Birth: is certified.

And she will receive her real ID card in the mail in a couple weeks, and here's her temporary.

And flap flap flap all the way home. Her town looks lovely from the air.

Time to fill out that survey! What do these scientists want an Officially Liscenced Magical Girl to tell them?

They want to know a LOT of things. The survey asks for general background information about her (date and time of birth, degree and number of magical relatives, date and time of manifestation, how long it took her to make any changes, how long it took her to make sufficient changes) and more specifics about her powers and costume (color scheme, power theme, specific spells, number of accessories, motif(s)), how much she's sought style consultation... and then totally random things like details of her diet and whether she has a family or personal history of these 34 diseases and which way she eats corn on the cob and her grades and her previous sexual orientation if applicable and how she performs on this miniature IQ test and this test of facial recognition and which of these pictures of magical girls is the hottest.

She's fifteen and her birthday is in two weeks. Her great-great-grandmother was magic but that's it. "Any changes" and "sufficient changes" both took about 30 seconds.  She eats corn in straight lines and her IQ is in the ballpark of 130 and that girl with the compound eyes and dragonfly wings is super hot.

There are actually 14 sets of magical girls they want her to pick the hottest ones of, and then the test is done and she can provide an address for a check and, if she likes, sign up for further magical girl research related communiques by this organization and their affiliates, and she could subscribe to their newsletter.

She will sign up for both further studies and the newsletter, and then she will purchase a nerf six-shooter and a fifty-pack of darts.

Those will arrive in time for her next magical girl club meeting.