"I have heard rumors that it may be a front organization for some manner of crime," Isabella whispers.

"It's possible I should be less okay with that than I am, but this falafel is hard to argue with."

"Most restaurants about which this is said probably aren't actually."

"Fair! The human imagination is a prolific thing."

"Also, if it were that easy to identify a front restaurant it wouldn't be a good idea to start one."

Giggle. "Also that."

"I'm not aware of a major organized crime problem in Phoenix but my understanding of how conspicuous organized crime is may have been calibrated in part by the Pokémon franchise."

"What's organized crime like in Pokemon?"

"Uniformed, conspicuous, theft-oriented, and easily defeated by a ten year old with some pets. I only played one game through but Alex watched the TV show for a while."

"That does not sound like what I know of organized crime."

"Me either! Maybe Japanese crime is like that."

"I think I read somewhere that in Japan tattoos are strongly linked to organized crime."

"Don't remember tattoos featuring."

"How concealing was their clothing?"

"Pretty darn, so maybe they were hiding some ink."

"I think the tattoos are mostly on their backs and arms but don't quote me."

"So we wouldn't have seen them. Perhaps this innocent children's franchise with its harmless organized crime is hiding a dark secret... nonmagical body modification."

"Gasp! Far too shocking for tender little eyes."

"I wonder what happens if magical girls join gangs. Like, tattoos kind of lose all their usual messaging potential on a magical girl."

"I have no idea."

"I guess it probably doesn't happen much, girls in gangs are rare anyway and we have decent career prospects."

"Yes...I wouldn't be surprised if it ever happened but it seems unlikely to have happened often enough that there's a specific thing that happens instead of just special-casing it whenever it comes up."

"Yeah, probably too infrequent for there to be anything like established gang policy as opposed to 'that's Tess, she's covered in spines and she'll break your knees if you don't pay us back'."

"Indeed. For that matter, magical girl powers are sufficiently diverse that an established policy might be counterproductive--for example, the Tesses of the world may be best as enforcers, but someone with the right healing or ice power could be useful in collecting repayment in the form of internal organs."

"Who even takes those and puts them in people, doctors make a lot of money going legit - is it med school dropouts? Ones who lost their licenses for screwing patients?"