By now Naomi can look older or younger if she wants. Younger magical girls often age-up while out on patrol, and she's no exception. "Cutting edge. Sounds interesting. How many of them do you know already?"

"All of them. For better or worse."

"Anything I should know before meeting them?"

"There'll be a telepath. She's too polite to pry without asking you first, but just so you know."

Telepathy. Great. Ellie is probably not lying about her not being the type to use it, but Naomi can rely especially heavily on her visor for memory during the conversation, just in case. 

"Thanks. I'll probably be asking her questions about how it works."

"You might not be satisfied with the answers. Telepathy is hard to explain."

"I don't think my hopes are that high. Would you say it doesn't have consistent limits?"

"More idiosyncratic."

"Makes sense. Although there still might be patterns and similarities worth noting."

Naomi's been keeping a half-eye on patrolling. It's been getting easier to split her attention ever since she started adding more comprehensive visual aids to her visor. Her map, too, has gotten better.

"Perhaps. There haven't been any real studies. Most telepaths don't like sharing."

"Sounds like an interesting problem." And if there are other ways of figuring it out, she'll find them. Naomi likes puzzles. 

"One composed primarily of people, do note."

"Yeah. People are hard." 

The night is cold. There's something about patrolling that is exhilarating. Perhaps Naomi feels this way because she's never been athletic, perhaps there's some reward system re-routing that goes on after a contract is accepted. She wonders idly about how magical girls would fare in worlds without demons.

"Are you nervous about going back to the Soul Guard?"

"Nervous? I wouldn't say so. But it has been... some time. I dare say I am a different person now."

"How so?"

"I'll tell you when you're older."

"When we know each other better?"

"And when you're older."

Naomi is silent for the rest of the patrol.