Nom nom burrito. "If you say so."

Either she never had to respect any normal rulers around her in her centuries of life, she's completely incurious, or she has some reason not to talk about it.

But he restrains himself from monologuing more. It's probably noticeable.

"Eh. History tends to back me up on that, but it's not a pleasant subject. Around how many of you are there in SF? A hundred?"

"Fewer than that probably, but I don't know how many exactly. I don't really move in magical girl circles these days."

"Sounds rough. Well, thanks for your help, I guess. I might look you up again if I have more to ask. Till then... good luck."

"Thanks. For that and the burrito."

He nods and leaves. Finds somewhere to sleep for the night. Sleeps. (Badly. Tenderloin hostels are cheap but loud.) Gets a burner, finds a library.

Looks up magical girls and their government. And then ordinary government offices, because he's probably stuck here and should try to deal with that sooner rather than later.

The non-magical government situation is recognizable - surprisingly so, actually. The magical government has apparently been in continuous existence for longer than any extant normal one, dating back to around the birth of Christ and thereby narrowly beating out San Marino for the technical achievement. (It's also had the same Empress the entire time, which makes it solidly much more continuous than any country.) Jun Wu's office publishes cartoon-infested informational pamphlets about becoming a magical girl - apparently it can happen to second-graders, though it's usually the preteen set and it can occur as late as 18. Girls who especially want to be magical girls can send in applications, but sometimes there will be (unspecified) recruitment efforts aimed at particularly promising girls. Apparently magical girls can magically don magical outfits and then they have been seen using telekinesis, shooting energy bolts, and healing. The main draw of becoming a magical girl is that when you do, you are granted a wish; but apparently the rate of death in the line of duty isn't great, at least during the first few decades.

Well, she's avoiding several of the ways monarchs are terrible, he has to admit. What has she done to hold onto power, though?

Surprisingly recognizable government makes him look up other things. His family's exotic animal handling business doesn't exist, which doesn't necessarily mean they don't exist since they wouldn't have any advantage dealing with snakes here. The house he was born in... doesn't show up on Google Maps. Empty road. He could look, but he doubts he'll find anyone familiar.

He notes down some local government info on his old phone, and looks up the address of the spooky basement with the rude doorman.

The address is unlisted.

Is he surprised? He is not. It was worth a check, though.

He maybe should talk to bureaucracy next, but that sounds unpleasant. He might as well walk around looking for other magic, and being a little bit of a tourist.

There's some more magic like the girl he met over that way!

Sure, let's go investigate that. Probably he doesn't have to be circumspect about recognizing her as a magical girl, even.

She's flying! She lands neatly outside an ice cream place, poses and smirks with perfectly windblown hair for somebody trying to snap a photo of her, and then waltzes in to order ice cream.