"Okay. That makes sense." As long as she'll have a chance to find out what's going on next time, that's what matters. Nothing else really matters now, does it, not in this loop.

"Are you still using magic right now?"

"...Not as much, but yes? I can't just... not do anything."

"Not literally nothing, but you’re darkening faster than that."

Yeah. She's watching her gem, now, and she can tell she doesn't have much left. "– Look, you seem like you know what you're talking about, and probably none of this matters, but – I'm sorry but I don't know you, and I'm not going to just stand here and let people get hurt." Her voice catches on that last. People are getting hurt anyway, she can't stop it, nothing she does could ever be enough –

A wave surges down the flooded street, crested with debris, heading straight for someone's house. She blocks it almost on reflex, and it crashes against her shield instead –

Bella hesitates, only a moment.

It's a week ago.

She gets out of the hospital and stows away on a plane.

And then she has to find the address in question.

It's a small, unremarkable house in the suburbs. There is, of course, no sign of any storm damage.

Naturally.

Knock knock.

It's not long before the door is opened by someone who is not Tara. He blinks inquisitively at her.

"Hi, I'm looking for Tara, do I have the right house?"

"Oh, sure, one sec - Tara, it's for you!"

And shortly, here she is. "Hi?"

"Hi Tara! I bet you don't remember my name, I'm Bella, can I tell you a thing?" Gesture into the outside world in general for a walk. It's not awful weather for January, yet.

She doesn't think this person is in any of her classes, and she doesn't have any idea what she might want to tell her... but, well, it seems easy enough to find out.

"...Okay." Coat, shoes, a wave to her dad, and then she's outside. "Um, I don't recognize you, though, sorry."

"Yeah, I know. I'm in a time loop. We did not have a lot of time to talk, last time, so I do not have a note from you to yourself or anything, sorry."

Apparently she did have some sort of guess about what to expect, insofar as 'Not This' counts.

"Do you have. Any other evidence."

"I can do magic. Is there a good place where it won't be terribly conspicuous? I can do this without going fully into costume -" A ring on her hand turns into a Christmas-ornament-sized purple cabochon in an elaborate setting.

Huh. Well, 'going into costume' does sound pretty conspicuous. "Let's just go inside, actually, and to my room? My dad won't bother us."

"Sure." Ring enrings again.

They are indeed unbothered; once they're inside Tara calls out "Dad, this is Bella, we'll be in my room," and receives an acknowledgement. Then they can go to her room, and the door can be closed behind them. On second thought, she closes the curtains, too.

Bella transforms. Jeans, long sleeved T-shirt, and sweater disappear in favor of pleats and leggings, in white and gray with purple accents.

This would be a really surprising way for her to be going crazy.

"Is that an illusion or is it really swapping out your clothes somehow? What else can you do? How did you get magic in the first place, is it something that can be learned?"

"It really swaps my clothes and I swap them back when I'm done being in costume. I can do - lotsa random little things -" She picks up the nearest book with telekinesis, spins it around in midair. "Sometimes something turns out to be unexpectedly expensive. Everybody with magic gets powers themed after what they wished for from - you called it a 'fuzzy little genie', last time around, its name is Kyubey. So I can stop time, in addition to resetting to the start of my loop, but most magical girls can't do time things or can't do them very much. Please do not try to find a Kyubey right now."

"A fuzzy little magic-granting genie. Huh." She reaches out to poke the floating book. "Okay, so... why should I not try to find it? Are these the cursed kind of wishes that inevitably get twisted into something terrible?"

"Kind of. It's more complicated than that." Sigh. "I haven't tried to explain this to you before, so I don't know the best order to do it in."