Enter the Witch, in stick-figure effigy.  "Magical girls fight witches, the - concentrated pain and suffering of humanity, in contrast to the whole 'power of your wishing heart' shtick."

"They're responsible for...a lot of unexplained deaths, but not, I think, your daughter's.  The bunnycat doesn't lie, and he said he hasn't seen Kiri recently.  Not that he thinks she's dead."

"And... Kiri was one of these magical girls too?"

"Yes."

Jenny nods.  "We both were.  Since freshman year."  She'd actually told Kiri about it and introduced her to the Kyuubey; not that she's going to tell her mom that part.

"And my new friends and I are wondering if there's a magical reason she vanished."

"Or even if not - we want to help look."

That's still too much for her to really process right now.  "Kiri had magic for that long -"  She shakes her head.

"You'd better come in.  Talk with Frank - my husband - and see whatever can be done.

"And whatever happens - thank you.  For telling us."

"You're welcome," Lila says automatically as she follows her in.

Should she tell her own parents about magic tonight, just in case something happens to her?

"It's - the least we could do."

...She's not going to tell her own family, they'd burst into hysterics and she doesn't have time for that, even if she does, somehow, have the fortitude to ride that out.  (...Well, at least she can be certain her Wish wasn't just wishful thinking.)

Frank Dermot comes out of the garage, wiping his hands, when his wife calls his name.  He looks curiously at the girls, with something of a hint of sadness.

"Frank, this's Jenny and her friends - and they can do magic.  She says Kiri could too."

Taking that as a cue, Lila transforms.

There's clearly no way she could've hidden those billowy skirts inside those pants.

He staggers back and sinks down into a chair.  "Are you saying - there was some magic - when Kiri vanished?"

"We're pretty sure so.  We want to find out more." 

"...We want to bring her back home.  Because whatever's happened to her - she's still alive."

The gem at the base of her throat pulses something like confirmation.  If Kiri Dermot is technically dead, by the time Diana's done she won't be.

"But we do need to figure out what has happened to her - and that's kind of why we're here.  To - see if there's anything that the police missed, because they weren't looking for it."

"We told them everything - well, everything we knew," Anna Dermot says.  "She just went out that evening - like usual - she didn't say where -"

"But she didn't come back."

"Can we look through her room?  She might've left some notes there."

"We didn't see anything we recognized... but of course."

Kiri's room has posters of cityscapes on one wall, and other planets on the other - Mars and Jupiter keeping company with what looks like science-fiction concept art.

Stacks of homework and notebooks are haphazardly organized, and the sheets have been stripped off the bed.

Her parents hang awkwardly at the door.

...She looks through the piles, skimming briskly.  What draws her attention?

"Did she usually say she met up with anyone in particular, on those excursions?"

He shakes his head.  "She didn't say much of anything.  Kept putting us off, and we didn't try pressing."

She remarks, "She did mention a few friends, like Kate and... maybe there was a Zella too?"

There's a lot of homework.  Some of it is already graded; some of it looks like it was never actually handed in.  There're also some class notes.

But there're also some sketches of what looks like strange rooms or fields with surreal things that look like there might be a witch's barrier?  And in the margins of some of them are notes about cats blocking networks - it sounds like computer networks? - and Kiri having to hack around them.  Apparently the cats have good computer security - at least, it sounds good from Kiri's perspective.

...Hm.  That's certainly...interesting.  What did the Incubators fail to successfully hide?

(She revises her estimates of their overall competence down.  If their bullshit space magic can't even reliably emulate parental controls or a firewall...  Kiri just used proxies!)

"Well.  She's certainly been busy looking into things the Incubators would rather hide."

The Kyuubey has hopefully been deposited somewhere it can't overhear them.  She doesn't want to have to mind her words so carefully as she would could it listen in.

(...That probably doesn't protect her from telepathy, but she can't really do anything about that except magic and pray.)

"Kate...If I'm drawing the right connections, Kate's also disappeared, like Kiri.  But Zella, whoever she is...She might be able to tell us more, if we can find her."

She flips open her astrolabe, restlessly.

"Yes, Kate vanished the same night Kiri did.  Zella... we never met her.  I don't think Kiri ever told us who she is."

"This looks like she was doing things with computers...  I don't think the Kyuubeys would be connecting any computers to the Internet?  It doesn't sound like them.  So how could she be getting into their computers?"