"Think that's her?" Kaylee asks, out loud, twisting her hands together.

"Looks like it? I mean, this is the room... We can just go in and say we're there to meet with - did Kyubey ever tell us her name - if it's not her at worst we'll be mildly embarrassed."

"Mallory, I think.  That's true."

She takes a deep breath and a step forward, and knocks.

The woman looks up from her laptop, smiles, and gets up to open the door.

"Are you Kaylee and Lianne? I'm Mallory Delvin - feel free to come on in and take a seat - "

"Yes, that's me - ah, I'm Kaylee, this is Lianne.  Hi."  She comes in, she sits down.

Lianne says hi and sits down, too. When the door closes behind them, the outside sound largely cuts off. 

Mallory sits down across from them. "Kaylee - you're the prospective magical girl, right? Are there any questions you have right away?"

She takes a steadying breath.  "Kyubey said I'd be safer from witches as a magical girl.  Is that true?"

"It's complicated. If you're attacked by one, you'll be able to actually defend yourself. Being affected by witches is rare for the general population, more common for potential magical girls and those who've run into a witch before. But magical girls have to actively seek out witches fairly frequently, and some die fighting. Many also die from mismanaging their magic."

She nods.  "Mismanaging like how?"

"Usually misjudging how much they have left, typically while upset or fighting. Sometimes by things like running against the edge, counting on a witch to drop a grief seed and then being too low to fight another when it doesn't. Your emotional state can also impact how quickly your gem dims. Emotions like grief or despair quicken the process, while joy slows it down. - Did Kyubey tell you, if you run out of magic you die. Very unpleasantly. And just being a magical girl uses a small amount of magic."

"He mentioned dying when you run out of magic, but not that you're always using it up.  So you can't be a magical girl just to stay safe from witches, you have to commit to being a witch hunter.  But it doesn't seem like it's taken over your entire life - do you work here at the community center?"

"I work as a freelance journalist, so I'm able to drop things in the middle of the day like this, but I also do a lot of community work. I also run a scouting group - admittedly mostly to help magical girls coordinate, and give them an excuse to go haring off to do things - and I work a lot on things related to that.

"I think that the background magic use is actually from passive abilities you're using subconsciously - magical girls heal faster and don't get sick, so avoiding injury and disease would probably eliminate almost all of that.

"Some girls do get away with hunting only every few months, especially once they've developed a sense for which witches will drop a seed. I hunt about twice a week, and usually have a spare grief seed on hand in case of emergencies. Many girls, especially those interested in establishing a territory, hunt more often than that. If you just want to be safe, I can provide you with grief seeds when needed."

"I'd really appreciate that, but - "

"I wanted to become a doctor before I knew about magical girls, in order to research cures and vaccines for diseases we can't cure right now, because I wanted to do as much good as I could.  But this has been going on for - how long? - and nobody knows about it, and witches are just going to keep killing innocent people if no one stops them.  Do you think I should - shift my focus?"

" - That's your call to make. Keeping the witch population down is important, but so are vaccines. I'm not sure what the difference in impact would be. It's probably entirely possible to do both, though not being a doctor I'm unsure about the time commitment involved. Most magical girls keep up their educations, though, especially if they only hunt on weekends. Usually it's only social life getting sacrificed."

She nods.  "Well, my understanding is that being a doctor takes up a lot of your life, but if you only have to hunt once every couple of weeks..."

"Okay, let's say for the sake of argument that I am going to become a magical girl.  What would you want me to know about - how it works?  What I'll need to do, and need to learn to do?"

"You'll need to learn how to manage your magic efficiently - having a good idea of what it's doing helps, so becoming a doctor could make healing easier, for instance. All magical girls technically have the same categories of powers, with differences only in magical weapon and costume, but your wish impacts which powers are easier to use. There's - a lot of powers. Healing yourself, healing others, flight, minor telekinesis, and improved speed, strength, and endurance are the ones I see most often. You'll need to learn how to fight, and the only real way to do that is challenging witches - sparring isn't entirely effective, though it can work some if you're against another magical girl.

"Most magical girls are antagonistic towards each other, and will fight if they end up in conflict over a territory. I'm trying to discourage that, and build a proper network so we can coordinate by sending in teams against more powerful witches, training new girls, matching hunters to a witch's strength, even sharing grief seeds - that sort of thing.

"As far as wishes go, you can wish for just about anything, within limits determined by your potential. A wish you feel strongly about is more powerful, and being specific in your wish gets better results. Many girls come to regret their wishes, so choose carefully, and give it a lot of thought.

"Witches are most common in areas with higher population densities. They hatch from grief seeds, or grow from familiars created by other witches, and I'm fairly sure they sometimes spontaneously form. They can wander around, and they grow larger and more dangerous over time, though they also have varying baseline strengths."

She nods along.

"Can you give me any advice about fighting witches?  Like - what are the mistakes everybody makes on their first hunt?  And - if it's not too personal, can I ask what you wished for?"

"Hm. Witches are made up of a labyrinth, which you'll get a sense for navigating, familiars, and the - core - of the witch, at the labyrinth's center. You need to kill the core to defeat the witch. I'm not sure about what sort of mistakes are commonly made; I haven't talked to that many magical girls. In general, though: watch your back, don't drop your guard, and don't underestimate your opponent. I suspect that thinking the witch is dead when it isn't kills a good number of girls. The witch will sometimes try to distract or mislead you, too.

"I wished for perfect recall and improved working memory. It... Helped me maintain my school life while hunting, but probably wasn't a wise call."

"That's helpful.  Thank you."

"...Can I ask why you don't think your wish was a good call?  Feel free to let me know if I'm prying too much, I just - want to figure out as much as I can about this."

"There's things I don't want to remember, and I could've used my wish for - just about anything else. I optimized poorly."

"That makes sense."

"Um, on kind of another subject - are you in touch with Kyubey regularly?"

"He contacts me when he needs something, and he does keep an eye on me, but I don't talk to him very often. Why?"

She fails to resist the urge to glance over at Lianne for a moment.

"Just - I'm kind of not clear on what exactly he does?  And like - he didn't go over very much of this stuff with us."

"...He's an alien, so I think a lot's getting lost in translation. I'm not sure he understands the concept of volunteering information, or answering open-ended questions. I'm almost entirely positive his job mainly revolves around monitoring magical girls and witches, and trying to grow the magical girl population. If a magical girl's killed, he'll usually alert nearby ones that her territory's uncovered. He's also - a bit overly focused on fighting witches."