"I am too!" Stretch. "I'm kinda thirsty, so I'm gonna go get something to drink. You want anything?"

"I'm okay.  Thank you though!"

So Lianne goes and supplies herself with something to drink, then heads back to Kaylee for chatting.

"You want to discuss Kyubey now?" she asks when she gets back.

"We probably should."

"So, avenues for investigating him... We might be able to ask other magical girls still, especially as the League gets bigger, but the ones joining will probably mostly be young..."

"Plus that could take a while.  I think you mentioned you thought Mallory knew things she wasn't letting on?  We could try to talk to her?"

"Yeah, definitely. The other girls might have also noticed something, too."

She nods.  "We might be able to get something out of him by talking to him, but that's probably - riskier.  ...He knows you don't trust him, because he talked to me about it, so it might be better for me to do that part, if we decide to at all."

"What do we already know?  He's pushing really hard for us not to rely on each other, or on Mallory's group, and he was weirdly reluctant to help scout for witches..."

"He wasn't super forthcoming with me about dying if we run out of magic, that's a big one I think. Also he never told us that we're always using some magic. It's probably negligence and just his personality, but it's - a glaring example of how his viewpoint's different than ours, if so."

"Did he ever tell you that you should always keep your soul gem on your person?  He told me that."

"...No, I don't think so. Did he say why?"

"I didn't think to ask.  It was right after I wished, I was kinda - distracted."

"Huh. Maybe he'll be willing to tell you if you ask?"

"He might.  I can try him now...?"

"Sure, I don't see why not..."

'Hey, Kyubey?'

She waits a few moments.

"He's not answering."

"Huh. Is that normal?"

"I haven't tried to get in touch with him that many times but I don't remember him ever not answering..."

"Could he be busy? Or maybe out of range?"

"Could be.  I don't know if this telepathy has a range limit, do you?"

"No. Haven't really been testing it. We probably should though, in case there's an emergency."

"Yeah, good call."

"So... we know Kyubey's been acting kind of sketchy, and we know Mal possibly also suspects something.  But - he does seem to want to help us against witches.  He came along with us on that hunt, and it didn't seem like he steered us wrong."

"Yeah. I think that's what's bothering me the most, he's just - extremely inconsistent."

" - do you think he just - actually is really really bad at his job?  Didn't he say he was only a few years old?  Maybe we're just - his first magical girls."

"That could be it. We can ask Mal and the others what the ones who contracted them are like."