You might not want to tell Ghyslaine that I spoke to you, Kyubey mentions. Especially if you aren't ready to make a contract right now.

"Yeah, I'm thinking that. Are you going to tell her you spoke to me?"

She doesn't know I'm here.

"I can tell she doesn't know you're here because she is not also here currently trying to murder me, you, or Bella," she says. "Are you going to tell her you spoke to me?"

Not if she doesn't think to ask.

"I guess that'll have to do."

"Uh, how literally worried should I be about murder attempts?"

"If she finds out you and me were talking to her genie together she's definitely going to try to literally murder somebody; the unknowns are how likely she is to find out and who she'll go after first."

"What if she thinks I was talking to her genie by myself?"

"Then it depends whether she thinks you're a threat to her."

"How hard would it be to kill her solely via unexpectedly having magical powers without aiming the wish at her?"

"She's two hundred years old and she's been killing witches that whole time. I don't know how many times she's fought other magical girls but I'm guessing more than none. Maybe you could set up a really good ambush... but I wouldn't count on it."

"I mean, you live in her house."

"I'm not sure how much use I'd be if it came down to fighting her directly. I have too many reasons to be scared of what she'd do if I lost."

"I was thinking more like 'kill her in her sleep'. ...Puella magi do sleep, right?"

Yes. You could use magic to compensate for staying up for a while, but it would be very costly.

"Killing her in her sleep is still possible to get wrong."

"Yeah."

"And unfortunately, being scared of getting it wrong makes it harder to get right."

Well, if you don't have a wish right now, I should go, says Kyubey. But I'll be around more and you can talk to me telepathically any time when you're ready!

"Thanks."

"Try not to give Ghyslaine any especially compelling reasons to kill me."

I don't want her to kill you, Kyubey assures them, and then it flicks its tail and leaps out the window.

"Well. That was something."

"It was... yes, something. Damn, I get a wish and I can't cure cancer? What kind of discount wishes are these?"