"I'll clear these guys then go help her."

She's apparently both faster and more efficient than the orange girl, taking down everything in eyesight, then taking off after the orange girl.

The landscape dissolves soon after, revealing the mall once more.

The two magical girls are staring at each other, fairly nearby, the one in white frowning and the one in orange looking uncomfortable.

Ariel offers the girl in orange her gun back. "Never caught your name, did I. Uh, I'm Ariel."

"Nausicaa," she says, taking the gun. "It's - good to meet you."

"Sue," says the girl in white. "Nausicaa - I'm guessing you're new, so you can have the grief seed. Though - why were you bothering to attack Kyubey? You do know his bodies are expendable, right?"

She pauses, then mumbles, "None of your business."

Ariel bites her lip. "I don't want to pile on, but this is kind of important - why don't you want us becoming magical girls? If Sue hadn't shown up when she did..."

"Most end up dead pretty quick, and wishes go wrong a lot."

"...Is that it? Then I still want to do it. I'll think really hard about my wish, and I won't get too attached to it, but - I don't want to be prey. I want to be a hero."

"You won't. All you'll cause is misery. For every joy that your wish brings you... You'll just inflict equal misery on yourself and everyone around you. Magical girls only hurt people - and when you fail, because everyone fails, you'll become a witch, and go on hurting people for eternity. There are no heroes in this world."

"You did not mention that I'd become a witch."

"...I'm kind of used to it being an infohazard. Magical girls who learn that they can become a witch get upset - which makes your magic run out faster, and if your magic runs out you turn into a witch."

Now somewhat concerned, Ariel glances at Sue.

"I've known for years. But, yeah, usually an infohazard."

Ariel blinks a couple of times and does some mental math. “You were fighting witches in middle school? Man, and I thought my seventh grade was rough.”

"Elementary. I wished at seven."

"Jesus Christ." She shakes her head. "So - the world is full of sanity-rending monsters. The only people who can fight them are magical child soldiers on a death timer, who are manipulated by shady yet adorable alien creatures, who are in fact perpetuating or possibly effecting the situation by the very creation of those magical child soldiers. I can see how that could lead to despair spirals, yeah."

"Yeah. Bad situation all around."

"Kyuubey, any commentary? Feel like you deserve the chance to explain whatever scheme you're running here."

'Witches threaten humans. They feed on negative emotions and destroy positive emotions. They increase deaths dramatically, and you can track a large witch's movement by watching for spikes in suicides and homicides. Left uninterrupted, a witch will spawn familiars, which will grow into new witches, and witches can come from sources other than 'was once a magical girl.''

'The higher a girl's potential when she wishes, the more powerful she will be. Potential changes over time, and it's highest between seven and seventeen, with the exact timing of the greatest potential spike varying between people. Prepubescent magical girls actually tend to survive longer, because they have more steady and less complicated emotions and by the time they hit puberty they already have experience. It's puberty that's dangerous emotionally, and magical girls who survive past puberty can live for centuries. Magical girls also destroy more witches than the single one they can create, and not all magical girls become witches.'

"Okay, so, pro tip for parsing Kyubey - they can't or won't tell actual direct lies, but they can imply whatever they want. 'Witches weren't always once a magical girl' is true even if the only sources of witches are magical girls and familiars spawned by witches, though I actually don't know if they can come from other sources, and Kyubey claims not to know all the potential sources of witches, but will start expounding on emotional magic theory in a way that doesn't actually answer the question if you poke."

"Also, I've never gotten a straight answer on if you ever can fall below the minimum wish threshold for potential if you're still conscious. Also note the 'can' in there, and that 'all magical girls become witches' would be false even if exactly one magical girl avoids that fate - which, there's a magical girl whose wish apparently precluded ever witching and who's been alive for millennia - and is technically false given you can't prove we'll ever become witches."

"Of course, it isn't clear that wishing's always dumb - I don't regret it, for one."

"Thanks, I didn't catch all of that - although I did notice that he said nothing meaningful."

She rubs his ears. "You really are a fucker, huh," she says into his fluff. "Awful boy. Squishy little bastard. Jail for one thousand years."

'One thousand years of jail would be very inconvenient and rather disproportionate.'

"I'm bringing you before the Hague," she tells him, playing with his little toe beans.

"Anyway," she says, abruptly remembering that everyone else is still here, "I think I'm not going to become a magical girl just yet - partly because I can't really think of anything to wish for. But I want to keep the option on the table - like Sue said, it's not always a bad idea. I'd rather go out fighting than be unable to fight. And if I do have a good wish idea and I'm not in immediate danger, I'll run it by y'all first. Does that sound agreeable to everyone?"

"I don't actually care. It's your life. But I'll tell you if you're being stupid if you come to me, sure."

"It... Makes sense, yeah," Sakura says, slowly.

"Still here, still can't hear half this conversation, but like, wishes, powerful, so..." Anna says, squinting at Ariel's shoulder - eyes not quite landing on Kyubey.