On this Earth existed a special type of irony, so niche that only magical girls like Sofia could possibly experience it, but so exquisite that it made her laugh nonetheless.

Imagine being Sofia. Winning two fights back to back, against magical girls who were both stronger than her– and not just winning. Scoring victories so magnificent that the entire magical girl community ought to remember them forever–- and then dying because her gem ran out.

Not even dying gloriously in battle, but because she couldn't get to her grief seeds fast enough. That would be so pathetic, pathetic enough that it might overwrite her magnificent victories and be the thing that the magical girl community remembers forever instead. Honestly, that looked like what was going to happen. There were no Kyubeys to arrange transports anymore. If Sofia wanted off the mountain into downtown Malibu, Sofia was going to have to walk for hours. And she doubted her soul gem was going to survive that long.

But, a positive note. This day had already gone bad enough. There was no way for things to get worse. There was a limit to how unlucky a person could get in a single day, and there was no way Sofia wasn't pressing her entire body up against that limit right now. And Sofia knew that because for once, she just had an idea.

Her phone.

Telepathy girl blocked telepathy. But Sofia's BlackBerry was vanilla human telecommunications. Telepathy girl couldn't block that, probably. After all, if she could, she wouldn't be a Telepathy girl. If Sofia had her phone, she could text Kyubey. Would his overseers really care about this?

And, Sofia, for once, actually remembered where she had put her phone– somewhere in the living room. That was downstairs, so she needed to hurry up before the fire spread further–

But by the time Sofia accumulated enough motivation to drag herself down to the second floor, she could already see thick, gray smoke diffusing through the air above her like a large, angry terrestrial rain cloud. She found her way to a mezzanine that overlooked the living room and found it completely ablaze. Orange cinders danced a ritual of destruction atop tables and armchairs, incinerating matter and flinging their gaseous remains in the air like they were reaching to touch Sofia from below.

Sofia didn't remember where exactly she'd put the phone before she went to sleep, which means she probably chucked it on a couch, all of which were on fire. But Sofia supposed there was a small chance that she didn't. Maybe it dropped on the floor, maybe on the table, maybe Sofia accidentally brought it into her room and forgot about it.

But she was not fucking risking it. She'd dealt with enough fires for seventy lifetimes. There had to be another way to Kyubey.

First, the easy method.

Kyubey. Sofia telepathied.

No response.

Before Sofia could come with something else, Sofia heard a loud FOOSH echo from the direction of where the kitchen was. Something in there must have exploded, and Sofia had no more time to dilly-dally. Screw the phone, she could think of something after she got out of the house. The staircase that she'd used before required her to cross the living room before reaching the front door, and the other staircase was on fire already. Neither of them was usable, so that left only one other option–

Jump out of the fucking window.

Fuck.

Actually, jumping out of the window really didn't feel that bad. Feeling the wind rush against your face was kind of fun, actually. Maybe Sofia should have jumped out of windows more often rather than reading books all the time.

Sofia surveyed her lawn. There was a large bald spot next to her where she and Hazmat chick had fought. Otherwise, though, the lawn was weedy and unkempt. In her peripheral vision, Sofia thought she saw something black glitter in the sunlight.

She fumbled through her lawn in search of it and found a blood soaked combat knife. The one that Hazmat chick had stabbed Sofia with.

Thinking of Hazmat chick was like being punched in the gut by a scalding fist. The girl Sofia had killed because she got too scared.

Sofia didn't want to spend any more magic than absolutely necessary, so a vanilla human weapon could be useful. Sofia ought to grab it. But… Hazmat chick was dead. Did she want to steal from the dead?

Well, what would Kyubey say?

You humans are so irrational sometimes. Hazmat chick's already dead. What more is there to talk about?

As usual, Kyubey was absolutely right. Hazmat chick was dead, end of discussion, fin. It was one hundred percent self defense anyways. No need to worry more. Sofia had even tried her best to save Hazmat chick's life, which was much more than she deserved.

With a shaking hand, Sofia picked the knife from her ground. The tip was too sharp for any of her pockets, so she held it by her side like a lunatic.

Sofia looked back at her mansion.

No actual cinders yet, but gray smokes were already floating out of the various open windows. Sofia wondered when someone would notice that there was a building on fire. After all, there was no one around for miles. Would the wilderness around catch fire before then? That was an unsettling thought.

Either way, this day would mark the end of her mansion phase. Sofia was never going back to this place ever again.

Sofia's mansion was located in the outskirts of Malibu, overlooking the brilliant blue water of Santa Monica Bay from atop a rocky cliff face. Said mountain covered a five square mile area, in which seven different mansions much like Sofia's were built. Other than these mansions and the crisscrossing mountain roads that connected them all together, it was completely covered by hills covered in lush greeneries.

The road carved a division line between the wilderness and the ocean. Normal folk had not much reason to wander about these parts, so there were no dirty tire tracks to obfuscate the shining asphalt. The sun was starting to scald. Sweat dripped down Sofia's face, collecting inside her thick, cottony nightgown.

Sofia walked.

And walked.

And walked.

Sofia was hot, thirsty, and hungry. Telepathy girl's collar was still tied around her neck. She distracted herself by repeating the name of the one person who could save her.

Kyubey. Kyubey. Kyubey.

It won't work. Telepathy girl's chain ability should have the same range as her telepathy block, and since the collar hadn't disappeared yet, Sofia should be still in her range.

Sofia kept walking.

She checked her internal gem-o-meter. There was definitely more corruption than when she checked back at the mansion. This walk of shame was not good for her sanity.

And… What was even her plan after she still got downtown? Sofia was starting to think that Telepathy girl's magic affected people instead of being a radius, which drastically increased the potential size of her range and there was no guarantee that Sofia would be able to contact Kyubey any time soon.

…Though that interpretation did mean that she could just talk to another magi, but Malibu was terrible hunting grounds. There definitely was a magi when Sofia had moved here, but it's been three months and that girl was probably dead or eating people's souls at the town mall.

NO.

Gah… Sofia needed to shut up. This was a slippery slope. Sofia could not afford to be negative with her gem in this condition. Think of positive things. Sunshine, unicorns, rainbows, hash browns. Sofia loved hash browns. How long has it been since Sofia had hash browns?

Three months ago, maybe. Kind of a cold day. Sofia was in the body of one Bethany May McBride, whose human trafficking ring got her on the bounty a long while ago. She sat inside a rundown diner that claimed to have the "#1 Breakfast in SoCal".

"Uh… this, please." Sofia said, she pointed at something on the menu while trying her hardest to ignore the smell of burning grease wafting around her.

"The steak and potatoes?" said the waiter, scribbling something down on a notepad. "Excellent choice. How would you like your steak cooked?"

"Medium rare."

"Excellent," echoed the waiter. "Anything else?"

"Go hard on the hash browns," Sofia said. "As much as you're allowed to give me."

"Mhm. How would you like your eggs done?"

"No eggs," Sofia said. "In fact, swap it with hash browns."

"No eggs. Just hash browns." more scribbling."Excellent. I'll be right back with your drink."

And the waiter took his leave.

And peace and quiet returned.

Sofia closed her eyes, looked inside herself in search of Bethany. A tiny sliver of her had still inhabited this body yesterday, stuffed into a little mouse hole in the recesses of Sofia's subconscious, the tiniest fraction of a human being.

But now, the mouse hole was empty.

She had been completely crushed by Sofia's magic.

Bethany May McBride was no more.

Sofia felt nothing. She still remembered reading Bethany's file, all those days ago. Saw firsthand the results of her "experiments". Emaciated human figures, bones visibly contoured in their flesh, picking crumbs and insects off concrete floors with thin, fatless lips.

No, that girl deserved to die. Actually, she was being let off easy with just death. Sofia should have tortured her, stabbed her a couple of times maybe, dunked her gem in a vat of boiling acid a couple of times–

BOO!

Sofia almost jumped out of her seat. She dropped the fork that she'd unconsciously started playing with, and it hit the table with a metallic CLANG. Nearby patrons politely ignored her.

Heh. Kyubey telepathied. He had spontaneously appeared on her shoulder while she wasn't looking. Did I scare you?

Uhh… no, Sofia said.

Then she noticed that she was holding her gun in her hand.

Okay. Yeah. You did scare me. Sofia admitted. With a thought, her gun dissolved into glittering dust and dispersed.

Sorry about that. My previous contractee claimed that scaring people using loud, monosyllabic onomatopoeiae was a perfectly legitimate method to greet friends in human etiquette. Am I, as the saying goes, "pulling it off"?

Sofia stifled a laugh. Yeah. She said, You're doing great. Keep it up.

Excellent! Other than that, how are you doing?

Pretty good. Sofia said. Beth just died. Also I've some hash browns coming my way. And, let me guess, you are— busy, said Sofia and Kyubey at the same time. Sofia smirked, leaned back into her chair, and continued. Yeah, you're always busy.

You say free time, I say poor resource management. Kyubey scratched behind his ears with his back paw like a kitten. Anything interesting going on lately?

Oh yeah. Sofia said. Spent yesterday in the library, and, uh, read this really interesting scifi book thing– you know what a Dyson sphere is?

Primitive human theoretical technology. Kyubey said with the slightest hint of indignation.

It's like a, um, a bunch of solar panels that surround the sun— or any star, and captures most of its energy output for use–

Yeah, Kyubey interrupted her. I just said. I know what a Dyson sphere is.

Oh… yeah. Sofia cleared her throat. My bad. And… is it feasible? Have you guys ever built something like it?

No, it's not. One asteroid could knock it over. And if not that… either it falls apart, or you never build it. Kyubey said. No stable compound strong enough to hold a structure of that size together could be synthesized efficiently to that scale.

Is that why you resort to magical girls? Sofia asked. Because you can't harvest the sun's energy?

Well, no. Kyubey shrugged. There is a way to harvest a star's energy, but it involves refraction, black holes and superdimensions. And we do build them– there's one around basically every star we find, including yours.

There's a whole ass black hole around our sun? Sofia said, aghast.

A tiny one, yes. Kyubey said. Don't worry, it likely will never bother anyone in your lifetime. But, the reason we're called Incubators instead of Star Harvesters– the magical girl system produces significantly more energy than stars.

Sofia took a moment to process that statement.

That doesn't sound right. It's a star. Sofia said. And magical girls are… not stars.

I would one hundred percent agree with you. said Kyubey. It's completely unintuitive. This problem has been chipped at by thousands of years worth of our best scholars, and none of them have ever been able to make headway.

During their hours of conversations, where Kyubey answered an infinity of hungry queries from Sofia about whatever topics her brain could throw together, this was the first time she heard an "I don't know".

Kyubey looked Sofia up and down with his perfectly circular eyes. This is fascinating.

What?

Humans' reaction to the unknown. Kyubey said. There's a pattern amongst the things you're asking– dyson spheres, Riemann Hypothesis, neutron stars– humans are naturally much more interested in things that they can't figure out.

Yeah.

But paradoxically, said Kyubey, who was getting very excited. Even though humans are more interested in problems that have no solution, it's those problems that they stand the least to actually learn about.

Interesting, said Sofia, who had no idea what Kyubey was talking about.

Kyubey sighed.

Sofia's waiter approached, setting down a plate with two pieces of steak slathered in a mountain of ketchup and hash browns.

Finally, said Sofia. Ya mind if I eat?

Go ahead.

Sofia dug in. God, that was some good hash browns. So crispy, exploding with grease that only accentuated the best parts of the potato-y flavor. Even in this greasy, middle of nowhere diner, they can't mess up the hash browns.

Oh yeah, Kyubey changed the topic. You said something about looking for a place to settle down, right?

Uh. Yeah. Sofia said. A cluster of hash browns slipped out from her fork and fell on her clothes, leaving ketchup-y stains in the fabric. Sofia picked it up with her hands and tossed it back into the plate.

Malibu. Said Kyubey.

Huh?

Move to Malibu. Kyubey said. It's completely isolated. Terrible hunting grounds, no magi to bother you. What do you think?

It was lucky that she had decided to look left at that exact moment. In her exhaustion, Sofia would definitely have missed it otherwise.

A steel gate, cutting a small asphalt trail off from the rest of the road.

It looked identical to the one in her own house. So identical, in fact, that Sofia almost had a panic attack thinking she had gone in a circle for the past thirty minutes before she realized that the house wasn't on fire.

But that was good news.

Gates meant mansions. And mansions meant people. And people meant phones. Phones meant that she could get a connection with the outside world. She could just knock, use her feminine wiles or whatever to convince the rich idiots inside to lend her their phones, and she would no longer have to walk.

Sofia looked down upon herself. All of the wounds Lucia had sustained had been healed already. Her hair was messy, her pajamas were dirty, and she smelled like vomit. Suspicious, but not enough to override people's urge to aid helpless teenage girls, right?

Sofia pressed a buzzer on the gatepost.

And then she realized she had absolutely no idea what to say.

Her first real interaction with another human in about three months, and given the stakes, she really ought to have prepared herself a script beforehand. But classical music had already begun playing on the speaker, indicating that somewhere inside the mansion, a corresponding buzzer was already alerting the inhabitants within of the disgusting stranger on their doorsteps–

The music stopped abruptly with a click. "Hello," came a gruff voice from the speaker.

And Sofia's brain instantly short circuited. The half-formed script she had concocted with the last five seconds crumbled into granulated sugar. What's left of Sofia's cerebral cortex grabbed a random assortment of words and threw them together into an incomprehensible sludge for her to vomit out.

"Um. It's. I'm Sofia."

Then Sofia realized what she had said, and her mouth went dry. Unsolicitedly giving out your name was not the way to start conversations.

"I know a Sofia," the man on the speaker said. "But she ain't you."

Sofia was supposed to say something now. Explain that the man just didn't recognize her after her latest plastic surgery, or something. But she didn't. So an awkward silence ensued.

The man on the other side sighed. "Well, if you want to make an appointment, you should go to the firm. How'd you even get–"

"No!" Sofia blurted out.

The man paused in shocked silence.

"Um. I just… I just woke up here in the middle of the f-forest, somehow. And I don't have my phone. And I'm s-scared. I'd like to call my parents."

It was not a good story. It was a story that implied that Sofia had been kidnapped from her home and thrown in the middle of a wilderness. Such people usually required assistance beyond a simple phone call. But for something she'd made up on the spot, it'll do.

"You're serious?" said the man on the other side. "You just woke up with no idea how you got here?"

Or the man could just straight up not believe her. That was always a possibility. For a normal human, it would be a pretty outlandish story after all.

"Yeah," said Sofia.

"That's… that's quite a situation you've found yourself in."

"Yeah," said Sofia.

"Well. I'll be happy to help you," said the man. "I'll call the cops—"

"No!" Sofia blurted out. "You can't call the police," Sofia said. "It's just… it's not that much of a big deal. Just… let me call my parents. And I don't want to put you into the, uh, the investigation, right…"

Another pause ensued. This one was more ominous than awkward.

"We'll talk about it in the house," said the man eventually. "I'm unlocking the gates. You come in."

With the sound of creaking metal, the double gates swung open.

Sofia walked inside.

This guy had actually put in the effort to take care of his lawn. It was grand. Tiled limestone walkways crisscrossed perfectly mowed lawns populated by geometric topiaries. A running fountain refracted rainbows in the air. Sofia tried her best to ignore her subpar cotton pajamas and dragged herself through.

She reached the fancy hardwood door, which had two fancy tiger statues standing on either side fancily, and knocked.

A wrinkled man in his sixties answered the door. He wore a polo shirt and jeans, with a belt and everything. Who the fuck was wearing jeans at home? In this weather?

"You look… exhausted," the man said. "How long have you been walking?"

"An hour."

"And you haven't had anything to eat, drink since then?"

"Yeah."

"I've nothing edible with me right now…" the man said. "Do you want to come in for some tea, or something?"

Drinks.

The man was offering Sofia drinks.

But no. Sustenance could wait. She needed to get out as soon as she could. Plus, Sofia was pretty sure girls her age tended not to accept drinks from strangers anyway–

Nonsense, said the imaginary Kyubey living in her head. Your gem's built off of despair. It'll probably be in a worse state if you sit and wait with a parched throat.

That was true.

"Yes, please," Sofia said to the man. "That would be amazing."

The man nodded. "Follow me then,"

He led Sofia inside her mansion.

The mansion's interior was just as well kept as the lawn. It was filled with vegetation– lush green leaves poured from pots that hung from ceilings or sat atop rustic wooden furniture. Lanterns painted the rooms with a warm light. It was like a ranger's cozy mountain lodge, except spacious and mansion-ized. And just as lonely, too.

Sofia followed the man to the living room. He gestured at Sofia to sit on a couch. He poured her a cup of lukewarm tea from an old-fashioned steel kettle, which Sofia guzzled it down instantly.

"Thirsty, aren't you?" the man chuckled. "You can pour yourself more if you want to." So Sofia filled her cup to the brim again and drank that, too, in two sips.

"You go to college?"

"No. I'm a high schooler." Sofia said, emptying the rest of the kettle into her cup.

"Oh wow." said the man. "You are tall for your age. Which high school do you go to?"

That was a damn good question. Sofia didn't know any of the local high schools. In fact, the only high school that Sofia knew was the schools in Redding where she grew up. And Pasadena High, she supposed.

Luckily, before Sofia could ramble on some bullshit answer, she heard the man decided to change the topic. "Sorry. You're probably too preoccupied for small talk, right?" The man nursed his teacup. "Let's get to business, why don't you want to get the police involved?"

"I… just, I just don't think it's that b-big a deal," Sofia said. "My parents are in Malibu. I can just call them. And they'll come pick me up. Really."

Wait a minute. If she supposedly woke up in the wilderness with all of her belongings gone, then how did she know she was still in Malibu? Did she just blow her cover? No. No way, right? This guy wasn't going to notice something that minor. He wasn't Sherlock fucking Holmes, and this wasn't an anime. She needed to just calm down–

"Hold on," said the man. "If you woke up here with none of your things, how'd you know you're still in Malibu?"

Sofia froze solid. What was she supposed to say now? The man was looking at her expectantly, she should probably give an answer now, or the man would get even more suspicious than he was already. Just say the first thing that comes to her mind.

"I… I… um, is this, you're saying, this not Malibu?" Sofia squeaked. "I… where are we, then?"

Even if Sofia assumed that she was already in Malibu when she woke up, the way she worded her previous sentence still made no sense. But even if the man caught that, it would hopefully be more awkward for him to start the topic again.

"No, no," said the man. "We are in Malibu. The coast side of town. Sorry," he chuckled. "I probably read too many detective books."

"Oh. That's a relief. Anyways, no need to get cops involved, right? Just let me call my parents, and I'll be on my way."

"But you really should get to the bottom of this," said the man, his brows furrowed in concern. "If you were actually kidnapped, your life could be in danger–

The man suddenly stopped talking abruptly. He looked at Sofia's waistband, and then up at her. And for a brief second, an expression of pure terror struck his face.

But the next second, he went back to normal.

"You know what." he said. "This… this is none of my beeswax. You can have the phone, call your folks, and that'll be it. Alright?"

Sofia breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, sir."

The man fished out a phone from his pockets, and handed it to Sofia. It was one of these touchscreen smartphones that Sofia noticed all the kids had nowadays.

"Thank you."

There was no way for a random phone to dial Kyubey, of course. But, fortunately for Sofia, she had one other person– Arnie, the guy who delivered groceries and books for her. If Sofia could get in contact with him, she could tell him to drive wherever. She would scour city after city until she found a girl willing to call Kyubey for her.

She scrolled through the man's phone. It was pretty messy, full of apps about the stock market. She looked for a full five seconds before she realized that the phone app was on the bottom bar that never moved.

She tried to press it, but her thick oily fingers slipped, and the camera app next to it opened instead.

"My bad," Sofia chuckled nervously. She tried to close out of it-

In the face that stared back at her, Sofia realized there was a crimson colored stain on her left cheeks.

Blood.

When did that get there? When Sofia knocked Lucia into the wall back at the mansion?

Well, that definitely could have been a red flag. If Sofia noticed earlier, she could have probably wiped it off her face. But the man had already let her in, he must've already noticed it and decided that it was fine anyways–

Then Sofia realized with a start.

Hazmat chick's knife.

Sofia had stuck it in her waistband, didn't she?

Sofia looked downwards, and there it fucking was. The blade was fully buried in her pants, but the hilt was exposed. And on the grip there was just a most miniscule hint of blood, staining the synthetic leather with just the slightest shade of red.

Ah.

The man had seen her knife.

A suspicious story. Refusal to get police involved. Blood on her face. Bloodied knife in her waistband. Sofia looked like she had murdered someone.

Hazmat chick's last gasp for Sofia's life.

And the man had obviously bought into it. Sofia looked up at the man. His mood had completely changed. Sweat dripped on his brow. His right hand squeezed the cushion so hard Sofia saw veins contoured on his biceps.

Shit.

The man's telephone trick, no doubt, was to get Sofia out of his house as soon as he could. Immediately after she left, he was going to call the police. The policemen would get here much faster than Arnie could and arrest Sofia. Sofia would witch out right on the police car, in the middle of Malibu. Bodies would roll down the streets and blood would stain the asphalt.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

Sofia needed to defuse the situation. Was there any way she could convince the man that the blood was someone else's? Yes. If Kyubey was here, he could have the man believe he was the second coming of Christ if he wanted. But, as today's events had kept shoving down her throat, Sofia was not Kyubey. Sofia was fucking worthless compared to him. But she had to try something, right?

Sofia needed to think. Take deep breaths and think. Sofia could do this. The vomit trick. That was smart! And cool! Sofia had it in her to be smart, right? Just one more. Just one more, God. Just give her one more.

"I'm going to run to the bathroom real quick," the man said, causing Sofia to look up with a start. She had been staring at her reflection in the camera for the past five seconds.

The man rose from the couch, nodded at her with a smile that didn't reach the terror in his eyes, and then started speed walking his way deeper into the mansion.

Maybe he was nervous. Maybe he just wanted to have his mental breakdown alone in his bathroom where Sofia couldn't see him.

Alternatively. He could be going to the bathroom to call the police.

Sofia had his phone. But the man was a billionaire, he could afford more than one phone.

No. He could not be allowed to call the police.

Cold sweat dripped onto Sofia's back. Her blood ran ice cold in her veins.

Sofia's stopped thinking.

Sofia got up from her armchair and started to follow him.

The man turned his head around to look at Sofia. His face was pale, white as a sheet, and he was sweating buckets. "What are you doing," he asked. His voice was a distant echo.

Sofia ignored him and kept walking.

The man started to run, so Sofia did too. He ran faster, into the kitchen, perhaps to grab a knife to fight back– but that was a mistake. He slipped, hard, on the floor, and landed on his back with an audible crack. The man screamed in pain.

Sofia, breathing very hard and fast, walked towards the man until she stood right besides his writhing, squirming body.

"What the fuck do you want," asked the man. He dragged himself away from Sofia with his arms, maybe subconsciously. "I… don't know what you did. And I wasn't planning on calling the cops. I fucking swear. Please."

"Don't worry." Sofia said. "I'm not going to kill you."

"Oh." the man breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you. I won't call the cops, I'll do anything. I can get you money."

"I'm just going to knock you out."

Sofia unsheathed Hazmat chick's knife and slammed the hilt on the man's skull.

With a dull thud, the man was out cold.

Sofia breathed a sigh of relief.

She was psyching herself out. As usual. That wasn't all that hard. All this time, she just needed to knock him out! She'd maybe used a tiny bit more force than necessary. And the cracked back sounded pretty bad. But no worries, she just needed to remember to call an ambulance for him the moment she got out of the forest with Arnie.

Deep breaths.

Sofia returned to the living room, and found the phone still lying on the couch. Sofia swigged the rest of the tea in one drink and dialed Arnie's number.

"Uh…" came Arnie's voice from the phone. "Who is this?"

"Sofia. I'm Sofia."

"Ohhhhh!" Arnie chuckled nervously. "Hi… hi boss. You sounded—a bit different."

"I've one last job for you," Sofia said. "After this, I'll leave Malibu."

"Leave Malibu?" Arnie said, shocked.

"Yeah." Sofia said. "That means no more shipments."

"I'm… I'm sorry to hear that," Arnie said. But that was a lie. Sofia knew that Arnie hated doing shit for her. He always made a point to always deliver the shipments an hour before Sofia woke up to avoid interacting with her.

"Anyways. I'm uh, stranded somewhere." Well, Sofia looked completely different to how she did when Arnie first met her. Best avoid the unnecessary questions. "Wait. Uh. No. I'm perfectly fine. One of my friends is stranded somewhere, though. Your last job is to go pick her up."

"I…" Arnie squeaked. "I have two finals due on Monday…"

"I'll pay you. I'll pay ten times the normal amount."

"Ten times–" Arnie sounded like he had just choked on something. "Okay, finals—can wait, you know?" More nervous laughter.

"Let me give you the address. Of where my friend is." The address wasn't hard to find. Second entry on google maps. "Uh… two – two – four – four – zero. Pacific Coast Highway. Malibu, CA 90263. That's all you need. Now repeat it back to me."

Arnie did.

And one last thing. A contingency for if Sofia witched out before Arnie got there. "If you don't see my friend out in the front gates waiting for you. No further questions, go right back the way you came immediately. You understand?"

"Yeah… yeah…"

"See you then."

Sofia hung up the phone.

Now, she ought to think about where she wanted Arnie to take her. She needed to get another magi to contact Kyubey for her. Needed to be close by, too, so she could get there before she witched out.

The answer was obvious, then. Los Angeles. Massive city, an hour's drive away, probably big enough for six or seven magi. At least one of them should be willing to help. Kyubey would owe whoever did help her a favor, after all.

Fifteen minutes later, Arnie's gray sedan pulled up to the mansion's gates.

Arnie rolled down his windows.

"You're–-Sofia's friend?" he said.

Sofia nodded.

Arnie regarded her, taking in all the filth that she had accumulated over the past two hours, and curled his lips into a frown. "Well…" Arnie gestured to the backseats. "You can go sit in the back, I guess…"

Sofia did. She had never gone inside Arnie's car before. It smelled like lavender.

"And… where are we going?" Arnie asked.

"Los Angeles."

Arnie stared.

"Ya got a… specific address in mind?"

"Just… just take tours around the city until I tell you to stop."

Arnie muttered something under his breath about his finals. Then he shrugged. "Yeah. Okay."

They took off.