[h3][color=7bcdc8]Kei[/color][/h3]
Words quickly catalysed the absurd situation into something with traces of sense. The reflexes of the girl in the beret were true, and mimicked Kei's own, albeit with a weapon much heavier. The metallic gleam of the hammer caused Kei's grip to tighten around the crossbow- Quaint, small, a toy- And she heard her heart beat in her ears until the red-coated fighter relaxed. [color=7bcdc8][i]Strawberry Gang..? Yeah, on second thoughts, I think I'm gonna have to start sharing real soon.[/i][/color] She wouldn't have said that aloud for the world, though.

In the side of Kei's attention, the blonde in the blue coat was sassing her. It was a response Kei could appreciate the essence of, though the undertones were confusing. [color=7bcdc8][i]Is she[/i] actually [i]trying to tell me I'm not shit, or is this just standard banter? She seems... Nice. Like a three-year-old is nice.[/i][/color] Kei didn't know anything about three-year-olds, but the honest innocence in Dariya's jokes made her impossible to read. [color=7bcdc8][i]I wouldn't even know her name if she wasn't being- Being... Fuck I can't even tell if she's self-deprecating or actually talks like everyone is eight years older than her.[/i][/color] The blonde's amicable- or naive- or maybe sycophantic fawning expressed itself as a plush hug. The irony of the girl's figure occurred to Kei, and she stopped trying to think in sentences. Dariya was frustrating enough to understand as is.

The recipient of the embrace had darkened her eyes under the beret while her sidekick was speaking. It was a foreboding pose, at least before it broke up under Dariya's affection, and even then she put herself back together... Pretty admirably, given the circumstances. Better than Kei had from the German tourist, absolutely. [color=7bcdc8][i]Agh, no, I didn't want to remember that. Ok then. Julia. The cute boss. Ok. She's not cute. She's scary.[/i][/color] And she knew it. 

The paper dam of Mary's self-control dissolved and released its endless verbal reservoir of crazy. Kei almost ducked aside, leaning outwards slightly with the awkward balance of someone trying to avoid a friend they couldn't afford to lose. The word 'sidekick' came up somewhere- [color=7bcdc8][i]Should that be[/i] 「Sidekick」[i]? How does she even vocalise that-[/i][/color] and Kei's attention flinched back to Mary. For the most part, however, her gaze rested on Julia, awaiting something that would confirm her position of authority, steeling herself for whatever harsh wit the white-coated girl would have to respond to in kind. When it happened that she laughed, a silly, heartfelt belly laugh, Kei laughed with her in a nervously asthmatic wheeze. 

But Julia changed gears rapidly, and Kei couldn't match up. She swallowed her smile, choked on it, and coughed hoarsely into her glove, caught up completely by the shock of the switch, the familiarity of what she was hearing repurposed into something not only legible but actually pretty clear. [color=7bcdc8][i]...? The hell! The [/i]Hell[i] is she actually doing this, what the fuck, how?[/i][/color] And then, without missing a beat, the hammer-bearing girl snapped back into casual confidence, dropped a line, and left practically unchallenged.

By the time she was done, Kei almost stepped in line after her. [color=7bcdc8][i]What. What. No.[/i][/color] Whoever Julia was, she was [i]slick[/i]. Mary might have walked the walk, but it was an abstract kind of meander into a convention and back out again. The newcomer was every bit as suave, but knew what she was doing in a broader world. [color=7bcdc8][i]She made[/i] puns, [i]for fuck's sake, where did she learn to improv like that?[/i][/color] The girl acted almost like she actually belonged to a gang- Were street gangs even real?- or, realistically, a particularly intense drama class.

Mary was laughing, the familiar cackle of superiority, but the sidekick she beckoned was busy trying to reconcile what had happened with her own impressions. [color=7bcdc8][i]Dariya's new. She's new and she wants to be useful.[/i][/color] The unnamed schoolgirl with the sketchbook poking out of her bag may have been, too, with the way she had been running after Julia earlier. [color=7bcdc8][i]And all the newbies latched on to Julia rather than scrabbling about like drunk spiders.[/i][/color] Kei could see where that was coming from, but she felt jealous beneath her stunned admiration anyway. Point was, Danzig's overload of Magical Girls wasn't collapsing into a free-for-all, but a hierarchy. 

And that might be a good thing, for anyone not on the bottom level. 

Speaking of which.

[i][b]Salomea:[/b]
That's really close to where I am.  I'm fine, enjoying the parade with family.  I sense a witch.  You're taking care of it, right?[/i]

[color=7bcdc8][i]Oh fuck.[/i][/color] Kei's phone dissolved back into the glitter she'd pulled it from and she sprinted, not wasting her time with the stone pavement but jumping step by step over the other girls, each footfall landing on the vertebra of a long grey backbone arched in the air, a mural painted briefly over the face of reality for her benefit. From the momentary vantage point, she saw a metallic glint on the tower of the basilica. The green shadow of a girl was still there, playing with something. [color=7bcdc8][i]Good, she can stay there.[/i][/color]

The last neckbone of Kei's support lead her back onto the ground at Julia's side, and diffused into the air with an oily smell. [color=7bcdc8]"Oi, mobster, you know what?"[/color] She wished, suddenly, that she had spent more time preparing for this moment. Maybe she'd start with Pulp Fiction. [color=7bcdc8]"I reckon you can keep this familiar. Consider it a gift!"[/color] With this many girls stuck together in the area, it wouldn't last to breeding age anyway. Overfishing is a bitch. [color=7bcdc8]"But I have a crew waiting on me to show up, so if you'd be [i]so kind,[/i] I'm going to make this a joint venture. If not, well, it's a joint venture now anyway."[/color] No, that wasn't tough enough, not [i]nearly[/i] tough enough. There had to be some undertone of conflict, an element of mystery or rivalry to establish herself as worth listening to.

An idea flickered up in Kei's head, a gamble buoyed by recklessness, and she looked sidelong at the girl in the beret as they ran. [color=7bcdc8]"Race you."[/color] As the cobbles grew littered with erasers and sharpeners, she dropped the crossbow into her coat, where it dissolved, and left Dariya behind with the chocolatier and the art student, making a wide wave towards Mary, gesturing her to haul ass. There was a twinge of guilt, but right now, Julia was much less awkward to tag along with, and more important to impress. [color=7bcdc8][i]It's not like she doesn't already think I'm useless anyway, hah, lol. Dariya'd make a much better sidekick.[/i][/color]

Past that point, Kei didn't look aside to check Julia's progress any more, but she had a strong feeling that she was losing. Magic was one hell of an energy drink, but it could only pump up one's kicks so much before you had to rely on your own fitness, and after twelve months of combat, Kei's muscle weight was approaching average.

The thrum of the familiar was harder to feel through her ankle than it was from her ear, but little by little, it was growing. That, and it was moving relative to her as she moved. [i][color=7bcdc8]It stopped running.[/color][/i] The side lane was no longer a direct route, either. Kei smothered her aching legs in magic to give her one last fling, skidded around a corner, and stood at the end of a pass between the alleyway and Royal Road, hesitant to move further into the main street. 

Somewhere far ahead, Salomea was waiting, but Kei had dreaded showing her costume in public then, and though the presence of all these other witch-hunters gave her a little social safety, she still looked haggardly around for Julia to find confirmation to continue the latter half of the race. Letting the big girl out of sight may have been a dangerous move.