The Ophelia and I were chatting for a while after she had talked through an intercom for someone to prepare the papers for my registration as a magical girl. As time passed, she recovered from the sudden visit and started talking about things.
She explained about her magic, which I found to be a truly incredible ability, and also talked a little about the facilities and other things like the duties of a magical girl.
She mentioned the team system that mainly works in trios, with one person for attack, one for attack support, and one for general team support.
This would fit well for Ayane and I to work together, since we both can play a support role. Of course, there are also larger teams with 4 or 5 magical girls, and there are pairs that are so good together that they don't need others to help.
And of course, there are also some rare ones who work without a team because their magic is not good to use when there are people around, and they usually focus more on eliminating the monsters.
The pay is the best part of it all. Just by being registered, I'll be paid every month even if I don't do anything. Of course, if I don't do anything for long periods of time, I'll receive a warning, unless there's a reason.
Like certain magical girls who are still paid even without working because they've had serious physical and mental aftereffects and can no longer maintain themselves as a magical girl.
And the most interesting information that Ophelia gave me, without even realizing that I didn't know, was the reason why these girls accept their powers.
It happens in an interesting way a random girl can receive a visit from the angel if she shows an affinity for magic, and this same girl will receive a proposal to become a magical girl.
They can accept or refuse, but some are in a not-so-good situation and end up accepting, while others are saved and happen to have an affinity and also receive the proposal.
In some rarer cases, the angel itself tries to convince the girl to accept being a magical girl, and this seems to have been the case with Ayane, who has such an affinity for magic that she caught the angel's attention.
And so the angel went to her and tried to convince her, and she, being a kind person, probably just accepted because saving people seemed like a very good thing.
I swore there was some kind of gain or something similar, but there's nothing. The angel just makes the proposal, and it's up to you to accept, and most accept because it's a chance to change their lives.
Since, in addition to the pay, if you enter the records of this base, you'll also have powers, and apparently there are also some other general benefits for the person's family.
Like guaranteed protection for the person's family, with these people being a priority in rescues, among other things, which is a kind of family favoritism, but is one of the reasons why some accept.
Since if you know that monsters exist and that your family is in danger, something that can protect them seems like a blessing at first. Moreover, magical girls have punishments for crimes.
So if a magical girl uses her powers for evil, she will become a criminal and will be judged by veteran magical girls, and will then be imprisoned, losing many advantages and support from other magical girls.
In other words, it all boils down to trust in the end. The angel chooses a random girl to give powers to and hopes that she doesn't decide to screw everything up by using her powers for evil.
Which, in my opinion, is stupid. I think this angel is kind of desperate for help, since he has to resort to this just to have more magical girls fighting monsters.
When I asked Ophelia what the monsters are, she said she had no idea. The Septarion never said what a monster is or where they come from, we only know that they exist all over the world and commit horrible things.
In the end, being a magical girl is something that most choose out of necessity, and it even seems almost deliberate that the Septarion always chooses girls who won't refuse.
It seems that this "angel" is not really as angelic as appearances indicate, since he is using the feelings of these girls to turn them into magical girls, knowing that they won't refuse.
Of course, this also seems to be an almost taboo subject, since no one mentions it and they just accept it, and that classic problem that exists in all societies if it's working, there's no need to question it.
But since this has little to do with me, I decided not to delve into it yet. It was great to know how the angel selects girls to become magical girls.
Although this leaves me curious about something why aren't men chosen? And why did Hexael turn me into a girl? There must be a connection that I don't know yet.
So I decided to ask Ophelia about this, and she said she had no idea why only women are chosen, because they've never asked about it. Of course, hearing such a response made me think about what kind of leader doesn't address doubts about what they're doing.
Basically, she doesn't know anything truly important, and from our conversation, it seems she practically lives in this base without ever leaving, and to me, one thing became clear.
She's a coward. She's afraid of the outside world, so she's isolated herself here, maintaining a pre-fabricated image of someone who isn't insecure, while deep down, she depends on others for everything.
Which is in a way something that would convey a sad image, not that I can feel sad for her. It just makes her seem stupid in my view, since she's just avoiding the problem instead of facing it head-on.
Of course, after having this view of her, I lost any interest and just listened to her talk while waiting for the papers to arrive, and when they did, I read all the clauses carefully.
Incredibly, there are no loopholes that she can take advantage of. It's a fair contract that greatly favors the others and gives a lot of general freedom to each signer. Again, it doesn't seem like a good idea to make such a good contract for the other side.
But since it benefits me, I don't see any reason to think it's bad. Anyway, it's her life, not mine. She makes her own decisions.
"Ophelia, it was a great conversation, but I believe I should go home to sleep because I need to go to school tomorrow," I say to her so I can leave soon. We spent almost two hours just on this.
Of course, according to what she said, if I wasn't signing my registration, I would have been with her for a maximum of 30 minutes, but since there was the wait to do everything and the review of the papers took a while.
"I completely understand, Setsuna. I really enjoyed our conversations, you're an interesting person... Before you go, do you want me to take a look at your vague future?" She says, mentioning using her ability on me.
'...'
"Sure." I don't believe it will make much difference, according to her descriptions of her ability, this is so vague that it hardly makes a difference to know.
"Great, just wait a moment." She closes her eyes and opens them while having a slight glow.
"..."
"What did you see?" I ask as she shivers.
"A-Ah... well... I-I think you have a bad future? I don't know what I felt, it's the first time I've felt something like this."
"Could you explain better?"
"Well, normally my intuition is simple, like a hunch, like I feel it's going to rain today, so I'll take an umbrella even though the weather forecast says it won't rain."
"But with you... I didn't feel anything? Or rather, I felt like I was sinking into nothingness, as if I were adrift in something viscous, but similar to an ocean or something like that."
"It's the first time I've felt something like this, so it was really confusing. I don't know if this means it's good or bad, it's like when you dream you're falling and just wake up suddenly."
"It was a dream, and there's not much to say about it. I just sank and sank, as if I were in the ocean, maybe something related to the depths of the ocean or something similar?" She says.
"If it's bad, it would be good for you to avoid getting close to the sea or going on missions against sea monsters. They often have tentacles, and most of the girls who have gone through this have been traumatized by the sea."
"...I understand, I think I know what it was referring to." I know perfectly well what this description fits, and it has nothing to do with the ocean or anything similar.
I just get up, saying goodbye to her and going to the elevator. I have to say that the intuition formed by her magic is "frightening." It's obvious that her description refers to my obsession with Ayane.
However, since her magic has the weakness of being extremely vague, she doesn't really understand what her magic is trying to tell her. If this ability were a little clearer and sharper, she would be a real threat to me and many others.
Fortunately, it seems to have its limitations that remove a lot of what would make her ability incredibly overpowered.