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This was probably the last thing Mami wanted to be doing right now.

Things had been... okay, for a while. Her breakdown had been a surprisingly effective way of removing the almost crushing weight on her shoulders, and ever since then, she spend less and less time cooped up away from the rest of the ship.

Some of that weight had returned, though, when she realized that she and the other puella magi were still the only ones who knew the horrible truth. Mami was so caught up in her own grief and despair that she never told anyone else on the ship the truth - and as much as she hated to spread such information around, someone deserved to be informed. She's still not sure what happened when she herself had nearly turned, but she couldn't assume it might happen again. She wouldn't blame anyone if they decided to monitor her and her friends.

After sending out a simple "meet me here, I have something I need to discuss" message to Nanoha - the one she had originally talked to when that first witch showed up - she made her way over to one of the empty sensoriums immediately. She changed it to something simple, similar to her old apartment's living room, sat down, poured herself a cup of tea, and waited.

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And Nanoha steps into the door a few minutes before the scheduled time, bowing politely with a sheepish expression on her face. "Ah... I'm sorry if I kept you waiting, Mami-chan."

"Not at all!" Mami said with a smile. She had been waiting for a few minutes, but... it was a good thing. It gave her time to prepare for what she had to go over again.

"Help yourself, if you'd like," she motioned to the teapot, an empty cup sitting next to it. "I know it's not real, but it's still just as comforting, in my opinion."

"It is nice, isn't it?" Nanoha agreed, taking a seat and carefully pouring herself a cup in a very practiced motion. "Our minds are really powerful, when you think about it."

She took the cup in her hands, blowing steam from the rim. "What did you want to discuss with me, Mami-chan?"

Mami took a long, calming sip of her tea, her smile fading as she set her cup down on the table.

"It's... about the witches I told you about." It was obvious this wasn't exactly a comfortable subject for Mami, but she continued after just a short pause. "Shortly after the mission on Lirath, one of my companions revealed to us just where those monsters come from."

Nanoha frowned, tapping a finger against her chin. "Oh? What do you mean?"

The girl wouldn't be broaching the topic with her if it weren't important, after all.

Mami kept her gaze focused on her cup, locked firmly on her reflection in the liquid within. It was hard enough talking to someone she barely knew about such a sensitive subject... she couldn't let any more of her weakness show.

"When we last spoke, I mentioned to you that the puella magi - which there are three of on board currently, as far as I know - need to restore their magic periodically with the items witches drop, and that was the reason I requested that my friends and I take care of them, correct?" She wasn't waiting for an answer, but she paused for a few moments anyway. Gotta keep calm...

"Well... those two things are connected, it seems." It was hard, so hard to just spit it out. Hopefully Nanoha would catch her drift...

It wasn't hard for Nanoha to put two and two together, especially with the way Mami seemed so downhearted at the moment. "Are you telling me that, if you don't cleanse the impurities from your magic regularly, you'll...?"

"Yes." Mami said almost too quickly, as if trying to cut Nanoha off.

"We either fight monsters, or become monsters... and that means we're a liability to this ship and everyone on it."

She frowned, looking down at her teacup. "And what do you want us to do about it? We're not going throw you off the ship."

"No, of course not..." Mami would be lying if she said she hadn't thought of that during one of her many sleepless nights. But that's all it was; paranoid musings of someone unable to sleep.

"But I would understand if you wanted to monitor us, or something like that. I would, if I was in your shoes."

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