I am very curious what "the girl who inspired the whole 'Girl Phase' story" unpacks to in Erika's head. Does she actually know of the existence of real Magical Girls? I've wondered about that since the conversation outside the hospital just before Ririka keeled over, and the current scene is really bringing that question back to the forefront for me (after a lot of other exciting things happening this chapter
) When Ririka was talking about Yuki being "the real Magic Girl right here!", and about Yuki's mother not having set off any Sparklogen-reactive "alarms", Erika didn't react one way or another, which doesn't really narrow down the possibilites. She could be aware but didn't feel any need to discuss MGs out loud (in front of unauthrized civilians say); or at the other extreme, she could be oblivious enough that Ririka's comments were going over her head (the way Kimiko was oblivious when Miho yanked her out of the cafe Ed was blowing up).
Ririka expresses awareness of the "thin little blond girl" that was substituted in for her in the (presumably Stability-vetted) publicly distributed anime; it's likely she was also aware of the VA that portrayed said thin little blond girl. Does that go both ways? Are VAs who are intended to portray (vetted versions of) actual MGs --in particular "catastrophic grade" MGs-- at some point in the interview process put through a "special' interview with Stablity: "here's what's actually going on, here's why the public Cannot Know the Truth, and here's what
you're going to be doing to keep those secrets secret"? (Think of the recruitment scene near the beginning of Men in Black -- but with someone like Dom in the last room with a Glock instead of a nice guy giving you a nice "eye exam".) If so, and if Erika did pass those tests and signed all the NDAs... is it possible she quit for reasons other than just Hitoshi being a jerk? Did her quitting pose particular problems that would cause many parties to take an interest in her whereabouts and activities? (Both Masamichi and Meimi had been keeping tabs on her in one form or other, Junpei recognized her immediately as "Hayasaka-Dono", Dom and Ed were more than usually excited on first "accidentally" running into her...)
Or would Stability rather keep as many in the dark as possible, as one would expect of a proper Conspiracy at the Highest Levels? By "inspired the story", does Erika just mean the "mundane" (again, Stability-vetted, or if necessary Stability-made-up-whole-cloth) details of her biography? "Of course 'magic' here is just a metaphor for 'doing your best' and 'believing in your friends' blah blah blah, and the 'evil villains' are metaphors for the day-to-day struggles like crippling illness blah blah blah..." Of course a veteran -- some might even say jaded
-- VA isn't going to actually believe any of that nonsense about "real" magic, right?
Either way, Moeko is indeed likely to have some very interesting things to say to Erika.