I am Kyubey, and I am grappling with a significant problem.
I am unable to predict humans.
I don't mean I am unable predict the outcome of my interactions with any specific human. There are very few I can confidently say hold any relationship with me at all. Those few who do I can certainly describe ad nauseam: what thresholds of potential they met in contracting them as magical girls, what their wishes' consequences held for themselves and others, what circumstances led to them becoming witches. I am perfectly capable of recalling and examining every second of interaction I take part in concerning humans I have contacted, and I have no shortage of comparisons and explanations until I exhaust my descriptions.
However, I cannot explain how I identify humans as a species. The similarities they share, the differences they hold between each other, and how they choose to communicate-or not communicate-within themselves. I have reviewed, and been witness to, enough of their history that I am able to understand what has happened, and even what social and political circumstances surround a given scenario. I can even mostly predict their behaviors in a given scenario, as is necessary to learn what conditions sway them most when I offer them contracts. The key word is "mostly"; occasionally, more often than is acceptable, a human will choose or decide against what all rational thought may indicate.
I identify my lack of understanding as a problem because as humans are irrational creatures, they act in ways not easily predictable. However, this seemingly conflicts with their own understandings of themselves, as they apparently presuppose humans are primarily motivated by reason and rationality. So much of their conduct revolves around situation and circumstance that I am forced to examine what affects their behavior, in the interests of increased efficiency and adaptability in contracting magical girls. My study is justified by many examples of magical girls, some with the greatest human potential ever measured by certain counts, who absolutely refused contracts in their lives. These lost opportunities come at a great cost to the battle against entropy, and while some Incubators are conducting research into our own species' ability or desire to express emotions, I am focusing on how humans relate to emotional expression and feelings to better control for responses and increase my own efficiency in contracting magical girls with high potential.
Until I observe or hypothesize a possible answer, I will collect observational data and correlate possible answers until I reach a conclusion or determine such a conclusion is infeasible given my timeframe and parameters of study. Perhaps recording my own analysis this way will lead me to some new insight regarding humans which will further benefit our cause.