While Maxim was privately celebrating this chance to be her true self, and most of the others tried to beg their way out of the situation, another of the bus' occupants sat in complete silence. His body was motionless aside from his eyes, which rapidly flicked around the bus. James was his name, and he knew he only had a few moments more before he had to make his decision.
James had no love for the manly camp. While for Maxim that camp represented everything she was forced to be, James merely considered the whole thing to be a nuisance he had no patience for. He wouldn't have minded spending a few weeks in the countryside, but at a massive camp wasn't his idea of a good time; the fact that they catered to tiresome stereotypes about what masculinity "had" to be just made things worse. James didn't have any real issue with being male, he really didn't care about it much at all. But James' views of the masculine ideal had nothing to do with the very un-self-aware "hoo rah" crap that many people envisioned. To him, that was not only needlessly aggressive and problematic, but worse yet, it was boring.
He also had the current situation to consider. Assuming this wasn't all just a very elaborate prank, he was apparently now in very real danger just by virtue of showing up to this place. Irritating as that was, it also meant had few options at the moment. He could try and run for it, taking his chances on making it the several dozens of miles to the nearest sign of civilization through forests and mountains that were dangerous enough even without magical beasties skulking about. He could try and join the list of guardian beasts or familiars that was already too long, likely getting shunted into a different category anyway. Plus, "familiars" usually didn't have much independence, while who even knew what being a guardian beast would leave him turned into. Or he could volunteer to be part of what was probably the most powerful of the three groups, and maybe gain some good will with the camp staff in the process.
So while the idea of being a magical girl wasn't exactly ideal, at the very least it offered some break from the monotony of life without leaving him stranded in the woods or as another magical girl's pet. So while the majority of the bus was still arguing about trying to be guardian beasts, James made his way to the closest organizer. It was the first girl who came to the bus upon their arrival, and she turned to him as he approached.
"Hello, I'd like to volunteer to be a magical girl," James said, trying not to balk at the absurdity of the statement.
"Really?" the girl replied with obvious surprise. "You're only the second to pick it willingly. I figured most all of you would keep trying to get out of joining us."
"Seems the best option," James said with a shrug.
"Alright. Go ahead and head out of the bus, and look for a girl a little taller than me with brown hair and wearing a green and brown dress. She's gathering magical girl volunteers."
James nodded without saying more, and made his way to the front of the bus.