The morning light, a soft, ethereal gleam, slanted across the iridescent glazed tiles of Qinghe High School.
On the rooftop of the teaching building, Xia Naxin leaned against the iron railing, her phone screen flickered erratically beneath her fingertips.
Within the chat window, labeled ‘Sweet Little Girlfriend Silvia’—
Thirty-seven missed calls over two days pricked at her like icy needles, piercing her, leaving her eyes burning with unshed tears.
“Ugh, why aren’t you answering my calls? Feeling frisky again, are we? Next time, I swear I’ll drag you to a hotel and have my way with you ♥…”
She turned, kicking aside an empty soda can near her feet, then lowered her gaze to her wrist, realizing that morning class was about to commence.
****
Yesterday.
Xia Naxin had also visited Silvia’s courtyard.
At that time, Lina was curled up on the windowsill, utterly absorbed in a novel.
Xia Naxin simply inquired about Silvia’s whereabouts.
Lina replied, “She left yesterday afternoon… and hasn’t returned since…”
****
At this moment, her phone remained eerily dormant, not even the faint blue tick of a read message appearing.
*Ding-a-ling-ling—*
The sudden ringing of the class bell startled a flock of white doves into flight.
Xia Naxin reluctantly tucked her phone into her jacket pocket. As she turned, her shoes crunched over a scattering of cigarette butts.
Just as her hand reached for the stair railing, the sharp, rhythmic tap of high heels echoed from behind her.
Xia Naxin glanced back.
Ling Qinghe leaned against the doorframe, idly twirling a fountain pen between her fingers, while behind her, the morning mist swirled and billowed.
“Such a rush?”
A faint smirk played on her lips, and a chilling glint briefly caught the light in her gold-rimmed glasses.
“What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be teaching…?”
“Rest assured, I have my own arrangements. As for you… what, you don’t want to hear where your ‘little girlfriend’ has gone?”
As she spoke, a crumpled paper ball, imbued with surprising force, hurtled towards Xia Naxin.
Xia Naxin raised a hand to catch it, feeling perplexed, but seeing Ling Qinghe’s expectant expression, she unfolded the crumpled paper.
The next moment, the four stark characters ‘Zhennan Yibai’ immediately seized her attention, the ink still glistening, not yet dry.
“What does this mean?”
Xia Naxin’s voice quavered, her brow deeply furrowed.
“Isn’t it Zhennu Yibai?”
In response, however, came Ling Qinghe’s laughter:
“It’s literal…”
She suddenly leaned closer, her warm breath ghosted across Xia Naxin’s ear.
“That Supreme Magical Girl Zhennu Yibai, who always batted her innocent eyes, acted coquettishly, and demanded hugs from you in private…”
Her words paused.
Ling Qinghe gently lifted a strand of Xia Naxin’s hair.
“From beginning to end, was always a man.”
****
Nine o’clock in the morning, Tanhua City Prison.
Xia Naxin’s soul form, imbued with a profound melancholy, drifted soundlessly through the corridors like a translucent mist, effortlessly phasing through solid walls, utterly unhindered by barriers or enchantments.
Xia Naxin ‘did not exist’ in reality; she was currently a soul form from the inner world, projected into reality.
Consequently, she could disregard all objective matter in the real world…
Indeed, she lacked physical substance, capable of phasing through walls, burrowing underground, or soaring through the air, and even surveillance cameras could not detect her.
Still, she needed to remain cautious.
What if the Magical Girl Association Headquarters had deployed some new black technology reconnaissance equipment? That would spell disaster.
Xia Naxin had seen glasses capable of soul imaging; they were creations ‘similar’ to thermal imaging.
And so.
Following Ling Qinghe’s guidance, Xia Naxin navigated the twisting corridors.
It had to be said, the prison’s structure was exceptionally unique—a veritable labyrinth, resembling a colossal honeycomb.
Periodically, the arrangement of cells would be deliberately randomized, then meticulously re-sequenced.
After a considerable expenditure of time.
Xia Naxin finally detected a distinct, familiar resonance of soul energy!
This was because, two days prior, she had had intimate contact with Silvia’s soul form, and at that time, Xia Naxin herself had been utterly naked during that encounter…
Therefore, the other party still bore the lingering ‘scent’ of her presence.
****
Past her initial confusion.
Xia Naxin paused before a prison door, despite her profound reluctance to confront this ‘truth,’ particularly in light of Ling Qinghe’s earlier pronouncements—
That morning, when Ling Qinghe had stated that Silvia was a man, Xia Naxin had immediately bristled.
She had nearly engaged in a physical altercation with her.
However, Ling Qinghe seemed to have anticipated her reaction, still maintaining that same knowing, expectant gaze.
“Don’t be so impulsive~ Wouldn’t it be better to see for yourself? He’s currently in Tanhua City Prison…”
Moreover, Ling Qinghe had provided her with the approximate route and methods for navigating the ‘honeycomb reassembly and sorting.’
Xia Naxin had infiltrated the prison with uncanny stealth, completely undetected.
****
“Hoo~”
Xia Naxin exhaled, her soul form thrummed with intense nervousness, though such an emotion held no practical significance for an ethereal being.
Passing through the heavy iron door, her pupils constricted sharply, her gaze fixed on the scene before her—
This room… was almost entirely encrusted with magic-nullifying goldstone!
Conservatively, there were over a thousand pieces.
Furthermore, anti-magic chains were intricately coiled, layer upon layer, around a formidable three-meter-tall mechanical capsule, within which elemental insulating fluid ceaselessly circulated.
The magical fluctuations within were almost entirely suppressed, a profound stillness that clearly indicated its design: to prevent the escape of any powerful magical entity.
As Xia Naxin observed this.
She could scarcely perceive even the faintest ripple of elemental magic. This method of confinement… how terrified were they that this prisoner might escape?
Xia Naxin took a few steps forward, peering closer through the observation window—
Inside the mechanical capsule, a silver-haired man lay in a profound, almost death-like slumber.
His pale visage was submerged in the liquid, his hair gently swaying, his sharply defined jawline… a stark, almost unrecognizable contrast to the delicate, feminine curve she recalled from memory.
Upon closer inspection, Xia Naxin, however, staggered back several steps, trembling. Clapping a hand over her mouth, she felt a profound, visceral wave of nausea surge through her.
‘Silvia is really a man?!’
‘There’s no mistake…’
Through the intertwined vision of reality and the inner world, she saw… Silvia’s soul form.
‘Those distinctly male characteristics!’
‘And the sensations, the scent… from under the desk, in the restroom, just two days ago… were they all still there?’
“Impossible… *gag*~”
Xia Naxin wretched in agony, feeling as though her lips… were utterly ‘defiled’!
‘What was this? She had been with a man all this time…’
An unseen, foul miasma seemed to permeate the air, initiating ripples of profound spatial distortion.
This unexpected surge of psionic energy violently tore open a rift between the fabric of reality and the inner world—
Immediately, Silvia was abruptly drawn into the inner world, where he instantly regained consciousness.
He found himself suspended within a shimmering sphere of warm, buoyant water.
The anti-magic capsule that had imprisoned him… had vanished?
Only a familiar, searing pain still throbbed in his lower back; it seemed Ling Qinghe’s treacherous backstab had wounded even his very soul.
But when Silvia’s gaze fell upon Xia Naxin, kneeling on the ground, both hands clamped over her mouth in an obvious display of revulsion—
Silvia, still disoriented, uttered a faint call:
“Naxin……”
A raw, husky male voice escaped Silvia’s throat, startling even himself into rigid stillness.
Memories, sharp and relentless, surged forth like a powerful tide…
‘That’s right.’
‘He… is no longer a woman.’
His own broken voice, Xia Naxin’s evident revulsion before him, every detail… conspired to remind him—the ‘carefully constructed’ ‘lie’ had utterly, irrevocably shattered.
Hearing this.
Xia Naxin reacted as if struck by a profound trauma; for a moment, her very soul form writhed and distorted, a clear testament to the immense shock she had endured.
“Don’t call me that! Liar!”
“You… you lied to me, wuwuwu, you knew you were a man and still… *gag*~ I’m defiled, I’m defiled…”
She shrieked, collapsing to the ground, scrambling backward on all fours, her mind utterly ravaged!
She yearned only to escape the repulsive presence of this man…
‘What ‘little girlfriend’? This is a man!’
“I was actually with a man… *Gag!* I’m defiled!”
Her cries echoed through the inner world, finally coalescing into a panicked, fleeing soul-shadow…
Xia Naxin ran…
“Hey!”
Silvia cried out in alarm, attempting to reach out and detain her, only to discover his own soul form was ensnared by invisible chains.
With Xia Naxin’s hasty retreat, the entirety of the inner world began to dissolve…
****
Back in reality, the anti-magic capsule reappeared.
The harrowing scene from moments prior replayed incessantly within his mind:
Xia Naxin’s disgusted, recoiling figure… and her piercing scream of ‘I’m defiled,’ felt like blunt knives, relentlessly carving into the very core of his heart.
Silvia gazed at his reflection in the observation mirror, a reflection that now felt utterly ‘alien’ even to himself—
His eyes were rimmed with red, a desperate urge to weep consuming him, yet submerged in the fluid, how could tears possibly escape?
‘The Iris Feather Kingdom has no heterosexuals…’
Silvia murmured a self-deprecating thought within his heart, a bitter, twisted smile touching his lips.
He turned his head, pressing his cheek against the cold inner wall of the anti-magic capsule.
Then, he closed his eyes, surrendering himself to the encroaching darkness.
In that moment, he found himself bereft of even the strength to mourn.
Left only with this boundless silence and despair…
……