Sakura International High School, Class 2-E.
Unohana Ren was not in a particularly good mood today. She listlessly overheard two girls behind her gossiping about Zhou Huanan, the school heartthrob, detailing his handsomeness and his radiant athleticism on the court.
“Hmph…”
Unohana Ren scoffed internally at the two girls’ poor taste. Glancing at Zhou Huanan, who had just entered the classroom, she realized she simply didn’t care for his type. Her gaze then shifted behind him, but today, the person she wished to see was conspicuously absent.
“Hey, hey, don’t you think the little guy who’s always with Zhou Huanan is pretty good too?”
Unohana Ren, hearing the two girls suddenly discuss something that piqued her interest, froze.
“Oh, right, right! I vaguely remember that person. What was their name again?”
“Liu Li!”
Unohana Ren’s eyes lit up. She spun around to join the gossiping girls, who were exclaiming in agreement.
“Don’t you think Liu Li is the really well-behaved type?”
“Yes, exactly! The kind who’d never stray if they liked you. A reassuring type, and cute too~”
“Right? Right~”
Unohana Ren chimed in, biting her lip and nodding vigorously, convinced that their words were absolutely spot-on! There was an undeniable thrill in hearing the person she admired being praised by others.
Unohana Ren happily clenched her fists. In her eyes, Liu Li was in no way inferior to Zhou Huanan, whom he always seemed to follow. Her peripheral vision caught Zhou Huanan engrossed in his phone. At that very moment, Unohana Ren’s own phone vibrated with a text message in her pocket, though she didn’t connect the two occurrences.
Waving goodbye to the two girls, Unohana Ren returned to her seat and stared at the annoying person, saved as “Nineteen,” who was messaging her again.
They actually wanted her to ask Magical Girl Grey Moon out?
‘What kind of joke is this!?’
“No way! You promised you’d make Magical Girl Grey Moon disappear, but she’s perfectly fine, isn’t she? She even got her destined weapon! Our cooperation is over, finished!”
“Oh.”
Zhou Huanan murmured softly, his eyes on his phone. He’d noticed Unohana Ren in front, gritting her teeth and typing furiously on her own device, but it hadn’t occurred to him that *she* was his chat partner. Zhou Huanan wasn’t particularly concerned about Scarlet Magical Girl’s response.
“Are you sure? Don’t forget, I’ve saved all our chat logs. If I handed them to the media, and the whole world found out that Scarlet Magical Girl conspired with Banjao to make Magical Girl Grey Moon disappear…”
Zhou Huanan continued typing:
“Never mind that. Your two teammates aren’t aware, are they? Just imagine what Glimmering Yellow Magical Girl and Emerald Magical Girl would do if they found out about your treacherous actions.”
“Damn you!!”
Unohana Ren abruptly shouted in the classroom. Zhou Huanan, thinking ‘girls are always so noisy,’ leaned back confidently in his chair, closed his eyes, and rested.
****
A long silence followed. Only much later did a message from Scarlet Magical Girl arrive. Zhou Huanan opened one eye, observing her feeble resistance, and sneered dismissively. He continued to use manipulative words, pushing her to the edge of a cliff, until finally, Unohana Ren, deflated, threw up her hands in surrender on her desk, reluctantly asking in the message bar what exactly she was supposed to do.
“It’s quite simple,” Zhou Huanan told Scarlet Magical Girl:
“Tonight at eight, Banjao will deliberately attack the Golden Maiden Cinema. You wait for Magical Girl Grey Moon to arrive, then follow her, pretend to apologize, and then offer to treat her to something. Try to see if you can glimpse her true form and just send me a photo of her face.”
Zhou Huanan watched as she replied with a “1,” chuckled, and thought, ‘Ignorant girls are so easy to manipulate.’
He put down his phone, hearing the classroom door slide open. It was Liu Li, wearing the black mask he’d given her that day. Zhou Huanan, pleased, greeted her casually.
“Morning.”
“Mm…!” Liu Li seemed flustered, looking at Zhou Huanan with intense guilt. She nodded hastily, mumbled a “good,” and timidly sat down in her seat.
Zhou Huanan found this a bit odd; Liu Li seemed somewhat distant from him today. There was nothing for it, though. Every time Liu Li saw Zhou Huanan today, her heart screamed, her legs turned to jelly, and she became utterly flustered. She abruptly slumped onto her desk, her head practically steaming.
‘I actually, I actually did it yesterday in a moment of madness!!’
Liu Li’s face, hidden beneath her black mask and buried in her arms, was hot enough to boil water.
‘Wuwu…’
‘He, he didn’t notice, did he…’
She furtively peeked from behind her elbow to gauge Zhou Huanan’s expression, only to find him looking over with a face full of curious bewilderment. Startled, Liu Li quickly pulled her gaze back.
It was a long while before she dared to look at Zhou Huanan again, finding him still wearing an expression of utter incomprehension. Only then did Liu Li breathe a slight sigh of relief, confirming he hadn’t discovered what happened last night. Yet, at the same time, a sense of disappointment and vexation welled within her.
“Don’t you think Liu Li has become even cuter?”
“Yeah, yeah, I want to get closer to her!”
The two gossiping girls in the class, who had originally been discussing Liu Li, whispered conspiratorially to each other until their mature homeroom teacher arrived, at which point they fell silent. Liu Li remained slumped on her desk, having heard nothing of what the teacher taught that day, her mind completely consumed by the events of yesterday.
It wasn’t until after school that afternoon that Zhou Huanan, looking concerned, approached her.
“You seem a little out of it today…”
“Ah, ah, that…”
Liu Li, seeing Zhou Huanan, suddenly sprang up, then quickly averted her gaze from his face. She felt an overwhelming sense of embarrassment and indebtedness whenever she looked at him.
‘Sorry, I was so horny yesterday that I accidentally snuck into your room at night. Even though you don’t know, please forgive me…’
‘Guh—’
‘How could I possibly say something like that!!!’
Liu Li, mortified, wanted to jump from the fourth floor. In a panic, she slung on her backpack, which she hadn’t even opened that day, sprang from her chair, bowed to Zhou Huanan, and fled.
“Um! I have something to do, so I’m leaving now—”
“Oh, oh…”
Zhou Huanan was bewildered, watching Liu Li clearly avoid him. He pondered what he could have done wrong.
‘Was it really wrong to just grope her chest yesterday?’
Zhou Huanan shook his head, a troubled expression on his face, then dejectedly packed his things and checked the time on his phone. ‘Since there’s nothing else, I’ll report to the cinema area first.’
Zhou Huanan stood and slung on his backpack. Simultaneously, Unohana Ren also rose, hastily bidding farewell to her class president and others. The two exited the classroom at the same time, walked down the stairwell together, left the school gates, and even sat one behind the other on the bus. However, at dismissal time, having classmates nearby was hardly unusual, so neither of them paid it any mind, both scrolling through their phones in sync. When the bus reached its stop, both of their heads moved forward due to inertia. They then disembarked in tandem, one after the other, arriving at the station. Zhou Huanan was to rendezvous with Banjao’s people, while Unohana Ren intended to find a milk tea shop and await Banjao’s attack. It was then that their paths diverged.
****
Time flowed on. Under Captain Six’s urging, Zhou Huanan donned a grey combat uniform. Meanwhile, Unohana Ren sat in a shop across the street, watching countless combatants pour into the Golden Maiden Cinema nearby. She picked up her milkshake and took another frustrated sip.
“Look, look! It’s Magical Girl Grey Moon!!”
The milk tea shop where Unohana Ren was sitting erupted in commotion. Countless youths, both male and female, gathered in front of the shop, snapping photos of Magical Girl Grey Moon. Unohana Ren unhappily watched so many people around her adoring Magical Girl Grey Moon. She scoffed, slammed her milkshake to the ground, and used the ensuing chaos as an excuse to slip into the shop’s restroom.
****
Magical Girl Grey Moon successfully resolved today’s crisis; indeed, the moment she appeared, Banjao’s combatants were so intimidated that they retreated without a fight.
‘So easy today?’
As Grey Moon coolly mused this, intending to return and continue pondering how to secretly apologize to Zhou Huanan, Scarlet Magical Girl arrived before her, trailing red streaks of light.
Magical Girl Grey Moon raised an eyebrow.
‘Come to provoke me again?’
Unwilling to engage, Magical Girl Grey Moon simply soared into the air. Scarlet Magical Girl, just about to utter her pre-rehearsed lines, grew anxious upon seeing Magical Girl Grey Moon deny her the opportunity.
“Wait, just wait a moment! But… ugh, Magical Girl Grey Moon!!”
Scarlet Magical Girl poured her magic into following closely behind Grey Moon. Grey Moon twisted and turned, and seeing that she couldn’t easily shake off the persistent annoyance, she sighed and descended by an isolated riverbank. Grey Moon’s pure white high heels pressed into the grass. She looked up, her crimson eyes fixed on Scarlet Magical Girl, who was panting as she caught up.
“Speak. What do you want?”
“I’m sorry!!”
‘I thought she was here to cause trouble…’
But to Magical Girl Grey Moon’s surprise, Scarlet Magical Girl directly bowed ninety degrees before her, shouting her apology, then confessed her sins as if genuinely remorseful. Grey Moon stared at Scarlet Magical Girl’s performance, somewhat bewildered and at a loss, until she saw Scarlet Magical Girl grit her teeth and deactivate her transformation, reverting to her classmate, Unohana Ren.
Magical Girl Grey Moon was suddenly overcome with a surreal sensation.
‘Scarlet Magical Girl was my classmate all along!?’
It was like discovering a celebrity had been secretly hiding right beside her.
“Please! I absolutely must atone. How about we go sing karaoke later!? Please, just give me one chance!!”
Unohana Ren lowered her head even further, her eyes fixed intently on Magical Girl Grey Moon’s small, elegant high heels. In her hand, she tightly clutched her phone, which had the camera app already open. She watched as those high heels, with a flash, transformed back into somewhat familiar school shoes.
Unohana Ren’s eyes narrowed to pinpricks, and she inwardly cackled with dark amusement, relishing in mocking Grey Moon’s naivety.
‘Hahaha, hahaha~ Ahahaha!!’
‘Naive, so naive!!’
‘Once I photograph your face and send it to Banjao, Magical Girl Grey Moon will just vanish completely, go to hell!!’
Unohana Ren pulled her phone from her pocket, but as she stood up and raised her head, seeing the familiar face that appeared in her line of sight, her phone slipped from her grasp and fell onto the grass. Unohana Ren stared at Liu Li, who was standing directly opposite her. She couldn’t help but let out a sharp cry, the most bewildered sound she had ever made in her life.
“Eh?”