Ran Jiuyi’s Past

The past Meng Shan recounted left Ran Jiu’yi in silence. She knew this man carried heavy burdens, but she hadn’t expected them to be this crushing.

“Did you never try to fight back? For instance, like…” Ran Jiu’yi made a slicing motion across her throat.

“We tried. But after killing just a few, we gave up.”

“Why? The mastermind couldn’t have been a superhuman, right? Based on how you handled Ken today, if your teammates were on your level, just three of you could have taken down an augmented werewolf without a scratch.”

Meng Shan laughed—a laugh directed at her naivety. “If it were a superhuman, it would have been easier. We could have used that explosive news to tear their whole organization down. But life rarely goes as planned.”

“Let me ask you,” Meng Shan continued, “from issuing the order, to making the deal with Fudana, to killing Wyatt and the General, to ordering the MPs to arrest us—how many people do you think it took to execute all that?”

“Uh…” Her silence was her answer.

“I’ll ask an even simpler one: how many people in the highest tier of this country’s leadership do you think were involved?”

“…Two or three?”

“Wrong. Almost all of them.” Meng Shan said wistfully. “That was the intel we got after we killed a few people. In other words, if we wanted revenge, we’d have to wipe out the entire ruling class of the nation.”

“Even after learning that, we didn’t want to give up at first. Compared to our dead comrades, what was a country worth? But the state caught wind of our movements, found us, and offered a deal.”

“What kind of deal?”

“The highest-level martyr benefits for the families of our fallen teammates, in exchange for dropping everything. They were blunt: the people we killed were ‘insignificant nobodies,’ so the high command didn’t care. They only spared us because we still had prestige in the military and they didn’t want things to get too tense.”

“Bullshit. They used us to tie up loose ends—cleaning up everyone else who directly executed the plot, then pinning the blame on us and the dead guys so they could walk away clean.”

“’Nobodies!’ Some of the people we killed were high-ranking officials, and they were still considered ‘nobodies.’ I suppose the entire Warrior Squad was just a collection of nobodies to be sacrificed at their whim.”

Meng Shan let out a soft chuckle, mocking himself and his country. “And that was the nation I fought for. The one my comrades died for.”

After a long pause, Ran Jiu’yi asked, “Then why stay? You have money and skill; you could have escaped.”

“My teammates said the exact same thing.” Meng Shan grabbed a beer and took a long swig. “After the deal, they took their money and fled abroad. They begged me to go. But why did I stay? Because of those three troublesome Magical Girls, of course.”

“Compared to Wyatt, they are lazy, slow, and don’t know how to study. They are green and foolish in every way. But I don’t know why—the moment I saw them, I thought of Wyatt. I thought of my dead friends. Every night, I wonder: if I hadn’t been so hostile to Wyatt, if I hadn’t betrayed him, would things have ended differently?”

“…Are you seeking atonement?” Ran Jiu’yi asked suddenly.

“Yeah. Atonement. That’s probably it.” Meng Shan squeezed out a bitter smile. “Helping them secure a bright future is likely my only path to redemption. I’ve done enough wrong; I need to do something good to feel human again.”

“Speaking of which, I owe you an apology. I lost my temper today because whenever the girls’ safety is involved, I lose control. I’m just… I’m so terrified of seeing someone I care about die in front of me again.”

Ran Jiu’yi didn’t know what to say. Was he “getting what he deserved”? No, he had given too much to this country. Should she curse the state for betraying him? Not quite; he had admitted to his own share of darkness.

Seeing her hesitation, Meng Shan shifted the focus. “Want to tell your story? I know the stuff in your file isn’t the truth either.”

“…My story? I’m not really in the mood.”

“Come on, it can’t be worse than mine. The way you treated Xiao An and the way you tested the girls today… that clearly comes from your past.”

“…Fine, you got me.” Ran Jiu’yi sighed. “I’ll tell you. But it’s a pretty terrible story, too.”

Six years ago, an eighteen-year-old Ran Jiu’yi woke up and went to the bathroom to wash up. She expected a day like any other, but was shocked to find a complete stranger staring back at her in the mirror.

Her first reaction was shock; her second was delight. Why? Because the person in the mirror was breathtakingly beautiful. Compared to her old self, it was like night and day.

Ran Jiu’yi had never known her parents. Raised in an orphanage, she ran away at fifteen and lived a drifting life. After three years of hardship, she had finally found a stable delivery job and a tiny rented room. But life was still a struggle; rent ate up almost everything, leaving her just enough to not starve.

So, when she realized she possessed this stunning body, her first thought was: I can make a lot of money with this.

But the surprises didn’t end there. Once she calmed down, she felt a mysterious power surging within her. Out of curiosity, she tried to summon it. In an instant, armguards, a spiked pauldron, and a sleek, evening-gown-like battle suit materialized on her body. More importantly, her physical strength had skyrocketed. A table she couldn’t move with both hands could now be lifted with one.

Feeling this overflowing power and remembering eighteen years of poverty, a thought flashed through her mind: Why not use this power to get some quick cash?

And then, she got arrested.

“Wait,” Meng Shan interrupted, dissatisfied. “What about the process? You’re just skipping to the arrest? How did you get caught?”

Ran Jiu’yi rubbed her hair awkwardly. “The process? It’s a bit embarrassing. You really want to hear it?”

“Of course.”

“Fine. I decided the fastest way to get money was robbery. Because of where I lived, I knew plenty of people involved in ‘grey’ dealings. I picked a guy who looked rich and shadowed him for a few days. Finally, I caught him during a deal. What I didn’t expect was that the police were staking him out too.”

“I had just knocked the guy out when the cops showed up. Seeing the guns, I lost my nerve and bolted.”

Meng Shan frowned. “Even if you were a rookie Magical Girl, you shouldn’t have been caught by regular police.”

“The police didn’t catch me,” she agreed. “They wouldn’t even fire because I wasn’t armed. But I had the worst luck. A government-registered superhuman was patrolling nearby. He caught me.”

“However, because my target was a mobster and the police couldn’t find any record of my identity, they couldn’t link me to anything. The mobster said he didn’t know me, either. Plus, the superhuman who caught me heard my story, did some digging, and somehow decided I was a ‘vigilante’ acting out of justice. He vouched for me. So, instead of a felony, I only got two weeks for disturbing public peace.”

“I don’t know if your luck is good or bad,” Meng Shan commented.

“Neither do I,” she sighed. “I still don’t know if becoming a Magical Girl was a blessing or a curse.”

Because she was cooperative in custody and her non-transformed appearance looked fragile and “innocent,” she was held in a standard cell rather than a high-security superhuman unit. For most, jail is hell. For Ran Jiu’yi, it was the first real vacation she’d had in three years. Free food, a bed, and peace. She enjoyed it so much she actually considered starting a fight just to stay a few more days.

But before she could, someone came for her.

The visitor wore a striking miko outfit, had a sweet face, iconic fox ears, and crimson hair. Ran Jiu’yi recognized her instantly—it was the superhuman who had caught her.

“Hello, unknown miss. My name is Suzuki Tetsuya. I apologize for using violence that night. I was wondering… would you like to join my squad, become a hero, and protect this city with me?”

At sixteen, Suzuki Tetsuya clearly lacked negotiation skills. She just gave a cliché “hero speech” without even explaining what the job entailed.

“Is the pay good?” Ran Jiu’yi asked.

“Pretty good. A few tens of thousands on a slow month, over a hundred thousand when it’s busy.”

Ran Jiu’yi was so broke she agreed on the spot. A beaming Suzuki processed a new identity for her, bailed her out, and signed the contract that day, turning her from a prisoner into a “Contracted Superhuman.”

Since the new identity had no name, Suzuki took the liberty of naming her Ran Jiu’yi.

That was the day she became the first member of the “Nine-Tailed Fox Squad,” a local government unit founded by Suzuki Tetsuya to fight illegal superhumans.