One hour ago.
While Magical Girl Grey Moon and Zhou Huanan were within the city, Grey Moon’s obedience points had just begun to rise from zero. Her ingrained submission to Zhou Huanan was entering its next, more profound phase.
Suddenly, Magical Girl Violet appeared in the very heart of the city.
At first glance, she wore a half-mask of twisted metal. Her clothes were tattered, and her feet, clad only in torn black stockings, trod directly on the concrete road.
A bus, unable to swerve in time, crashed into her.
This was the beginning of everything.
“What happened?”
The bus’s yellow hazard lights flashed erratically.
As pedestrians on the sidewalk began to take notice, drivers on the road pulled over, one after another, to investigate.
A collective expression of confusion and bewilderment spread across their faces.
The front of the bus was caved in as if it had struck a utility pole. Yet, there was no utility pole to be found on the wide road.
The crowd, slowly gathering, didn’t dwell on the anomaly. They spontaneously converged around the bus, intent on rescuing the trapped citizens.
****
Meanwhile, directly across the street from the incident.
Inside a large bank, which outwardly appeared entirely normal, Banjao combatants were engaged in a silent robbery. One of the team members, hearing the commotion, peered through the blinds and was utterly dumbfounded by the sight outside.
As they began to deliberate whether to continue and what their next move should be, their commanding captain immediately declared they would call for backup from their base.
The distress call and rescue codes were successfully transmitted. Inside the bank, all the Banjao combatants let out a collective sigh of relief.
But it was at this very moment.
They heard it: a sinister chuckle, echoing from the ceiling above.
Instantly, every combatant tightened their grip on their weapons, their expressions drawn taut with tension. They stared at Magical Girl Violet, who had materialized inside the bank, hovering in mid-air.
The Magical Girl before them was clearly not right.
Any sane person could see that.
Her face was obscured by a bizarre, twisted metal mask, its overall style jarringly out of place.
Behind her, her ceremonial dress hung in tattered shreds, appearing poorly stored and utterly decayed.
She was a Magical Girl, born from love and justice, yet Violet now stood with disheveled hair, her eyes fixed on the Banjao combatants with an intensely dangerous gaze.
“Banjao. All of them must be killed,” the girl declared. Her voice was hollow and chilling, like that of a phantom.
“Wait, wait!”
The Banjao team captain, leading his men, immediately raised his hands in surrender, stating they were only after money, not lives.
But Violet offered them no chance to surrender.
With a swift grab of her hand in the air.
Countless Banjao combatants clutched their throats, arching backward with agonizing groans. Inside the bank, the bound hostages, lying prone on the floor, were so terrified that tears streamed from their eyes.
Had the Banjao not gagged them with tape beforehand, many citizens would undoubtedly have screamed at the sight.
Soon.
The grey-clad combatants collapsed to the ground. Gradually, even their spasms ceased, and they breathed their last.
Magical Girl Violet observed the last struggling captain, wondering why he hadn’t succumbed. She reached out and removed his hood.
Beneath it was the face of a middle-aged man with greying hair. He seemed poised to speak, but the instant his hood was removed, his skin began to wrinkle, age, and turn brown at a visible rate.
His hair fell out, his eyes bulged, and within moments, he shriveled into a desiccated corpse.
Violet released her grip, leaving only a skeletal frame collapsing to the floor.
Silence.
A suffocating silence descended upon the bank.
Countless hostages, sprawled on the floor, gazed at this terrifying Magical Girl. They genuinely felt that the Banjao combatants had been far more reassuring.
Yet, even after slaughtering all the Banjao combatants, Magical Girl Violet remained standing in the center of the bank, making no move to leave.
If she had simply stood still, like a statue, others, though terrified, might have found it somewhat tolerable.
However, Violet’s body would periodically twist and convulse: her neck, shoulders, and even her thigh bones would jerk unnaturally, like a vengeful ghost from a horror film.
This gruesome spectacle was only amplified by her current attire and the numerous corpses littering the floor.
She continued to mutter softly.
“Banjao? They must be killed.”
In the deathly silent hall, where a pin drop would echo, a faint whimper broke through.
It was a little girl, nestled in her mother’s arms, terrified by the Magical Girl before them.
Violet heard it, and her brows furrowed in displeasure.
To the countless bound hostages lying on the floor, their lives already in peril, the little girl’s sobbing seemed like a mournful dirge, leading everyone in the hall towards the underworld.
These good citizens had never witnessed such a horrifying scene. Some quietly lost control of their bladders, and the acrid scent of urine in the air further displeased Violet, causing her body’s spasms to intensify.
Just as she was on the verge of erupting, no hero arrived to save them.
Only the bank manager, steeling his nerves, stepped forward.
He was a man with small, round-rimmed glasses, utterly devoid of muscle, and looked unreliable from every angle.
Everyone prone on the floor could see his legs trembling.
“Thank you so, so much, Magical Girl! You drove away the evil Banjao and saved us!”
His loud praises for Magical Girl Violet, however, perfectly masked the sound of the little girl’s sobs.
A faint smile gradually began to form on Violet’s lips.
Everyone in the hall collectively breathed a sigh of relief.
At that moment, the Banjao reinforcements Violet had been awaiting arrived. They disembarked from a black van outside, grabbed their weapons, and rushed to the scene.
These Banjao combatants, risking their very lives, managed to lure Magical Girl Violet out of the bank.
Inside the bank, the masses lying on the floor regarded them as truly heroic.
“It’s a Magical Girl!”
“Magical Girl Violet! She’s reappeared! She’s eradicating the evil organization!”
Violet emerged from the bank. Initially, passing onlookers were incredibly excited, gathering by the roadside to film her with their phones. However, their excitement quickly turned to horror when they witnessed Violet’s utterly brutal methods of killing the Banjao combatants.
A group of high school students, just released from school, screamed and fled.
That scream drew the attention of hundreds of good citizens who were assisting with the bus rescue, towards the bank. At this point, at least three to four hundred innocent citizens were clustered around Violet.
“They must all be killed—”
Just as Violet raised her hand, preparing to unleash her power upon the innocent crowd, thousands of paper cranes descended from the sky, radiating a vibrant green magical energy.
They swirled around each citizen like a dream.
“Hm?”
Violet froze, bewildered. She had clearly activated her ability, yet it had no effect.
The next second.
Emerald Magical Girl descended from the sky, her expression fraught with tension. Vigorously twirling her gohei, she hastily positioned herself in front of Violet, then turned to shout at the countless stunned citizens near the bus.
“Run!”
“It’s Emerald Magical Girl!”
“Wonderful! We’re saved—”
Inside the bank, everyone watched Emerald Magical Girl descend like a hero. They cheered wildly, offering fervent thanks to the righteous Magical Girl.
Inside the bank, the cheering quickly died.
Emerald Magical Girl was constantly on the defensive, unable to mount any counterattack.
Yet, she could not retreat. Behind her, injured individuals remained trapped in the bus, and even more people faced danger as they continued rescue efforts.
To protect everyone, her only choice was to endure the assault.
The situation was gravely disadvantageous for the Magical Girl.
But despite these overwhelming odds, Emerald Magical Girl held Violet at bay for a full hour.
For an entire hour, she stood before the bus, unilaterally enduring Violet’s furious onslaught. By the time the last elderly woman was rescued from the bus, no one in the bank could bear to look at Emerald Magical Girl any longer.
By then, Emerald Magical Girl’s entire body… even though she had been continuously healing herself, there wasn’t a single spot on her that wasn’t utterly ravaged.
Yet, she still stood, swaying precariously, on the verge of collapsing at any moment.
“Emerald Magical Girl has fallen! What do we do now?”
The crowd inside the bank grew restless once more.
Just as the bank manager attempted to calm the agitated crowd, the little girl who had been holding her mother’s hand bravely stepped forward and told everyone not to be afraid.
Everyone turned to look at the little girl, who was on the verge of tears.
In her arms, she clutched a Magical Girl Grey Moon figurine, sporting the latest hairstyle. Though it was a small, inanimate trinket, merely seeing that familiar silhouette genuinely brought a wave of calm and relief to countless people.
“Magical Girl Grey Moon will come to save everyone!”
The little girl in the bank, her voice soft and childish, spoke these words, but her next statement was tinged with embarrassment.
“It’s just that my favorite hero… she likes to be a little late.”
A ripple of laughter spread through the bank. The embarrassed little girl, her head bowed, was utterly adorable, and her words brought immense relief to everyone.
‘Indeed.’
Everyone in the bank felt their worries ease, thinking to themselves, ‘Magical Girl Grey Moon, powerful as she is, merely has a fondness for being late, but—’
The little girl, with an air of absolute certainty, finished their unspoken thoughts.
“But she will definitely come!”
“Magical Girl Grey Moon will definitely come!”