In the nocturnal city, two figures, one clad in black and the other in blue, stood poised atop a towering skyscraper.
“An’an… are you truly no longer attending school?”
“Yes, I’m not.”
Qi Yue’an nodded, her gaze firm and unapologetic as she met Xiyin’s eyes. Some time had passed since her return from her hometown, and while she had found a new, unconventional job, she hadn’t set foot in school for many days now.
“As long as I avoid anything related to school, my presence there exists in a superposition of being both dead and alive. This means I can never truly be disciplined.”
She tilted her head back, seemingly without an ounce of regret regarding her decision.
Xiyin, however, appeared utterly perplexed by this. Her aspirations diverged from Qi Yue’an’s, and consequently, no new identity had materialized for her. In the eyes of the law and the memories of others, her original self had tragically perished.
Her current identity card had been meticulously reissued through official police channels, citing an overlooked rural population entry as the reason. Prior to successfully acquiring it, she had even been an unregistered individual, making any attempt at schooling utterly impossible.
“While I do support your choices, to stop attending school at such a young age is truly…”
“Xiyin… legally, I am older than you.”
From her doll-like, exquisite face, her silver eyes gazed up at Xiyin with an air of innocent mischief.
“Therefore, Xiyin is the naughty child who stopped attending school at a tender age.”
Qi Yue’an’s words struck a critical blow, leaving Xiyin momentarily stunned. Catching a glimpse of the faint smile playing on Qi Yue’an’s lips, Xiyin merely pressed a hand to her forehead.
“Oh, this Sword Princess.”
Following this brief interlude, they officially commenced the true business of the day.
This marked their first formal joint operation. For several preceding days, they had focused on acclimating to each other’s abilities, ensuring they were thoroughly prepared for any eventuality.
Through their earlier discussions, they had learned that upon completing their full transformation, Magical Girls would gain absolute mastery over their existing powers and acquire a unique ‘Trait’.
Xiyin had, by now, largely deciphered her own ‘Trait’.
In combat, if her spear or magic orbs inflicted damage upon an enemy—whether it was Qi Yue’an during their sparring sessions or a common demon—it would dramatically accelerate her mana recovery. A successful kill would replenish even more of her magical energy.
While a Magical Girl’s physical body possessed formidable regenerative capabilities, both healing and action consumed mana. Prior to full transformation, mana would rapidly regenerate by absorbing ambient energy. However, once the transformation was complete, a Magical Girl’s ability to recover mana would significantly diminish.
“From now on, try to stay behind me. After all, I am stronger.”
Xiyin declared this with an air of undeniable confidence, yet Qi Yue’an understood the unspoken implication: Xiyin was capable of protecting her.
Subsequently, they tested Qi Yue’an’s ‘Trait’, though nothing overtly distinct emerged. Nonetheless, Qi Yue’an had certainly seen improvements. She could now freely imbue her sword with an ominous purple flame, and as the flames intensified, the sword itself would expand in size.
****
Returning to the present, Qi Yue’an and Xiyin traversed the nocturnal streets, their senses keenly searching for the peculiar sensation that signified the presence of demons.
“An’an,” Xiyin began abruptly, “according to that black cat, a Magical Girl’s mission after full transformation is to continuously hunt demons and replenish their mana using the demons’ cores.”
Xiyin raised the subject quite suddenly, almost out of the blue.
“Yes, I know,” Qi Yue’an replied, her voice even. “It appeared on my tombstone and told me this, likely when I last stood before my own grave back in my hometown.”
Qi Yue’an remained vigilant of her surroundings, answering the question almost as an afterthought.
“You mentioned earlier that the strange, intelligent demon bore a striking resemblance to a childhood friend of yours, implying that demons might once have been human. If so, how do these demons come into being, and what power sustains them? And what exactly are Magical Girls, who are destined to perpetually ‘prey’ upon them?”
This line of questioning sent a shiver down Qi Yue’an’s spine. Until now, having only battled irrational and grotesque demons, she hadn’t given it much thought. Yet, the sudden realization of the eerie, even terrifying, implications struck her with full force.
“Perhaps I was mistaken,” Qi Yue’an mused, feigning nonchalance. “He is, after all, dead. Maybe, like in some twisted fairy tale, they are born from negative emotions? The black cat seeks us out to absorb used demon cores… I suppose its purpose is to cleanse the world of those runaway demons?”
Qi Yue’an answered with a deliberate lightness, hoping to dispel Xiyin’s suspicions. She harbored a premonition that the truth lurking behind all of this was far from a pleasant fairy tale, but she refused to allow Xiyin’s potential hesitation to lead to the kind of detrimental outcomes often seen in novels where mercy proves costly.
She had never considered herself particularly kind-hearted, and the countless instances where demons had aggressively targeted her proved that even the irrational individuals among these monsters were far from benevolent.
“An’an, stop,” Xiyin commanded, her voice hushed. “I sense a demon nearby.”
Xiyin halted Qi Yue’an, who had been on the verge of investigating further. A blue gem on Xiyin’s person shimmered, and a blue spear with a snow-silver blade materialized in her hand. Qi Yue’an, in turn, infused power into her small sword, which then became wreathed in purple flames.
Before them lay the entrance to an underground parking garage. Long, descending steps vanished into the depths, and for some inexplicable reason, the sound-activated lights above had ceased to function.
They descended the steps with utmost caution, their footsteps echoing with unsettling clarity in the vast, silent expanse.
Their only guide was the eerie, phosphorescent green ‘Exit’ sign on the wall, flickering in the distance like a will-o’-the-wisp.
After what felt like an eternity, they finally pushed open a heavy fire door.
The sight beyond the door instantly stole their breath.
What confronted them was no ordinary parking lot, but a gargantuan, boundless space, drenched in dim yellow light and choked with an endless array of concrete pillars.
The air hung heavy with the scent of dust and motor oil, mingling with a faint, nauseatingly sweet stench of decay.
Countless identical yellow pipes and wires snaked chaotically across the ceiling, stretching to the limits of their vision, emitting a low, continuous hum.
This place… it felt less like the interior of a massive building and more like… another plane of existence entirely.
Even more alarming were the colossal claw marks and impact craters scarring the ground. Several concrete pillars lay visibly fractured, their twisted rebar exposed, clearly indicating that a fierce battle had either just concluded or was currently underway.
“Screeeech—!”
Suddenly, a series of bloodcurdling shrieks erupted from all directions! Within the encroaching shadows, countless pairs of tiny, crimson eyes gleamed, and in the next instant, abnormally large rats, their fur matted with filth and their teeth razor-sharp, surged forth like a monstrous tide!
“Watch out!”
Xiyin cried out, her spear a blur as it instantly swept several pouncing giant rats into the air, its tip carving a chilling arc of light through the gloom.
Concurrently, several blue orbs, resembling dancing musical notes, materialized behind her. Accompanied by an unseen melody, they shot forth, erupting into the heart of the rat horde.
Qi Yue’an likewise brandished her sword, meeting the enemy with immediate ferocity. Purplish-black flames of envy coiled around the blade, surging with each swing. Every cleaving strike unleashed a swath of contorted fire, and the giant rats it touched were not only rent apart but also shrieked in agonizing torment, as if their very souls were being seared and corroded by the arcane blaze. In that moment, Qi Yue’an appeared more like a villain than a hero.
At that precise moment, however, the entire space began to tremor violently!
“Rumble!!”
A section of the ceiling beside them abruptly collapsed without warning. Massive chunks of concrete, intertwined with electrical wires and pipes, crashed down, forcing both girls to leap backward, narrowly evading the falling debris.
“It must be this way!”
Xiyin’s gaze sharpened, catching sight of a distinctive door in the distance—a glass door adorned with colorful light strips, resembling an entrance to a bustling shopping mall. It stood out as particularly jarring and incongruous amidst the dim yellow chaos.
As they battled the relentless tide of rats, the two girls struggled to make their way toward that door.
The ground periodically collapsed, forcing them to constantly alter their path, as if the colossal parking garage itself were a living, malevolent trap.
Finally, they surged forward, reaching the glass door that shimmered with colorful light.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Xiyin pried open the slightly ajar door with the tip of her spear.
The scene beyond the door, however, made both girls gasp sharply.
It was no shopping mall at all, but a monstrous, damp, and utterly filthy nest! At its heart, a colossal and spine-chilling figure was coiled—a “girl” clad in a tattered, stained white gown. Yet, her form was grotesquely immense and malformed, her limbs and torso twisted and stitched together like a shoddy plastic doll, her skin possessing an unnatural, deathly white, plastic sheen.
Her ‘body’ was riddled with gaping holes, as if crudely torn open like plastic packaging, and from these ruptures, countless filthy giant rats continuously crawled out, swarming in every direction! Her face, devoid of features, was merely a smooth, blank expanse, yet it emanated an overwhelming aura of malevolence and madness.
Within this very nest, two other Magical Girls were already locked in a desperate struggle. One girl sported pure white twin-tails and crimson eyes that glowed like fresh blood, an appearance akin to a vampire. Despite this, she wore a set of meticulously crafted, silver-and-white medieval knight’s light armor and wielded a broad-bladed greatsword almost as tall as herself.
She fought valiantly, fending off the rat tide and the sporadically collapsing ground. Her movements were steady, each parry astonishingly solid, much like an arrogant monarch capable of repelling any assault.
The other girl stood at a slightly more distant and relatively safer position. Her flaxen hair was tied back, and in her hands, she clutched an ancient-looking longbow.
Holding her breath, she focused intently as brilliant light coalesced on her bowstring. With each release, a meteor-like arrow of light tore through the air, streaking with terrifying speed and power toward the colossal plastic demon, erupting into massive wounds on its body and temporarily stemming the flow of rats.
Evidently, however, they were at a disadvantage. While the knight-girl’s defense was formidable, she was showing clear signs of fatigue under the relentless assault of the rat tide and the constantly shifting terrain, her movements growing sluggish.
The archer’s powerful attacks, too, seemed incapable of truly crippling the demon, and she, in turn, appeared somewhat weary from the immense drain on her mana.
Qi Yue’an hesitated, debating whether to rush to their aid immediately, but Xiyin had already made her decision first.