Reasons to Fight

Magical girls. The most mysterious existence in today’s society.

They come and go without a trace, using wondrous magic to protect cities from Anomaly invasions.

In this era of stagnating civilization, they are pursued, worshipped, and even revered by countless people.

Yet, no one knows where they come from.

Are they residents of a mystical magical kingdom, or visitors from another planet? No one knows the answer.

However, Bai Hai knew very well the true origins of these so-called magical girls—they were just a group of school-aged children, and one of them was his own sister.

Xia Cheng was a magical girl, and she had been active for some time, even having her own stable fan base.

However, Bai Hai didn’t think this was a good thing—she clearly didn’t know the fate that awaited her yet.

So when Bai Hai heard Reina’s question, he answered with almost no hesitation, “Of course.”

Reina didn’t respond immediately.

She just stared at the man before her.

This man had brought her too many surprises and wonders in the past.

Even death itself had failed to take him away.

Finally, after crossing the waves and darkness of the infinite sea, he stood before her once again.

And then he told her he wanted to become a magical girl…

Erm…

“What’s wrong?” Bai Hai asked, seeing Reina just staring at him with a strange expression.

“No, I’m just speechless,” Reina said, honestly sharing her thoughts. “This is just… bizarre. I really don’t understand why you’re doing this.”

“For love and peace?” Bai Hai said tentatively.

But as expected, Reina gave him a roll of her eyes.

It was clear that such a lame reason couldn’t convince her.

“If you don’t believe me, I can make up another one…”

“Knight…” Reina interrupted Bai Hai’s nonsense.

Her voice gradually became serious, and she looked him in the eye. “I can perform the second modification surgery, but I need to know why.”

“Even if it’s for fighting for love and peace, you’ve fought enough. The organization has been destroyed, the great leader is dead at the bottom of the sea, and you paid the price of death… although you didn’t actually die. But in your current state, if you transform one more time, you really will die. In fact, if I hadn’t given you some life energy, you probably wouldn’t have been able to last until now.”

“You’ve already become like this. Why do you still have to fight?”

“Knight, what is your reason for fighting?”

Faced with Reina’s questioning, Bai Hai’s expression didn’t change at all, as if he had already anticipated she would ask him this, and he already had an answer:

“Reina, as my former enemy and current friend, you should know me. My reason for fighting at the beginning was simple: revenge.”

“To this day, my mother still thinks what I encountered was just a simple shipwreck. But in reality, it was an attack launched by the organization to capture human material that could be modified into monsters. And I was one of them. If it weren’t for an accident during the modification surgery that allowed me to escape before being brainwashed, I would be a monster now.”

“My life was completely rewritten that day. I lost my memory, my body was transformed into a non-human monster. As a modified human, I wandered aimlessly through unfamiliar cities. The most tragic thing is that I only found out I had a father by looking through the organization’s files. At that time, the only thing that kept me alive was my hatred for the organization and my desire for revenge.”

“But later, I met many people who were harmed by the organization just like me. The great leader and his army of monsters were a group that only brought pain. If they weren’t eliminated, the tragedy would continue. For the freedom and happiness of humanity, I was determined to destroy the organization myself, and I did it.”

“Yes, you did it. And that’s why we are free,” Reina nodded, but her expression remained serious and puzzled. “Your purpose for fighting has been achieved. Why do you still continue? It’s not necessary.”

“No, it is necessary.” Bai Hai looked up, paused for a few seconds, and then said, “Three months ago, I received a letter. It had no sender’s information but had my name on it. There were two things in the envelope. One was a strange gemstone pendant, and the other was a letter of prophecy.”

“A letter of prophecy?” Reina’s expression showed a hint of confusion.

“Yes, a prophecy.”

“What did it prophesy?”

“The prophecy is divided into two parts. The first part says that I have a younger sister named Xia Cheng, who will become the magical girl Ye Huasheng on September 23rd, 2088.”

“As it turns out, it came true.”

Reina’s eyes widened slightly, filled with disbelief, but she knew that Bai Hai was being very serious and not joking with her.

“How is that possible? A prophecy… According to the quantum collapse theory in quantum physics, fate cannot be predicted, cannot be manipulated. A so-called prophecy is impossible.”

“Reina, look at the world today. Can science alone explain everything? Believe me, when I saw this so-called prophecy, my disdain and doubt were even greater than yours.”

Bai Hai took an envelope from his pocket and gently stroked it.

“But after I spent a month investigating and successfully proved that the information in the letter was correct, and then spent another month observing and witnessing the prophecy come true, I had no choice but to believe it.”

Reina fell silent.

Bai Hai stood up and walked to the large floor-to-ceiling window in the room, looking at the not-so-brightly-lit city at night—once, human cities had a rich nightlife.

Since the appearance of Anomalies, the lights in the night have become fewer and fewer.

“If the first part of the prophecy is about your sister becoming a magical girl, what is the second part?” Reina took a deep breath, as if trying to convince herself to accept all this.

“This is the reason I came to this city—you can see for yourself.”

Bai Hai turned around and tossed the envelope to Reina.

Reina caught it easily and opened it.

Inside was a letter written on printer paper, with neat handwriting, which read:

Knight, resurrected from the sea, please believe my prophecy. Your mother is still alive, and you have a younger sister you have never met. Her name is Xia Cheng, and she will awaken to become the magical girl Ye Huasheng on September 23rd, 2088.

Reina frowned.

Soon, she noticed that there was writing on the back of the paper as well.

When she turned it over and saw what was written, her eyes widened:

Knight who did not die, please believe my prophecy. Although you were resurrected in the sunlight, your sister does not have such great power. On the first day of January 2089, the magical girl Ye Huasheng will meet her death.

“This… this…” Reina was at a loss for words for a moment.

She could only look at Bai Hai, who let out a deep sigh.

“Reina, listen to me—I can’t take the risk. The first prophecy came true without my intervention. The probability of the second prophecy coming true is very high. I can’t just stand by and do nothing.”

“To boast a little, I once fought for the freedom of the world, and I paid for it with my life once. And now, I want to be a little selfish.”

“You ask me what my reason for fighting is. I can tell you: it used to be the world, now it’s my sister… and that reason is enough.”

After listening, Reina silently put the so-called prophecy letter back into the envelope and placed it neatly on the table, her expression grave.

“But Bai Hai, you can’t become Knight anymore, can you?”

“It’s simple. I’ll just become a magical girl.”

A man wanting to become a magical girl.

Such an absurd statement was uttered by Bai Hai with great clarity and solemnity.

It was only after a long moment that he continued, “Although it’s still unclear who sent this letter and for what purpose, the most important thing right now is to prevent the prophecy from coming true. And since this pendant was sent along with the letter, it’s clearly a very crucial clue. I only found out later that this pendant is called the Source Blood, the key item for a magical girl’s transformation, similar in function to my belt.”

Bai Hai took out the pendant and handed it to Reina.

Reina took it and examined it carefully, frowning. “But something’s not right. I’ve seen magical girls, and I’ve seen their Source Blood pendants. There’s a light exclusive to them in the blood-red crystal. Why doesn’t this one have it?”

“I don’t know the reason, but I can relight it.” Bai Hai looked at the bewildered Reina and smiled, pointing at himself. “My energy comes from the belt, and the Typhoon Turbines on the belt are the key to obtaining energy. But because of the final battle with the great leader, my belt was damaged, and two of the turbines have stopped. But I’ve calculated:”

“If I remove the Source Blood and embed it in the belt, it will form a new cycle. The remaining Typhoon Turbine will charge the Source Blood, lighting it up. And the lit Source Blood will in turn support the belt to exert its power once again. This way, I can regain the ability to transform—a non-exploding kind.”

“…But the downside is that we don’t know what you’ll turn into…” Reina looked up at Bai Hai and said sarcastically, “If you really turn into a magical girl, that’s one thing. But it’s not impossible that you’ll turn into a cross-dressing insectoid modified human.”

“…My luck shouldn’t be that bad, right? I could also become a knight who uses magic.”

“What do you mean ‘shouldn’t be’?” Reina glared at him and asked her final question:

“Even if I can understand your purpose and methods, have you ever considered that the prophecy says the one who dies is the magical girl Ye Huasheng, not Xia Cheng? If you just prevent your sister from transforming on the first of January this year, wouldn’t that be enough? Or to be more direct, stop her from being a magical girl altogether. If that’s the case, I have plenty of ways.”

“But that would be meaningless.” Bai Hai’s words left Reina speechless for a moment.

“Have you heard the story of Oedipus Rex? When you try your best to escape fate, fate will instead come at you even more fiercely. This is, after all, Xia Cheng’s fate. She must face it herself.”

Reina suddenly looked up, staring at Bai Hai in disbelief.

For the first time, she had this feeling, the feeling of truly seeing him. “You plan to become a magical girl not only to interfere with the possibility of the prophecy, but also to use the identity of a magical girl to train her?”

“Why not?” Bai Hai smiled. “I’ve seen her fight. It’s a complete mess. Redundant movements, chaotic tactics, and more importantly, she lacks the mental fortitude for battle. A little fear can make her lose her composure and even her sanity. In that state… I even suspect that the date of January 1st is an understatement. She won’t even live to see the day the prophecy comes true.”

Reina opened her mouth, but in the end, she sank back into the sofa powerlessly and let out a deep sigh, as if she had lost all her strength and means.

“Fine, everything you say makes sense. Who can win an argument against you?”

“Hehe.” Bai Hai finally dropped his serious expression and showed the mischievous smile that Reina was familiar with. “Well then, the night is short. Shall we start early? The second modification surgery.”

“Sigh… I hope you’re mentally prepared,” Reina said seriously. “The second modification surgery is very painful, and we modified humans can’t use anesthesia.”

Bai Hai grinned. “Don’t worry. How many times do you think I’ve fought, how many injuries have I sustained? I’m not afraid of pain.”

“Damn, that really f*cking hurts!”

In the darkness before dawn, Bai Hai stumbled to his mother’s doorstep, clutching his waist, his face as ugly as if he had eaten shit.

He had never expected that the second modification surgery would be so painful.

These few short hours were a nightmare… He had heard others say it didn’t hurt at all.

And in the red sports car behind him, Reina showed a triumphant smile of revenge, stepped on the gas, and drove away.

Bai Hai gave the car’s rear end the middle finger.

He strongly suspected that Reina had done it on purpose, but he had no proof.

But that being said, Bai Hai looked down and touched his abdomen.

It was completely different from the cold feeling before.

Now, he could sense a warm power deep within his body.

Although not as strong as before, it was at least there.

He had finally regained the power to fight.

However, just as Bai Hai was enduring the pain and walking into the house, Jiang Yue’s angry arguing voice came from behind the study door:

“I know, I know it’s a bit unsafe for Bai Hai to be alone with Xia Cheng. I don’t know him well yet, but we are related by blood.”

“And even if the worst comes to the worst, I’ve installed hidden cameras and alarms in the house. If Bai Hai does anything to Xia Cheng, I’ll be notified.”

“Xia Cheng’s safety will be guaranteed.”