The Unyielding Bubble

(Sun Yao)

Everything happened in a split second.

I watched as Miluno broke through the monster’s defenses. Then, I watched in horror as that creature unleashed a torrent of projectiles directly at us.

When I came to, I only had time to catch her slender, falling body. Even though I had only seen an afterimage of her movement, I could imagine what she had done. The protective barrier I had cast was shredded in an instant. The dense barrage had slammed into her back, and I felt the weight of every heavy blow transmitted through her body to mine.

She seemed to have lost consciousness.

Several jagged fragments were embedded in her back, surrounded by countless torn wounds. Even her battle outfit was shattered. She had never been defeated before. She was the invincible lady who could finish any monster within five minutes… and now Miluno had fallen while protecting someone like me.

“…Why?”

“Sailuno! Snap out of it!” Yang Yan’s voice roared through the headset, her scolding filled with sharp disappointment. “Miluno isn’t dead! And that monster isn’t dead either! You don’t have time to mope!”

I looked up. The twisted, shark-like monster in the distance was already gathering a new water spear from the lake. The brighter that emerald light shone, the greater the spear’s power grew.

Unlike the “Thunder God’s” steel thorns which required time to grow before firing, these water spears had no fixed shape. I couldn’t easily envelop them in bubbles to trap them. As long as there was water in the lake, she had an endless supply of ammunition. In contrast, I didn’t have enough mana left to intercept every single strike.

And even if I did intercept them, then what? I had no means to counterattack. Was I supposed to try and drown her again? This monster clearly breathed underwater; she looked exactly like a shark.

“If even Miluno couldn’t handle her, what can I possibly do…?”

“Coward! Get up!” Yang Yan screamed in my ear. “You took the name Sailuno because you admired Miluno, didn’t you? She fell saving your life, and you’re just going to sit there crying?”

Her scolding hit its mark. I was a coward. My magical girl persona was an act. My feminine mannerisms were nothing but a clumsy, pathetic imitation. The real me was just a chubby otaku who disgusted Yang Yan.

After causing Yang Yan to be hospitalized, I had now let the idol I admired fall before my very eyes. People like me didn’t deserve to be magical girls, did they?

“Miss Sailuno, please calm down and listen to me. This is Spica, Director of the Tactical Division of the Magical Girl Association. Since Miss Miluno has been incapacitated, I need you to take command of this operation.”

A different voice came through the headset. Unlike Yang Yan’s heat, this woman named Spica sounded cold, precise, and entirely emotionless.

I let out a shaky sigh. “…What can I possibly do?”

“Hold the target’s attention. Other magical girls are currently in transit to support you. I need you to protect yourself and the unconscious Miluno. Furthermore, I will be deploying to the field myself. Please hold out for three more minutes.”

As she spoke, a familiar phase wormhole appeared directly above my head. But the color of this ring wasn’t blue—it was a pure, shimmering white.

“…Is another monster coming?”

“No. That is the Association’s proprietary wormhole technology, currently in its testing phase.”

The Association has its own wormhole tech? “…So, Miss Spica, are you also a magical girl?”

“I was. I retired from active combat a long time ago. Let me reintroduce myself: my codename was Spica, also known as Virgo.”

“Virgo?!” I gasped.

Spica, one of the original Seven Stars. Opposite the “God of War” Fomalhaut, she was known as the “Master Strategist”—the wise commander. It made sense that she was the one who had founded the Tactical Division.

While we spoke, the monster launched another water spear. I propped up a bubble in front of Miluno, but it was pierced as easily as wet paper. Even the weakened spear knocked me flat and soaked me to the bone.

It hurt. It hurt so much.

Even with the bubble blunting the impact, the water spear struck with the force of a professional boxer’s punch. Lying on my back, I wiped the liquid from my face—whether it was lake water or tears, I couldn’t tell.

“See? I can’t even block a single spear,” I sobbed. “The Star Crystal chose wrong. I don’t have the aptitude for this.”

“Sailuno,” Virgo’s voice was steady. “Your Star Crystal once belonged to my comrade, Vega—the Heavenly Fortress. Beyond her immense destructive power, it was her obsession with ‘protection’ that made her a legend. The form may be different, but the moment I saw your magic, I knew you had inherited that same will to protect.”

She spoke words of encouragement, but I was knocked down by another water spear before I could even process them. My mana was nearing its limit.

The shark-monster maliciously adjusted her aim toward the unconscious Miluno. She knew I wouldn’t dodge, and she knew I couldn’t block her out forever. At this rate, we were both going to die.

“With these fragile bubbles… what could I possibly protect?”

“You need to ask yourself that.”

Vega had heavy armor and an arsenal of giant lances. And what did I have? I could only blow bubbles.

I struggled to my feet, using every last ounce of strength I had left. The lake’s water level was dropping rapidly; I could see fish thrashing at the bottom. The Association’s plan to drain the reservoir was working, but the monster had already condensed seven massive water spears around her. She didn’t need an arsenal anymore.

“Where is the power to protect…?”

I staggered until I was standing directly in front of Miluno, propping up my last possible bubble. I gathered every drop of power as the shark-monster flicked its tail, sending one spear hurtling forward with enough momentum to pierce through a tank.

“Don’t you dare… touch her!”

BOOM!

A massive collision echoed through the park, but the bubble didn’t pop.

“This is…”

The bubble, which previously couldn’t stop a single strike, had completely halted the monster’s full-force attack. Unlike before, when the film would deform and shatter under pressure, this bubble was like reinforced tempered glass. It didn’t budge an inch, and the spear shattered against it without leaving so much as a scratch.

This wasn’t a water bubble anymore. It was an unbreakable dome.

What had changed?

The shark-monster paused, visibly stunned. She grew impatient, raising her remaining six spears and advancing step by step, hurling the next one as she moved.

Bam—!

Water splashed everywhere, but not a single drop entered my space.

“Your magic can do more than ‘allow’ things inside,” Virgo’s voice rang with newfound intensity. “It can also ‘reject’ them. When your will to refuse entry is strong enough, your magic responds. Sailuno, your magic is fueled by belief. When your confidence is absolute, the world will answer your call!”

As expected of the Master Strategist. Unlike Yang Yan, who struggled with the abstract, Virgo had grasped the essence of my magic immediately—perhaps even better than I had.

The power of “Rejection”?

No. I didn’t just want to reject the monster. I wanted to protect Miluno. That was my… the power of Protection!