Miao Qingzhu led the way, with Aya Tone following silently behind her.
“Aya, try to be more open-minded.”
Miao Qingzhu offered comfort, though a smile threatened to break through her lips, which she quickly suppressed out of politeness.
“How can you tell me to be open-minded? You’re the real culprit here! And you want me to be open-minded?” Aya Tone retorted, seething with indignation.
She had sensed something amiss the moment she held the short skirt in her hands.
It was only when she was pressed in front of the mirror that the full realization dawned on her.
‘Damn it!’
‘The outfit I’m wearing, isn’t it the protagonist’s costume from that incredibly popular magical girl anime?’
‘Coming out to play? To eat?’
‘All lies. You were clearly just playing a trick on me, weren’t you?’
And this place, it was no shopping mall!
Aya Tone observed the constant stream of people, some of them sporting eccentric attire.
She even spotted a few individuals dressed as peculiar cosplayers.
It was plainly the magical girl-themed comic convention Fu Ling had mentioned yesterday.
‘Beautiful women truly are deceptive.’
“Well, we’re already here, aren’t we?”
“Besides, you didn’t end up wearing the outfit I prepared for you anyway,” Miao Qingzhu admitted without a hint of embarrassment.
Since Aya Tone had let her decide, she wasn’t about to take the blame.
“What do you mean, ‘we’re already here’? I’m the only one dressed up; you’re not wearing anything!”
“And that outfit you mentioned, my hair color with pink? You’re really just…” Aya Tone, as if a switch had been flipped, began an endless stream of complaints.
Her clothes had been confiscated by Fis, but to avoid wearing that blue-and-white bowl, she had immediately donned her own magical ceremonial dress.
‘It was quite a luxury, when she thought about it.’
Miao Qingzhu paused, realizing she seemed to have misjudged the reason for Aya Tone’s sulking.
She couldn’t help but ask tentatively, “Should I change into one too, then?”
“Yes, hurry!” Aya Tone’s eyes lit up, instantly forgetting her earlier pique.
‘Now this is a good bro—sister.’
‘It seems I wasn’t wrong.’
A sudden understanding dawned on Miao Qingzhu, but!
“Oh, no, I won’t.”
‘?’
Upon hearing this, Aya Tone’s excited expression immediately darkened.
Raising the magic wand Fis had provided, she flashed an intensely ‘kind’ smile. “Die for this lord!”
Miao Qingzhu had anticipated this, retreating just before the magic wand descended, perfectly dodging Aya Tone’s attack.
She found teasing her idol in this manner truly irresistible.
‘That little expression, she’s so cute even when she’s angry.’
‘It makes one want to thoroughly bully her.’
The two of them continued their playful chase.
It was almost four o’clock, and the crowd inside the venue was no longer as dense.
This provided ample space for their pursuit.
Everyone who witnessed the scene before them couldn’t help but have their eyes light up.
And for good reason.
The girl chasing with a magic wand perfectly embodied their ideal image of a magical girl.
“Look, that cosplayer is absolutely adorable!”
“I wonder who that cosplayer-sensei is, or the white-haired one. I really want her to step on my face with her little feet.”
“Whoa, you’re such a pervert! How could those tiny feet touch your dirty, greasy face? They should, of course, be tenderly cherished in my mouth!”
“Don’t you think she looks a lot like *that* witch?”
“You’re not much better…”
…
Hearing such perverse remarks, the surrounding people silently gave the two a wide berth.
They feared that getting too close might somehow make perversion contagious.
One particular voice among them was simply ignored; people took it as an incredibly accurate cosplay and didn’t think anything more of it.
After all, that person’s identity was far from ordinary; they wouldn’t possibly come to a place like a comic convention…
Spotting the opportunity, some sharp-eyed photographers immediately shed their cumbersome gear and began weaving through the crowd with their cameras.
Their sole aim was to capture a perfect shot.
Some even subconsciously used their abilities, only to be, predictably, escorted away by security personnel.
They were “rewarded” with fifteen days of ideological education.
*Snap!*
Aya Tone, unable to stop in time, crashed directly into Miao Qingzhu’s back.
“Why did you stop?”
“There’s nowhere left to run ahead.”
Without realizing it, the two had run to a stage.
On the stage, a magical girl story was being performed.
The girls, interwoven with different colors, immediately captured Aya Tone’s attention; it was her first time seeing a live magical girl performance.
‘It was quite novel, to say the least.’
However, the front was packed with people, and Aya Tone’s female body stood just over 1.4 meters tall.
At best, she could only glimpse faint silhouettes of the performers through the gaps in the crowd.
Seeing that Aya Tone behind her wasn’t attacking, Miao Qingzhu followed her gaze, a smirk playing on her lips as an idea sparked.
Leaning down, she asked, “Want to go in and watch?”
“Mm-hmm!” Aya Tone nodded vigorously, a flicker of excited light in her eyes.
“Really? But aren’t all the seats inside sold in advance?”
Miao Qingzhu chuckled softly, saying nothing.
She simply led Aya Tone to the side of the stage and exchanged a few words with a staff member.
Aya Tone didn’t quite catch what was said, only knowing that after listening to Miao Qingzhu, the staff member simply let them both in.
“Xiao Zhuzi, what did you just say?” Sitting on a stool specially added by the staff, Aya Tone couldn’t help but ask curiously what Miao Qingzhu had told them.
“Nothing much. Just told them my dad owns this place.”
“…Impressive.”
Such a trick was impossible to learn, so Aya Tone simply chose to forget it.
The story was an old, familiar plot: magical girls saving people from despair.
Ultimately, they transformed into hope, rooted themselves in people’s hearts, and restored peace to the world.
The content was cliché, but it couldn’t be denied that she loved it.
Aya Tone watched intently as the performers on stage moved back and forth, their magic wands swaying left and right.
From their movements, it seemed they were casting spells and battling a witch.
They occasionally rolled and dodged, truly a display of “The Emperor’s Magic.”
Miao Qingzhu, beside her, couldn’t help but quip, “It’s so awkward to watch without special effects.”
The comic convention, with its dense crowds, was a place where abilities were forbidden, as evidenced by the photographers who had just been escorted away.
Thus, the cosplayers on stage could only use the most basic movements to convey the story’s twists and turns.
“It’s alright, actually,” Aya Tone countered, not finding it particularly awkward.
‘As long as it wasn’t her up there, what was there to be embarrassed about?’
It was at this moment that the performance on stage approached its finale.
Under the magical girl’s loving influence, the world-destroying witch purified her inner darkness and returned to the embrace of light.
“Hmm… this ending isn’t quite right,” Aya Tone remarked.
To be honest, a magical girl story without any heartbreak always felt a bit uninspired to Aya Tone.
“You think so too, don’t you?” Miao Qingzhu’s interest was piqued instantly.
She coaxed from the side, “Aya, do you want to go up and play a bit?”
“Don’t even think about it.” Aya Tone refused without a second thought.
Going up there in her current state would be worse than facing Bai Xiao directly.
Yet, sometimes, what you fear most is precisely what comes to pass.
“Thank you all for coming to watch our performance. I am Magical Girl Ling.”