No Fighting Children

Sakuo ran, her skirt flapping loudly as the wind tore at it.

But the footsteps behind her were getting closer and closer, so heavy they shattered the concrete ground.

Meivi gave chase, intent on crushing this annoying mosquito in front of her.

She swung a punch violently, and the shockwave sent Sakuo flying.

“Ow, ow, ow!”

Sakuo rolled across the ground several times, even flinging the doll on her head far away.

Clack.

Before Sakuo could scramble back to her feet, a shadow fell over her face.

She looked up to see Meivi already standing in front of her.

The overwhelming pressure felt like tangible weight, making Sakuo want to run but leaving her unable to move.

There was no escape now.

Tears welled up in Sakuo’s eyes as she said nervously, “Doll, hurry, use a lie!”

The doll wanted to help Sakuo too, but she knew very well how powerful Meivi’s armor was.

“But the armor has magic immunity.

My lies won’t work on her.”

“Then use it on me!”

Hearing this, Sakuo no longer cared about the price of pain.

If she hesitated any longer, she’d lose her life!

The doll nodded in understanding.

That was easy enough.

Sakuo was just an ordinary human, so no matter how the lie was used on her, it wouldn’t be dispelled.

“Sakuo, in order to save your friend, courage surges within your heart, driving away the pain in your body and your fear of Meivi.

Along with it, a stronger power wells up from deep within you.”

As soon as the doll finished speaking, Sakuo suddenly felt a warm throb spread from her chest.

Before she could react, that warmth flowed into her limbs, strength gathering again in her muscles.

Even the dull pain in her scraped knee faded away.

In an instant, Sakuo felt like she could take on ten people!

Meivi’s fist came crashing down again, and Sakuo turned and ran.

At least in this regard, she was very self-aware.

No matter how strong she felt, she was still just a normal person.

A terrifying armored monster—what was she supposed to fight that with?

After a stretch of pursuit, Meivi grew confused.

She was certain that several times she could have pinned this mosquito to death, yet the other party remained inexplicably tenacious.

It was as if some unseen force were protecting Sakuo, preventing Meivi from landing a hit.

“Why does it feel like I’m watching a gag character from a manga?”

After recovering a bit, Natsume Oto had rushed over to help Sakuo, only to find she couldn’t get involved at all.

Sakuo’s evasive movements were completely unstructured, yet they perfectly dodged every one of Meivi’s attacks.

She could avoid Meivi’s charging punch by an awkward faceplant.

At some unknown moment, a falling billboard swept past her head, only to smash squarely into Meivi instead.

Even more coincidentally, a gust of wind kicked up dust and fallen leaves, blocking Meivi’s vision at just the right moment.

Her luck was ridiculously good!

“She won’t last much longer.”

Seriana shook her head from the side.

She too was surprised that Sakuo could stall Meivi on her own.

But she could also see that Meivi was growing impatient.

“This isn’t a battle at all.

I’m going to deal with you and move on to find the next strong opponent.”

As expected, Meivi drew her greatsword.

Sword energy tore through the air, sweeping away all dust in its path.

Accompanied by a piercing howl, the slash rushed straight toward Sakuo, as if it would split the space before her in two.

There was no way to dodge it!

The sword energy sealed off all her escape routes, forcing Sakuo to stand in place, terrified, covering her face with both hands.

Time seemed to slow at this critical moment.

Sakuo could see the doll shouting to her in panic, Natsume Oto rushing toward her, countless thoughts surging into her mind.

Was it wrong of me to play the hero?

I’m just an ordinary person.

I could have stayed on the rooftop, quietly waiting for Flona to return and settle everything.

I could have stayed up there, trusting Magical Girl Yōbi to protect the city once again.

Tears finally spilled from the corners of Sakuo’s eyes, sliding down her cheeks.

Facing death at such close range, she had to admit that fear was steadily spreading in her heart.

And the regret she had never paid attention to before became painfully clear at this moment.

“Don’t cry.

Sakuo, you’ve already done very well.”

Warm holy light protected Sakuo, blocking the terrifying sword energy.

Sakuo slowly lowered her hands and saw the person standing in front of her.

“Flona, why did you only get here now!”

She pulled Flona into a tight embrace, her voice choked with sobs.

She had practically started seeing her life flash before her eyes just now.

But soon Sakuo noticed something was off.

Flona felt different—much softer than before.

She instinctively pinched Flona’s chubby little cheeks, kneading them like dough.

“Flona, you got smaller!

Did you get fed poison?”

“Why would getting fed poison make me smaller?”

Flona slapped Sakuo’s mischievous hands away in annoyance.

“Eyeball, take Sakuo away first.”

Seeing the eyeball, Sakuo jumped in fright.

“What a huge worm!”

The eyeball didn’t waste words.

One tentacle wrapped around Sakuo and carried her off.

While the eyeball was taking Sakuo away, Flona turned back to Meivi.

“I thought you’d attack me the moment you saw me.”

Yet Flona was muttering to herself inside.

“How did Anna manage Meivi so badly that she actually let her die once?”

She knew that Meivi not only possessed the ability to revive after death, but also had two personalities.

Each death caused a personality switch.

Now, the one she faced was battle-crazed Meivi—a lunatic who craved the thrill of combat.

At her peak, Flona was confident she could kill Meivi even in armor.

But after the fierce battle with the worm monster, her holy light had been heavily depleted, and on top of that, she had shrunk.

Right now, let alone winning, Flona wasn’t even sure she could fight her evenly.

Still, something felt strange to Flona.

She was clearly standing right in front of Meivi, yet Meivi hadn’t made a single move.

Why was that?

“I can tell you’re strong, but I won’t fight children.”

Meivi stared at Flona for a while, found her uninteresting, and rejected her outright.

Not the kind of strong opponent she liked.

She waved her hand and turned to leave, intending to search elsewhere for a strong foe.

Watching from the side, Natsume Oto commented, “In a way, this Meivi is pretty principled.”

“Haha, now Meivi’s really going to get thoroughly beaten by Flona.”

The doll was much more excited, clearly holding a grudge over Meivi bullying her subordinate.

Meanwhile, Sakuo asked Seriana worriedly, “Flona will be okay, right…?”

“No, the problem is huge.”

Anna frowned as she examined Flona’s body.

“Meivi still hasn’t used her real strength, and…”

She noticed that while there was still a fair amount of holy light left inside Flona, the slow rate at which it was recovering would clearly be unable to sustain prolonged consumption.

Why was it recovering so slowly?

Back in their original world, Flona’s holy light had basically been inexhaustible.

Anna pondered.

“Is it because this world has no Goddess of Holy Light or believers of the church, or is it because Flona has retired?”

“Doesn’t that mean Flona can’t beat Meivi either?”

After hearing Anna’s words, Sakuo grew even more worried.

“Then what do we do?”

“I can’t say whether she can win or not, but if they really start fighting…”

Anna pointed at herself, then at the ground beneath them.

“…the ones who’ll suffer will be us.”

“And the entire Qingfeng City.”