“You can stockpile magic for an attack, so you think I can’t concentrate mine for defense?!” Borel shouted.

The instant he finished, layer after layer of pitch-black magic barriers appeared in front of Yukieda’s gun muzzle.

“Regret it in your next life. Regret provoking me today!”

At that moment, Yukieda had no time to react at all. Blazing white magic surged out in a torrent.

Then she saw it.

Borel’s head was swallowed by the magic. Like solid ice scoured by boiling water, it vanished without a trace.

With its head gone, the body dropped to its knees with a thud. Black blood kept gushing out, like a drink bottle with the cap removed. The whip in its hand fell into the rubble-strewn ruins.

Yukieda’s slender chest rose and fell violently. She was still a little stunned.

She’d thought Borel meant she could block that attack of hers.

Or had she misunderstood?

Could it be she just wanted to scare her one last time before dying?

A Witch couldn’t possibly be that bored... right?

Yukieda couldn’t let her guard down. She decided to inspect Borel’s corpse more carefully.

And right then, as if she’d been holding her breath underwater for a long time, Borel suddenly let out a gasp of relief.

In that tiny span of time, Borel’s vanished head had somehow returned to her neck.

Like something straight out of a gag manga.

A gag manga scene in real life wasn’t funny at all. Yukieda felt a chill of pure horror.

She instantly pulled away from Borel.

But what Yukieda didn’t expect was that Borel did the exact same thing.

She ran far away too.

Borel gave Yukieda one deep look. Then, without another word, she turned and ran.

“Hey! You—wait!”

Yukieda hurried after her, trying to give chase. But she couldn’t catch Borel even at full strength, let alone in her current state.

She could only watch as Borel ran farther and farther away.

Can’t catch her...

No way...

Was she really going to let this bastard get away?

Just then, Yukieda noticed the roar of helicopter rotors overhead. At the same time, Mai’s voice came through her earpiece.

“Nice work! Leave the rest to me and Mr. Kenji!”

Mai’s reply came through the earpiece with a lot of noise in the background. It sounded like he was on a helicopter too...

Standing atop the building, Yukieda watched three helicopters fly farther into the distance. From time to time, she could see rockets trailing smoke as they slammed into the ground, setting off wave after wave of explosions.

In the daytime, because neither Yukieda nor Mai had slept at all the previous night, both of them took the day off.

The TV was airing reports about last night.

Most citizens looked deeply unhappy about the streets being left in complete ruin.

“They already destroyed an entire District Three! Do they have to tear down the whole city of Shiratsuru before they’re satisfied?!”

A stern-looking old man slammed his cane hard against the ground.

“I want to file a complaint! Excessive force by staff! Don’t think being pretty means you can do whatever you want! She grabbed my head and smashed it into a trash can like this! A metal one!”

A young man gestured wildly as he spoke.

Yukieda wasn’t paying attention to the TV at all.

She was curled up on the sofa, hugging her knees. Her nightdress was a little too thin, exposing most of the soft skin on her shoulders and legs.

And her strawberry-print panties.

Mai glanced at her, then turned his eyes back to the TV. He could only feel that Yukieda was dressing more and more boldly. She’d been pretty conservative at first.

Maybe it was because she’d gotten used to things.

Yukieda let out a sigh.

Mai finally couldn’t hold back anymore.

“What’s wrong?”

“I want a drink.”

Yukieda stuck out her pink tongue and lightly licked her lips. Ever since that one time she drank with Mr. Kenji, it had hooked her all at once.

Like a tattoo carved into her lower belly, it wouldn’t leave her mind.

Yukieda had never thought alcohol could taste that good before.

Mai looked at her in silence. The meaning was obvious.

As if she’d expected that answer already, Yukieda clicked her tongue.

That’s youth for you.

They just don’t understand the joys of adulthood.

“I’m going to sleep.”

She said sleep, but in reality, Yukieda planned to lie in bed and play on her terminal for a while. She hadn’t had that bad habit before.

The exhaustion from staying up all night made Yukieda fall asleep quickly.

But not long after, urgent knocking woke her up.

She hurriedly got up and opened the door.

“A Demon? A Witch?”

Standing outside was Mai, looking just as tired. His long black hair even seemed listless right now.

Suppressing a yawn, he said, “Neither. Someone wants to kill herself. The city fire department is short-handed, so the higher-ups want you to help.”

Yukieda opened her terminal. It was only a little past nine. She’d been asleep for less than an hour.

“I don’t want to go deal with something like that... If they’re short-handed, they can squeeze a little harder and make it work.” With a bang, she shut the door. “Mai, turn it down for me. I’m going back to sleep.”

Her lazy voice drifted out from inside the room.

“Alcohol.”

Mai stood outside the door and softly said that one word.

Click.

The door opened again.

Yukieda stood there fully dressed.

Her expression was serious.

“Where is it? Human life is at stake. There’s no time to lose.”

—

An ordinary high-rise apartment building.

Eight floors.

A fat woman stood on the rooftop, making a huge scene about wanting to die. She was extremely emotional. Down below, the crowd of onlookers had packed the area, and most of them were holding up their terminals to record.

In fact, the woman probably didn’t even know it.

She was being livestreamed the whole time.

The livestream chat was a mess of every kind of comment. Some people questioned why the firefighters still hadn’t arrived. Others asked that if the woman really wanted to kill herself, why hadn’t she jumped already? Was this just a stunt?

Most of the comments were simply wishing her well, or criticizing others for being too harsh.

The chat wasn’t dead, but it wasn’t especially busy either.

Then suddenly, the comments exploded. The viewer count in the lower right shot up sharply too.

There was only one reason.

A Magical Girl in white ceremonial dress and a mask had appeared in the video.

She was like an elf...

No, she was an elf.

Holding up her skirt, she descended gracefully from the sky.

This was a rare chance.

Most of Shiratsuru’s citizens knew their local guardian had been replaced, but they didn’t know much beyond that.

And now, with cameras everywhere, most people finally had a chance to get a good look.

Very quickly, the comments shifted from stuff like go die and no, you go die to things like beautiful girl and my wife.

The perspective switched to Yukieda.

Hidden behind the mask, she had no patience right now. She just wanted to hurry back and sleep.

In front of her stood a heavily made-up fat woman. She looked agitated, her makeup ruined from crying. She had to be at least forty or fifty.

The moment she saw Yukieda descend from the sky, the woman completely lost it.

“You! Don’t come any closer! If you come any closer, I’ll jump!”

Yukieda sneered inwardly.

Then jump.

Even if you do, I’ll just catch you and bring you back.

With that thought in mind, Yukieda walked straight toward the fat woman without fear.

Finish this fast and go home to sleep.

Besides, Mai had promised her.

Then Mai’s voice suddenly came through the earpiece.

“Yukieda, you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here. What is it? Don’t interrupt me while I’m working.”

She sounded impatient, but she still stopped walking. She knew Mai probably had something important to say.

“Yukieda, listen carefully. You’re being broadcast live nationwide right now. I was going to cut all civilian signals on your side, but Mr. Kenji said not to. He thinks your image can raise Shiratsuru’s visibility across the country, maybe even globally. It might even boost tourism revenue and help the budget.”

Use me alone to promote the city’s image?

No, no, that’s not the important part.

The important part is—I’m being livestreamed?!

Where’s the camera?

Yukieda abruptly looked around.

Only then did she realize that while this building was around ten stories high, the surrounding buildings were even taller, at least twenty stories. With her eyesight, she could naturally see countless people filming with terminals.

On top of that, many civilian drones were hovering quietly in the sky. The nearest one was practically hidden right by the suicidal woman’s feet.

“Good luck.”

“Hey, wait—!”

Mai cut the connection.

Yukieda took several deep breaths to wake herself up a little. Then she made her tone a little cuter.

Not because she wanted to sound cute.

It was just that no matter how mature or gentle Yukieda tried to sound, people would still file it under cute.

“If something’s wrong, we can all talk it out slowly, okay?”

Please just jump already. I’m begging you. Jump, and I’ll catch you.

Seeing Yukieda stop, the woman dropped her huge butt onto the ground and cried out:

“Brother Qing left me! My heart hurts so much!”

The woman wailed. Yukieda was certain not even a wild boar in the forest could scream louder.

Who the hell is Brother Qing...

As if reading the question in Yukieda’s mind, Mai immediately explained through the earpiece.

“Brother Qing is her lover. He’s a host. This woman was keeping him, and he ran off with her money and another person.”

Yukieda felt a wave of contempt inside, but her voice still came out full of sympathy.

“If Brother Qing left you, that’s entirely his loss. You deserve someone better.”

The woman got so worked up after hearing that she nearly tipped backward. The livestream viewers all shuddered.

Behind her was a bottomless drop.

She had almost fallen just now!

Yukieda shuddered too.

Why didn’t this fat hag just fall already?

“Who gives a damn whether Brother Qing ran off or not?! I’m upset about the money! Money! Do you understand?! That was money I earned bit by bit through hard work!”

Mai timely added another explanation.

“This woman still has five thousand credit points left. At her peak, her net worth was around eight million credit points.”

That really is a huge drop.

And you could’ve explained that part earlier...

Yukieda complained inwardly, then kept trying to persuade her.

“If you don’t have money, you can earn it again. If you could make it before, you can make it in the future too! Believe in yourself!”

“Earn money? Easy for you to say. Looking like this, I can’t make money anymore!”

The fat woman kept bawling. Yukieda, meanwhile, grew curious.

“How did you make it before?”

Maybe there was some special trick to it. Maybe she could learn something too.

After all, eight million wasn’t a small number.

“Marriage! Then divorce! Isn’t that enough? I got eight million by marrying and divorcing eleven times! Now I’ve gotten this fat—who’d still want to marry me?!”

As she said that, the woman cried even harder.

“I might as well die, boohoo...”

The woman couldn’t see it, but behind the mask, the corner of Yukieda’s mouth twitched.