A dozen or so minutes later, all the residents in the neighborhood had been evacuated and brought to safety. The streets lay empty, and in the eerie silence, only the wail of sirens continued.
A flash of light passed, and the Magical Girls Blue Butterfly and Yellow Knight emerged from a secluded corner of the school.
“Sorry to interrupt your school day. This is an emergency, and you two are the closest available operatives. The other special units from the Containment Facility will arrive within half an hour,” a voice came through their earpieces.
“This is emergency overtime, so we’ll have to discuss extra pay later. Double... no, at least triple!” said the Magical Girl in yellow beside her. She wore a pale-yellow dress that matched her golden hair perfectly. The lower half of her outfit was a skirt, while a thin layer of metal armor covered her chest and shoulders. Matching metal guards protected her elbows and knees. Her style blended a girl’s dress with Western knight’s armor, and she carried an enormous knight’s lance. That was where her codename, Yellow Knight, came from.
By comparison, Blue Butterfly’s outfit had a more distinctly girlish style. She wore a water-blue princess dress whose skirt ended at her thighs, where it split into two long, delicate tails. Paired with the slightly oversized bow on her back, it gave her the immediate impression of a blue butterfly. Her appearance also seemed wonderfully light and graceful. Her long blue hair fell to her back, and though her expression was cold, her breathtaking beauty made her look like an elf dancing in the winter cold.
“All right, enough talk. We need to get moving.” Blue Butterfly drew the slender sword at her waist and urged her companion on.
“I know, I know. Don’t worry—we’ll take care of that monster in no time. Your boyfriend won’t be in any danger, Xiaoxue~” Yellow Knight teased.
“What nonsense are you talking about?!” Blue Butterfly snapped.
“Besides, Containment Object 093’s doll is with him. He’ll be fine.”
“Hehe, and you say he’s not your boyfriend? You’re obviously worried about him.”
“I’m going to get mad if you keep this up. Let’s go!”
“All right, all right. Coming.” A hint of resignation crept into Yellow Knight’s voice.
Then the two rose into the air and flew toward the disaster-stricken neighborhood.
……
Elsewhere, beneath the air-raid shelter, the homeroom teacher was checking the class list one last time.
“Lin Xingyao!”
“Here!”
“Wang Yu!”
“Here!”
“All right, everyone in the class is here. Stay here in the shelter with me, and don’t wander off. Wait for the school’s instructions before you leave.”
“Wait, teacher! You haven’t called Su Xueqian’s name!” Lin Xingyao raised his hand. He’d looked around and couldn’t find his childhood friend, yet the teacher had said everyone was here.
“A-Yao, what are you doing? Su Xueqian’s right over there.” Wang Yu nudged his shoulder and pointed to the side.
“Huh?” Impossible. Lin Xingyao had checked the class several times already. He followed Wang Yu’s pointing finger and looked.
The other person raised a hand and waved to him, too.
Lin Xingyao turned around. The first thing he saw was a face—a human face with no features at all, like the mannequin dolls in shop windows. Its entire head was smooth and bald, but beneath the surface of its skin, he could clearly make out the veins inside. He could even see the structure of its brain through the thin skin.
It was so bizarre and unnerving. Lin Xingyao felt as if he could clearly see every vein in the monster before him rising and pulsing. It had no eyes, yet he could feel it staring right at him. A sense of familiarity stirred within him, as if this really were Su Xueqian, his childhood friend who’d grown up alongside him. In his eyes, Su Xueqian’s familiar features began to emerge from that human skin.
What’s the big deal? Xiaoqian’s right here. I must’ve just looked in the wrong place.
Just as he began to let his guard down, the brooch in his pocket gave off a strange, pale-purple glow. Lin Xingyao’s vision cleared again, and the features of Su Xueqian’s face began to fade from the monster’s head. Its eerie face reappeared before him...
No!
Having dealt with mental health problems before, Lin Xingyao keenly sensed that something was wrong with his mind. He turned his head away, no longer daring to look at the monster.
“Su Xueqian’s waving at us?”
“Yeah. A-Yao, don’t tell me you’re shy?”
“Take a good look. Is that really Su Xueqian?”
“Of course it is. Don’t tell me you can’t even recognize your own girlfriend?”
“......”
Lin Xingyao then asked several other classmates the same question. They all said it was Su Xueqian. Throughout the whole time, he never looked at the monster again.
“What’s wrong? A-Yao, are you so nervous you’re seeing things?”
“Maybe. I’ll go sit in that chair and rest for a bit.”
Lin Xingyao didn’t tell anyone else what was happening. Since the monster pretending to be Su Xueqian showed no sign of attacking, there was no need to expose it and risk making things worse. That was a lesson he’d learned from the strange incident he’d gone through last time.
In that case, he had to stay calm, think things through, and act only when he was ready. That had been Lin Xingyao’s guiding principle in both his past and present lives. Only by thinking clearly could he find the right solution.
The featureless monster everyone mistook for “Su Xueqian” silently watched the place where he sat. It had no features at all, and yet he could feel its gaze upon him...
Meanwhile, in some unknown location...
“Report. The target appears to have noticed something abnormal about the doll derived from Containment Object C-093.”
“That can’t be right. The kid didn’t notice anything the last few times. What’s different this time?”
“Could it have something to do with the E-175 incident he was involved in last month?”
“The previous records show he only suffered mild mental contamination from 175. We erased his memories afterward, and the cleanup team didn’t find anything else unusual.”
“Could he have already suffered deep spiritual contamination at the time, boosting his spiritual vision?”
“We can’t rule that out. We’ll need to investigate him again after this incident. Keep a close eye on him for now!”
“Wait! Where is he?”
As they discussed the matter, Lin Xingyao—who had been under their surveillance the whole time—suddenly disappeared! None of the nearby cameras had caught sight of him, either.
“Invisibility? No, an illusion? Is this one of 175’s abilities?”
“But Containment Object E-175 was contained after the last incident.”
“Go check E-175’s containment chamber at once! Something’s not right!” a woman ordered her subordinates.
“Yes!”
The woman at the head of the group stared intently at the surveillance screens and rubbed her brow hard. What a headache.
“That kid had better not try anything funny, or else...”
She clenched both fists, and they cracked.
“Don’t blame me for showing no mercy.”
……
“Phew!” Lin Xingyao let out a long breath after escaping the underground air-raid shelter under cover of his illusion.
As far as he was concerned, the most important thing was figuring out what had happened to Su Xueqian. If she was in danger, rescuing her shouldn’t be too difficult with his current abilities, though it might make his mental problems worse... If necessary, he could try contacting the Containment Facility.
What he hadn’t realized was that the Containment Facility was already keeping an eye on him...
Lin Xingyao touched the brooch pinned to his chest. “Tell me where Su Xueqian is right now.”
A virtual arrow appeared in the air, pointing toward the underground air-raid shelter...
He thought for a moment, then changed his description. “Tell me where the real Su Xueqian is—the one who grew up with me.”
The first arrow vanished. A new one appeared before his eyes, pointing toward the cordoned-off neighborhood, where the sirens were blaring.
“......”
“What kind of trouble has that girl gotten herself caught up in?!”
Aside from his mom, Su Xueqian was the most important person in Lin Xingyao’s life. She was as good as family. Whatever the cost, he had to bring her back.
Lin Xingyao didn’t have time to think. The most important thing was getting to Su Xueqian as quickly as possible. He kept activating the brooch’s power. He had to hurry, or before long he might find himself deeply caught up in the mental contamination of hula-dancing with a muscleman...
……
In the cordoned-off neighborhood, two Magical Girls were battling a giant spider monster in the center of the street.
Two pairs of enormous, transparent blue wings appeared behind Blue Butterfly. Their beating wings brought a fierce chill, and soon a thick layer of snow covered the ground. She was trying to freeze the giant spider’s legs and pin it in place.
But the attack had no effect. The giant spider lowered its massive body slightly, then sprang into the air with all eight pairs of long legs. It came crashing down toward Blue Butterfly, and the front pair of its pincers had already locked onto Yellow Knight, who had no time to dodge.
In an instant, the knight’s lance in Yellow Knight’s hand dissolved into bubbles. Then countless tiny white flowers appeared in front of her and rapidly fused into a massive shield. The giant spider’s legs slammed into it, sparing her from the attack.
More transparent bubbles appeared around Yellow Knight and floated toward the giant spider. The moment they touched its body, they exploded violently. Taking advantage of the dust kicked up by the blasts, she quickly put some distance between herself and the monster.
“Not bad~” A seductive woman’s voice came from the hideous spider. It opened its gaping maw, and an alluring female body emerged from inside. The spider’s upper body then began to change, and a human woman’s torso appeared above the monster’s head. Her face was beautiful and bewitching. With a delighted expression, she licked her fingers.
“But that alone isn’t enough to please me, girls~ Do your best.”
“You can talk? Are you a monster working for the Demon Lord’s Followers?”
“Who knows? If you can beat me, big sister will let you have all of her~”
A voice like that of a young child came from Blue Butterfly’s shadow. “Be careful. The enemy doesn’t seem to have undergone magical modification, and its appearance doesn’t match any known demon. Stay alert during the fight.”
“Got it.” The two Magical Girls nodded and switched to a more cautious strategy, testing the monster to see what it could do.
“Whispering among yourselves like that is rude, you know. Big sister’s going to get angry!”
The human woman’s face on the spider monster’s upper body began to change. Her pretty features gradually became a spider’s face, and then she spat webs at the two girls.
Its attack was obvious, and the two dodged it with ease. But the web didn’t seem to be aimed at them. It shot straight through the shadows beneath them, then yanked a grayish-white creature that looked like a small cat out of the darkness.
“Luna!” Neither of them had expected the enemy to target Luna. They immediately rushed to rescue her from the web.
“Don’t rush. I never said I came alone.” The spider monster chuckled as it held the little cat in a human hand. Its hideous face looked even more terrifying.
“Look out! There’s a new energy reading behind us!” a warning blared through their earpieces, but it was almost too late.
“ROAR!!!————”
A powerful sonic attack from behind stopped the two Magical Girls in their tracks. They could only cover their ears in pain, then throw away their earpieces as the sound attack made them shriek with deafening feedback. A giant bat-man landed in front of them.
……
Inside the operations room:
“Initial assessment: the newly appeared monster is an altered vampire.”
“The Demon Revivalists are involved in this, too? Raise the alert to level three at once! Evacuate the entire city!” The woman watching the battle immediately gave the order.
“Report! The spider monster began retreating after abducting A-036-0!”
“Blue Butterfly and Yellow Knight are locked in combat and can’t give chase!”
The situation had taken a sharp turn for the worse, yet the woman in charge calmly sat down and began pondering what was so unusual about this incident.
“Why would the enemy abduct Luna? It’s only a guide and mascot for Magical Girls. It can’t create Magical Girls on its own, and the success rate isn’t even that high...”
“How much longer until the support team gets here?” she shouted to her subordinates.
“About five minutes!”
This was too strange. The enemy was clearly after Luna, and seemed to know that Magical Girls lived in this very city under their true identities.
“Tell the main force to prioritize rescuing the trapped A-037-0!”
“Yes!”
……
Meanwhile, Lin Xingyao was hurrying along in a concealed state when he suddenly heard a seductive female voice behind him. “Well, well. You’re an interesting one, handsome. How about coming to have some fun with big sis?~”
He turned around. A gigantic, five-meter-tall spider monster was staring straight at him, corrosive liquid dripping from its gaping maw.
Perhaps he was too nervous and wanted to lighten the mood, because Lin Xingyao blurted out:
“Um... miss, actually, I’m more into muscular guys...”
