Chapter 30: So, the Real Combat Blackening Almost Happened!

His mind gave a loud buzz—then went utterly blank.

Right in front of him was Luo Shaotian’s face, close enough to touch—full of uprightness and concern, the face most familiar to him, and also the last one he wanted to see him like this.

Luo Shaotian seemed to notice Lin Yu’s helplessness. He lifted his gaze and silently stared at Leo for three long seconds.

“Leo, go back. She’s not interested in you.”

Those three seconds dragged like an eternity for Leo.

Finally, he admitted defeat, dragging his companion away in near flight, vanishing in disgrace into the crowd.

An impending social disaster had been dissolved by Luo Shaotian with just two understated sentences.

When the surroundings returned to their usual chatter, Luo Shaotian turned back.

That air of police authority melted away at once, replaced by the warmth Lin Yu remembered best—the gentle sunlight of genuine concern.

“Are you all right?”

He looked at the “girl” before him, still with her head lowered, shoulders trembling ever so slightly, and softened his voice as much as possible.

“Don’t be afraid. They’re gone now.”

After half a minute of total system crash, Lin Yu’s brain finally rebooted.

He didn’t dare lift his head. He didn’t dare meet those righteous eyes of Luo Shaotian’s.

He was afraid that from these unfamiliar green pupils, Luo Shaotian might glimpse the familiar, broken soul beneath.

He could only force out a thin, brittle voice in the falsetto of a girl:

“…Thank you.”

Behind that single word of gratitude surged a stormy sea within.

…Again.

A voice heavy with sorrow and self-loathing echoed inside him.

Back in college it was the same. Now it’s the same again… Why is it, every time I’m at my lowest, my most humiliating, my most clownish—why is it always you who shows up?

He felt like a protagonist trapped in a tragic loop, doomed to be exposed by the same ray of light, sprawled in the same mud, no matter how he struggled.

Look at you. Then look at me…

You wear the uniform, a police officer protecting the city—a true civil servant, a hero with official rank. And me? Dressed in this ridiculous girl’s outfit, doing shady work that doesn’t even count as proper contract labor…

“Magical girl”? Does that count as civil service? Like hell it does!

Luo Shaotian, watching the “girl” who could barely even stammer a thank you, felt a faint crease between his brows.

His instincts as a policeman told him immediately that something was wrong with her state.

This wasn’t just shyness—it looked more like the unsteady aftermath of a major shock, a textbook stress reaction.

“Did something happen to you?”

He took half a step forward, lowered his stance, and asked in the gentlest tone possible, careful not to apply pressure:

“Where are your friends? A girl alone out here isn’t safe. Should I… help you get in touch with them?”

Every word was pure kindness, without the faintest shadow of ulterior motive.

But to Lin Yu in this moment, that kindness felt like a searing brand pressed mercilessly into his soul.

…Stop asking.

He screamed inwardly.

Please, stop asking! What the hell am I supposed to say?! That one of my friends is a poker-faced violence junkie, and the other’s a scheming little devil, and they’re probably hiding somewhere watching me get publicly executed for fun?!

His head had become a boiling cauldron of lies and panic.

One more word, and the soul of “Lin Yu” might burst through the skin of this “Gray Crystal” girl.

So he forced out only a few vague, broken syllables:

“…Mm.”

“…I’m fine.”

“…They’ll… be back soon…”

The twisted mask of gratitude, shame, inferiority, and fear on his face was automatically reinterpreted by Luo Shaotian—guardian of the “normal world”—into a far more innocent image:

A shy young girl, inexperienced and introverted, startled by the unwanted approach of strangers, now flustered and unsure.

Luo Shaotian understood immediately.

He realized his own aura as a police officer might itself be intimidating to such a “startled little bird.”

So he stopped pressing.

He stepped back, restoring a comfortable buffer of “safe distance.”

The sternness of the officer faded from his expression, replaced once more by that warm smile Lin Yu remembered.

“All right,” he said, in the tone one might use to soothe a small animal.

“Since your friends will be back soon, I won’t trouble you further.”

He gave a gentle nod to the fragile “girl” who seemed in need of protection.

Then, without hesitation, he turned and melted back into the bright, orderly, bustling crowd of F District—the world where he belonged.

And Lin Yu, watching his back, felt himself sink deeper into darkness.

Not far away, by the central F District station exit, behind a massive holographic billboard flashing luxury ads—

Two figures peeked out, heads half exposed, eyes locked on the milk-tea shop.

“…Li Qing.”

Chen Bing’s voice was as frigid as a Siberian gale.

She drew back her gaze and turned to the pink-haired culprit at her side, who clutched a pink telescope and watched with relish.

“This is what you call a ‘stress test’?”

“Heh heh~”

Li Qing lowered the binoculars, her face blooming with the mischievous triumph of a little devil whose scheme had worked.

Utterly ignoring the freezing pressure radiating from Chen Bing, she adjusted the focus again and delivered her “professional” commentary in the tone of a top paparazzi:

“Of course! Come on, Chen Bing-jie, don’t you see? That scene just now was a hundred times juicier than a prime-time soap!”

Her gossip radar blared full power, her whole body trembling with excitement.

“Look at senior’s eyes! Whoa… when he looked at that policeman, even those dead-fish eyes lit up!”

“But the light wasn’t complete—it mixed with inferiority, pain, nostalgia, and even a faint yearning he hasn’t realized himself! It’s just like the loser heroine who secretly pined for the senior three years straight, only to discover at graduation that he’s marrying the school beauty!”

“I’d bet next month’s performance bonus they know each other! And their relationship is very complicated!”

This shojo-manga analysis nearly crashed Chen Bing’s logic processors.

“…You watch too many anime.”

It was the only reality-based retort she could grind out through clenched teeth.

At the milk-tea shop—

After Luo Shaotian left, Lin Yu still sat stiffly, unmoving.

He didn’t get up. He didn’t touch the cup of melted sugar water.

He only stared blankly after Luo Shaotian, vanishing into the busy, glittering flow of F District.

…Not a bit changed, that guy…

A bitter, self-mocking voice echoed inside.

…Still just as dazzling, still that fool who trusts so easily, helps so easily…

…And me…

He lowered his gaze—to the slender legs in white stockings, the beige knit cardigan, this unfamiliar “girl’s” body that was not his.

…I’ve become something that doesn’t even have the right to stand before him—a monster.

The thought pierced him like a rusted, poisoned blade, stabbing into a heart long riddled with holes.

Once again, the tide of self-loathing surged, black and cold, rising to drown him whole.

Far off, Chen Bing watched Lin Yu, who looked ready to fossilize into a gray statue at any moment, her frown deepening.

She could feel it: Li Qing’s seemingly frivolous “test” had produced unexpected—and perhaps excessive—results.

“We’re going back,” Chen Bing said flatly, her tone leaving no room for refusal. “His mental state is unstable.”

“Ehh, don’t be so hasty, Chen Bing-jie~”

Li Qing still showed no sign of pulling back. She set aside her binoculars, that devil’s grin flashing again.

“I think it worked perfectly! Look, senior’s finally reflecting on his own identity crisis! That’s a huge breakthrough for the Magical-Girl-Heart Correction Plan! We should strike while the iron’s hot and—”

Her words cut off abruptly.

Those big, always-sparkling eyes blinked in confusion.

“…Huh?”

She tilted her head, pricking her ears like a wary animal.

“Don’t you guys feel… it suddenly got quieter around here?”

Prompted by her, Chen Bing’s soldier’s instincts immediately picked up the anomaly.

Yes.

The ever-present background of New Age music in F District had gone silent at some unknown moment.

The great fountain, once dancing in time with the music, now thrashed chaotically, like its signals were disrupted.

The surrounding crowds hadn’t noticed yet, still laughing in the neon paradise.

But Chen Bing’s back tightened instinctively.

“Li Qing,” she murmured, voice low and razor-sharp with pre-battle tension, “something’s wrong.”

“BZZZZZZZZZT—!!”

The moment her words dropped, shrill alarms screamed from all three of their terminals simultaneously!

Tourists jumped at the sudden, ominous sound, casting bewildered looks around.

But the trio no longer cared.

They snatched up their phones.

The familiar “Dawn Part-Time” app had been hijacked by a blood-red pop-up flashing EMERGENCY!

[Mission Type]: Emergency Contamination Purification
[Location]: F-02 District, Dreams of the Deep Aquarium, Building C—Tropical Coral Exhibit
[Target Info]: Detected Color-Lust spectrum energy waves. Source confirmed as D-class pollutant Siren Jellyfish.
[Danger Assessment]: C-rank (Threat Level: Medium / Spread Risk: High)
Note: Though D-class, target possesses wide-area mental interference. Incident location is densely populated, with high risk of mass panic and chaos. Mission escalated to C-rank.
[Directive]: All standby operatives nearest to site are to cease all nonessential activity immediately. Transform and move at top speed! Contain and purify the target. Minimize civilian impact!

The three girls’ faces flipped in an instant from “everyday” to “combat-ready.”

Li Qing’s playful grin vanished. For the first time, those sparkling eyes turned cold, sharpened with sniper’s killing intent.

Chen Bing flexed her wrists and neck with sharp crack sounds, her whole body like a blade sliding free of its sheath.

And Lin Yu—sitting before the milk-tea shop—was yanked violently from his abyss of self-loathing, slammed back into the icy reality by the blood-red mission briefing.

Then a voice like a devil instructor’s growled through his comms.

Chen Bing.

She glanced toward the crystalline-blue palace of the Dreams of the Deep Aquarium, then locked her knife-sharp eyes onto the rookie still dazed at the café table.

“Gray Crystal.”

Her voice cut like winter’s coldest wind, blowing away all excess emotion in Lin Yu’s head.

“What are you spacing out for?”

“Your magical-girl combat lesson—starts now.”