Chapter 5: The Price of Innocence

Xia Yue maintained the close proximity, her sapphire-like eyes deeply fixated on Jin. The air was thick with the cool scent of gardenias and an invisible tension.

“Jin,” Xia Yue’s voice was soft, yet it felt like a feather teasing her most sensitive nerves. “Before this… have you ever been in a relationship? Or, have you ever kissed someone?”

The question came abruptly, Jin’s mind, already muddled by the previous tension and their current closeness, struggled to process it. She didn’t think much, almost instinctively, with a self-deprecating humility, eager to prove her harmlessness, confessed: “I… I’m just a small-fry witch like this. For the past two years, I’ve used all my strength just trying to survive and evade you all… evading the Magical Girls’ pursuit. Where would I find the time… to, to think about such things?”

She even attempted to force a strained smile, hoping to alleviate the overly ambiguous and tense atmosphere.

However, the expected understanding or relaxation did not appear on Xia Yue’s face. Instead, the temperature in her deep eyes seemed to plummet even further, even a flicker of… displeasure? Or perhaps, a deeper, darker emotion.

“None?” Xia Yue repeated, her tone flat, yet imbued with the oppressive foreboding of a coming storm. “Not even once?”

“R-really, none…” Jin felt a prickle of dread under Xia Yue’s gaze, her voice growing fainter, her body instinctively wanting to retreat.

But it was too late.

Xia Yue suddenly moved.

The hand that had been resting on Jin’s waist suddenly tightened with force, while her other hand swiftly pinned Jin’s delicate wrist. Her movements were astonishingly swift, exerting an absolute suppression of strength that allowed no room for resistance.

“Ah!” Jin only managed a short gasp of surprise, as the world spun around her, her back already sinking heavily into the soft bedding behind her.

Xia Yue loomed over her, gazing down, her long blue hair falling like a waterfall, strands brushing against Jin’s burning cheeks. Those eyes, usually so calm and composed, now surged with an undercurrent Jin couldn’t comprehend, like a raging vortex hidden beneath a frozen sea.

Jin was completely stunned, her mind a blank. She tried to struggle, but her wrists were held firmly by Xia Yue against the pillow, the force astonishingly strong, rendering her body, truly that of a “small-fry witch,” utterly immobile. Frail, pathetic, and powerless—these three words were epitomized in her at this moment.

“X-Xia Yue…?” Jin’s voice trembled uncontrollably, like a flickering candle in the wind. She looked up at the girl above her, fear coiling around her heart like icy vines.

She didn’t understand why confessing her “innocence” seemed to have angered the other party instead.

Xia Yue didn’t answer immediately, merely watching her silently, her gaze tracing from Jin’s wide, panic-stricken eyes, slowly down to her chest, which rose and fell with rapid breaths, finally settling on her naturally pink lips, trembling slightly from nervousness.

That gaze carried scrutiny, inquiry, and, even more profoundly, a nearly ravenous possessiveness.

“Never, then…” Xia Yue murmured to herself, as if confirming, or perhaps making a declaration. She leaned closer, their noses almost touching, their warm breaths intertwining, creating an intimacy that was suffocating.

“That’s good.” She finally spoke again, her voice low and magnetic, imbued with an undeniable finality, as if a judge delivering a verdict. “Your first time… everything about you, should be mine.”

“From now on, you only need to get used to me.”

The moment the words fell, Jin watched in horror as Xia Yue’s face magnified before her eyes, those lips, always so calmly detached, now pressed down upon her with an irresistible force.

Jin desperately closed her eyes, her body rigid as stone, able only to passively endure this sudden “sentence” and the imminent, unknown intimacy.

She realized clearly once again that before these two “masters,” she, a weak witch, had no right to refuse.

Jin’s confession—her blank emotional history—was like a pristine canvas, strongly tempting Xia Yue to immediately and completely splash it with her own colors, allowing no impurities to stain it.

The so-called “sharing,” deep within her heart, had always been merely an extremely limited concession made to Lin Wan, for the sake of maintaining superficial peace and their long-standing relationship.

Just as her lips were about to meet Jin’s soft ones, trembling slightly with fear—

“Bang!”

The loud crash of the door being violently flung open, like a clap of thunder, abruptly tore through the thick and dangerous intimacy in the room.

“Xia Yue! What are you doing?!”

Lin Wan’s scream, full of shock and fury, pierced the air like a blade.

Xia Yue’s movement abruptly froze, her lips mere millimeters from Jin’s. The possessiveness surging in her eyes was instantly suppressed, transforming into an unfathomable coldness and a flicker of extreme displeasure at being disturbed. She slowly straightened up, but one hand remained oppressively propped beside Jin’s ear, as if declaring undeniable sovereignty.

Jin seized the chance to turn her head away as if escaping death, gasping violently, her small chest rising and falling rapidly. The exhaustion of surviving a close call and the shame of being caught almost made her faint.

Lin Wan stood in the doorway, the strawberry daifuku she had bought for Jin dropping to the floor, its packaging tearing open, allowing the plump mochi balls to roll out. Her eyes blazed with fury as she glared at the two figures almost overlapping on the bed, especially Xia Yue’s clearly domineering and forceful posture, and Jin’s paper-white, startled face.

“A-Yue!” Lin Wan’s voice was sharp with anger and a sense of heartbroken betrayal. “We agreed! We’re ‘accomplices’! How could you do this behind my back…? Were you trying to sneak ahead?! Did you want to monopolize Jin’s first kiss?!”

“Sneak ahead? Monopolize?” Xia Yue’s voice was cold as ice; she deliberately ignored the word “accomplices,” her gaze piercing Lin Wan. “In your eyes, that casual cheek kiss, like a game reward, wasn’t ‘crossing the line’?” Her voice was laced with suppressed fury. “In the classroom, in broad daylight, you made her perform a so-called ‘punishment’ like a teased pet! Lin Wan, that was the greatest disrespect and desecration to her, and to this ‘relationship’—!”

What she truly could not tolerate was Lin Wan, without her permission, and even with a naive yet cruel display, being the first to leave such a casual yet intimate mark on Jin. In her perception, this was a serious defilement and provocation.

“Forcing her?” Xia Yue sneered, her laugh devoid of any warmth, containing only long-suppressed impatience and a sense of superiority. “I am merely guiding her towards what truly meaningful intimacy entails. As for you, Lin Wan, your childish games serve no purpose other than to confuse her and devalue her!”

She took a step forward, a chilling aura spreading around her, frost beginning to crystallize on the floor. “Out of consideration for our past, I allowed you to approach her, but that does not mean you can act recklessly and challenge my bottom line. All of her, from the tips of her hair to her fingertips, from her first kiss to everything that follows, should be mine to lead! You, had best recognize your place!”

“You’re the one who needs to recognize your place! Control freak! Obsessive maniac!” Lin Wan was completely enraged. “Give Jin back to me!”

A dazzling bolt of electricity, like an angry whip, lashed violently towards Xia Yue!

Xia Yue’s eyes sharpened, already prepared. A thick, sharp-edged ice shield instantly materialized before her, not only blocking the electric bolt, but also erupting with countless fine ice needles that surged back towards Lin Wan!

“Screech—!”

Ice and electricity collided violently, energy currents scattering everywhere. The furnishings in the room were thrown askew, walls rapidly covered in ice then scorched black by the electric light.

“Give back?” Xia Yue floated upwards, her long blue hair moving without a breeze, a high-speed swirling storm of ice crystals encircling her, the room temperature plummeting, breath freezing into mist. “She has always been my most important, exclusively cherished possession. My tolerance is not a bargaining chip for you to take advantage of!”

“You’re talking nonsense! I discovered Jin first! I don’t need your tolerance; rather, I’m tolerating you!” Lin Wan’s body blazed with electricity, condensing into a dazzling spear that, with crackling bursts, she hurled fiercely!

“Discovered? What a childish claim.” Xia Yue waved her hand, an ice sword slashing towards the lightning spear, her cold tone imbued with absolute possessiveness. “Ownership is not based on who came first, but on who is more capable of giving her ‘correct’ affection and protection. And you, clearly, are not among them!”

“You bastard!”

Frost and lightning completely spiraled out of control, colliding and tearing at each other wildly within the confined space. The two Magical Girls no longer held back, each clash carrying a fierce resolve to destroy the other, their magic surging, causing the room to tremble violently, as if it could collapse at any moment.

However, if an observer were to look closely, they would notice that the deadly ice shards and raging electric snakes always, at the very last moment, subtly avoided the small, trembling figure curled up in the corner of the bed. This war, born for her, paradoxically maintained a dangerous “safety” at its center for her.

But at this moment, Kazami Jin could no longer feel this twisted “protection.”

She hugged herself tightly, burying her face deep in her knees, her body trembling uncontrollably, tears soaking her skirt.

“Pet,” “desecration,” “exclusive,” “correct” affection, “ownership”… Every single word was like a searing brand, fiercely burning into her heart, incinerating her last faint glimmer of hope that she “might be treated as a human being.”

It turned out that whether it was Xia Yue’s obsessive, monopolistic “affection,” or Lin Wan’s passionate, shared “liking,” both were founded on her objectification.

She was a precious collectible, a pet whose ownership needed to be defined, not a person with thoughts, feelings, fears, or despair.

A tidal wave of immense sorrow and humiliation washed over her fear, giving rise to a desperate courage.

She couldn’t go on like this any longer! She would be completely torn apart by them! Both her body and her soul!

Taking advantage of the blinding flash and deafening roar from another ice-and-lightning clash, taking advantage of the fleeting moment when both were fully absorbed in each other, their magical perception slightly disordered by intense emotions—

Jin used all her strength, like a small beast driven to desperation, and slid off the edge of the bed.

She dared not stand; that would make her too large a target.

Using both hands and feet, her small body pressed tightly against the bone-chilling floor, driven by her survival instinct, she crawled towards the already open door, which had been flung wide by the continuous vibrations, trembling yet incredibly resolute.

Her elbows and knees scraped painfully against the ice shards and charred floor. Scattered energy ripples brushed her body, bringing waves of sharp pain and numbness, but she gritted her teeth, not daring to make the slightest sound, even holding her breath.

Tears blurred the path ahead, despair choked her heartbeat, but the will to escape supported her frail body.

A little more, just a little more… She carefully crawled past the chaotic area near the doorway, her small figure finally disappearing completely into the relatively dim shadows of the corridor outside the room.

Inside the room, the destructive symphony of ice and electricity continued, the two girls, immersed in their struggle for “ownership,” had not yet realized that their jointly “cherished,” weak and pitiful witch, whom they regarded as their possession, had secretly escaped, powered by a faint yet tenacious will to survive born from being pushed to the brink.

The corridor’s shadows swallowed Jin’s figure, leaving behind only the echoes of the seemingly endless war in the room, fought for the sake of “owning” her.