In the lounge area of Dawning Company, Li Qing bit down on her straw while thumping her chest with loud smacks.
She looked so brimming with confidence it was as if she were an encyclopedia of the magical girl world.
“I think I get what that foreign doctor meant—your magical girl power isn’t pure enough, right?
Then isn’t the solution super simple?”
She suddenly leaned close to Lin Yu, her fox-like eyes gleaming with an unsettling sharp light.
“Senpai, you just need to try—completely and utterly—to live like a real girl for a while!”
“Ha?”
Lin Yu’s mouth twitched.
“Oh, don’t look so skeptical!”
Li Qing wrapped her arms around his and gave it a shake.
“If you ask me, Senpai, you’re just too rough in your daily life!
Sure, your transformed shell is top-tier, but deep down you still give off this… hmm, how do I put it?
Oh right—hardcore shut-in vibes!”
“With that kind of mindset, how are you supposed to bring out a magical girl’s power?
A magical girl has to sparkle, be refined, be adorable!”
The more Li Qing spoke, the more excited she became, even starting to gesture wildly with her hands.
“So yeah, you just need to turn yourself inside and out into a pretty, soft, sweet little girl!”
“If you do that, your heart’s power will skyrocket, won’t it?”
“…”
Looking at Li Qing’s fanatical expression, Lin Yu felt a dull ache begin to form in his stomach.
‘This woman is absolutely a chaos gremlin!
If I don’t refuse, she might dress me up in some landmine-style dark lolita outfit tomorrow and drag me to the city center to take photo booth pictures!’
“I’ll… think about it.”
“…Live like a girl, huh?”
Inside the training room, Chen Bing, who had just finished a set of high-intensity machine exercises, wiped the sweat from her neck with a towel and spoke thoughtfully.
Compared to Li Qing’s unreliable enthusiasm, this B-rank big sister was clearly far more rational.
“Although that girl loves fooling around, this time… what she said isn’t entirely without reason.”
Chen Bing unscrewed a bottle of mineral water and tilted her head back for a drink.
“Li Qing entered the field relatively late, and her talent isn’t top-tier either, which is why she’s still stuck at C-rank.”
“But there’s one thing she does very well—despite being seventeen, which counts as relatively old in this industry, she maintains an extremely high synchronization rate.”
“The reason is simple.
She genuinely enjoys the identity of being a girl.
She believes cute is justice.
She believes desserts can heal everything.”
“That pure maiden heart is the source of her power.”
At that, Chen Bing paused and looked at Lin Yu.
“But objectively speaking… I don’t think her method suits you.”
Lin Yu nearly burst into tears of gratitude and nodded vigorously.
“Exactly, exactly!
Sister Bing is wise!
I’m a grown man—if I had to act all cutesy like her every day, I’d make myself sick!”
“Correct.”
Chen Bing nodded calmly.
“A forced melon isn’t sweet.
If we make you wear those macaron-sweet dresses and act cute, it’ll only intensify your self-loathing and cognitive dissonance.
Not only would that fail to enhance your idealistic power—it would harm it.”
“Everyone’s heart is different.”
“Li Qing has her path.
I have mine.”
“My path is protection and responsibility.
That’s why I can construct an indestructible [Great Wall].”
“And you…”
Chen Bing looked at Lin Yu, a trace of meaning flickering in her eyes.
“Your situation is too special.
You’re male, yet you’re also a magical girl.”
“You’re greedy and afraid of death, yet at critical moments you still step forward.”
“So you need to find a path… that belongs only to you.”
“A path… that belongs only to me?”
Lin Yu murmured, feeling more confused than enlightened.
“In this regard, I can’t offer much advice.”
Chen Bing draped the towel over her shoulder.
“But regarding the power of the heart… you could ask Yano Hotaru.”
“My own path was something I realized only after her guidance.”
“Don’t let her age fool you.
In spiritual philosophy… she’s a true genius.”
Thus, carrying his final shred of hope, Lin Yu knocked on the “genius’s” door.
Only, the state this genius was currently in… was rather difficult to praise.
In a dim corner, Yano Hotaru had curled herself into a tiny ball, sinking deep into an oversized beanbag chair.
She wore noise-canceling headphones and held a family-sized bag of cucumber-flavored chips.
On the tablet in front of her, the latest seasonal anime was playing.
“Crunch.
Crunch.”
The crisp chewing sounds carried a steady rhythm.
Steeling himself, Lin Yu walked over and carefully repeated Dr. De’s diagnosis and his own confusion.
After listening, Yano Hotaru did not respond immediately.
She simply paused the anime, slowly swallowed the chips in her mouth, and licked the seasoning powder from her fingers.
Then her perpetually drowsy dark-cyan eyes narrowed slightly beneath her bangs as she looked at him.
“Rookie, do you know Wang Yangming?”
“…Huh?”
Lin Yu froze.
This development…
Wasn’t it a little off?
Weren’t they discussing the power system of magical girls?
Why had they suddenly switched to ancient Chinese philosophy?
“Wang… Wang Yangming?”
Lin Yu scratched his head, desperately rummaging through his pitiful historical knowledge.
“I think… I’ve heard of him?
That guy who attained enlightenment in Longchang, then went to catch bandits…
A Ming Dynasty civil servant?”
“Close enough.”
Yano Hotaru grabbed another chip and bit off half with a loud crunch.
“He proposed a theoretical system called ‘Mind Learning.’¹
Seek within yourself, not from external things.
One’s nature is self-sufficient; no need to seek outside.
The sage’s way is complete within one’s own nature—those who seek principles in external affairs are mistaken.”
She recited the obscure classical prose in her flat, loli-like voice while munching on chips.
The contrast was overwhelming.
“This extreme idealist philosophy…
I think, for your current situation—
For finding the key that opens your heart—it should be helpful.”
Lin Yu listened in a daze, his expression slowly twisting into something resembling a distressed emoji.
“Um… Senior?”
He raised his hand awkwardly.
“It sounds very impressive, the kind of thing that makes you feel awe even if you don’t understand it…
But could you maybe… explain it in normal human language?
My education level is low.
I really don’t get it…”
“Haa…”
Yano Hotaru let out a long sigh and finally turned her head fully toward him, revealing an expression that practically screamed, “Why are rookies this hard to teach?”
“Idiot.”
She pointed at his chest with a chip-dusted finger.
“In simple terms—stop running around like a headless fly.”
“Go back to your daily life.
And then try to find—
The reason that truly makes you happy, the reason that makes you sincerely willing to become a magical girl.”
“The ‘reason’?”
Lin Yu blinked, then instinctively blurted out:
“Isn’t that money?
Do I even need to look for that?”
“It’s definitely not money.
It absolutely isn’t money.”
Yano Hotaru shook her head, her certainty making Lin Yu feel inexplicably guilty.
She turned her gaze back to the tablet and tapped the screen lightly.
The paused anime resumed playing.
The glow of the screen reflected in her pupils.
“If it were really just for money…”
“You would’ve died during the earlier missions.”
¹ Mind Learning: A philosophical school founded by Wang Yangming in the Ming Dynasty, emphasizing innate moral knowledge and self-reflection rather than seeking truth in external things.
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She loves Luo