Chapter 13: Transformation

On Monday morning, at the time high school students should be waking up, the small courtyard housing two supposed high school students was peaceful and quiet.

Then came the time for middle and elementary school students to wake up, and it was still peacefully quiet.

Finally, at nearly ten o’clock, Ren Huazhi finally pushed open her door with a head of fluffy golden hair resembling a bird’s nest.

Given the structure of her two-square-meter dwelling, it seemed like she was opening her bedroom door, but in reality, she was also opening the door to her home, and her washstand was the communal one in the courtyard.

Xu Panpan would usually sleep for another hour or so, only waking up to forage for food around noon. The other unit in the courtyard was someone’s storage room, so Ren Huazhi was able to enjoy this rare moment of tranquility.

Last night, she had learned how to braid her hair into a fishtail from a great online tutorial video. She had also dug out a pair of toy sunglasses from under her bed, and combined with the woolen dome hat she had bought at the shopping plaza, this constituted “Ren Huazhi’s” daily attire—and disguise.

A change in demeanor could create a difference even with the same appearance.

This should prevent other magical girls from doxxing her offline and noticing that she looked exactly like The Flower Arranger… though such an accident was already extremely rare.

After brushing her teeth and washing her face, Ren Huazhi used her blessing to conjure a small handful of clear water in her palm. This magical water was quite miraculous; when applied to her hair and combed through, it could easily smooth out any flyaways.

Last autumn, she had encountered a soldier-type Nightmare, and Ren Huazhi had used this “Magical Girl Water Flow” trick to make the opponent’s weapon slip from its grasp, thus completing the subjugation… It felt more like a divine skill for internal strife, suited for use against Magical Hunting Gear.

Following the technique she had practiced last night, she separated her hair into three strands, layered, interspersed, and repeated the process several times to create a thick fishtail braid.

Her hair was surprisingly voluminous, almost like a furball. After being tied up, sunlight could still filter through the edges, giving the light golden hair a translucent, airy quality.

She took a step back.

A grimy mirror hung above the washbasin. In it, Ren Huazhi saw a brand-new self. Hmm, like a country bumpkin (a blonde one) who had just come to the city. A clear distinction from The Flower Arranger had been established.

“Alright—let’s go.”

She slung her bag over her shoulder and left the courtyard.

Although Ren Huazhi was a slacker who skipped school, she went out to gather material frequently, so she couldn’t really be called a hikikomori. Her temperament was indeed a bit gloomy, but now that she had become a beautiful girl, her good looks compensated for it.

Her destination for today was the Nancheng Library.

Located in the most prime location in the center of Nancheng, it was the largest library in Jiangsu, with a collection of hundreds of thousands of books.

The first impression one gets of a novelist is that they have a lot of books at home, but Ren Huazhi was different. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, but that she couldn’t. If she couldn’t resist buying more than ten books, these physical manifestations of knowledge and emotion would encroach upon her pitiful living space.

This was the age of the internet; e-books could be found for the vast majority of books. It lacked a certain sense of sanctity, but it was much more convenient.

And the Nancheng Library was for solving the problem of that small minority.

She swiped her library card at the entrance, and the electronic screen of the machine displayed the nostalgic face of a boy. There was no time to grieve for the disappearance of Ren Huazhi. Before the security guard could notice the impersonation, Ren Huazhi put away her library card and quickly walked into the library.

At the very top of the massive library building, upon reaching the rooftop, one could find a concrete hut that looked like a water and electricity room.

But this unassuming little hut was protected by multiple layers of access control. The library cards of the Nightmare Countermeasures Division’s research team had been granted extra permissions, allowing them to enter alone without on-site approval.

The library cards of the two giants of the civilian organization, the Magical Tea Party—The Flower Arranger and Dr. Meng Qiuxu—also had the same permissions.

The two sides maintained a balance of probing and restraint in their cooperation. The specific boundary was that as long as one did not delve into the essence of magical girls, The Flower Arranger would be a kind and easy-going friend.

So Ren Huazhi actually had two different library cards… She just didn’t want to hear the access control machine announce the name “The Flower Arranger” at the main entrance, for various reasons.

Inside the concrete walls of the hut was a carbon shell, with a thin metal layer sandwiched in between. An electric current flowed through it day and night, forming a three-dimensional phased array that isolated the inside from the outside—an island of electromagnetic signals, where nothing could get out and nothing could get in.

The highest-level security research findings on the dream world—and its derivatives, Nightmares and magical girls—were stored offline here.

This phased array could counteract the Anti-Civilization Field of Nightmares and was the only known method of direct confrontation. Its complex structure could not be widely implemented, and Nancheng had only this one top-level safe house.

…The lower-level ones had all been inadvertently passed by The Flower Arranger while walking her Nightmares like dogs, resulting in the data being distorted and destroyed.

Ren Huazhi waited outside the wall for a while, estimating that there was no one else inside, before tiptoeing in and swiping her card to enter.

[Authentication successful.]

[Welcome to NERV, Miss Flower Arranger.]

NERV was an abbreviation for Nightmare Emergency Response Vanguard—the official name of the Countermeasures Division.

Inside the concrete hut was a row of large server clusters with indicator lights twinkling like stars, an intranet computer with a workstation, and a fabric sofa for users to take a short rest.

Everything was exactly as it had been the last time Ren Huazhi came.

The kind familiarity made her let out a sigh of relief. She took a can of coffee from the mini-fridge next to the sofa and sat down at the computer.

She moved the mouse, and the old Windows 98 system interface lit up—”a delicate balance with the dynamic encryption technology of the post-millennium,” the designer had said at the time.

Ren Huazhi had to enter the safe house today, even at the risk of leaving an access record, to clarify one thing.

Was it the two-headed dog Nightmare?

No, that was just a small fry. She could leave it to Mangzhong.

Was it the latest news on the other magical girls?

No, everyone was active in Nancheng. They would run into each other eventually. Checking wouldn’t help her avoid them.

The information Ren Huazhi was eager to know was—the so-called “Boar God corrupted by a Nightmare” from Xu Panpan’s fantasy yesterday.

“…Hmm, I figured as much.”

The search results were, of course, completely blank.

Xu Panpan’s dream had given a clear location for the subjugation, Purple Mountain, but that national scenic area, whether it was 4A or 5A grade, had never had a Nightmare problem in the past year. Not even one had wandered in by accident.

Besides, if the level of corruption was so high that even the God of the Wilderness who granted blessings couldn’t resist it, it wasn’t something that could be solved by two mere magical girls rushing in and chopping off the boar’s head.

It was just the daydream of a little girl eager to achieve great things. That should be all it was…

After just two sips of coffee, Ren Huazhi dropped the mouse.

She felt she was getting a bit too into her role, even seeming like a workaholic. She didn’t know if it was because she had been a magical girl for too long and couldn’t switch back, or if she was adapting to the Kamen Rider identity too quickly.

Speaking of which, there wasn’t much difference between the two, was there?

They both transform into another form, hide their true selves and use codenames, and fight monsters to protect humanity.

Magical girls are Kamen Riders!

After her rambling thoughts, Ren Huazhi finally sighed:

“I’ll go to Purple Mountain tomorrow. I’ll just treat it as a spring outing to gather material… Why did I even fake my death in the first place?”