Chapter 16: Still a Riddler

Why did the other person know that she was a magical girl—and how did they manage to precisely add this newly created account? More importantly, what was their purpose in doing so?

Xia Kexin opened the group chat she had once joined before. In her memory, although this group sometimes discussed incidents involving anomalies, most of the time it revolved around general anime-related topics. When there were conventions or other events, people would also use the group to arrange meetups.

So… why was she pulled into such a group now?

She couldn’t figure it out at all. If someone had the ability to uncover her true identity, why not use it for something else? After all, even as a magical girl, she was still a complete novice.

She clasped her hands under her chin and lowered her head, lost in thought. She didn’t even notice that the driver had already stopped the car at her apartment building.

Her troubled expression was obvious. Lu Qisi, who had stepped out first, turned back after seeing that no one was following, and looked into the car: “What’s wrong? Did you fall asleep?”

“Ah, no.”

Snapped out of her thoughts, Kexin quickly got out of the car, and as she closed the door, the driver pressed the accelerator and turned to leave the complex.

“By the way, Kexin, did something happen? You look pretty serious.”

As they walked into the apartment elevator—now on her own turf—Kexin glanced at Qisi, confirming she was paying attention, and spoke slowly: “It seems… someone knows my identity.”

“Hm? Ruo Lin and the others?”

Qisi first thought of their classmates, whom they had been frequently interacting with recently. Honestly, that would be a huge problem. Most of the time, all she had to do was get to the scene and deal with the anomaly; she never expected to encounter classmates there. Usually, all she would see were already-cold corpses…

The elevator reached the fourth floor, where they lived. Kexin tilted her phone so that Qisi could see.

The account named [Kagura Mafuyu] had only sent one message—nothing more.

If the intention was to threaten her or for some other purpose, Kexin felt she could handle it—at least with a clear objective, she could respond more precisely.

Looking at the avatar in the chat, Kexin desperately wanted to trace the person behind it, but currently, the most unlikely suspects were the strange four classmates in her class. She shook her head and placed the NFC area of her phone against the door lock: “Those four are still talking to the Special Investigation Bureau. They probably don’t have time to mess with this, and even if they did, they likely wouldn’t recognize us.”

As for common features between her transformed and untransformed selves, the main one was her pink hair. Other magical girls’ transformed hair colors rarely stood out so much.

Take Qisi, for example—her hair only looked like a slightly dyed yellow. It was very different from her orange-colored transformed hair.

Other body features were blurred due to magical interference; only someone who also understood this magic could ignore such low-level perceptual interference.

That obviously didn’t apply to the four classmates: three showed minor magic fluctuations, weaker than half of a B-level anomaly, and one didn’t show any magic at all.

“So… what’s going on?”

“What’s puzzling me is that there’s no reason for anyone to have targeted me.”

“You’re thinking about this the wrong way, Kexin.”

“Huh?” Kexin, just about to walk to her room, stopped in her tracks. Was there something she had overlooked?

“You’re so cute that people notice you everywhere. Isn’t it normal for ill-intentioned people to target someone like that?”

“Huh?”

Before Kexin could react to the nonsense Qisi was saying, Qisi suddenly stepped forward, closing the distance, and wrapped Kexin in a tight embrace.

Being half a head taller, Qisi even pressed her nose against Kexin’s head and inhaled deeply.

“Hey! What are you doing?”

“Recharging energy from a cute girl.”

“I’m not—”

Kexin nearly blurted out that she wasn’t a girl—but thankfully stopped herself. Mainly because speaking made her realize her face was pressed into a less-than-ideal spot; even moving her lips slightly would have bumped into something.

“Don’t worry. Whoever tries to harm you, I won’t allow it. After all, I’m your senior.”

“…”

Hearing this, Kexin believed her. Although this senior wasn’t always serious, when she was, she could be trusted.

It would have been better if she wasn’t simultaneously touching her head while speaking. And now, every breath Kexin took was filled with Qisi’s scent; she began to feel suffocated, her consciousness starting to blur…

“Help! I can’t breathe!”

Just as Kexin wondered when she’d be free, Gu Ruoyan opened the door. What she saw was this scene. Without hesitation, she pulled Qisi away and positioned Kexin behind her.

Freed from Qisi’s embrace, Kexin took deep breaths, her mind clearing a bit.

The other roommates in this dorm were experienced magical girls. Being the last to arrive, Kexin naturally became the one under their care.

Gu Ruoyan, rated B, was considered a core member of the Special Investigation Bureau.

“I was just comforting Kexin! Don’t think I’m like you guys.”

“Excuses won’t work. I saw everything.”

“You must be seeing things. Go back to sleep.”

“No, I just woke up. Wait… what time is it?”

Gu Ruoyan yawned, glanced at her watch, and her eyes widened: “Crap! It’s almost eleven! I have to go out immediately.”

She didn’t have time to argue with Qisi and hurried back to her room.

Kexin, still confused, noticed that Gu Ruoyan rarely left her room except for school or missions, and didn’t have many friends.

Not long after, Gu Ruoyan reappeared, hurriedly dressed in a brand-new dress instead of her loose pajamas, and passed by the two without a word.

After the door slammed, Kexin turned to Qisi: “Was that urgent?”

“Who knows? But I guess Yè Ziyue just finished an outside mission and is coming back. They’re close.”

Xia Kexin had seen the name Yè Ziyue on the apartment roster, but never met her in person.

“Wonder what she’s like…”

“Well, we’ll find out tomorrow. It’s late now—rest first. Everything else can wait until morning.”

Qisi yawned and went to her room after saying goodnight.

Even so, Kexin couldn’t stop thinking about it. Lying in bed, she stared at her phone screen, but the mysterious user hadn’t sent a single message.

Meanwhile, the group chat was alive as usual, messages piling up by the minute. Perhaps some clues could be found there.

‘Have you heard? Today at Dongzhuang Garden…’

As expected, the conversation was about today’s events, and these people clearly didn’t trust the official statements.

The Special Investigation Bureau’s secrecy wasn’t as effective as imagined.

Fine. She’d report this to the Bureau herself. Thinking about it endlessly wouldn’t solve anything.

Kexin tossed her phone onto the nightstand and went to the wardrobe.

Then, her phone pinged. She quickly grabbed it from the bed:

‘Kagura Mafuyu: If you want to know more, don’t report this to the Bureau.’