Chapter 20: The Flower Withers, and Then—

Ren Huazhi couldn’t help but chuckle.

It was probably around this time last year, a chilly spring day. The early spring drizzle fell, nourishing all living things, but it couldn’t bring back the manuscript that was her heart and soul, her dearest kin.

So, with a churning hatred, she became a magical girl—a Nightmare slayer.

The sleepless Owl God tilted its head and said, “It happens to be the Guyu season in March. Your codename shall be ‘Guyu’.”

Ren Huazhi refused.

The codename sounded like it belonged to a system, one that even had a full roster of twenty-four members, enough to film four seasons of Super Sentai.

But Ren Huazhi didn’t want to be a part of a “system.”

She had fled her family, her school, the vast system that society had constructed for everyone. She wanted to slip into the vacuum between people, to live quietly, deceiving the world.

She wanted to write a story that belonged only to her, a story she could look back on with pride when her youth had faded.

And a powerful, beautiful, heroic magical girl… was very suitable to be the protagonist of her story. She planned to experience being a magical girl for a while, to gather some first-person perspective material, and then to simply disappear, cutting all ties with glory and legend, and return to the inconspicuous life of Ren Huazhi.

But the rain of Guyu had still caught up with her.

It had soaked her through and through.

From then on, she could never stay out of it.

—And so, Ren Huazhi raised her gunblade.

Over Jingzhe’s shoulder, through the white lines of the rain, the muzzle pressed against the back of the blade gathered magical power and aimed at a spot a hundred meters away.

It was the entrance to the Yangtze River Bridge. The pillar was covered with signs. The second one from the top was “No Trucks Allowed.”

—Bang!

The right side of the metal sign was hit, and the impact sent it spinning counter-clockwise about 45 degrees.

“Perfect!”

Jingzhe wrenched the handlebars. The motorcycle tires screeched on the wet road, a sound mixed with the splashing of water. The rear seat swung out ninety degrees, and the front of the bike pointed towards the bridgehead park at the bottom of the on-ramp.

“Hold on tight, we’re going for a fast descent!”

“Where did you learn to drive like that?!”

Ren Huazhi was once again convinced that Jingzhe was not Xu Panpan herself. Something had possessed her!

The motorcycle revved its engine to the max, did a daredevil wheelie—

And flew off the viaduct!

“Ah—?”

Ren Huazhi felt herself floating.

First, her butt left the seat, then her legs could no longer reach the bike’s body. She was like a kite let loose, her only connection to the vehicle being Jingzhe’s slender waist.

And then, even Jingzhe herself was hanging in the air!

Like two victims falling off a cliff, desperately clinging to the motorcycle’s handlebars, their last lifeline.

“Prepare for landing!”

Before the words were out, the two of them and the bike had already hit the ground.

Thud!

Ren Huazhi’s stomach was slammed by the raised bumper at the rear of the racing bike. Her body was bent into an L-shape, and the reduced impact still almost made her throw up her breakfast inside her mask.

Jingzhe, on the other hand, just before landing, was enveloped in golden electric light. Her whole body, with no leverage in mid-air, shifted a distance horizontally. The inertia of her fall vanished into thin air, and she rolled lightly on the park lawn, landing smoothly and safely.

She had no time to spare for the twitching Ren Huazhi on the ground. She ran to the open space and activated the box that Meng Qiuxu had airdropped.

The front metal plate opened.

Inside the protective gel layer lay a greatsword.

The sword from Ren Huazhi’s sword and shield set was already large for a normal person, falling into the “greatsword” category. But this sword was completely devoid of any realistic elements, like a door panel!

Wide and heavy, when stood upright on the ground, it almost hid its user in its shadow. Jingzhe pulled the hilt, dragging the greatsword across the ground, and slung it diagonally across her back at an angle suitable for exerting force.

The truck followed the two of them and plunged off the viaduct.

Leaping down from a height of dozens of meters, the thick black smoke trailing behind it was like a bungee cord.

“‘Spring Storm’.”

Jingzhe looked up, holding the greatsword steady. Lightning-attribute magical power was steadily channeled into the blade, forming golden patterns like tree branches, or rather, like lightning.

Her twin tails and skirt fluttered in the wind. Her dignified posture, with her back to Ren Huazhi, was just like—

A “Hero.”

Facing the free-falling truck, the greatsword, propelled by electric current, swung out in a powerful upward slash from the lower right to the upper left!

The blunt, heavy blade embedded itself at a 45-degree angle into the side of the truck’s front.

The headlights, which had been on high beam the whole time, shattered.

From the point of contact, as if being devoured by a steel monster, the outer two-thirds of the greatsword disappeared into the roaring front hood.

The engine, which drew its kinetic energy from nightmares, shattered.

The lightning crawled from the blade onto the Nightmare’s shell. It had only chiseled about ten centimeters into the engine before the normal mechanical structure blurred, revealing the Nightmare’s truest form—a viscous, damp fear.

To think that this beast, which had charged out from a dark corner of the dream world, had once carried sand, cargo containers, steel coils, and the entirety of a poor family’s belongings?

But now, it was just a burning, empty shell.

A clap of thunder.

The rain clouds… the rain clouds summoned by Ren Huazhi’s magical power were also split apart by this single slash. Like a spring thunderstorm that suddenly arrives and then recedes, it revealed the originally clear, azure sky.

The truck, split in two from top to bottom, dissolved into black smoke and vanished before it could hit the ground.

“…Phew.”

Jingzhe lowered her greatsword and let out a long, slow breath.

“The two of us are so strong,” Ren Huazhi applauded her.

“Right?”

To her surprise, Jingzhe didn’t seem to mind Ren Huazhi’s delicate participation rate of only firing one shot the entire time. She stuck the greatsword into the soft, rain-soaked earth and turned to take Ren Huazhi’s hand.

“You bring the rain, I bring the thunder. Water and electricity working together, we’re the perfect match! Stop clashing weather with that fire-playing woman. Let’s work together more in the future!”

“W-Work together…”

Ren Huazhi looked troubled. She still hadn’t figured out what was going on with Xu Panpan’s transformation, how she seemed to have become a completely different person… But maybe if she stuck around, she could uncover the secret sooner?

It seemed like enough plot for a whole volume.

“Alright, if there’s a chance next time…”

Before Ren Huazhi could finish her polite reply, Jingzhe suddenly rubbed her eyes, looking very sleepy, and fell forward onto her chest.

“?!”

“My turn… is over…”

Muttering some nonsensical words, she fell asleep in Ren Huazhi’s arms.

The battle was over. The hair color and clothes that had been changed by magical power also returned to their original state… It really was Xu Panpan. Watching the familiar process of transformation dispelling, Ren Huazhi was actually a little envious.

In the bridgehead park, where the rain had cleared, in the center of the Nightmare disaster information blackout zone, a suspicious person in white armor was holding an unconscious, frail girl, with a terrifying greatsword stuck in the ground next to them. It looked like a crime scene in every way.

If a photo was taken, she would probably be invited for a “cup of tea” the next day.

Fortunately, she had cut off the communication beforehand, otherwise, Meng Qiuxu would have at least teased her a bit in her ear.

Ren Huazhi hadn’t decided how to deal with Xu Panpan yet, whether to just leave her here or take her straight home. The girl in her arms’ eyelids fluttered, and she woke up.

“…Brother Ren?”

The first words out of her mouth were, of course, these.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Ren Huazhi answered calmly.

“Where did you take me? Is this still Nancheng… Could it be that we were both killed by the Nightmare’s exhaust and are now having a reunion in heaven?”

“What are you talking about?” Ren Huazhi couldn’t help but laugh. “The Yangtze River Bridge is right next to us. You should have at least seen it, even if you’ve never walked on it. As for the Nightmare, it’s already been taken care of.”

“Brother Ren is so amazing, you can fight Nightmares even without being a magical girl.”

Xu Panpan wasn’t being sarcastic for once, which was a little unsettling.

“…I worked together with a magical girl named Jingzhe to defeat it. I just provided support.”

Ren Huazhi gently pushed Xu Panpan away.

“I’ll take you home. Look, there’s a motorcycle right next to us. I hope it has a helmet in the basket.”

“Brother Ren, are you really a Kamen Rider?”

“Yes, yes.”

“Brother Ren, can we meet again?”

“Yes, yes.”

“Brother Ren, why do you seem shorter?”

Ren Huazhi smiled helplessly:

“You’ve grown taller, my little ancestor.”