Chapter 3: The Unexpected Magical Girl

Question: If the opportunity to become a magical girl stood before you, would you choose to become one?

He Yao actually didn’t know the answer to this question. Although he enjoyed magical girl anime and manga, he had never truly considered that such a question might one day confront him personally.

‘What was he to do?’

****

Let’s rewind half an hour.

Strolling along the street, He Yao was already planning how to leverage his second-place class ranking into a reward from his parents. That money, he mused, would be perfectly spent on the latest gacha event in his favorite mobile game.

His family, in truth, was quite well-off.

He had experienced some friction with his parents in earlier years, but with Teacher Lin’s intervention, they had reached an agreement: as long as he maintained excellent grades, he was free to do as he pleased, provided it remained within the bounds of the law.

Naturally, attending school remained a prerequisite.

Had it not been for this urgent need to recharge his game account, he likely wouldn’t have bothered aiming for second place in class. Unfortunately, school-wide rankings were no longer published—or rather, even class rankings were officially prohibited. However, homeroom teachers secretly compiled their own lists.

The school-wide rankings, in particular, were a hassle to compile, leaving students largely unaware of their overall standing.

Still, second in class was a respectable achievement. With ten classes in his grade, he was theoretically among the top twenty students in the entire school.

As He Yao calculated how many pulls it would take to acquire his desired character, his eyes landed on the person walking ahead of him: Liu Xingyue, his group leader.

‘Just my luck, I’ve run into someone I’d rather avoid.’

He immediately turned to leave.

What kind of person was Liu Xingyue? Simply put, she was a beautiful girl. Rumor had it she had been studying dance since childhood, and in their class, her reputation for beauty rivaled Ye Liuyun’s for handsomeness.

However, Liu Xingyue possessed a notoriously bad temper. Despite her name, “Star Moon,” sounding rather ethereal and dreamy, she was, in reality, far from easy to deal with.

For someone like He Yao, she was precisely the type of person best left undisturbed; they maintained a strict policy of mutual avoidance.

‘Best to keep my distance.’

“Help!”

Chaos erupted in an instant.

For those who had grown up in this era, sudden outbreaks of chaos were hardly unfamiliar. They invariably stemmed from either a `Weirdo` or a `Weirdfiend`.

If ordinary people were asked which they’d prefer to encounter, most would lean towards a `Weirdo`.

After all, `Weirdos` were still human, leaving room for communication. Depending on one’s actions, survival during a `Weirdo` attack was possible, and history even recorded instances of `Weirdos` reforming.

`Weirdfiends`, however, were a different story.

As an amalgamation of humanity’s negative energy, a `Weirdfiend` was the very embodiment of malevolence. Such entities could only be utterly annihilated, and crucially, their “catalyst” had to be addressed as well. This “catalyst” often manifested as extreme emotions within an individual; otherwise, even if a `Weirdfiend` was slain, it would simply be reborn.

Following the lessons from physical education class, He Yao recalled the protocol.

First, one must seek cover. Then, from behind that cover, observe the surroundings to pinpoint the direction of the disaster, before moving away from it.

It sounded incredibly simple.

Yet, in practice, it demanded proficiency. Many people panicked when disaster struck, leading them to make critical errors.

He immediately, almost instinctively, ducked behind a pillar at a storefront. Scanning his surroundings, he quickly identified the source of the commotion.

From a sporting goods store not far away, the sound of a child’s cries echoed.

A colossal, infant-like creature was slowly clambering out of the sporting goods store.

The infant was entirely black, its skin marred by intricate, net-like patterns, as if it had been squeezed through a giant tennis racket.

The sporting goods store’s main entrance shattered under the immense pressure of the baby-like entity, which itself seemed to twist and contort with grotesque effort.

“A `Weirdfiend`!”

He instantly plotted his escape route. According to the guidelines, when fleeing, one should avoid crowds and pay attention to traffic, prioritizing personal safety above all else.

A figure suddenly shot past him.

He was concealed behind the pillar, so perhaps the person hadn’t noticed him.

The speed of their movement caused their hair to stream out far behind them.

And He Yao saw.

It was Liu Xingyue. In that very moment, she was sprinting directly towards the colossal infant.

“She’s lost her mind!”

He yelled out instinctively. This woman, usually so capable, was now so frantic in the face of a `Weirdfiend` that she was running in the wrong direction?

‘Couldn’t she see everyone else was moving in the opposite direction?’

‘You must be one of those people who always builds roads in reverse!’

‘Crazy!’

‘If a magical girl doesn’t show up soon, this woman is going to die here!’

‘Wait a minute… a magical girl?’

He suddenly remembered that morning, when Liu Xingyue had looked at him, engrossed in his novel, and uttered the word “disgusting.” Had she truly been repulsed by his otaku habits?

‘Could it be…?’

A flicker of disbelief crossed his eyes.

Gritting his teeth, he moved forward.

‘You had better be!’

Amidst the fleeing crowd, two figures moved against the current.

Of course, the closer they drew to the sporting goods store, the thinner the crowd became, until no one else was visible. Only the wailing of the infant could be heard, suggesting that perhaps—perhaps there was something else still inside the store…

‘That must be the core of the negative energy!’

Liu Xingyue, who was sprinting about ten meters ahead of him, was now enveloped in a soft, emerald glow.

‘No way, sister! Are you really?’

“Magical Girl! Transform! Love and Justice, Emerald is the power of protection!~”

The moment the light dispersed, a magical girl appeared, adorned with an emerald headpiece and wrapped in verdant ribbons. Her attire was slightly revealing, yet she exuded an air of heroic valor.

“Weirdfiend! I, Emerald, shall bring you to justice!”

It was almost impossible to imagine these words coming from Liu Xingyue.

The colossal infant, like a runaway dump truck, barreled directly towards Liu Xingyue.

He Yao immediately took cover, his gaze fixed on the depths of the sporting goods store.

‘Liu Xingyue is distracting the infant here. If I can find the “catalyst” of this negative energy—the person currently radiating such intense despair—perhaps I can…’

‘No… that’s a task for a magical girl.’

‘At the very least, it should be something Teacher Lin Han could handle.’

‘What could someone like me possibly do, even if I found the source? Could I resolve the turmoil within their heart? Me?’

‘What a joke!’

“Emerald Seal!”

A brilliant emerald gem pulsed with dazzling light, trapping the massive black infant within its ethereal confines.

‘Oh… she’s handling this with ease. If she can seal it like this, there will be time to find the source and resolve their problem.’

‘I truly worried for nothing. Magical Girl Emerald is quite famous in this area. I never imagined she’d be right beside me.’

‘Speaking of which…’

‘Perhaps tomorrow I could trigger the plotline: “Liu Xingyue, you wouldn’t want everyone to know you’re a magical girl, would you?” The expression of a magical girl of love and justice, humiliated… that would be utterly delicious…’

‘Heh heh~’

“WAAAHHHHH!!!!!”

The piercing wail of the infant tore him from his pathetic otaku fantasy.

His eyes widened.

He watched, helpless, as the emerald gem shattered. Then, Magical Girl Emerald’s face contorted in pain amidst the shrill cries, and even the gems on her costume began to crack!

‘…This is bad!’

‘Why do you look like you’re about to be one-shotted?’

‘I’ll really have to control you properly later. If you don’t repay me with your body, I’ll be doing myself a disservice.’

He decisively changed course.

‘I should be grateful for physical education class.’

It allowed him to sprint a hundred meters without gasping for breath. The education of this era truly paid off, proving useful in critical moments!

Emerald saw him.

She saw her classmate, who, at that moment, was rushing past the infant and into the sporting goods store.

‘What is he trying to do?!’

The colossal infant seemed to sense something and began to turn its head to investigate.

“Emerald Radiance!”

A vibrant green light burst from her arm, striking the black infant.

It instantly enraged the creature.

“Nice teamwork! Truly worthy of a magical girl!”

He Yao gave her a thumbs-up. Inside the sporting goods store, he saw a girl roughly their age, perhaps two or three years younger.

A middle schooler.

She clutched a tennis racket in her hands.

Her eyes burned with fury.

That gaze compelled He Yao to stop in his tracks. He felt that if he approached carelessly, the girl might just bludgeon him to death with her tennis racket.

His eyes darted around the store. From a collapsed shelf, he picked up a baseball bat. ‘They really have everything here, even stuff nobody in this country plays,’ he mused.

‘But it’s incredibly satisfying for hitting people.’

With a weapon in hand, he felt a little more at ease. Surely, he couldn’t lose to a middle school girl, could he?

‘Unless, of course, she’s also a magical girl.’

“What’s wrong?”

With just that simple greeting, the girl immediately spiraled into a state of acute stress.

“Don’t come near me!!! I don’t want to practice! I don’t want to practice! I hate tennis! I don’t want to! That’s *your* dream, Mom and Dad! It’s not *my* dream!!!!”

Communication was virtually impossible.

However, based on past cases, He Yao recognized this immediately. This was a classic example of someone being crushed by family pressure. He understood completely; though he’d once denied it, he too had gone through such a period.

‘If not for Teacher Lin… he might have ended up just like this girl.’

‘Calm down, He Yao. Think, what would Teacher Lin do?’

‘Since Teacher Lin helped you, it’s only right that you help others. Besides, this is just a middle school girl. Even knocking her out by force would work.’

‘It’s not that complicated.’

‘The `Disaster Forcible Termination Protocol` states that I could even brutally kill her if necessary… all for the sake of saving more lives.’

He tightened his grip on the baseball bat.

‘Think carefully!’

‘The protagonist in `Filial Piety` fought `Weirdos` with only mortal strength.’

‘Lend me your courage, Teacher Lin!’

He approached the girl.

“Um, could we… be friends?”

The very next moment, despite raising his baseball bat to block, he was still sent flying by the tennis racket.

The girl simply stared at him.

She merely said:

“Liar!”