Chapter 9: But I Won’t Apologize

The next day, Sunday.

Ren Huazhi decided to go to the nearby commercial complex to get herself a couple of new outfits. One was a normal dress for blending into the crowd; the other was designed to conceal her figure and appearance as much as possible, which ironically made it very conspicuous, intended for times when her “true self” needed to make an appearance.

Last night, she had become a “cloud audience member,” quickly brushing up on Kamen Rider lore. She discovered that the protagonists from the Heisei era onwards no longer hid their identities, even transforming in plain sight. Ren Huazhi didn’t like that, but she couldn’t guarantee that Meng Qiuxu wouldn’t.

Therefore, she still needed a disguise to hide her true self from cameras, at least when transforming on the street. “The self that appears for transformation is not Ren Huazhi’s true self”—she had to make this distinction.

—That being said, her budget was limited.

So, for the second outfit, she decided to just buy a full-face helmet and cobble together the rest with her old coat and trousers from when she was a boy. Fortunately, she was flat-chested, so she didn’t have to worry about revealing her gender.

It didn’t seem to be any special day, yet Ren Huazhi saw several shops with their shutters down, not doing business on a weekend. The already small commercial plaza seemed even more deserted.

“Is something going on?” she casually asked the seamstress auntie.

“What’s going on?” The auntie looked bewildered.

“I mean, so many shops are closed. They can’t have all decided to go on strike together, hand in hand.”

The auntie finally understood, and the measuring tape she was using to measure Ren Huazhi’s chest continued to tighten. “Oh, you mean that. Well, didn’t you hear a magical girl died a couple of days ago? The Nightmare that killed her seems to still be wandering around the edge of the city.”

“So they’ve all spontaneously evacuated. What about you? Why aren’t you afraid? Just following the boss’s orders?”

“Life and death are decreed by fate, wealth and honor are determined by heaven! Normally, with all those ready-to-wear shops open, my tailor shop’s business gets stolen. Now, the money they’re too scared to earn, I’ll earn it. Haha…”

The creaking sound of twisting metal came from downstairs.

“True, you’re earning my money right now.” Ren Huazhi smiled. “What style do you think suits me? I personally prefer an intellectual style; it’s easy to arrange the action logic for smart characters. The few crazy women I usually deal with, I feel like writing their lines is an insult to my intelligence. That’s the lack of freedom in creation.”

A dull thud of something heavy moving came from downstairs.

The auntie’s face turned pale.

“Why have you stopped talking?” Ren Huazhi asked.

“Downstairs, downstairs… a Nightmare really came…?!”

“Have faith in the magical girls, they are our hope. Hey, what do you think of a blouse and a cinched-waist skirt combination? Would it make me look a bit childish, like a kid dressing up as an adult?”

“Aiya, still talking about outfits! You’re a fearless girl, hurry and hide with me in the back room!”

The auntie dropped her measuring tape and chalk, shooing Ren Huazhi towards the back of the shop like a chick. But Ren Huazhi didn’t listen, even darting out of the shop and leaning over the railing to look down into the atrium.

“What’s so interesting about a Nightmare? Get back in here!”

Ren Huazhi spotted her target in the crowd at a glance.

The tide of screaming, fleeing people was like a cascading waterfall, and there was a great rock splitting that waterfall—a lone figure walking against the current, carrying a faux-leather cello case on her back.

The magical girl Mangzhong—in her untransformed state.

Her real name was Xia Kong, the student council president of Nancheng No. 1 High School.

Ren Huazhi knew this not because she had secretly investigated everyone, but because she herself was also from Nancheng No. 1 High, and though she never went to class, Xia Kong had never really hidden it.

‘The sword and shield must be in the cello case… It’s a wonder she could find one so large. She must have been prepared to take over for a long time.’

The long, straight-haired, black-haired top student, wearing her school uniform blazer even on a day off, shrugged the cello case off her shoulders. The heavy equipment fell to the ground behind her with a thud no less loud than the Nightmare’s footsteps.

From the unseen—magical power and heat began to gather.

It converged towards the magical girl of black flame, the beginning of summer, “Mangzhong,” like moths to a flame.

“By the grace of the god of blood, iron, and fire, the hunt begins!”

She lifted the shield and sword from the cello case.

This pair of Magical Hunting Gear, once belonging to The Flower Arranger, had been forged to be larger and heavier than any other to keep up with her ridiculous stats. With the physical enhancement from her magical girl transformation, Mangzhong used additional magical power to strengthen her arms, finally managing to control the center of gravity of both weapons and assume a stance in front of her.

“Sister Hua, please watch… my battle.”

Stepping through the corridor, turning a corner, what came walking towards her was—

A coarse-furred beast with two ugly heads.

…!

‘Is that it? It must be, right?’

No. 147, the Two-Headed Dog type!

Mangzhong felt a rush of blood to her head. The excitement of her chance for revenge being so close, mixed with the uncertainty of whether she could win, made her right hand, holding the shield, tremble slightly.

The two-headed dog saw her.

The air seemed to congeal into a thick paste.

What brewed in its murky, blood-red pupils was not bloodthirsty madness, but a flicker of… intelligence?

It was sizing her up, thinking.

Not a “dog” with rabies, biting at everything, but the eyes of a calm hunter, a “wolf.”

…A two-headed wolf.

Wolves are pack animals, and its pack was itself. Magical girls hunt Nightmares with their gear, but it hunted magical girls.

“Hah!”

Mangzhong’s eyes widened. The magical heat radiating from her body dispelled the approaching chill of the Nightmare. She charged forward, shield first!

A claw swiped at her—blocked by the shield.

The two heads bit at her from both sides. Mangzhong protected her head with the shield and ducked down. Immediately, a clamor of metal on metal rang out, the sound of sharp teeth clashing against the edge of the shield.

A contest of strength had begun!

Mangzhong immediately sent her left-hand greatsword low along the ground into the two-headed wolf’s reach, using her enhanced strength to stab at its abdomen.

—Thud!

‘No, that’s not right.’

‘That doesn’t sound like stabbing into flesh at all.’

Nightmares are not living beings in the usual sense, Mangzhong knew that. But things born of dreams, no matter how bizarre and absurd, always possess a sliver of dream-logic—

Mangzhong saw the problem.

The chest and abdomen of the two-headed wolf, where the soft flesh and weak points of the original creature should be, were bizarrely embedded with a plate of iron armor.

This… was illogical.

If someone were to dream of a mechanically modified wolf, the easiest things to imagine would be iron claws, a reinforced head, or shoulder armor. Protective armor for vital spots would be a more rationalized addition that comes later.

‘Someone had modified it with “real-world logic”!’

Mangzhong’s mind felt like it was about to explode.

Even though they had repeatedly discussed and strengthened their precautions, an evil organization that utilized Nightmares had indeed appeared. This was the true cause of The Flower Arranger’s death, and the final message she wanted to convey to Mangzhong!

In a stalemate of strength, a moment’s distraction leads to a disadvantage. Mangzhong was forced to a single knee by the two-headed wolf’s brute force. Her desperately clenched index finger pressed against a hidden trigger on the edge of the shield’s grip.

‘This is…!’

Mangzhong had seen it before, The Flower Arranger’s battle.

When she wanted to finish a Nightmare in one go, she would activate a certain switch, causing sharp blades to extend from the edge of the shield, while a hollow mechanical slot was exposed in the center.

Then she would combine the greatsword into the slot, transforming the sword and shield into a terrifying giant circular axe, even filling the hydraulic mechanism with water-attribute magical power to make the axe spin at high speed!

“Then I will also…!”

In that instant, Mangzhong suddenly heard a voice:

“Don’t.”

“—What?!”

It was an incredibly familiar voice, one she thought of day and night—the voice of the magical girl, The Flower Arranger.

Mangzhong wanted to turn and look but was powerless to do so.

‘Was it a hallucination?’

‘Or the protective will steeped within the Hunting Gear…’

‘…It must be a revelation she left for me.’

She left a proverb in Mangzhong’s heart:

“If your heart is filled with doubt, do not pull the trigger.”