“Your relationship… anyway, I can roughly sense where the crystal is. I’ll take you there.”
Without any hesitation, Xiaobai jumped straight onto Lin Yu’s shoulder, pointing a tiny paw:
“Let’s fly in that direction first.”
“Alright.”
Lin Yu nodded as well.
But deep down, she was still a bit uneasy. Her mother had repeatedly warned her not to become a magical girl, yet she couldn’t resist.
What if something went wrong?
How would she explain it then?
“Sigh.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. If we work together, we’ll definitely get through this crisis.”
Xiaobai saw her sigh and thought she was saddened by the city’s plight.
Putting aside fighting and magical abilities for a moment, Xiaobai’s way of cheering people on was genuine. It patted Lin Yu’s shoulder in comfort:
“Don’t worry. Those dark bugs won’t succeed this time either.”
“Mm!”
Lin Yu answered briefly.
She knew Xiaobai must have misunderstood something, but she didn’t say anything.
There was no helping it. As a proud dragon race (a little chuunibyou fantasy), Lin Yu had always been aloof and cold.
With hardly any friends and no clue how to make new ones, having Jiang Yao as a close friend was already incredible for her.
Even though she had signed a contract with Xiaobai, he was still someone she’d just met. After escaping the immediate danger, Lin Yu didn’t know what to say.
She could only respond with short answers like “Mm.” and “Okay.” here and there.
By contrast, Xiaobai was much livelier.
Along the way, they encountered some minor enemies like zombies, small bugs, and mutated low-level monsters resembling chickens that did the “tetsuzanko” (iron palm) move.
Lin Yu dealt with them much more easily than that giant beetle.
Thanks to her efforts, many people escaped danger, and the name of the magical girl [Opal] became more widely known.
Opal is a gemstone that emits many colors and has the ability to “change colors.”
When that family asked for her name back then, this codename popped into Lin Yu’s mind.
Actually, she wanted to call herself [Black Opal]—it sounded cool.
But not knowing the codename rules well, Lin Yu didn’t dare to use three characters. Also, “Black” didn’t quite fit the image of a magical girl.
So she just gave up on that.
Following Xiaobai’s lead, Lin Yu suddenly heard some noise ahead.
“What’s that sound?”
It sounded like some kind of light beam impact, along with heavy thuds of a large creature falling.
More than the sound, she felt a warm, comfortable sensation.
“Ah!”
Xiaobai on her shoulder exclaimed excitedly: “It’s other magical girls! Could it be reinforcements?”
“…Should we go check it out?”
After a moment’s thought, Lin Yu decided to ask Xiaobai’s opinion.
“Of course we should, it’s best to act together.”
Xiaobai, surprisingly sensible, said: “That disgusting dark fairy dares to act so blatantly and even announced it to the whole city. It must have a plan.”
“This doesn’t seem like a total mess-up.”
“At times like this, that cowardly and greedy thing definitely set traps all around.”
“So having more people isn’t bad. That way, if anything happens, everyone can watch out for each other.”
“Okay.”
Lin Yu nodded again and flew toward the source of the sounds with Xiaobai.
Soon, they discovered what had made the noise.
Before their eyes lay a muscle-bound demon whose body had swollen uncontrollably, sprawled on the ground, black water oozing from it and giving off a foul stench.
A pink-clad magical girl waved her staff, releasing several warm white light beams, clearing away the remaining residue.
Another magical girl, wearing a red safety helmet and flying around, was directing the crowd’s evacuation. She was also building brick walls to prevent the black water from spreading further.
The two worked well together and soon brought the situation under control.
“Disgusting…”
Qishi clapped his hands and covered his nose behind his mask:
“What is this thing? Even through the mask, I can’t stand it.”
“It’s not that bad.”
Jiang Lingwei finished cleaning the last bit and didn’t bother to dispel the lingering odor in the air. It was only a stench, after all, and would dissipate soon enough.
“Not that bad?”
Qishi squinted and leaned closer, still holding his nose:
“Aurora, can’t you smell it? I’m tempted to wear a gas mask! How can you call this ‘not that bad’?”
“De…”
Jiang Lingwei rubbed her head:
“It really is not that bad. It’s just plain stinky, much better than those demons that release soul-corroding stench.”
“Soul-corroding?”
Qishi shuddered at the thought:
“How bad could that smell be?”
“Uh… it’s just like that…”
Jiang Lingwei spoke vaguely, but what she didn’t say was that “soul-corroding” was meant literally, not as an exaggeration.
Several victims they rescued emitted a stubborn foul odor that couldn’t be washed away.
No matter how much they bathed, cleaned, or sprayed perfume and aromatics, the smell persisted.
Jiang Lingwei’s teammates tried countless methods—Fulan on the magic side, Wen Yaqian on the science side, using every trick they had—but couldn’t save those poor people.
In the end, the story ended in tragedy. Some couldn’t take it and gave up, while others gradually decayed and became new dark demons.
These demons also possessed the soul-corroding ability.
Jiang Lingwei and her companions had no choice but to personally kill those survivors they had once saved.
Compared to all that, this was just plain stinky?
Oh, thank heavens.
Just as they finished dealing with the demon’s corpse and sensed someone approaching, Jiang Lingwei looked up:
“Wow! Waaahhh!”
A white fluffy ball dashed over shouting something incomprehensible like, “Ancient magical girl! Waaah! She’s alive, she’s alive!”
It startled Jiang Lingwei; the white fluff’s sprint was so fast it looked like a missile falling.
Her response was simple.
As a battle-hardened magical girl, she instinctively gave a flying kick—
—
The white fluff’s face was dented by Jiang Lingwei’s pink little boot, recoiling with strong force, flying back to hit a nearby wall, then slowly sliding down.
“Ah, Xiaobai?”
The magical girl in the black dress also hurried over:
“No sleeping here.”
Lin Yu, seeing Xiaobai was fine and quickly getting up, knew the kick was intentionally gentle. She then turned, ready to try starting a conversation.
When she turned, however, the pink-haired magical girl was staring blankly.
For a moment, both sides thought the same thing:
“I’ve seen this little sister before.”
“So it’s you.”
Lin Yu stepped forward and shook her hand.
“Magical Girl Aurora,” Jiang Lingwei extended her hand, then patted the one next to her: “This is Magical Girl Qishi.”
Lin Yu also introduced herself:
“Magical Girl Opal.”
(So it’s really happening…)
Jiang Lingwei had seen Lin Yu before, more than once, even saw several photos.
Back then, Lin Yu had no powers yet.
It was obvious now, thanks to Xiaobai’s work, that Lin Yu was a newly minted magical girl—probably just signed the contract.
(Didn’t expect this at all. Sister Wen Yaqian didn’t become a magical girl, but her daughter did. This is…)
There was no response from Wen Yaqian over the earpiece. Probably a filter prevented her from recognizing her daughter.
“May I ask,” Lin Yu suddenly said, “Aurora, have you seen the magical girl Crystal?”
(Looking for Yao Yao?)
Even though Jiang Lingwei knew why she was searching for Jiang Yao, she asked politely:
“Is she… yours?”
“Mm… we’re on our way to meet up with her as well. Just curious, she…”
“Mom.”
The girl’s eyes were firm and serious, answering without hesitation.
“Mo–mom?”
Hearing this, Jiang Lingwei’s mouth dropped open; her CPU was overloaded.
How do family ranks even work here?