Chapter 16: Fear

“Rustle rustle.”

After Jiang Lingwei input the password on the cipher pad before her, the glass slowly descended.

The Magical Equipment of 【Yunxia】, the flickering ‘Extermination’, was now revealed before the two of them.

Jiang Lingwei stood right in front of it.

Closing her eyes, she could almost see that ninja-clad senior, slashing through the core of the Demon Leader amidst the mist.

She reached out her hand but didn’t dare to grasp it, instead pulling it back and turning her head to whisper:

“What happens if the password is entered incorrectly?”

“Eh?”

Wen Yaqiuan behind her hadn’t expected her to ask such a question.

“Heh.”

With a light laugh, the graceful beauty licked her lips:

“You have three attempts. If all three are wrong, or if someone tries to forcibly break through—”

“Then the endless Black Dragon Hellfire will consume everything here.”

“…You really are something.”

Jiang Lingwei shook her head. “How did you bypass the security and install all those things?”

“Hahaha.”

Wen Yaqiuan laughed heartily and walked up to Jiang Lingwei’s side. “This whole street belongs to me. What do I have to be afraid of?”

“Just take all those things down. If some stronger Demon Leader or Demons find out about this place and want to raid it, those few explosives won’t stop them.”

“You’re thinking you don’t want innocent people to get hurt because of this.”

Wen Yaqiuan called out Jiang Lingwei’s intent directly.

She stared at the Magical Equipment that was now dim but still glowing faintly, her eyes distant:

“I will never allow anyone, any monster, or anything to defile my partner’s legacy.”

Jiang Lingwei looked at her with a complicated expression:

“Even if it means blowing up this café completely?”

“No, I buried the entire street.”

Wen Yaqiuan winked playfully, as if sharing a girl’s joke.

“Sigh.” Jiang Lingwei sighed in exasperation. “I knew it.”

Typical Wen Yaqiuan style.

“I already told you that firearms are useless. Can we stop thinking about blowing everything up every time? And where did you get the explosives this time?”

“What explosives? Sister Xiaoquan, you don’t know? That’s clearly the Dahuang Flame of the Dark Magic Dragon, destined to consume all enemies before its master…”

“…” Jiang Lingwei took a deep breath, telling herself not to get angry.

It seemed the people from the future didn’t always live in safety either. After all, they wouldn’t have imagined that in this seemingly ordinary commercial street, who knows how much explosives had been buried—definitely enough to blow the entire street sky-high.

At this point, Jiang Lingwei was too exhausted to question how this woman managed to pull it off.

For a wealthy, well-informed genius researcher with knowledge of both magic and science, and an incurable case of chuunibyou at late stage,

it really wasn’t surprising she could do something like this!

Just looking at those photos earlier, Jiang Lingwei had thought she had become a virtuous wife and good mother—how blind she was.

“Don’t sigh so much.”

Patting Jiang Lingwei’s shoulder, Wen Yaqiuan reverted to her big-sister style. “The point is, I’m the one waiting for you, not the darkness. I know, I know, I’m not a real Magical Girl. If it were you guys, you probably wouldn’t do something like this.”

“But you see, I had no other choice. This is the best solution I could think of.”

Jiang Lingwei retorted:

“That doesn’t mean you can do this… Now there are Official Magical Girls everywhere. Wouldn’t it be better to let them keep it?”

“Nonono.”

Wen Yaqiuan crossed her arms and struck a jojo pose:

“I’m an old-school Magical Girl’s teammate. How could I ever cooperate with the officials~”

Like reciting an opera’s opening, Wen Yaqiuan squinted and raised her chin:

“We are the Heroes of the City’s Underside, the final justice in this world, oh oh oh~ the Final Force Against Darkness~~”

“Sister Quan, Sister Quan, don’t lose it! Take those explosives down ASAP!”

“I told you, it’s the Dahuang Flame of the Dark Magic Dragon…”

Wen Yaqiuan poked her fingers together, pouting.

“Take them down!”

“Y-yes…”

Jiang Lingwei shifted her shoulders and looked up at Wen Yaqiuan. “Wait, I just remembered—did you do this on purpose? Pretending to be me after I got splashed with Holy Water to confirm? You’ve been acting as me from the start?”

“Smart! You actually noticed.”

Wen Yaqiuan happily raised a hand to pat Jiang Lingwei’s head.

“Hey?! Don’t pat my head!”

Jiang Lingwei huffed.

Wen Yaqiuan had liked messing with her head since forever, and never gently. It was more like forcibly pressing it down! And the worst part was she enjoyed it.

Jiang Lingwei, who wasn’t good at managing her hair to begin with, always ended up with a messy mop afterward.

That she could hold back from lashing out was really a testament to her patience.

“Let’s go.”

Looking at the cross scythe that began to glow faintly again with the approach of another Magical Girl, Jiang Lingwei turned:

“Your Holy Water won’t work; it has magical power but is too weak, pure psychological comfort. I’ll draw a Light Magic Circle for you later. Hurry and dismantle those explosives.”

“Understood! Loyal and ready!”

Wen Yaqiuan saluted, then muttered softly: “No wonder it’s so cheap, only a hundred thousand per bottle…”

She looked up and saw Jiang Lingwei already walking toward the Secret Room’s exit, quickly calling out:

“Hey, hey? Aren’t you taking it with you?”

“No.”

Jiang Lingwei shook her head and went out first. Seeing this, Wen Yaqiuan quickly input the button to raise the glass case and followed.

“…Aurora, reporting!”

When she stepped outside, Jiang Lingwei had already completed her transformation, reciting her lines and beginning to etch spells with her Staff.

“This feels more familiar.”

Wen Yaqiuan sighed.

“Where did you get Yunxia’s Magical Equipment? And the other one?”

“Of course, from the City Center.”

Wen Yaqiuan’s tone turned somber. “I told you, I stayed at the Base for two weeks, but I wasn’t there all the time.”

“I went to the City Center many times, but found nothing. Nothing at all.”

“Only ruins, big craters—the City Center was almost leveled. The Twin Towers are gone too.”

She gave a bitter smile. “At that time, I even thought, if only I could find your bodies, at least I would know where you were.”

“But there was nothing. Do you understand, Aurora? It wasn’t just you guys. When I left the Base, I found the entire City Center’s population had vanished.”

“And outside… the people outside continued living their lives as if there was a barrier. The City Center was ruins, but everyone avoided it, turning a blind eye.”

Recalling the scene, Wen Yaqiuan’s fingers trembled slightly. She walked aside and picked up a water bottle, seemingly about to pour herself a drink, but in the end, just held the bottle still.

“In the second week, I found a mist-shrouded place among the ruins, and there I found it. As for the other one, I never saw it.”

Pain filled Wen Yaqiuan’s face. “I grabbed it, then ran away… This was not something I could handle. The more I knew, the less courage I had to face it… I…”

“It’s alright.”

Putting the water bottle aside, Jiang Lingwei took Wen Yaqiuan’s hand. Warm light blossomed from her palm.

“It’s alright.”

The Magical Girl repeated, “In the name of The World’s Beauty and Light.”

“I will dispel your fear. I will save our partners.”

“Because I am a Magical Girl, because I am 【Aurora】.”

The aurora that pierces through the eternal Arctic night, a light that cuts across the sky.

“The sea traveler speaks of Yingzhou, mist and waves faint and elusive.

The Yue people talk of Tianmu, where the clouds flicker and vanish in sight.”

— “Farewell to Dreaming of Tianmu” by Li Bai