“Where should it be?”
Wen Yanquan rolled her eyes. “You’re a magical girl yourself. Don’t you feel that something’s off?”
“Well, yeah… I’m not completely stupid. Normally, there should always be magic inside my body.”
“That’s right.”
Looking at Jiang Lingwei, who had already transformed, Wen Yanquan nodded. “In my On the Biological Form Theory of Magical Girls, I argue that magical girls aren’t actually human.”
“Hm?” Jiang Lingwei blinked. “If not human, then what?”
“Sorry, I was a bit vague just now.”
Wen Yanquan tapped a few buttons on her phone, and a large screen descended in the laboratory, displaying a diagram of human anatomy.
“What I mean is, although there’s no reproductive isolation and the physiological structure is practically the same—as you’ve confirmed now, beyond just what the old man told me before.”
Wen Yanquan reached out to hold down Jiang Lingwei’s head, who was about to sneeze every time this topic came up, and continued:
“But the essence of magical girls is different from humans.”
“I call it ‘dimensional elevation.’”
“The contract with fairies is more like a dimensional connection, giving magical girls characteristics from another dimension. Look at the standard values on the screen, and…”
Seeing Jiang Lingwei’s expression that clearly said ‘What is this guy talking about?’ Wen Yanquan sighed.
“Alright, I’ll keep it simple. To sum it up: the normal state of magical girls is naturally different from ordinary people—just like humans breathe and birds fly. Using magic is inherently a magical girl’s ability, and the transformed state is just a form that better facilitates that ability.”
“So basically, as long as you don’t exert yourself or consume magic power, you can maintain the transformed state as long as you want. That’s the principle.”
“But you, your current condition is exactly like an ordinary person’s. You only become a magical girl after transformation. That’s obviously wrong. It’s clearly related to your shattered magic core. But how did it break?”
“Back then, you showed me that although Sun’s sacrifice was complete, her magic core remained, just completely devoid of magic power—just a normal crystal. That’s very different from your core, which, although broken, still allowed you to function normally for a period.”
She pointed to the necklace around Jiang Lingwei’s neck.
“I still have no way to study the transformation device. This magic core that arises from the contract— even the old man never understood where it came from, so don’t expect me to.”
“I have two guesses. The first is something I never got the chance to verify—body solidification of magical girls.” Wen Yanquan raised one finger. “It’s possible that after solidification, this situation naturally occurs.”
“But I’ve never heard of a magical girl having children. Although I have a list of many people now, the filtering and isolation remain. Just like how I can know you now, without their fairies casting magic on me, I couldn’t recognize them in person.”
“The second guess—but it’s not really a valid one.” Wen Yanquan held up a second finger.
“The truth might be hidden in the memories you lost. That’s difficult because even the idea that you were subjected to memory-erasing magic is just my guess. However, if both guesses hold true, although we can’t solve the mystery of the magic core yet, it at least shows one thing.”
Wen Yanquan’s tone grew complicated.
“That is, before you gave birth and turned into an ordinary person, your memories were untouched.”
“Wait.” Jiang Lingwei couldn’t help interrupting. “Are you saying—”
“Yes. At that time, you were most likely still ‘you.’”
Wen Yanquan looked troubled by her own conclusion and said with difficulty:
“In other words… you very possibly chose to have a child willingly.”
“Ha?!”
While Jiang Lingwei was still sneezing in the laboratory… in a secret corner no one could find…
—Within a dark dimensional rift, a black twisted blob sat on a wide throne, holding a paper intelligence report and muttering in confusion:
“Tch, such a small lousy city, and it only has one magical girl? Why is she so strong?”
“Magical girl… [Crystal]. She alone killed two of my demons in a row? One was a tactical summoner and the other a physical type, both dead? My dark wizard died too? And this girl just recently became a magical girl?”
“Whoa, impressive, really impressive. This is a trap, I’ll just eat it up.”
“666, this magical girl is broken, let’s see her go.”
The black blob’s voice was dark and distorted, its face constantly wrapped in a layer of black mist.
If Xiaobai were here, it would probably scream “Dark Fairy! Heretic Enemy!” But alas, it couldn’t, because Miss Jiang Yao had gone out to play with classmates after school and still hadn’t remembered it. It was still at the Magical Girl Management Bureau.
Putting down the report, the black blob fell into self-doubt.
Could reinforcements have been sent to protect the Ancient Weapon?
Logically, the Light Side shouldn’t know about the Ancient Weapon. Even it had only recently gotten wind of energy fluctuations suggesting its presence here.
Furthermore, these fluctuations reappeared just a few days ago, which made it decide to act decisively.
Though the fluctuation disappeared quickly, according to its information, a batch of unknown explosives appeared on the black market at the same time.
(These humans wouldn’t be trying to blow up the Ancient Weapon with explosives, right? That’d be too boring.)
The black blob shook its head. That possibility was slim.
If humans knew about the Ancient Weapon, they’d make a big move. Besides, if they wanted to use explosives, they wouldn’t be selling them on the market. Which Ancient Weapon is useful for making explosives?
The Ancient Weapon was a secret among dark fairies. It was only recently confirmed, so how could the Light Side possibly know? It made no sense.
Setting aside this troublesome matter, it pulled out a piece of parchment from the shadows, humming as it munched on chips, holding the folded paper.
“Let’s see… hmm… news from home?”
As it unfolded the parchment, an illusory light appeared, slowly forming an image in the air.
It looked like some kind of projector casting a scene midair.
Reading the text at the top, the black blob suddenly leapt from the throne, kicking away the bag of chips beside it:
“Damn it, damn it, by the big Dark Mentor Dakan Sakura—Death Domain, Evil Overlord Tom’s pink lace panties! The seal’s weakening?!”
“What do you mean ‘a few days ago’?!”
It strained its eyes, leaning close to the image to look at the figure within.
The projector’s caster must have been extremely nervous or terrified; the whole image shook and trembled.
“Gah, can’t they get a tripod or something? The projection magic based on eyeball footage is too trash.”
Despite the complaint, the black blob focused on the contents.
Under a dark red sky was a vast land covered by black mist as high as a person’s calves.
The fairy filming had to fly to avoid the mist made of pure dark magic. Even dark fairies wouldn’t feel good if touched by it.
This thick mist now enveloped a distant wasteland, where a humanoid figure seemed to be forming some kind of suppressive force.
The layer on the ground looked like an extension flowing from the black mist.
“Hoh…”
In the image, the figure kept moving forward.
Though the black mist wrapped around him and dragged his steps, he seemed completely unfazed, stepping back, then forward, never stopping.
“This guy hasn’t moved in at least a thousand years. Who pissed him off?”
The black blob bared its teeth, stretched out a small claw, then remembered it had just kicked the chips to the floor.
“Little Evil—Little Evil?… Oh.” It shouted several times before recalling that the wizard servant it created was probably dead too.
“Ah, damn it.” It swore again, struggling to roll its round body off the high throne, picking up the chips. “Why are the Light Side people so mean?”
At that moment, the black mist around the figure in the image dissipated briefly, revealing a hand gripping a glowing kunai-like weapon.
The kunai shone brightly, seemingly responding to something far away.
“…Wei… Yao…”
A faint whisper broke through the mist in that instant.
“What was that noise?”
When the black blob jumped back to the throne and looked up, the image had already finished playing. The parchment spontaneously ignited and turned into sparks, disappearing.
“Eh.”
Without an answer, the black blob froze, its body swelling with anger as it slammed the chips down again, shouting furiously:
“What kind of crap is this?! What year is this, still using disposable secret parchments?!”
Realizing what it had just done, it looked at the chips on the dark floor below, shrank its body, sighed deeply, and climbed down once more.