“Sirius, I think the monster’s main body has to be back there!”
“Xiaohongmao, wait right there…”
Watching Xiaohongmao dash toward the backstage area, Xiaoxi’s heart pounded with anxiety.
She didn’t feel comfortable letting Xiaohongmao act alone, but Ye Xinglan’s side still hadn’t finished dealing with the monsters.
Xiaoxi’s anxiety made it hard to control her strength; she finished off the last few puppet monsters before her with a punch each and got ready to leave.
Ye Xinglan raised an eyebrow, surprised to see this magical girl was stronger than she had expected.
Xiaoxi glanced toward the stage and noticed no more monsters were approaching; all the puppet monsters were converging toward the backstage direction—this could only mean one thing: Xiaohongmao might already be fighting the monster’s main body!
Xiaoxi couldn’t afford to escort Ye Xinglan out anymore. After quickly telling her to leave immediately, she charged toward the stage to provide support.
Watching the troublesome magical girl’s departing back, Ye Xinglan smirked and clearly didn’t intend to obediently follow orders.
But before she could move to another spot to continue her search, she suddenly noticed something on the ground.
This was… a VIP wristband?
On impulse, Ye Xinglan picked it up. The paper wristband, no longer sturdy, was torn into a strip.
She glanced over it casually, but her gaze froze the moment she noticed the pattern on it.
That half-drawn chibi cat wasn’t the one she had drawn earlier on Xiaoxi’s wristband with an eyebrow pencil?
How could Xiaoxi’s wristband end up here? Had it fallen off and been blown to this place? Or…
Suddenly, Ye Xinglan recalled that troublesome magical girl had also worn a VIP wristband on her wrist earlier.
She instinctively looked up, but Sirius had already vanished from her sight. She couldn’t confirm if this wristband belonged to Sirius.
Ye Xinglan frowned. A suspicion began to rise slowly in her mind.
Meanwhile, Xiaoxi was barreling down the corridor between the stage and backstage, smashing every puppet monster along the way to pieces with her fists.
Logically, a monster capable of summoning D-class minions should be at most one level higher than its minions—not to the point where Xiaohongmao couldn’t handle it. But Xiaoxi couldn’t help but worry something might go wrong.
Perhaps it was true that the more you feared something, the more likely it was to happen. From the backstage direction came a startled cry from Xiaohongmao.
Xiaoxi’s heart tightened, and she shot forward like an arrow released from a bow.
As Xiaoxi kicked open the backstage door, she caught sight of Xiaohongmao frozen in place, bearing several small cuts on her body. Opposite her stood a humanoid monster wearing a faceless mask.
The monster’s ten fingers were entwined with magic power threads. It looked like a puppeteer-type monster, and the cuts on Xiaohongmao were likely made by those threads.
Xiaoxi immediately sensed the monster’s magic power wasn’t just at C-class—it was pushing toward breaking into B-class. No wonder Xiaohongmao couldn’t hold her ground!
Years of experience as a magical girl told Xiaoxi there was only one explanation—the theater was packed with too many people.
The fear and dread these people felt upon the monsters’ appearance became the perfect nourishment for the monster, allowing its strength to surge rapidly.
The puppeteer monster raised its ten fingers, and Xiaoxi’s eyes widened—translucent threads made of magic power instantly formed a cage around Xiaohongmao.
The puppeteer let out an indistinct, mocking laugh, raising its hands high as the threads on its fingers reflected a cold glow under the bright lights.
“No!”
Xiaoxi knew well that if the puppeteer tightened its fingers, even if the threads couldn’t cut Xiaohongmao’s body, they would still cause serious injuries!
There was no time to rush into the thread cage and save Xiaohongmao now.
With a powerful kick against the ground, Xiaoxi exploded with strength comparable to Muxingge and charged at the puppeteer.
The moment the puppeteer’s ten fingers suddenly clenched, Xiaoxi’s fist smashed down—aiming right for the puppeteer’s hands.
The palms shattered, puppet fragments flew, and the magic threads dissolved instantly. Xiaohongmao stood unharmed, except for a new cut from the nearest thread at her feet.
Just as Xiaoxi was about to deliver another crushing punch to the puppeteer’s head, footsteps sounded from the employee passage.
“The source of the magic power is this way! Hurry!”
Reinforcements from the Association’s magical girls arrived, and Xiaoxi quickly reined in her magic power, leaving the rest to them.
Xiaohongmao exhaled deeply and slowly slumped to the ground.
That was close. Thankfully, Sirius had come to her rescue.
But… she couldn’t shake the feeling that Sirius’s sudden burst of power was off. That didn’t look like something a mere D-rank magical girl could do.
After the magical girl squad dispatched the monsters, they noticed a small quarrel breaking out between the two girls who had arrived early.
“Why were you in such a rush? Couldn’t you have waited until I got here to check together? Why did you act alone?”
“I-I didn’t think that far at the time…”
Xiaohongmao shrank her neck. Sirius had just checked her injuries and then suddenly exploded in anger. Her wounds weren’t even serious, and this left her a little bewildered.
“Sorry, Alang. I won’t act alone next time.”
But why did she get so intimidated by Sirius’s scolding? They were both rookie magical girls of the same generation after all.
Xiaoxi said nothing, panting heavily as she stared intently at the wounds on Xiaohongmao’s chest, frowning deeply.
“Alright, alright. We’re colleagues—there’s no need to fight…”
The other magical girls persuaded them, and Xiaoxi didn’t say more. She just let out a long sigh.
—
Outside the theater, Ye Xinglan paced anxiously in circles.
After the Magical Girl Association’s reinforcements arrived, they had dragged her out of the theater without giving her a chance to resist. Now she could only wait outside.
She looked again at the VIP wristband in her hand. When Xiaoxi had pulled her out, the wristband had still been on Xiaoxi’s wrist.
Then, just as that troublesome magical girl left, she found the wristband nearby—though it could have been a coincidence…
“Xinglan, over here!”
A familiar voice lifted Ye Xinglan’s spirits. Seeing Xiaoxi running toward her, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“You’re okay, that’s great!”
Ye Xinglan joyfully grabbed Xiaoxi’s hand, but her gaze subtly scanned Xiaoxi’s wrist—it was bare, and Xiaoxi didn’t seem to have noticed the wristband was missing.
Before Xiaoxi could respond, Ye Xinglan pushed her aside and looked at her suspiciously from head to toe.
“Weren’t we supposed to leave together? Where did you run off to just now?”