Chapter 149

Just then, the woman in black paused, turning her gaze to look at the girl.

Without a change in expression, the woman spoke.

"Hirai -kun, even outside of school, harassing teachers is forbidden."

The low, husky voice and indifferent tone quickly gave the students a sense of familiarity, making them realize what was going on.

The girl who had approached him blinked in confusion.

Then... she lowered her head, both frightened and surprised.

"Hai... Teacher Haihara?"

After the girl finished speaking, many students suddenly realized what was happening.

Is this beautiful woman in a bathrobe, resembling a classical stage actress, really the same Teacher Haihara who always wears thick-rimmed glasses and appears gloomy and unremarkable?

Takanashi observed that Kirishima Ai appeared completely calm.

"... Did you recognize me?"

Kirishima Ai's reaction wasn't as strong as she had expected.

The other students, however, showed unprecedented surprise upon learning that this beautiful older sister was Teacher Haihara.

"Hmm? Of course."

She acted as if it were perfectly natural, but actually left Takanashi slightly confused for a moment.

Teacher Haihara looks quite different from usual now.

Although her appearance and temperament remained unchanged, it was as if by Magic that her charm, which was previously only noticeable to a handful of people, suddenly became very conspicuous.

Just like the other students, Teacher Haihara's transformation made her difficult to recognize.

But Kirishima Ai recognized her immediately and showed no surprise whatsoever.

This suddenly made Takanashi wonder.

Kirishima... could her relationship with Teacher Haihara actually not be as bad as it seems?

In her memory, Kirishima and Teacher Haihara had a very strained and terrible relationship.

Although things eased somewhat for a while, it's hard to imagine how much improvement there has been.

What exactly happened...?

Just as she was pondering this, she suddenly felt a call emanating from the Magic Wand on her body.

Takanashi raised his head and looked around.

The Magic Wand have sensors that Doctor Hong Shang made for them. The Doctor will send them information about the appearance of Monster after detecting its presence.

Now that the Magic Wand is reacting, it means the Monster has reappeared.

It just so happens to be at this time.

Nearby, Kirishima Ai also noticed the Monster's presence, and she touched her Magic Wand as well:

"It seems the Monster is nearby."

Although no one has yet witnessed the appearance of the Monster and caused any chaos, according to the Doctor's location data, the Monster should have already appeared at the festival.

They looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to them for the time being, then quickly left the festival venue and ran towards the place where the Monster had been detected.

Under the deep darkness of night, outside the brightly lit shrine, there is an abandoned corner. It is an old shrine where a shrine maiden lived, which was dilapidated a few years ago. I heard that it is currently being renovated.

On the roof of this desolate and abandoned dwelling, there was a stark white shadow.

It resembled a ghostly, pale Monster under the moonlight, dressed in tattered clothes, seemingly without substance from head to toe, its entire body swaying in the wind.

However, on this Monster face made of cloth, a bizarre smiling face was drawn with crayons.

Although it looks strange, it is a teru teru bozu (a type of Japanese doll).

After a while, as if sensing something, he lowered his head and let out a soft chuckle:

"They've finally arrived, Magic girls!"

Two girls dressed in yukatas were already standing in front of the abandoned shrine.

They showed no fear even when faced with the strange-looking Monster.

There was no answer to the Monster's question; the only response was the sound of the Magic Wand activating.

"Which one should I choose? Which one should I choose? Which one should I choose...?"

As the silvery light shone, countless silvery-white feathers fell to the ground like snowflakes in front of the Monster, and scattered around the entire abandoned shrine like autumn leaves.

Two pairs of Feather Wing spread out and transformed into Magic Gear covering the girl's body.

After the light faded, two Magic girls appeared in the abandoned clubhouse.

Magical Girl Silver Feather clenched her fist and said with an unfriendly expression:

"Is this Wind System Monster?"

Just as she was about to punch the newly appeared Monster to the ground, the cloth covering the teru teru bozu's face twitched, causing the drawn mouth to pull down, making it look like it was frowning and pouting.

It shook its head and said to the Magic girls:

"Don't rush, Magic girls, I'm not here to fight you this time."

The Teru Teru Bozu Monster- like figure raised its hands high, its pale cloak billowing out, making exaggerated gestures, but it showed no intention of attacking.

Silver Feather's eyes closed slightly, and her brows furrowed.

"Ha?"

This was the first time she had ever heard Monster say they didn't want to fight.

In the past, Monster would just come out and wreak havoc without any regard for consequences, and they wouldn't even bother with anything as complicated as sabotaging secrets. But this time, the Monster is different.

Monster are beings who find it difficult to suppress their desires, so the Monster in front of me behaved very unusually.

"Listen up, Magic girl. I'm here representing the will of the Blue Dream Apostle of the Black Death Cult."

"Blue Dream asked me to pass on a message to you!"

The Teru Teru Bozu Monster spoke condescendingly.

This left the two Magic girls completely baffled.

Blue Dream Apostle?

They seemed to have heard the name of this Apostle from other Monster before.

The so-called Apostle are the Black Death Cult's executives, the Demon King's most trusted confidants.

In this city, when the Demon King was not present, the Apostle were the most evil and dangerous villains.

Why did these officials, who had been keeping a low profile, suddenly reveal their identities?

"What exactly did you say? Speak up!"

Silver Feather's tone was clearly somewhat irritable tonight.

She had an appointment to watch fireworks with her teacher in a little while, so of course she wanted to finish this quickly and deal with the troublemaking Monster as soon as possible.

However, the Monster scoffed at this.

"Foolish Magic girls, are you still being kept in the dark?"

"They've always considered us Black Death Cult their greatest enemy, yet they haven't discovered those cowardly rats lurking in the shadows. How laughable."

Seeing the Magic girls' confused expressions, the Teru Teru Bozu Monster's cloth held up a small, glowing, stone-like object and tossed it to the Magic girls.

The Takanashi caught the object, opened its hand, and discovered it was a bright, glowing scale.

At first, she didn't understand what it was, but after sensing the familiar aura of Snake-Type Magic, she was stunned, and her eyes widened instantly.

She remembered those scales.

While R'lyeh reviewing the data, she learned that the Black Death Cult- level Monster who appeared in Maple Plain a few years ago had such scales.

The Snake-Type Magic mentioned above also confirms this point.

She instinctively clenched the scale, then looked at the Teru Teru Bozu Monster:

What did you mean by what you just said?

"Is this thing from that Chameleon Monster? What do you know about that Monster?"

Takanashi, somewhat losing her composure, questioned the Teru Teru Bozu Monster, now desperately wanting to find out the truth.

Silver Feather, standing to the side, was completely confused.

She looked at the scale on the Takanashi's hand, puzzled.

This... seems to be something from Monster person.

Moreover, the Magic Power had a feel of Snake-Type Magic that she was very familiar with.

Seeing the Takanashi like this, the Teru Teru Bozu burst into laughter again, its whole body shaking with laughter, as if it wanted to thoroughly mock these unsuspecting Magic girls.

"So they really didn't notice all along."

"Be grateful to Blue Dream for her great mercy; it is because of her wisdom that you have the opportunity to learn the truth..."

As it spoke, it opened its cloak, and in the cold moonlight, it chuckled in its high-pitched, melodious voice:

"In this city, besides the destruction caused by us Black Death Cult, there have been a series of incidents a few months ago where citizens have fallen into a coma and become vegetative."

"Recently, have you noticed anyone around you acting strangely?"

As soon as it finished speaking, both Kirishima Ai and Takanashi immediately thought of one of their classmates.

After summer vacation ended, she acted strangely.

Before the holiday, that girl always seemed to be showing off her boyfriend and flaunting her relationship with her classmates.

But when they saw her again at the start of the new semester, she seemed dazed and confused, and never mentioned her boyfriend again.

After that, even when asked, she would scratch her head, as if she couldn't remember anything no matter what.

"Don't you find it strange? We Black Death Cult have been less active lately, yet we've seen a continuous stream of Monster from a few years ago, and there are clearly large numbers of Monster acting together."

As if unveiling their long-held doubts, the Teru Teru Bozu Monster spoke each word carefully.

Despite the provocative words, the Magic girls did not immediately take action.

After addressing all these questions, the Teru Teru Bozu Monster finally decided to reveal the final truth—

"Foolish Magic girls, let me tell you the truth: a Monster was born a few years ago..."

Just as it was revealing the truth in the most intense tone, the Magical Girl Silver Feather suddenly sensed a strange fluctuation of Magic Power.

It was an aura of Magic Power that made people extremely uncomfortable. Although it belonged to Monster, it carried the aura of its own kind. This feeling even made Silver Feather feel inexplicably nauseous, and her whole body protested in response.

The suffocating Magic Power initially appeared as a fluctuation, but then its true form was revealed.

Not good...

Magical Girl Silver Feather was about to make a move when she realized it was too late.

"That Monster —uh...pfft..."

The Monster's noisy chatter came to an abrupt halt.

Suddenly, everything became very quiet.

In the vision of the two Magic girls, the chest of the Teru Teru Bozu Monster was pierced by a thin, alien arm, as easily as piercing through a rag.

Black blood oozed from the Monster's body, quickly soaking the entire white cloth and staining the Monster's body a miserable and filthy state.

"Keep telling us, what happened to that Monster?"

A mocking yet grating voice rang out.

Just listening to that sound made me feel uneasy.

When Silver Feather and Takanashi looked at that Monster, they had an unprecedented feeling.

It was a hunched, deformed monster, like some kind of hermit, with two exaggerated, grotesque, protruding eyes that kept darting around, as if mockingly scrutinizing the two of them, its slippery gaze seeming to lick them.

Despite being such an ugly monster, it had many beautiful and dazzling scales of various colors. When they covered the Monster's body, they looked like the surface of shimmering water.

This combination of splendor and ugliness further amplifies the eerie feeling of the Monster.