Puppet and Girl

The night had deepened. The classroom was brightly lit as Xi Ziyue lowered her head for a sip of tea and asked without looking up:

"You brought a friend too?"

Magical Girl Ember slowly turned her fair cheek, eyeing the window in the corner with suspicion.

Outside was pitch-black, but the candlelight on the long table flickered. Orange firelight spread outward, illuminating White Jack's face in that instant:

—Pale white skin, lips split outward at the corners, and black-and-white static filling its hollow eyes, like a malfunctioning television screen.

It looked like a scene from a B-grade horror movie: boys and girls chatting comfortably on a summer night, until one of them happened to turn around and saw a grotesque face hanging upside down beyond the window.

Ember froze slightly, her heart suddenly clenching as if gripped by a giant hand.

Ke Mingqing, however, remained completely calm.

From the very beginning, he had never believed the puppet could evade Xi Ziyue's eyes. After all, she was one of the "Three Great Magical Girls." Her reputation could be fabricated, but could the "S-rank" on a superhuman's status panel be fake too?

So the moment Xi Ziyue stepped off the train, Ke Mingqing had assumed that she had already discovered his Theater Puppet.

And that was indeed the case... Xi Ziyue casually said to Ember:

"Looks like he isn't your friend."

Only then did Ember recover from her shock. She took a deep breath, and the gaze beneath her bangs gradually turned cold.

Xi Ziyue had practically spelled it out. That thing had followed her here—yet she had remained entirely unaware of it for so long. Ember was both ashamed and annoyed.

At that moment, White Jack outside the window seemed to have no awareness that it was a peeping intruder.

As if greeting an old friend, it waved at Ember.

With its other hand, it lifted the end of its magic wand and slowly traced two crooked characters across the dusty old window:

"Hello."

After writing those words, it grinned at the astonished and furious look in her eyes.

In the silence, Ember raised her right arm and gripped her umbrella one-handed. The black umbrella tip aimed at White Jack's head, and without looking up, she pulled the trigger.

"Bang—!"

The gunshot tore through the classroom's silence. A black magic bullet shattered the window and shot outward.

However, White Jack had anticipated this.

It released its legs from the rooftop railing a moment earlier, dropping into the night and narrowly brushing past the magic bullet. Half a second later, it might have been shot through the head on the spot.

The bullet and White Jack both vanished into the night, leaving no trace.

Magical Girl Ember turned to watch this scene and said in a low voice:

"Master, I'm going to bring it back."

"Take the protective charm I gave you." Xi Ziyue continued flipping through a fashion magazine and drinking hot tea without looking up.

Ember nodded. She bent her knees slightly and stamped the floor. As her skirt fluttered, her figure swept across half the classroom like the wind.

The girl's lithe form slipped through the shattered window.

Then she raised her umbrella in midair. Ripples of magic spread across its canopy, and she soared high into the air, racing through the night past brightly lit buildings in pursuit of that pale figure.

Before long, she caught up to the Theater Puppet from behind.

They were atop an elevated railway, with darkness so deep all around that one could not see one's own hand.

Less than thirty meters separated the girl and the puppet.

And now, the Theater Puppet seemed to have no intention of fleeing any farther. The white top hat slowed its rotation, leaving it hovering in midair.

Just then, a beam of snowy white headlights shone from afar, slicing through the darkness atop the elevated tracks.

White Jack turned around. Its eerie face was lit by the headlights, its hollow eyes gleaming.

"Is it really necessary to be so persistent over a nobody like me?" it asked as it slowly descended.

At that moment, a silver-white iron dragon came rushing out of the tunnel. The Theater Puppet landed atop the high-speed train, the metal roof beneath its feet shaking and rumbling.

The evening wind blew head-on. White Jack gently adjusted its top hat and settled it properly atop its head.

Ember folded her umbrella shut and landed steadily on the train roof as well.

The girl said nothing, merely knitting her delicate brows slightly. The night wind swept down from above, sending her long black hair streaming while her skirt billowed like a black rose.

"Why were you following me?" she finally asked in a low voice.

"Oh, naturally because I am your number one fan." White Jack spoke in an oddly translated tone. "I merely wished to know a little more about you, that is all."

"Disgusting..."

The girl in the gothic dress spoke expressionlessly, raising her head to stare directly into the puppet's hollow eyes.

She extended her left hand and slowly drew a katana from the bottom of the umbrella handle, as though drawing a blade from its sheath. Clear moonlight illuminated the tip, and the girl's cold expression was reflected in the dim blade.

Ember's magical weapon, "Cinderella," was versatile, which was also why Xi Ziyue had taken a liking to her—"Cinderella" could serve as a shield with its opened canopy, draw a longsword from its handle for close combat, or fire beams and bullets from its tip to strike distant enemies.

White Jack tilted its head at the sight, utterly unconcerned. "I know your secret."

"Stop playing games." As she spoke, Ember walked toward it step by step.

It suddenly lowered the brim of its hat and raised both hands in surrender. Its mouth moved, but the howling wind and the train's roar drowned out its voice.

Yet Ember still read what it had said from its lips:

"Xia Zili."

That was... her name.

The girl in the gothic dress abruptly froze. Overwhelming terror exploded within her, nearly drowning her heart. At that moment, neither the train's engine nor the howling night wind could reach her ears.

The world fell silent.

After a long while, she took a step back in shock.

Xia Zili had worked as a magical girl for two years, yet she had never encountered an enemy who knew her true identity...

It was a situation she had never faced before, as if two separate worlds had been forcibly joined together, filling her with confused panic and bewilderment.

But just one second later, the expression on the gothic-dressed girl's face turned cold. Her fear transformed into uncontrollable rage.

The girl in the gothic dress drew her blade and lunged before White Jack like a black falcon.

In an instant, the blade carried a ripple of black magic along with bright moonlight as it slashed toward its neck!

The fierce wind blew straight at them. White Jack watched ahead calmly. Within that fleeting second, it activated the skill equipped in its second skill slot.

[E-rank skill released—"Shift and Swap" (instantly swaps positions with a living target within twenty meters of you).]

[Cooldown: 1 hour.]

The next moment, it switched places with the girl in the gothic dress. The katana slashed through empty air.

Only the blade-shaped ripple of magic swept out, carving a massive trench across the roof of the high-speed train.

The sudden violent tremor made the passengers inside the cars scream.

"Switched places?" There was no one in front of Ember.

"Oh, right, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is White Jack." The Theater Puppet spoke eerily behind her, leaping high as its top hat spun and carried it toward the distant sky.

"Then goodbye, Xia... oh no, Miss Ember."

But before it could finish, Ember had already pieced together what had happened. She turned, raised her umbrella, and fired a black magic bullet from its tip.

"Boom—!"

The bullet instantly pierced through White Jack's heart.

White Jack clutched its chest, swaying through the night sky like a kite with its string cut. At last, it deliberately dropped downward, drifting toward Dawn Capital Square.

With a "splat—", it was impaled atop the spire of the Dawn Capital Iron Tower, like Jesus trapped on a cross.

Blood trickled down the tower's tip, and its body did not move.

The people in the square looked up and screamed at the sight. Ember, who had pursued it from above the silver-white high-speed train, froze on the spot.

"Dead?" Magical Girl Ember hovered in midair, thinking blankly. Is this some kind of scam?