White Jack and Magical Girl Ember

On the night of July 2, 2026, Dawn Capital Square was the busiest and most prosperous area in the entire city.

At that moment, people on the brightly lit boulevard heard a sudden commotion in the sky and looked up one after another.

Following the source of the noise, they saw something unbelievable:

—A deathly pale corpse was impaled upon the tip of the Dawn Capital Tower!

They stood there blankly at first, until a piercing scream shattered the square's silence.

"No, no, no... How could I die here? I haven't even been to Rain Crow's fan meet yet..." Theater Puppet spat out a mouthful of blood. It shouted as it kicked wildly at the air.

But the more it struggled, the deeper its body sank onto the tower's spire.

Seeing that everyone's attention was fixed on it, White Jack suddenly stopped struggling.

It pointed at Magical Girl Ember in the distant sky and said in the tone of someone telling a bad joke, "That's right, Miss Ember... I'm about to die, and you publicly tortured someone to death. Don't you feel guilty?"

Ember looked at it, her eyes filled with anger and confusion.

She had clearly seen White Jack adjust the direction of its fall and deliberately land on this tower, letting the spire pierce its body. But why would it kill itself?

Wasn't this blatant fraud? She could already imagine tomorrow's headline—"Magical Girl Ember's old illness flares up: publicly tortures a criminal once again, suspected of challenging the public's bottom line."

Once public opinion erupted again, she would truly be finished... No matter how thoroughly the Magical Girl Company sidelined her or handled the public relations, it would never suppress the public's fury toward her. From then on, she could forget about appearing before the public as an official magical girl.

Ember fell silent for a while and looked down.

Screams rose and fell across the square. People fled in panic, and children who had fallen to the ground wailed. At the same time, scarlet blood poured from White Jack's pierced chest like a waterfall, staining the tip of the tower red.

This scene was exactly like one of the images Ember had seen before...

Identical.

The sight from that day came roaring into her mind like a train, crashing straight into her thoughts: a high-rise drenched in blood, the gazes cast her way, their terrified expressions and astonished eyes, while the flashes from their phones never stopped.

The ringing in her ears grew louder and louder, deafening enough to make Magical Girl Ember want to cover her ears.

She did not know what to do. Her hands and feet went cold, her body trembled faintly, and though she opened her mouth, no words came out. Once again, fearful stares drowned her like a tidal wave.

Yet at that moment, White Jack suddenly spread its hands and tilted its head toward the bustling figures in the square.

"Please don't cyberbully our poor, adorable Miss Ember, all right? I, White Jack, testify here! I willingly died by her hand. This absolutely wasn't a one-sided act of torture!"

As White Jack spoke, it raised a hand to its forehead in a military salute.

Still impaled on the tower's spire in that bizarre pose, it solemnly swept its gaze over the crowd in the square.

But no one in the crowd cared about it. They only screamed and ran.

So it lowered its head and sighed, then shouted at the top of its lungs, almost crazed, "If she hadn't killed me, I would've snapped the Dawn Capital Iron Tower in half and smashed every last one of you idiots into pulp! Then I'd dig out your intestines and use them as seasoning for roasted crow!"

It paused. "Oh... You're asking what kind of crow I roast? Of course, Rain Crow."

Magical Girl Ember was left completely stunned, slowly raising her eyes toward it.

Her mind was utterly blank. She had no idea what this lunatic was doing. First, it had deliberately framed her by throwing itself onto the tower, and now it was suddenly speaking up for her. It was simply incomprehensible.

White Jack raised a nonexistent eyebrow and muttered to itself, "Oh no... Doesn't that sound like some clumsy PR stunt? Am I some shill hired by the Magical Girl Company to clear her name?"

As it spoke, it suddenly hurled its cane toward the square with all its strength.

In an instant, ghostly blue flames ignited along the cane.

Like an eerily colored torch, it plummeted straight toward a child at the center of the square. That blow could have smashed the child's head into mush and boiled his brains! But White Jack could make the cane fly back into its hand at any moment.

If Ember shot the cane, it would be knocked away, and the child in the square would be safe. If she did not shoot in time, the cane would automatically return to White Jack's palm, and the child would still be safe.

"This is the pinnacle of tactical mind games, like rock-paper-scissors between elementary schoolers." White Jack marveled at its own world-shaking brilliance and covered its mouth.

The next instant, Magical Girl Ember fiercely raised her umbrella and pulled the trigger at the falling cane.

"Bang—!"

The bullet tore through the night and shot forth, knocking the cane away in an instant.

The cane fell into the square's fountain, and the gushing water extinguished the ghostly blue flames. The five-year-old child began sobbing loudly, and a woman rushed out from the crowd to hold him.

"Xiao Lei, are you okay? Are you okay?" The woman clutched the child's head and cried out.

She looked up, her eyes trembling as she stared at the magical girl in the Gothic dress overhead. Nearly speechless, she said, "Thank you for saving my child... Thank you!"

White Jack looked regretful, as though it had watched the national football team miss the one final kick that could have sent them into the World Cup. It screamed hysterically, "Damn it! Fucking damn it! Why can't I take one more person with me before I die? You filthy bastards—!"

And so, the people in the square all looked up, staring blankly at White Jack impaled atop the tower, then turned to look at Magical Girl Ember, who had stepped forward moments earlier.

But Ember was stunned as well, the tip of her umbrella still aimed at the ground.

She slowly raised her eyes and stared without moving at the puppet throwing its unreasonable tantrum on the spire.

It did that on purpose? Ember thought blankly. It knew I would shoot, so it deliberately threw the cane at that child?

White Jack did sit-ups on the tower's spire, alive one moment and dead the next. It repeatedly adjusted its posture, as though trying to die more beautifully. Finally, in a ghostly tone, it recited the most famous line from a children's cartoon about sheep and wolves:

"I'll be back..."

With that, it died and dissolved into a cloud of white mist.

Magical Girl Ember gazed blankly at the tower's spire.

"Who... are you?" Before she could ask White Jack that question, it had already vanished.

Even now, her mind was shrouded in confusion. White Jack had first revealed her true identity, then staged this whole performance in front of the crowd to get her out of trouble. Neither made any sense to her.

The girl's thoughts were like a ball of yarn rolling off a table, endless strands spreading in every direction.

It knows my real identity, and it even spoke up for me like that... Could it be... At that thought, Ember suddenly paused.

She raised her eyes and murmured unconsciously:

"...Big brother?"

For some reason, Ke Mingqing's face suddenly surfaced in her mind.