Xia Zili's Problem, the Witch's Shadow

Leaning against the bedroom's floor-to-ceiling window, Ke Mingqing sat down.

Outside, streetlights flickered in the night. In the distance, a brightly lit high-speed train sped across the elevated bridge.

The boy hung his head, holding his sketchbook with his left hand while using a ballpoint pen in his right to doodle a superhero suit onto the page.

First, he solemnly paid tribute to Dread Crow Man by designing a bird-shaped helmet and a matching beaked mask. A family ought to look properly matched, after all.

Next, he made the suit's main color blue, because it was his favorite color... And the final step was also the most crucial one:

—He opened his chat list, tapped Hitomi Kuroki's name, and sent a message.

[Ke Mingqing: By the way, since your family is so powerful and influential, could you ask someone to get me a superhero suit? There are so many superheroes in this world, so there should be quite a few independent specialists who make hero suits, right?]

He added silently, It doesn't matter if it's crude. As long as it vaguely looks like a person, it'll do. Once I join Hero Corporation, someone will help me upgrade it anyway.

[Hitomi Kuroki: I can, but what do you need one for?]

[Ke Mingqing: Don't ask yet. I'll tell you later.]

[Hitomi Kuroki: Then come to my house tomorrow and give me the suit design?]

[Ke Mingqing: Sure.]

[Hitomi Kuroki: Oh, right. Little Red Riding Hood just told me that one of her classmates is also coming over to our house tomorrow.]

[Ke Mingqing: Not a big deal. We can just avoid them when we talk.]

A few minutes earlier, in another corner of Old Jingmai District.

Magical Girl Ember folded her umbrella and slowly descended, her feet landing lightly atop the railing of an abandoned teaching building.

She leaped down from the railing and landed in the empty corridor. Moonlight streamed through the windows, spilling over the girl's fair face as she walked forward step by step.

By the time she entered the classroom from before, the candles were still burning, but Xi Ziyue had already left.

Instead, another figure was leaning against the wall, waiting.

Ember looked up and saw a blonde, blue-eyed girl in a Christmas dress, with a red Christmas-present-shaped hair accessory tied atop her head.

"Magical Girl Little Red Riding Hood." She was Xia Zili's teammate, but the two had not carried out missions together for quite some time. Their relationship had grown much more distant lately.

Little Red Riding Hood turned her head and looked quietly at her, speaking softly.

"Senior, Teacher Xi Ziyue has already left. She said you should rest properly first. She won't assign you any missions for the next few days. She also told you to behave yourself and stop causing trouble."

She paused. "What happened at Dawn Capital Square just now has already spread across the entire internet."

"Got it."

The girl in the gothic dress spoke carelessly. A hazy cocoon-like glow suddenly enveloped her body. Once the glow shattered, she became an ordinary girl with only slightly above-average looks, and the umbrella in her hand vanished as well.

Xia Zili hesitated before looking up at Little Red Riding Hood. "By the way... how about I visit your house in a couple of days?"

Little Red Riding Hood thought for a moment. "Senior, it would be better if you didn't come to my house."

"Why?"

"People are divided by rank and status. A little girl like you, who grew up with a golden spoon in her mouth, comes from a different kind of family than a little girl like me, who grew up eating garbage." Little Red Riding Hood lowered her head and spoke very quickly. "I'll feel inferior."

There was no expression on her face as she said this, and her tone did not fluctuate in the slightest.

"Didn't you say before that you worked as a maid for a rich family?" Xia Zili looked out into the night. "I just wanted to know whether they treated you well."

"Thank you for your concern, Senior." Little Red Riding Hood raised her head. "But a little girl like me, who came from the countryside and grew up eating garbage, is already completely satisfied as long as she has a bite to eat."

She quickly returned to her blank expression, no longer looking downcast. "Besides, I haven't been abused. Miss Kuroki treats me very well."

Xia Zili crossed her arms and thought for a while before finally speaking.

"Then can't I just go to your house as a friend and hang out for a bit? Don't see me as a Magical Girl, and don't see me as your senior. Just see me as an ordinary friend."

Little Red Riding Hood was silent for a long time before nodding.

"All right... But I was chatting with Miss Kuroki on my phone just now. She told me a guest might come to the house tomorrow, so she wants me to prepare properly after school."

"Who?"

"Miss Kuroki's classmate. He's the same age as us and attends the same school." As she spoke, Little Red Riding Hood's tone suddenly turned cold. "I heard people at school saying that he might be Miss Kuroki's boyfriend."

She lowered her voice. "For Miss Kuroki's safety, I have to observe him carefully."

Xia Zili was stunned for a moment. "What kind of nonsense is that? I really don't understand you Japanese girls... Anyway, I'm only going to your house for a look. The rest has nothing to do with me."

"That's true." Little Red Riding Hood nodded.

Just then, a light snowfall suddenly began in the sky behind her. Then came a clear, ethereal jingling as two reindeer with bells tied to them galloped through the snowstorm, pulling a blood-red sleigh through the night sky.

"Christmas Sleigh." That was the name of Little Red Riding Hood's magical weapon.

The magical weapons of Magical Girls were usually "magic wands," all much the same, with perhaps only different colors.

However, Little Red Riding Hood's "Christmas Sleigh" and Xia Zili's "Cinderella" were different. Both were classified as "mutated magical weapons," which was also one sign of exceptional talent.

At that moment, Little Red Riding Hood hugged her knees and gave a light leap, passing through the broken window and landing inside the suspended sleigh. She then turned back to glance at Xia Zili's profile.

"I'm going home first, Senior."

"Go on."

Xia Zili folded her arms and nodded lightly. The air inside the classroom was a little cold.

"Giddyup!"

At Little Red Riding Hood's command, the two reindeer immediately pulled the crimson sleigh into the distance. The incongruous summer snowfall vanished along with the fading bells, and the surrounding temperature promptly rose quite a bit.

Xia Zili did not linger either. She slowly walked out of the teaching building alone and left the abandoned elementary school.

There was no one at the bus stop. She boarded the last bus of the night.

Inside the bus, she turned her head and silently looked at the face reflected in the window glass.

Ever since she killed someone for the first time, she often saw a black shadow smiling at her in mirrors.

The shadow had red eyes and a red mouth.

It looked like a simply drawn little girl.

Xia Zili had not told anyone about this.

Because it might be a sign of "witchification." Becoming a witch meant losing one's true nature and turning into a complete madwoman... Witches were therefore despised. Once someone became a witch, everyone would have the right to kill her. Every Magical Girl in the company, including Little Red Riding Hood and Xi Ziyue, would come to hunt her down.

She did not want to die.

Even less did she want to die alone.

The bus reached its stop. Xia Zili was the only passenger on the bus, and also its last passenger.

She got off, but did not go home immediately. Instead, she wandered through the brightly lit night market for a while and bought a candied hawthorn skewer.

After paying, she put the skewer into a paper bag and only then walked home step by step.

Xia Zili wanted to get home quickly, but she also wanted to walk more slowly.

Yet no matter how much she slowed down, she still arrived home in the end. Xia Zili unlocked the door, took off her sandals, and walked barefoot up to the second floor, stopping outside Ke Mingqing's room.

After standing silently for a while, she had just raised her fingers to knock lightly when someone suddenly opened the door across from her.

Xia Zili froze, then looked up at Ke Mingqing's face.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Under the moonlight, Xia Zili quietly watched Ke Mingqing.

He looked perfectly fine, his expression calm. He did not resemble that strange puppet that had gone mad atop the Dawn Capital Iron Tower in the slightest. That's right. How could it be him? Is something wrong with my brain?

"Why are you standing there like an idiot?" Ke Mingqing asked. "Did you take the wrong medicine tonight?"

"This... is for you." As she spoke, Xia Zili thrust the bag containing the candied hawthorn skewer into Ke Mingqing's chest with the force of a punch. "I bought it outside."

Ke Mingqing caught the bag as he said, "Did you have to use that much force?"

"Oh, right. Let me ask you something." Xia Zili suddenly said.

"What?"

"If one day I developed a mental illness and became someone else, someone you didn't recognize at all..." Xia Zili glanced at the mirror in the hallway from the corner of her eye.

The black shadow in the mirror curled its lips and gave her a mocking smile.

Staring at that black shadow, she was silent for a long time before asking softly.

"Would you still consider me family then?"

Ke Mingqing raised his head and looked strangely into her eyes, while she silently stared at the distant mirror.

"For the sake of this candied hawthorn skewer, I'll reluctantly consider you family," he said lightly. "When the time comes, I won't send you to a psychiatric hospital. I'll keep you at home, and when you recover one day, you'll find that you've become a big fat pig."

As he spoke, he reached out and patted her head. Her soft hair flowed through his fingers like water.

"Why are you touching my head?" she asked quietly after a while.

"The sugar residue from the skewer got on my hand. You haven't showered yet anyway," Ke Mingqing said calmly.

Xia Zili slowly raised her head and gave him the middle finger. Ke Mingqing ate the candied hawthorn skewer as he bent her finger back down, then closed the door.

Before closing it, he deliberately stuck a note to the outside of the door.

The note read, "Pigs and Xia Zili are not allowed inside." But judging from the marks on the paper, he had originally intended to write "dogs," then crossed it out because he thought it sounded too harsh and replaced it with pigs.

Xia Zili did not even have the strength to frown. She merely looked at the little pig drawn on the door, both annoyed and amused, and did not argue with him.

The hallway was silent. The girl leaned against the wall, standing all alone beneath the moonlight.

She slightly raised her hand and gently touched the hair Ke Mingqing had just patted.

There isn't any sugar residue on it, is there?

After washing up and changing into her nightgown, she lay on her bed and stared blankly at the ceiling.

Then her phone chimed with a WeChat message. Xia Zili picked it up and looked at it.

[Ke Mingqing: Oh, right. Did you check Weibo tonight? Our idol's reputation has turned around.]