Living with Magical Girls, but I'm a Monster Executive

With that thought in mind, Lantian Zhu looked at her phone.

[Cong Yu: You there?]

[Cong Yu: Htxp://PxxCxx.JxxM.NH]

[Cong Yu: I originally wanted to send you the finished product directly, but after thinking it over... it's better to teach a man to fish than give him a fish, right?]

"..." Teach a man to fish?

Lantian Zhu hesitantly copied the link, downloaded the pink app, and opened it. Then a huge R18 warning filled her screen.

"!!!"

"..." A lie itself needed even more lies to cover it up... She had realized that far too late.

Lantian Zhu no longer had any chance to explain herself. The only thing she could do was accept this "hobby" of hers.

So the only reply she could send was—

[Lantian Zhu: Thanks.]

After a while, the word "Read" appeared beneath the message, proving that Cong Yu had seen it.

Lantian Zhu felt somewhat emotional. Lying quietly down, her sapphire-like eyes glimmered in the darkness.

No one knew what she was thinking.

[Cong Yu: Well, you don't need to be overly evasive about this sort of thing.]

[Cong Yu: But you should exercise restraint. You probably know that already. Anyway... I'm going to sleep.]

Lantian Zhu: Who the hell is supposed to understand that?!

--

"Hey... there are police lines all around this place."

A boy's voice rang out, trembling slightly. "Is it really okay for us to just go in?"

Along with his voice, several student-like figures appeared outside the burned-out, dilapidated sports warehouse.

The one who answered him was a carefree girl. "It's fine, relax... As long as we don't get caught."

"..." Easy for her to say, but if they were caught, they might get publicly criticized and ordered to disband the club...

Thinking that, the boy holding a flashlight nervously looked around, only to be met with snickers from the two girls.

"Maeda, you're such trash—Maeda Nakaji, trash—trash—"

"Our Exploration Club's welcome ceremony for this year can't be too lame. Did you forget how our seniors pranked us?"

Hearing his two companions, the male student named Maeda Nakaji recalled when he had first joined the club.

The next day, the club seniors had announced a "test of courage," choosing the old biology classroom laboratory that had since been demolished.

The night before, the seniors had set up an absurd number of prank traps there, nearly scaring all the freshmen—including him—to death.

They had even secretly recorded the whole process, and it had become a running joke within the club.

"Yeah... that's true."

As he spoke, the boy looked at the various props the two girls had brought out—an extremely comprehensive collection, and many of them looked familiar.

A deliberately weathered Buddha statue, a miniature speaker device loaded with recordings of crying, remote-controlled blood packs... These were all things he had suffered through before.

Looking at the excited expressions on the two girls' faces, however, the boy was not particularly interested.

Because he had once suffered through the same thing, he now had to inflict that suffering on new students.

Was that the Kick-the-Cat Effect, in a sense?

"Hurry up, let's get inside and set up the traps."

One girl took the lead, with the other following close behind. Naturally, the male student was left to bring up the rear.

Wind City

High School's abandoned sports warehouse covered quite a large area.

From the outside, it looked completely burned to ruins, but only after entering did they realize... it was even worse than they had imagined.

From outside, they could still make out the colors of the walls and roof. Inside, however, everything was charred black.

It was an exceptionally, exceptionally pure black.

The entire Old Sports Warehouse had burned thoroughly, displaying a darkness like darkness itself, so black that they could not even tell where the corners of the walls were.

"We can put a doll here, right?"

"Oh, looks like we can... Hehe, it'll scare the freshmen half to death!"

"..." While the two girls chatted cheerfully, the boy had no interest in joining them and instead kept looking around.

For some reason, ever since entering this place, he had felt uneasy.

It was not only the burnt stench filling his nostrils, nor was it merely the psychological pressure of sneaking in.

It was...

Maybe it was just an illusion, but he truly felt as though something was watching them from the darkness, bringing with it scorching heat.

As if it were some even hotter, more violent flame.

"..."

"..." At some point, all three had fallen silent.

"Hey! Maeda."

Abruptly, one of the girls spoke.

"Whoa!"

"Ah!"

Both Maeda and the other girl were startled, crying out in alarm before becoming a little embarrassed.

"Cough, cough—"

Maeda Nakaji coughed twice, trying to ease the awkwardness. "W-What? You suddenly yelled and scared me."

In truth, her voice had not been loud.

But the girl had no mind to care about that now. Cold sweat ran down her forehead. "Say, was the sports warehouse always this big?"

It seemed, maybe, perhaps... it had not been?

"Should we turn back?"

Maeda swallowed and spoke. He had a bad feeling about this. "I keep feeling like something is watching us."

His words immediately made the two already nervous girls even more flustered.

But...

"We swore we'd come install the props. If we go back like this, everyone will laugh at us tomorrow, won't they?"

One girl spoke unwillingly.

Both Maeda and the other girl had to admit that she had a point... Yes, they would be mocked.

In that case, instead of this year's new members being laughed at for a long time, it would be them.

For the three of them, that future was truly awful.

So, after discussing it, they still decided to continue deeper into the warehouse... At the very least, they had to finish setting up the scare traps.

Maybe some monster's magic had caused some kind of effect.

That was the only way they could comfort themselves, because they were willing to believe that ghosts did not exist in this world.

But as they moved deeper into the warehouse, the increasingly oppressive atmosphere made everyone even more nervous.

"Huff..."

"Inhale—exhale..."

"..." Amid their heavy breathing, they all seemed to sense something strange, along with the feeling of "being watched" that Maeda had mentioned earlier.

Their footsteps stopped in unison.

But immediately afterward...

"Tap—"

It sounded like the click of high heels against the ground.

But without question, even though Wind City High School's rules did not ban them, few girls wore high heels to school... because they had PE class.

The three exchanged looks and held their breath. Yet even so, faint breathing could still be heard.

"Inhale—exhale—"

Amid the breathing of a fourth person, one girl felt someone blow against her neck... In that instant, every hair on her body stood on end.

"There's a ghost!!!! Aahhhh!!!"

A shrill scream shattered the night's silence. Then the girl bolted for the exit, with the other two following right behind her.

"Wait for me too!"

"Aahhh, there really is a ghost!!"

Even after they had fled far away, the sports warehouse door they had violently flung open continued to sway, producing a teeth-grinding "creak" sound.

Then, very abruptly.

In the place where there had originally been nothing, scarlet magic gradually appeared in the air, dispersing like a spiral.

The figure it revealed was a tall woman dressed like a Doctor.

"Finally scared them off. Kids these days have some nerve..."

Muttering that complaint, Red strolled into the abandoned sports warehouse... She did not sense any lingering monster magic.

How should she put it?

Even the "feeling" of magic itself became difficult to detect after a massive explosion and intense fire.

Not to mention the magic itself.

"Hmm... What's this?"

However, while muttering to herself, Red still noticed something unusual. She reached out, brushed aside the ash on the ground, and picked up a hairpin burned black.

Although it had been scorched in the flames for a long time, it had been buried beneath ash from the very beginning, so it had not been burned beyond recognition.

At least, it was still recognizable as a hairpin.

And because of that...

"The scent of a monster... but overall, it's still mainly human."

Red analyzed it, casually tossing the hairpin in her hand into the air before catching it again. "A human mixed in with monsters?"

As a former magical girl who had joined a monster organization—Hong Xiawu Hong—she righteously commented, "A traitor to humanity!"

Surprisingly, a Good Student

"Yawn—"

Cong Yu yawned, tossed his bag behind his seat, and then lazily started playing with his phone.

Of course, he did not forget to place the box wrapped in a blue-green cloth beside his desk.

As for what it was?

"Lunch?"

Minato Namikaze, sitting beside him, looked surprised. He did not remember Cong Yu being someone who made and brought his own lunch.

In response to Minato Namikaze's words, Cong Yu calmly glanced at him, then nodded, indicating that it really was lunch.