Living with a Magical Girl, but a Monster Executive

"I'm off—"

Having finished transforming, Yaochuan Guang flew confidently out the window... She really loved using windows, Shiny☆-chan.

With that expression, she could probably handle it easily, right?

Cong Yu thought so.

Not long after returning home, the doorbell rang.

"..." As Lantian Zhu silently opened the door, what Cong Yu and she saw was Yaochuan Guang, missing everything below her waist.

Their roommate was being pushed in on a wheelchair by men in black suits. She appeared to have been severed at the waist, with white bandages wrapped around the cross-section.

Had she been cut in half at the waist?

"Hi—"

Pale-faced, Yaochuan Guang forced out a greeting before sighing dejectedly. "Sigh, it was a Monster I'd never seen before... I lost."

Lantian Zhu nodded, indicating that she understood.

Cong Yu nodded wordlessly as well, showing that he got it. Still, he was not surprised that Yaochuan Guang was alive.

During his time as an executive, he had come to understand this very clearly.

Magical girls were "monsters" like this...

Chapter 8: So It Was a Bomb

"Stop right there, Monster! Your opponent is me! That's what I shouted at the time."

Yaochuan Guang described what had happened. She lay miserably in bed, while a blank-faced man and woman sat nearby.

Lantian Zhu and Cong Yu sat quietly on small stools, listening to Yaochuan Guang recount her earlier encounter.

Cong Yu figured that Yaochuan Guang had been active for quite some time. For her to suddenly get beaten this badly by a Monster, she might have run into a particularly fierce one.

Maybe someone he knew.

"Then, I started fighting it."

Yaochuan Guang's account was extremely concise. Recalling it, she said, "I waved my hand and saved a few children, then I shouted..."

"Everyone, evacuate! Leave this to magical girl Shiny☆-chan!"

"Then, I saw admiration in those children's eyes. They shouted, [Shiny☆-chan will win!] and [Wow! It's a magical girl!]"

"..." Lantian Zhu and Cong Yu silently watched the seemingly proud Yaochuan Guang. After exchanging glances, they both sighed.

This was not the important part they wanted to know.

Fortunately, Yaochuan Guang quickly got to the point. "Then, I had the upper hand throughout the battle!"

As she said that, Yaochuan Guang felt a slight itch around her waist, though she did not pay it much attention. "But then, it suddenly took out a bomb."

As Yaochuan Guang spoke, Cong Yu watched tiny buds of flesh emerge from the cross-section at her waist, intertwining with one another.

Bones began to grow bit by bit, while minute scraps of flesh continuously arranged and combined, gradually forming fibers, blood vessels, muscles, and skin.

Cong Yu even wanted to jokingly call this recovery ability healing by breathing.

As long as the battle was over, they received enough nutrients, and they rested quietly in bed, any injury would recover quickly.

Different magical girls had somewhat different recovery abilities, but after resting for one night, they could be bouncing around again the next day.

"Or rather, it was something like a bomb. I couldn't dodge in time, and the bomb it threw stuck to my leg."

"Then, the bomb blew away my entire lower body... If I hadn't used my MAX finisher and injured that Monster too, I might have died there."

Yaochuan Guang frowned as she spoke, thinking about the "bomb." Yet she spoke lightly of something related to "death."

That was precisely why Cong Yu did not like magical girls at all.

"I see... What a powerful bomb."

Cong Yu said perfunctorily as he closed his eyes and pulled the blanket over Yaochuan Guang, covering her lower body, which had fully regenerated but was completely uncovered.

To be honest, Cong Yu's actions were remarkably polite and natural.

Yaochuan Guang did not realize at all that Cong Yu had already seen everything. She was still thinking about how to deal with that Monster afterward.

Lantian Zhu, however, had noticed. Expressionless, she nudged Cong Yu with her elbow and asked calmly, "You saw it, didn't you?"

Cong Yu remained equally calm in response to Lantian Zhu's question. "It would definitely be a lie if I said I didn't."

Yes, Cong Yu had seen it. Not only had he seen it, he had also confirmed that Yaochuan Guang had plains rather than forest terrain.

How should he put it? He might have gotten lucky as a pervert.

But having been a pervert to this extent, Cong Yu felt a little ashamed... He did not understand why Yaochuan Guang had not reacted.

Even if she saw him as one of the girls, they should not have been that close.

Or perhaps... she was already so absorbed in the question of "how to defeat the enemy" that she could not react to anything else?

What kind of single-threaded brain was that?

With that in mind, Cong Yu simply left Yaochuan Guang's room to avoid the awkwardness from before.

To his surprise, Lantian Zhu followed him out.

"You're not staying with Yaochuan Guang?"

Cong Yu asked simply as he sat down at his "workstation" in front of the sofa. Then he heard Lantian Zhu say, "Can I borrow that notebook of yours?"

That "notebook" naturally referred to... the Monster Register Lantian Zhu had seen before!

If it had only contained ordinary Monsters, that would have been fine.

But if she saw the group's secrets in the back, or... information about the executive named "Cong Yu"...

Even an idiot would realize his true identity!

Tonight, I'll tear out the page about myself! I never should have included myself when recording those NO? entries!

His thoughts in disarray, Cong Yu abruptly stopped moving and silently closed the laptop he had opened. "I don't remember any Monster using that kind of bomb."

Though he said that, there definitely were some. And based on Yaochuan Guang's description...

Cong Yu even had some idea who that Monster was.

But he absolutely could not give the notebook to Lantian Zhu. Who knew whether she might see something she should not while flipping through it and searching?

However,

Lantian Zhu clearly had not given up.

"Please. You saw it too, didn't you? That dejected expression on Little Guang's face. Although I know what's inside may be important to you."

With that indifferent expression of yours, how did you look even slightly like you were begging?

"..." No, Yaochuan Guang's expression had nothing to do with him, right? Though they were roommates... Wait, what did she mean by "important to me"?

It could certainly mean, [As a manga artist, you worked hard to gather and study reference materials], but...

Could that be some sort of hint?

Cong Yu hesitated. He could not read anything from Lantian Zhu's expression and was unsure whether she had noticed something.

Is she threatening me? [If you don't help, I'll tell everyone!]

To be honest, Cong Yu was somewhat worried about that. He wanted, at least for a while, to live a peaceful life in the ordinary world.

If his current identity became connected to his executive identity...

Then peace would be impossible.

"..." Cong Yu was at a loss for words, wavering over whether to simply tell Lantian Zhu that Monster's identity. After all, he did not particularly like magical girls either.

He could even say he was "sick of" them.

But Yaochuan Guang did not seem like an overly mature magical girl, and she had changed his opinion of her a little.

Seeing that Cong Yu was not responding, Lantian Zhu did not press him further. She merely turned on the television silently.

The television seemed to be reporting on the earlier Monster incident.

[We are reporting... The Monster that attacked Grass Flower Bank has cowardly escaped, fleeing in panic after being defeated by a magical girl!]

[Magical girl Shiny☆-chan bravely saved civilians from the Monster, including four children under the age of eight. She protected our future!]

[According to the employees' count, the Monster stole 400 million yuan in cash from the bank before escaping. Regarding this...]

[Until the Monster is apprehended, services for all Grass Flower Bank customers will be temporarily suspended. The bank will gradually compensate for the resulting financial losses. We ask for everyone's understanding in the face of unavoidable disasters.]

"..."

"Four hundred million. That's quite a lot."

Cong Yu's words drew Lantian Zhu's attention. Under her questioning gaze, he shook his head, indicating it was nothing.

Monsters did not often rob banks, so... no, it did not matter.

No matter how terrible the bank manager or directors were, how much they had embezzled or squandered, or how many groups they were colluding with, it had nothing to do with him—

Wait, come to think of it, his royalties were deposited into Grass Flower Bank, right? There should still be quite a bit in that card...

"!!!"

Chapter 9: Lantian Zhu's Keen Insight

Cong Yu knew these people's methods well... It was nothing more than a bank colluding with some Monster Group, then arranging for a Monster to cause trouble.

Afterward, they claimed there had been losses during the incident.

It was just embezzlement of public funds!

"Heh heh..."

Cong Yu chuckled coldly. Narrowing his eyes, he stared at the Monster's image on the television screen. "Doesn't its chin kind of look like a butt?"

At Cong Yu's words, Lantian Zhu calmly looked at the screen and nodded. "It does. One on the left, one on the right."

But she did not understand what Cong Yu's cold laugh just now meant.

"I think I recognize it. I'll check the register... I mean, I'll look through that notebook."

Saying that, Cong Yu turned and walked into his room.

Left behind, Lantian Zhu tilted her head in confusion, not knowing why Cong Yu had suddenly changed his mind.

Had he remembered something after seeing its features?

As Lantian Zhu thought that, her gaze fell upon Yaochuan Guang on the television screen, her lower body blown away.

Seeing Yaochuan Guang covered in blood and recalling the anger on Cong Yu's face just now... Lantian Zhu felt that she understood.

Cong Yu-san was a tsundere after all.

If Cong Yu knew what Lantian Zhu was thinking, he would definitely cough up blood... He only wanted to know which bastard dared touch his money!

He had not stolen or robbed that money, nor had he earned it while serving as a Monster executive. It was payment he had earned through painstakingly drawing manga!

Cong Yu was so angry that his hands shook. He took out the Monster Register and flipped through several pages... He definitely knew that Monster.

He had associated it with someone from the very beginning...

Or rather, thanks to a certain perverted Doctor, there were very few Monsters not recorded in his register.

Cong Yu wanted to personally make a move and force the Ant Monster to tell him who it was colluding with, but it really was not appropriate.

Didn't Lantian Zhu want information?

Then he would tell Yaochuan Guang and have her kill that Ant Monster. He could also earn a favor from these two magical girls.

Cong Yu's mind raced. He felt it was very possible that Lantian Zhu had previously flipped to some more confidential Monster pages.

She might already harbor some suspicions about him.

It was necessary to clear himself of suspicion.

"The other party is the Ant Monster. It was active in Earth City for a while, and it used similar self-destruct equipment back then."