Magical Girls Exposed! Chapter 10

(Step on me! Scold me!)

(Kick the masochist out!)

Fang Ming: "..."

So good at holding it in, huh. [pointing.jpg]

He hadn't expected the barrage to get this excited just because he spoke.

It did sound nice—somewhat like a voice from his previous life called Saori Hayami, and a little like Mamiko Noto—but there was no need to get so worked up.

Heh, what a bunch of sheltered people.

Fang Ming looked down on them inwardly, selectively forgetting that after transforming back then, he had personally recorded his own voice to use as bedtime ASMR.

After all, in Fang Ming's opinion, what was wrong with listening to a recording of his own voice?

Nothing was wrong!

Absolutely nothing was wrong!

Magical Girls Were Not an Easy Job

[Yu Muqiu had also been stunned for a moment by the other girl's pleasant voice, but quickly came back to her senses and said to the silver-haired girl:

"Y-Yes, I need this! But what I wanted to say was... wah!"

Before she could finish, the silver-haired girl threw the Nightmare Seed in her hand at her.

The other girl's sudden move left Yu Muqiu scrambling.

Only after catching it in a panic did Yu Muqiu hear the girl continue:

"Being a magical girl is dangerous work."

"...Huh?"

"You're not qualified."

"!"

Suddenly being deemed unqualified by the other girl left Yu Muqiu standing there in a daze, unable to recover for quite some time.

Instead, Nino, the calico cat beside Yu Muqiu, questioned the silver-haired girl:

"You! What right do you have to say Xiao Qiu isn't qualified?! And who exactly are you?! How did you become a magical girl? What exactly... are you?!"

Nino arched her back and stared warily at the silver-haired girl.

But in the next second, she and Yu Muqiu were both bound by Chains that suddenly appeared.

Nino: "!!"

Yu Muqiu: "!?"

The two were subdued by the silver-haired girl in an instant and had no time to react. It was only when the silver-haired girl grabbed Nino by the neck and lifted her up that Yu Muqiu snapped out of it and shouted at her:

"Don't bully Nino! Let her go!!"

"Hmph."

The silver-haired girl snorted coldly and ignored Yu Muqiu. Instead, she gripped Nino's neck, brought her close, and asked:

"Was it you who brought magic into this world?"

"Y-Yeah, it was me! So what?!" Though Nino was afraid, she still gathered her courage and questioned the silver-haired girl in return.

The silver-haired girl's red eyes glimmered with bloodthirsty light in the darkness. She stared into Nino's azure feline slit pupils and said softly:

"Then I should be the one asking you this: what exactly is your purpose in making a group of children fight Demons?"]

(!?)

(What a sudden twist!)

(From Xiao Bai's tone, she really is a veteran magical girl, isn't she?)

(Veteran [crossed out] elderly magical girl.)

(Www, calling her elderly is too much. At most... she should be an adult.)

Fang Ming: "..."

They guessed right on the mark.

Still, his tone back then had indeed been somewhat condescending. It was only natural that they would guess he was an adult.

He just hadn't been able to hold himself back. Whenever he saw Nino, he couldn't help associating her with a creature called Kyubey.

So he instinctively restrained her and forced her to reveal her purpose.

No matter what, Yu Muqiu was his cousin. Even if she was some incredibly distant cousin, she was still his little sister.

Fang Ming didn't want anything to happen to his little sister.

After all, his aunt, who had supported him ever since his college years, only had this one child!

["I..."

Perhaps intimidated by the silver-haired girl's aura, Nino couldn't speak for quite a while.

Seeing Nino being interrogated by the girl, Yu Muqiu finally grew anxious too. Pink magical light surged around her body, and suddenly the pink glow burst outward, tearing apart every Chain binding her!

"Don't... bully my friend!!"

Yu Muqiu broke free from the Chains. Her overwhelming presence made the silver-haired girl raise an eyebrow. In the end, she casually tossed aside the magical creature Nino, leaped into the air, and landed atop a nearby streetlamp.

Yu Muqiu hurriedly caught the Nino the other girl had thrown down, holding her in her arms before raising her head to look at the silver-haired girl standing on the streetlamp.

Just as she was about to ask something, the silver-haired girl said:

"Friend? It came to this world out of nowhere, turned you into magical girls out of nowhere, and under the banner of protecting the world, made children who had just come of age fight Demons to the death... A friend like that is truly rare."

The girl's tone was calm, but the sarcasm in her words was practically overflowing.

Nino looked aggrieved by her words, her tiny cat face filled with anxiety:

"N-No! I... I didn't... I wasn't... trying to..."

"We chose this ourselves!"

Yu Muqiu looked up at the silver-haired girl, her eyes resolute. "We wanted to become magical girls! That's why Nino made contracts with us!"

"Xiao Qiu..." Nino looked at Yu Muqiu with emotion.]

(To be fair, Xiao Bai's concerns aren't unfounded, but Xiao Qiu and the others didn't have any other choice back then.)

(Yeah. Xiao Qiu got dragged into the barrier. If she didn't become a magical girl, she would have died. The same went for Xiaoxia. As for Xiao Chun...)

(Mama Xiaochun wasn't forced by anyone. She voluntarily became a magical girl because she wanted to help Xiao Qiu and Xiaoxia.)

(All three of them are such good girls.)

Fang Ming could only remain silent as he watched the comments drift across the Sky Screen.

Some things could only be seen clearly once you stepped away from the perspective of those involved and looked at them as an outsider. Only then could you understand just how presumptuous your actions had been.

Back then, Fang Ming didn't know what Yu Muqiu and the others had gone through.

Influenced by magical-girl-related works from his previous life, he had been quite distrustful of cute-looking magical creatures like this, always feeling that they were plotting something behind the scenes.

It wasn't until he watched the first three episodes that he understood Nino had truly made contracts with the three magical girls out of necessity.

Because Yu Muqiu had magical power within her body, she had been enveloped by the Nightmare Barrier when it formed.

Just as Fang Ming had experienced back then.

Or rather, Fang Ming's experience had been the same as Yu Muqiu's. Both had been dragged into the Nightmare Barrier and had nearly died.

At least Fang Ming had his own cheat ability at the time, allowing him to turn the magic he touched into his own Magic Core and transform into a magical girl.

But if Yu Muqiu hadn't had Nino, she would certainly have died inside the barrier, only to later be reported missing with no one knowing what had happened.

The same was true for Chen Xiaoxia.

Only Xiao Chun had made the contract voluntarily. Back then, she saw Chen Xiaoxia and Yu Muqiu fighting three Demons at once and nearly dying, so she took the initiative to make a contract with Nino and become a magical girl.

It could be said that none of the three had a choice.

And Nino truly hadn't wanted to hurt them. She had been saving them.

But Fang Ming hadn't known that at the time.

There hadn't been a Sky Screen back then!

Besides, Fang Ming didn't know any magic that could reverse time. When he saw images of the past, of course his impression of Nino was based on his first encounter with her.

Now, Fang Ming felt that he should apologize to Nino.

But... he would wait until he had the chance.

["Hmph."

Hearing Yu Muqiu's words, the silver-haired girl snorted softly and stopped pursuing the subject. She said to Yu Muqiu:

"I have no interest in your 'friendship,' but... this city is my territory, and the Nightmare Seeds in this city are mine. I don't want to see you in the Nightmare Barrier again."

The silver-haired girl spoke coldly, then leaped toward a distant high-rise.

Only then did Yu Muqiu realize she hadn't asked the other girl's name. She hurriedly called out:

"Wait! I still don't know your name!"

Yu Muqiu wanted to know her name, but the silver-haired girl's figure had already vanished into the night.

Their second meeting had remained unpleasant, leaving Yu Muqiu deeply disappointed.

She looked toward the direction where the silver-haired girl had disappeared, sighed, hugged Nino tightly, and turned to head home.

The scene shifted to a distant view. The silver-haired girl stood atop the high-rise that had appeared in the OP, watching Yu Muqiu leave. Only after confirming that she had returned home did she turn and disappear, leaving behind only a streak of silver light on the screen.]

Seeing this, Fang Ming knew the episode was probably about to end, since the ED intro had already begun.

While the ED played, the comments on the Sky Screen continued discussing the silver-haired magical girl.

Fang Ming didn't look at them. Rather than reading those, he might as well check the discussion threads on the Magical Girl Website.

But to Fang Ming's surprise, after the ED ended, the image on the Sky Screen didn't darken as it had before and reveal a clear sky.

Instead, it switched to another scene.

"A post-credits scene?"

Fang Ming frowned and looked back at the Sky Screen.

What the Sky Screen was showing now was something that appeared in most anime.

A post-credits scene.

Websites Shouldn't Write Nonsense, Should They??

[As the viewpoint shifted, the scene moved beneath the night sky to the great lake beside Rock City.

The lake's surface was clear, stretching beyond sight like the sea.

And beneath the lake, a fishman resembling a catfish opened its eyes.

Four black Nightmare Seeds on its chest and abdomen emitted a deep, eerie glow.

That proved its identity.

A Demon!

And a Wisdom Demon!

And judging by the number of Nightmare Seeds in its chest, it was certainly stronger than the Speed Demon they had encountered before!]

Only after the scene played to this point did the Sky Screen finally go dark.

Fang Ming watched the post-credits scene, understanding dawning in his eyes. He had already remembered what that Demon was, so he no longer paid attention to it.

But the discussion thread on the Magical Girl Website had already exploded.

(What, what?! What was that?! A second Demon?!)

(Didn't Nino say before that the "three" Nightmare Seeds she sensed were actually "three clusters," meaning combinations of three Nightmare Seeds? The previous Speed Demon was one of them, and this... should be another one.)

(It looks stronger than the previous Speed Demon. Will Xiao Qiu and the others be okay?)