"Tsk, tsk, tsk."
"Alright, you two. Isn't it just Xiao Chun meeting Fang Ming? What's so interesting about that?"
Yu Muqiu couldn't see anything unusual. From her perspective, Fang Ming had merely met with Xiao Chun to discuss the Magical Girl Website.
It was work, and there didn't seem to be anything worth paying attention to.
But while Yu Muqiu thought so, Chen Xiaoxia did not.
She wagged a finger at Yu Muqiu and said,
"Xiao Qiu, you're too naïve. If she was simply here to see Fang Ming, why would she hide it?"
"This..."
"It's obvious!" Chen Xiaoxia concluded. "Xiao Chun and Fang Ming must be discussing something bad, which is why they're being so sneaky! Who would've thought? Even good little Xiao Chun has her naughty side."
"Yeah, yeah... huh?" Nino nodded along instinctively, but froze when she heard Chen Xiaoxia's conclusion.
Was... was that how it was?
Wasn't Xiao Chun sneaking over here because she liked Fang Ming?
Had Nino guessed wrong?
Nino had initially thought Chen Xiaoxia was the one who had guessed wrong, but seeing how certain Chen Xiaoxia looked, she couldn't help beginning to doubt herself.
Could it be... that she had really guessed wrong?
Nino was still questioning her entire life.
Then, all at once, the phones on Yu Muqiu, Chen Xiaoxia, and Murong Xiaochun, who was inside the room, rang simultaneously.
The phones they carried had been specially prepared by the Federation for private communication.
These phones normally never rang. In other words, if one rang, it meant something major had happened!
For that reason, the three of them answered almost at the same time.
And they received the same piece of news at the same moment.
"What?! A Demon has appeared in downtown Spring City?! That's impossible!"
Chen Xiaoxia cried out in alarm.
She had completely forgotten that she had followed Murong Xiaochun here. Her shout was loud enough for Xiao Chun and Fang Ming inside the room to hear clearly.
But at this moment, no one cared about Chen Xiaoxia secretly following someone.
Everyone's attention had been drawn to the urgency in the caller's voice.
After a month, a Demon had appeared in Spring City once again.
And before this, Nino had sensed nothing at all.
Toy Bear and the Ambush
"Roar—!"
In a commercial district in downtown Spring City, a massive bear nearly three meters tall rampaged through a shopping mall.
The giant bear was brown all over, its body covered in dense stitching patterns. One corner of an ear was missing, with stuffing faintly visible inside.
That was right, this giant bear was a stuffed bear.
A stuffed bear standing a full three meters tall!
Any object that grew to three meters tall would bring a soul-shaking sense of oppression, let alone this giant bear possessed considerable strength. With one sweep of its toy paw, the surrounding buildings and decorations were easily knocked down like stacked blocks.
People scattered and fled around the stuffed giant bear, while the bear seemed to have picked out a target and charged after it in a frenzy.
On a second-floor platform not far from the giant bear, a woman in office attire held up her phone and reported,
"The Demon codenamed 'Toy Bear' seems to be chasing someone. There haven't been any casualties yet, but if this continues, there's no telling what will happen... Xiao Qiu, hurry over!"
"Coming!"
The woman had barely finished speaking when Yu Muqiu's voice came from both inside and outside the phone at once.
Then Yu Muqiu, transformed into a streak of pink light, appeared in midair. Pink light formed wings behind her, allowing her to hover in the air. The moment she arrived, she swung her wand and cast magic at Toy Bear.
"Light Shackles!"
Several streaks of pink light formed chain-like shapes and attempted to bind the distant Demon.
At first glance, those chains looked similar to the magic Xiao Bai used, but in truth, they were merely constructs Yu Muqiu had shaped with Light Magic.
Yu Muqiu's Light Magic was magic that controlled light.
She could alter the light formed from her own magical power into all kinds of shapes, condensing it into various solid objects.
She could also fire the light outward, unleashing powerful blasts.
Compared with Xiaoxia and Xiao Chun, Yu Muqiu's Light Magic was incredibly practical. Calling it omnipotent would not have been an exaggeration.
For example, right now, wings formed from Light Magic carried Yu Muqiu through the air, while chains formed from Light Magic bound Toy Bear in place.
After all, she was the "protagonist." It was only natural that her magic would be so adaptable.
Chen Xiaoxia and Murong Xiaochun arrived right after Yu Muqiu.
The blue magical girl became a meteor falling from the sky, smashing through the mall's ceiling. Gripping a greatsword taller than herself, she brought it crashing down on the giant bear's head!
"Take this!"
Chen Xiaoxia had not named any of her moves. Her fighting style was simple: relying on her immense strength and physical prowess to fight head-on.
But precisely because of that, she had the purest offensive power of the three magical girls.
With her "Enhancement" magic, she could enhance anything in her hands and turn anything she held into a greatsword.
She could even enhance her own body.
The enhanced greatsword smashed down onto the giant bear's head.
But the blade sank into the giant bear's soft, squishy body!
Its soft body dispersed most of Chen Xiaoxia's attack. In the end, not only did she fail to split the giant bear in half, she gave it an opening instead.
A furry toy paw swept in from the side. It shattered the chains restraining it and struck Chen Xiaoxia squarely.
Bang!!
Rumble!!
Chen Xiaoxia was sent flying into a nearby shop. She wrecked the store and buried herself in the debris.
Fortunately, as the only combat-focused magical girl among the three, that level of attack could not hurt Chen Xiaoxia at all.
She merely rubbed the spot where she had been hit, lying in the ruins as she said,
"Ow, ow, ow... Huh? It doesn't actually hurt that much?"
Compared to where she had been struck, her back hurt more from crashing into the shop.
Looking at Toy Bear's furry paw, Chen Xiaoxia suddenly understood.
Toy Bear might have looked huge, but it was still just a toy. Aside from its greater strength, that strike had not been particularly lethal by nature.
If Chen Xiaoxia had landed in a pile of cotton instead, she probably would not have felt any pain at all.
This Toy Bear... seemed different from the previous Demons.
"Roar—!!"
Having swatted Chen Xiaoxia away, Toy Bear seemed to realize that someone was stopping it and let out an enraged roar at the magical girls.
Just as Yu Muqiu thought Toy Bear would charge at her, it opened its mouth, gathering brown energy the same color as its body within it.
"Not good, it's a Magic Cannon! Xiao Qiu, get out of the way!"
Nino, watching from afar, warned Yu Muqiu.
But even without Nino's warning, Yu Muqiu knew she could not take this attack head-on.
Yet when she looked behind herself, at the spectators on the seventh floor who had not yet evacuated and had even taken out their phones to record, Yu Muqiu suppressed the urge to dodge.
She could not move!
Otherwise, the people behind her would be hit by the Magic Cannon!
With that thought, Yu Muqiu swung her wand, and a pink shield of light appeared before her.
Shield of Hope!
This was Yu Muqiu's defensive move.
But in the end, Toy Bear's Magic Cannon did not strike Yu Muqiu, because Xiao Chun, who had been providing support from afar, finally made her move!
Green light turned into four streaks in the air. In the blink of an eye, the four streaks formed one long Arrow, which pierced into Toy Bear's side and emerged from the other.
The momentum generated by the powerful force sent the giant bear's body toppling sideways, its mouth pointing directly at the transparent glass ceiling above.
Boom!!!
The Magic Cannon erupted from the giant bear's mouth at that moment.
It pierced through the ceiling, melted the glass above, and shot straight toward the sky.
After firing, the thick Magic Cannon quickly narrowed and dissipated.
Looking back at the giant bear, after firing that blast, whether due to exhausting its magical power or because of Xiao Chun's Arrow, it had completely lost all power.
Its body shrank from a giant bear several meters tall into a tiny stuffed bear only a dozen centimeters high.
Only after confirming that the little stuffed bear would not move again did the three magical girls gather around it.
Chen Xiaoxia grabbed the doll and shook it, frowning. "This... doesn't seem to be a Demon? There's no Nightmare Seed at all."
Hearing that, everyone turned their eyes toward Nino, who had run over as well.
Nino nimbly climbed onto Chen Xiaoxia, then sniffed the scent on the doll with her nose.
No one knew what she had smelled, but the pupils in her catlike eyes trembled as she cried out,
"This is... magical power?! This isn't a Demon, it's magic!!"
"?!"
The moment those words were spoken, the three magical girls, along with the officials who had arrived to deal with the scene, were all startled.
Not a Demon, but magic?
Everyone knew that only magical girls could use magic, and these three magical girls clearly could not have been responsible for this incident.
Then the origin of this magical doll...
"Achoo!"
Xiao Bai, who had also come to the mall and had already transformed into a magical girl, naturally heard the discussion among the three magical girls.
When she heard that this was a doll created by magic, Xiao Bai's mouth twitched uncontrollably.
What? A magical doll?
Was she about to become the scapegoat??
With only three magical girls known to the public at present, while Xiao Bai was the sole magical girl still operating outside their circle, the sudden appearance of a toy bear formed from magic made Xiao Bai the most obvious suspect.
Though Xiao Bai believed this was likely the opening of the second season of Magical Girl Xiao Qiu.
But the first season on the Sky Screen had not even finished airing yet!
At the rate of one episode per week, if Xiao Bai wanted to clear her name, who knew how long she would have to wait!
"Tsk..."
Thinking of that, Xiao Bai's expression darkened.
Not only because she had inexplicably been saddled with a huge accusation, but also because personnel from the official organization had somehow arrived on the rooftop where she stood.
Looking at the officials who had suddenly appeared, as well as the helicopters flying overhead.
Xiao Bai felt as if she had been surrounded.
Episode Six, One Day Later
Before you continue