Magical Girls Exposed!

She wore a green dress, a flower wreath like a crown appeared atop her head, and she held a longbow made of vine-green wood in her hand.

Once her transformation was complete, Xiao Chun opened her eyes amid a rain of flowers, stood with her bow in hand, and struck a pose.

Transformation complete.]

Even though it was not his first time seeing it, Fang Ming still thought the transformation was beautiful.

Beautiful as it was... it had to be incredibly embarrassing for the person involved, right...?

Having the whole world watch a Magical Girl Transformation—what kind of cruel punishment was that?

The thought that he might have to go through that himself someday gave Fang Ming the urge to destroy the Sky Screen.

Of course, this was not the first time he had felt that urge.

In fact, he had already tried once. When the Sky Screen first appeared, he transformed into Xiao Bai and leaped into the sky, hoping to tear it apart.

But in the end, he had accomplished nothing.

When it was not playing a video, the Sky Screen was like an illusory phantom that did not exist.

It could be seen, yet it did not block the sunlight or obscure the stars. If one did not focus on it, one might not even notice it was there.

When Fang Ming had approached the Sky Screen in an attempt to tear it apart, he had simply passed right through it.

It was not a physical object, nor was it any sort of energy. It was more like some peculiar phenomenon that had always existed alongside heaven and earth.

So no matter what Fang Ming thought now, and no matter what Yu Muqiu and the others—whose Magical Girl Transformations had already been exposed—thought, the Sky Screen could not be destroyed.

They could only think about it.

[After completing her transformation, Xiao Chun quickly spread a small Magic Barrier around herself to make sure passersby would not see her. Only then did she leap forward and enter the Nightmare Barrier before her.

As long as she eliminated the Demon, the Nightmare Barrier would disappear. Then she would naturally no longer need to worry about the people on the lake being drawn into it.

Xiao Chun made up her mind and sent Xiao Qiu and the others a brief distress signal, ensuring that reinforcements could arrive if she could not win.

But to Xiao Chun's surprise, the instant she entered the rift, countless Chains sprang out from the side and blocked the path ahead of her.

"!!"

Silver Chains connected to a black scythe. On the water within the barrier, a silver-haired Magical Girl walked toward Xiao Chun across the lake as if it were solid ground.

Her scythe tugged at the Chains, forming a cage around Xiao Chun. Then she raised her right hand and pointed the scythe at Xiao Chun.

"Hey, I told your companions, didn't I?"

The view zoomed in for a close-up of the silver-haired girl before she delivered the rest of her line.

"—This is my territory."

She made her territorial declaration.]

No BGM? Something's Wrong!

[The silver-haired girl held her scythe, her expression unfriendly.

Trapped within the cage of Chains, Xiao Chun remained very calm as she said to the silver-haired girl before her,

"When there's a Demon involved, arguing over whose territory this is is completely meaningless. We have only one goal: eliminate the Demon and recover the Nightmare Seed. I think... your goal is the same as ours, isn't it?"

Nightmare Seeds were useless to Magical Girls.

A Magical Girl's magical power came from her own Emotion Seed, a special positive force completely opposed to a Nightmare Seed.

No Magical Girl could absorb the power of a Nightmare Seed. Therefore, no matter who eliminated a Demon, there were only two ways to deal with its Nightmare Seed: casually discard it, or find somewhere to keep it.

Since casually throwing away a Nightmare Seed could very likely result in the birth of a new Demon, properly storing it was undoubtedly the correct choice.

Xiao Chun believed that although the silver-haired girl had a bad attitude, her goal was the same as that of their group of Magical Girls.

At the very least, they were aligned when it came to fighting Demons.

The silver-haired girl did not deny it.

"Mm, my goal is indeed to eliminate Demons, but... I hate seeing other Magical Girls in my territory. So... until I eliminate this Demon, please stay here quietly."

"!?" Xiao Chun's eyes widened at that. "Hey, were you even listening to me...? Huh!? Don't go! Let me out first!!"

Xiao Chun shouted after the silver-haired girl, but the girl ignored her. With a light tap of her toes, she sank beneath the water and vanished.

Leaving Xiao Chun alone, imprisoned atop the lake within the Nightmare Barrier.]

(It's my first time seeing Mama Xiaochun this flustered.)

(To be honest, I don't really understand Xiao Bai's thinking. Two people fighting a Demon together has to be better than one person fighting alone.)

(Xiao Bai is way too exclusionary!)

(No, I think Xiao Bai was protecting Xiao Chun... Maybe she thought that if she dealt with the Demon herself, Xiao Qiu and the others would not have to.)

(Protecting her... emmm, so Xiao Bai is actually a tsundere?)

What the hell do you mean, tsundere! Tell me, where exactly was I tsun? Where was I dere!!

Fang Ming rolled his eyes hard.

The comments had guessed correctly. Back then, he had only done that because he did not want Xiao Chun, a child, to get drawn into a battle with a Demon.

Because he could sense that the Demon beneath the water was far stronger than the Speed Demon.

Xiao Qiu and the other two had struggled so much against the Speed Demon, let alone this even stronger Mermaid Demon.

That was why Fang Ming had intended to deal with it alone.

After all, at the time, he had not known that Xiao Qiu and the others were the protagonists, blessed with protagonist halos. He had merely been protecting three children from an adult's perspective.

He had never expected to be mistaken for a tsundere.

It was not as if Fang Ming had never considered explaining things properly to Xiao Qiu and the others, but... if he did that, they probably would not understand the seriousness of the situation.

That was why he had acted so coldly.

But looking at it now from an observer's perspective... why did it seem stranger the more he watched?

It was practically like those neutral supporting characters in anime who kept getting tangled up with the protagonists, argued with them from time to time, yet always stepped in to help at crucial moments!

He even had the air of a second heroine.

Fate and Homura Akemi sent their congratulations.

Damn it, who knew it would look like this from an observer's perspective? He had even been smug about how he handled things back then...

No, he had to find a way to change how he got along with Xiao Qiu and the others.

And I am not a tsundere!

Fang Ming thought bitterly.

["Damn it, I can't break them!"

Xiao Chun had tried to shatter the Chains binding her, but unfortunately, the magical power contained within them was far greater than she had imagined. She could not break them anytime soon.

And at that moment, even more intense magical fluctuations came from below.

The viewpoint plunged beneath the surface from above, descending all the way to the silver-haired girl as she fought a mermaid-like monster below.

The mermaid monster had a strange appearance. It possessed a fish tail like a mermaid's, yet its head was that of a fish, while its body was human-like.

Its muscular upper body and arms were little different from a human's. Fish-scale armor covered its torso, and it held a trident in its hand.

It resembled a fishman, a mermaid, and the so-called merfolk all at once.

This was the lower-ranked Demon born at the bottom of this lake, formed from the fusion of four Nightmare Seeds: the Mermaid Demon.

Or perhaps Fish Monster Demon was a more fitting name.

The Fish Monster Demon tangled with the silver-haired girl. Spinning its trident, it manipulated the water, forming heavier waves beneath the surface that slammed toward the girl!

The girl spun her scythe, and Chains appeared in the void, flying toward the distant Fish Monster Demon.

Some of the Chains shattered upon striking the waves, while the remaining Chains were easily evaded by the Fish Monster Demon.

Meanwhile, the waves had not lost any momentum. Instead, they grew even heavier as they crashed toward the girl.]

(Something's wrong!)

(What's wrong?)

(The BGM didn't start playing!! Something's wrong!!)

That was right. Whenever a battle reached a critical moment and the protagonist group was about to win, an exciting BGM that made one's blood boil would begin playing.

Xiao Bai even received the special treatment of having her own exclusive BGM.

When she first appeared, she had appeared alongside the BGM. The second time, during the battle against the Signpost Demon, that BGM had played as well.

But now...

The BGM was not playing!

What that meant went without saying.

"...Tch, I have to say, having BGM or not really does make a difference."

Fang Ming certainly could not hear any music back then, but he had to admit that he truly had not been able to defeat the Fish Monster Demon quickly.

He had even nearly been defeated by it.

Ultimately, his strength at the time had been about the same as Yu Muqiu and the others'. The first reason he could instantly kill the Speed Demon was that he had benefited from his Chain magic. The Speed Demon had failed to notice Fang Ming's Chain magic.

Unable to make use of its speed, it could only be slaughtered.

The second reason was another magic Fang Ming possessed.

Just as Murong Xiaochun possessed two types of magic—Arrows and Healing—

Fang Ming's magic was Severing and Chains.

There was no need to say more about Chains. The essence of Severing magic lay in his scythe.

With a scythe in hand, anything could be severed. That was the core of the magic.

With those two magics, as long as a Demon was restrained by Fang Ming, he could instantly kill it!

But the prerequisite was... that the Demon had to be restrained by Fang Ming.

[The Fish Monster Demon was slippery, in the literal sense of the word.

Even if the Chains wrapped around its body, they would quickly slide off. Meanwhile, the silver-haired girl encountered a new problem.

After seeing the silver-haired girl's Chains, the fish monster seemed to gain some inspiration.

As its trident spun, countless darker-colored tentacles formed below. Mixed in with the lake water, they were difficult to see without close inspection.

Although the silver-haired girl seemed to rely on instinct to easily evade some of the tentacles,

at that very moment, healing magical power surged from the lake surface, causing the silver-haired girl to lose focus for an instant.

And in that instant, her body was caught by the tentacles and violently flung away!

"Not good...!"

The silver-haired girl inwardly cried out in alarm, but before she could react, the tentacles had already hurled her into the deeper reaches of the lakebed.

Then, countless Arrows pierced through the lake surface from above, shooting toward the Fish Monster Demon from every direction!

It was Xiao Chun!

Just now, she had gathered her magical power and shattered the Chains binding her. She had even received a close-up shot.

And precisely because of that, the silver-haired girl had been briefly distracted, allowing the Fish Monster Demon to land its blow.

But thanks to that, the silver-haired girl was able to receive Xiao Chun's help.

Those Arrows struck with perfect precision, piercing the tentacles at the bottom of the lake. Xiao Chun also plunged beneath the lake surface and arrived below.

Seeing the silver-haired girl smashed into the lakebed, she hurriedly used magic to transmit her voice.

"Xiao Bai! Are you okay!"

"...Xiao Bai?"

As the silver-haired girl climbed back up from the lakebed, she froze upon hearing Xiao Chun's form of address. For the first time, an expression other than coldness appeared on her aloof face.

Clearly, Xiao Chun's name for her had shocked her badly.]

Drowning and Rescue