Nightmare Seeds stirred up the negative emotions in people's hearts, and there were only a few places in any city where negative emotions were most easily triggered.
Hospitals were one of them.
Perhaps Yu Muqiu's protagonist aura was at work, or perhaps she was simply lucky.
In any case, that evening, Yu Muqiu finally sensed the presence of a Nightmare Seed in a corner of the hospital.
"Xiao Qiu! I found it! It's here!"
In a hidden corner of the empty space behind the hospital, Nino waved at Yu Muqiu.
Yu Muqiu quickly arrived at Nino's location and discovered that a hollow in the wall before her—visible only to those with magic—was spreading outward.
"It's a newborn Nightmare! Good, it hasn't expanded into a space yet. There's still time!"
At the sight of the hollow, Yu Muqiu first breathed a sigh of relief.
Then she said to Nino, "Notify Xiaoxia and Xiao Chun. I'll go in first and see if there are any Demons!"
"Okay! Be careful!"
"Mm! Then..."
As Yu Muqiu spoke, she raised her right hand. A pink wand pattern appeared on the back of it.
The wand pattern then enlarged before her and, in the blink of an eye, wrapped around her!
This was an indispensable part of most tokusatsu shows.
Transformation!]
Chapter 4: Could It Be... I'm Still Safe?!
(Here it comes, here it comes! My favorite transformation is here!!)
(Xiao Qiu/Xiao Qiu/Xiao Qiu/!)
(www, Xiao Qiu herself complained about it on the official website. Her transformation only took an instant back then, so why did the Sky Screen make it a full thirty-four seconds?!)
(Don't question magical girls.)
(This is magic.jpg)
Watching the comments drift across the sky, Fang Ming took several deep breaths in a row.
That was right.
Transforming in reality was simply raising a hand, having the weapon pattern from one's transformed form light up on the back of one's hand, then closing and opening one's eyes. The transformation was over.
It was nothing like what was happening in the sky, with close-ups and a dance in that special space!
Watching Xiao Qiu transform in the sky, Fang Ming's face grew paler and paler.
He suddenly thought of himself.
His transformation scene probably... maybe... wouldn't be exposed on the Sky Screen, right?
No!! Not that, anything but that!!!
The thought of his own transformation scene being played on the Sky Screen made Fang Ming feel like his future had gone dark.
He wondered... was it too late to kill himself and restart now...
[The thirty-four-second transformation began.
Within the special pink void, Yu Muqiu's clothes instantly vanished, and her entire body became a figure made of pink light.
Then, the pink surface of the figure of light began to fade, and Yu Muqiu's appearance started changing.
Her hair changed first. Her already pink hair became even more luminous, its color filled with a beautiful sheen, and a cute wand-shaped hair clip appeared upon it.
Then came her body.
A Lolita dress of unknown design gradually appeared on Yu Muqiu's body.
A bow appeared on her chest, while the skirt seemed to grow into place, covering the important parts of her lower body.
Next came her hands, and then her feet.
Amid cute sound effects, a pink wand as long as an arm slowly descended from the air, landing between Yu Muqiu's hands.
With her eyes closed, Yu Muqiu grasped the wand with both hands. Then she suddenly opened her eyes as pink magic swirled around her, ending with a huge close-up.
The transformation was complete.]
(Bliss!!)
(My life has no regrets...)
(No matter how many times I watch it, the complaints just keep piling up. The transformation clearly only took an instant...)
(!? The commenter above! Which magical girl are you?!)
The comments cheered for Yu Muqiu's transformation, but Fang Ming still found them noisy.
However, Yu Muqiu's movements on the Sky Screen did not stop because of the comments. After all, she could not see them herself.
After transforming, Yu Muqiu swung her wand and entered the Nightmare Space. Then the magical girl's battle began.
["This Nightmare Seed... feels a little weak..."
The battle had only just begun, yet it ended very quickly. The reason was simple: compared to the previous ones, this Nightmare Seed was much weaker.
Although Yu Muqiu had indeed grown stronger, compared to the earlier Nightmare Seeds, she only needed two minutes to deal with this one.
But Yu Muqiu quickly understood why.
'X-Xiao Qiu! Come quickly!! Something's wrong! This Nightmare Seed... there's something wrong with the Nightmare Seed!'
Just as Yu Muqiu thought that, Chen Xiaoxia's voice sounded beside her ear.
This was Nino's Telepathy magic. The appearance of that voice proved that Nino was currently beside Chen Xiaoxia.
'Xiaoxia?! What happened?!'
'Come home! Come back to Brother Fang Ming's house! This Nightmare Seed, it actually knows to attack us!'
Chen Xiaoxia spoke at an extremely rapid pace, then Severed the call.
Yu Muqiu's breath caught, and her pupils trembled.]
Watching the events unfold in the sky, Fang Ming recalled what had happened three months ago when he became a magical girl.
It was precisely because Rock City's Nightmare Seeds seemed to have gathered together and developed a unique self-awareness that the Nightmare Seeds had proactively attacked the place where magical girls like Yu Muqiu were staying in order to deal with them.
Fang Ming's home.
At the time, Fang Ming had been playing games at home when a sudden barrier enveloped him. Then he had nearly been beaten to death by the Demon formed from the Nightmare Seed.
Only later did Fang Ming learn that the barrier was a Nightmare Barrier. Nightmare Barriers were projections of the real world, and most of the scenery within them was identical to reality.
Normally, aside from humans lured inside by a Nightmare Barrier or magical girls possessing magic, no one should have been able to enter a Nightmare Barrier.
But perhaps because Fang Ming had a cheat ability, he had been included within the barrier the moment it unfolded.
And then... he witnessed the battle between magical girls and Demons.
So next came the whole process of me touching the Nightmare Fragment dropped by that Demon and transforming into a magical girl, right?
Good. Don't panic. Stay calm!
First...
Find a time machine...
Fang Ming watched the Sky Screen calmly. He looked as though nothing was wrong, but in truth, his soul had already left his body some time ago.
At the thought of suffering social death before the entire world, Fang Ming was already prepared to restart on the spot.
[Yu Muqiu was very fast. Using flight magic, she arrived at Fang Ming's house in less than a few minutes.
Then she saw the Nightmare Barrier that had appeared above Fang Ming's residential complex.
After plunging straight inside, Yu Muqiu saw Chen Xiaoxia fighting a horned Demon.
As for why she saw Chen Xiaoxia first—
Bang!!
The instant Yu Muqiu entered, Chen Xiaoxia's body slammed into a nearby building.
Chen Xiaoxia had changed into a blue skintight outfit. The inner layer tightly wrapped around her body, while a breastplate and skirt armor were worn over it, making Chen Xiaoxia look like a blue female warrior.
Unlike the traditional magical girl Yu Muqiu, Chen Xiaoxia was a close-combat magical girl. Her weapon was the greatsword in her hand.
The greatsword, taller than she was when held upright, could be swung by her with tremendous force.
But at this moment, the combat-oriented magical girl Chen Xiaoxia had been viciously slammed into a wall by someone using martial arts.
"Xiaoxia!"
The moment Yu Muqiu entered, she looked toward Chen Xiaoxia.
Chen Xiaoxia was about to say something, but suddenly changed her words. "Xiao Qiu, watch out!!"
"!!"
The horned Demon, who looked extremely similar to a human, arrived beside Yu Muqiu at incredible speed.
In the blink of an eye, less than a meter remained between him and Yu Muqiu.
Yu Muqiu's pupils shrank. Almost instinctively, she swung the pink magic wand in her hand, and a transparent shield of light appeared around her.
But the next second, her shield shattered, and like Chen Xiaoxia, she was sent flying by the Demon's blow!
Bang!!
Yu Muqiu suffered an extremely heavy blow. Her body smashed through a building within the Nightmare Barrier, and she was buried beneath the rubble.
The Demon stopped, a trace of disdainful laughter appearing on his face.
"So these are this world's guardians? How weak."
"!?"
Upon hearing the Demon's words, Chen Xiaoxia's eyes widened sharply.
This Demon... could actually speak!?
He... actually possessed his own rationality?!]
"A talking Demon?"
The police officer watching the Sky Screen with Fang Ming also frowned.
The Demons the magical girls had faced in the first three episodes had all been ordinary people's thoughts corroded by Nightmare Seeds.
Those thoughts took the form of Demons and acted only according to their own desires and resentment. They were basically impossible to communicate with and were entirely driven by instinct.
But this Demon could speak. He could express his disdain for the magical girls. Did that prove that this Demon... was not merely a simple Nightmare thought?
The police officer's attention was focused on the Demon.
Fang Ming, however, was focused on what stood behind the Demon.
His eyes blinked, then blinked again. He looked over the scene repeatedly, yet he never saw his own figure.
If he remembered correctly, it was Chen Xiaoxia's attack and the Demon's attack that knocked a Nightmare Fragment off the Demon's body.
It was also after receiving that Nightmare Fragment that Fang Ming's cheat ability absorbed magic and gave him the same type of magical girl transformation.
But the Sky Screen was not showing Fang Ming's side of events.
So did that prove...
He was still safe?!
Chapter 5: The Fourth Magical Girl!
No matter how Fang Ming looked, he could not see himself on the Sky Screen. This proved that the Sky Screen truly had no intention of showing the process of him becoming a magical girl.
Thinking this, Fang Ming relaxed a little.
But he did not relax completely. He began watching the comments, wondering whether they had noticed anything strange.
(A talking Demon?!)
(I remember that at the beginning of episode one, the Demon that destroyed Nino's hometown seemed able to talk too?)
Before you continue