Magical Girls Exposed! Chapter 3

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 aroused.

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 aura of a Nightmare Seed in a corner of the hospital.

"Xiao Qiu! Found it! Over here!"

Nino waved to Yu Muqiu from a hidden corner of the open space behind the hospital.

Yu Muqiu quickly arrived at Nino's location and discovered that a hole, visible only to those with magic, was spreading across the wall before them.

"It's a newborn Nightmare! Good, it hasn't expanded into a space yet. There's still time!"

At the sight of the hole, Yu Muqiu first let out a sigh of relief.

Then she said to Nino, "Tell 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 immediately expanded before her and, in the blink of an eye, enveloped her!

This was an indispensable part of most live-action hero shows.

Transformation!]

Could it be... I'm still safe?!

(It's here, it's here! My favorite transformation scene is here!!)

(Xiao Qiu/Xiao Qiu/Xiao Qiu/!)

(lol, Xiao Qiu herself even complained on the official website that her transformation only took an instant. Why did the Sky Screen make it a whole thirty-four seconds?!)

(Don't question magical girl business.)

(This is magic.jpg)

Watching the scrolling comments drift across the sky, Fang Ming took several deep breaths in a row.

Yes.

In reality, transformation was just raising one's hand, having the image of one's transformed weapon light up on the back of it, then closing and opening one's eyes. The transformation was over.

It was nothing like the scene in the sky, with close-ups and a dance in some special space!

Looking at Xiao Qiu transforming in the sky, Fang Ming's face turned paler and paler.

He suddenly thought of himself.

His own transformation scene probably... maybe... wouldn't be exposed on the Sky Screen, right?

No!! Anything but that!!!

The thought of his transformation being played on the Sky Screen made Fang Ming feel as though his future had gone completely 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 turned into a figure of light composed of pink radiance.

Then, the pink surface of the light figure began to fade, and Yu Muqiu's appearance started changing.

Her hair changed first. Her already pink hair became more luminous, its color filled with a beautiful sheen, while a cute wand-shaped hairpin 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 existence, covering the crucial parts of her lower body.

Then came her hands, followed by her feet.

Amid cute sound effects, a pink wand only as long as her arm slowly descended from the air and landed between Yu Muqiu's hands.

With her eyes closed, Yu Muqiu grasped the wand with both hands. She suddenly opened her eyes, pink magic swirling around her, before the scene ended on a huge close-up of her.

Her transformation was complete.]

(Bliss!!)

(My life has no regrets...)

(No matter how many times I watch this, it's still full of things to complain about. The transformation only takes an instant...)

(!? The comment above! Which magical girl are you?!)

The scrolling 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 quickly. There was no other reason: 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! Hurry over!! Something's wrong! This Nightmare Seed... there's something wrong with this Nightmare Seed!'

Just as Yu Muqiu thought this, Chen Xiaoxia's voice reached her ears.

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 actually knows to attack us!'

Chen Xiaoxia spoke extremely quickly, then Severed the telepathic link.

Yu Muqiu's breathing 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 they had proactively attacked the place where magical girls like Yu Muqiu were staying in order to eliminate them.

That place was Fang Ming's home.

At the time, Fang Ming had been playing games at home when a sudden barrier enveloped him. He was then nearly beaten to death by a Demon formed from the Nightmare Seeds.

Only later did Fang Ming learn that the barrier was a Nightmare Barrier. The Nightmare Barrier was a projection of the real world, and most of the scenes inside were the same as in reality.

Normally, aside from humans lured inside by the Nightmare Barrier and magical girls who possessed 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 it the moment the barrier expanded.

And then... he witnessed the battle between magical girls and Demons.

So next came the entire 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 with a calm expression. He looked as though nothing was wrong, but in truth, his soul had already left some time ago.

Thinking about how he was about to suffer 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 home 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 moment Yu Muqiu entered, Chen Xiaoxia's figure smashed into a nearby building.

Chen Xiaoxia had changed into a tight blue outfit. The inner layer tightly wrapped around her body, while she wore a breastplate and skirt armor over it, making her look like a blue female warrior.

Unlike Yu Muqiu, a traditional magical girl, Chen Xiaoxia was a close-combat magical girl. Her weapon was the greatsword in her hands.

The greatsword, taller than she was when stood upright, could be wielded by her with tremendous force.

But now, 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, rushed to Yu Muqiu's side at incredible speed.

In the blink of an eye, he was less than a meter away from Yu Muqiu.

Yu Muqiu's pupils contracted. Almost instinctively, she swung the pink magic wand in her hand, and a transparent light shield appeared around her.

But the next second, her light shield shattered, and like Chen Xiaoxia, she was sent flying by the Demon's blow!

Bang!!

Yu Muqiu took a heavy hit. Her body smashed through a building within the Nightmare Barrier, and she was buried beneath the rubble.

The Demon stopped, a trace of disdain appearing on his face.

"So these are the guardians of this world? How weak."

"!?"

Hearing the Demon speak, Chen Xiaoxia's eyes widened sharply.

This Demon... could actually talk!?

He... actually had his own rationality?!]

"A talking Demon?"

The hat-wearing officer watching the Sky Screen with Fang Ming below also furrowed his brow.

The Demons the magical girls had faced in the first three episodes had all been ordinary people's thoughts corrupted by Nightmare Seeds.

Those thoughts took the form of Demons and acted only upon their own desires and resentment. They were basically impossible to communicate with and were completely driven by instinct.

But this Demon could speak. He could express his disdain toward the magical girls. Did that prove that this Demon... was not merely a simple Nightmare thought?

The hat-wearing officer was focused on the Demon.

Fang Ming, however, was focused on what lay behind the Demon.

He blinked, then blinked again. After looking repeatedly several times, he still did not see any trace of himself.

If he remembered correctly, it was Chen Xiaoxia's and the Demon's attacks that had knocked a Nightmare Fragment off the Demon.

And it was precisely because Fang Ming received that Nightmare Fragment that his 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 things right now.

So did that mean...

He was still safe?!

The Fourth Magical Girl!

No matter how Fang Ming looked, he could not find 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 of this, Fang Ming relaxed a little.

But he did not completely relax. He began watching the comments, wanting to see whether anyone had noticed something strange.

(A talking Demon?!)

(I remember that at the beginning of the first episode, didn't the Demon that destroyed Nino's hometown seem able to talk too?)