Magical Girls Exposed!

Rumble—!

But just as the two were about to go look for Xiao Chun, a sudden thunderous boom came from the horizon.

They both turned to look out the window.

The previously clear sky was instantly covered in dark clouds. Black masses gathered together, casting the entire world into darkness.

A torrential downpour was about to begin.

"Ah! Why is it suddenly going to pour?! The weather forecast didn't say anything about this!"

Chen Xiaoxia widened her eyes at the sight of the dark clouds pressing down over the city.

Yu Muqiu picked up her phone, looked at the "sunny" weather displayed on it, then looked at the dense, pitch-black clouds outside. She fell silent.

...Sunny?

"Should we grab a couple of umbrellas, or maybe raincoats..." Yu Muqiu was considering whether to take something for the rain when Nino suddenly sprang out of the backpack behind her and stared at the descending clouds.

"Something's wrong! Xiao Qiu! That rain... has magic in it!!"

"!!"

Yu Muqiu and Chen Xiaoxia were both startled by that.

The opening theme began.]

(The children are being quiet. They must be up to something.)

(Big cousin still trusts Xiao Qiu and the others too much, lol.)

(What heavy rain. I remember... there really seemed to have been a huge storm that day.)

(It was bad. The drains in the suburbs nearly got clogged, and I think it happened near the amusement park.)

(Wait... judging by the timeline, didn't Xiao Bai go to the amusement park last night? Then now—!)

More precisely, it had been early morning.

Fang Ming recalled what had happened that day and sorted through the timeline.

First, he had gone out in the middle of the night to find the Songstress Witch. After confirming how powerful she was, Fang Ming had not acted immediately. Just in case, he had first returned to leave Xiao Qiu and the others a note, so they would not worry if he came back late after fighting the Songstress Witch.

The result was...

He had nearly been beaten to death by the Songstress Witch.

After all, Fang Ming's magic at the time had only been comparable to that of a Low-Tier Demon, while the Songstress Witch possessed the power of a Mid-Tier Demon.

And the gap between Demon ranks... was enormous!

The difference between Mid-Tier and Low-Tier alone was practically the difference between heaven and earth.

So, based on the timeline, Fang Ming should currently have been...

Getting beaten up.

[The opening had only just ended when the scene switched to Xiao Bai.

Within a shattered Nightmare Barrier, Xiao Bai stood atop a floating piece of architecture, breathing heavily. Behind that structure, an unplugged carousel was somehow moving on its own.

The cheerful music sounded bizarre and out of place within the broken Nightmare Barrier.

Accompanied by that lively tune, a beautiful, melodious voice drifted from afar. The puppet songstress in a dancing dress was singing at the top of her lungs.

"Ah—"

There were no words, only music formed purely from her voice.

Musical notes formed before the songstress. Several notes bounced lightly through the air, arranged into different scales and aimed at Xiao Bai in the distance.

Xiao Bai's pupils contracted slightly when she saw this. She tried to dodge, but she was too late.

"Ah~~"

As the melodious music fell, the dancing notes vanished from before the songstress.

The notes shot toward Xiao Bai at incredible speed. Before Xiao Bai could react, every one of them struck her!

Bang bang bang bang—

Four notes exploded against Xiao Bai's chest in a sequence of do, re, mi, fa. Then, the four notes sent Xiao Bai flying, smashing her into floating ruins farther away!

Rumble—!

Xiao Bai flew like a cannonball fired from afar, shattering the carousel behind her before crashing onto a pirate ship even farther away.

With a loud bang, Xiao Bai was embedded in the center of the pirate ship. The cracked, dented planks behind her completely shattered, and she lay there with blood at the corner of her mouth.

"Cough, cough... Damn it, why is she so strong...!"

Xiao Bai lay amid the ruins in a miserable state, struggling to crawl free.

She gripped the long-handled scythe that had been shattered by the Fish Monster Demon last time. For some reason, it was now completely intact.

Thin Chains wrapped around her vital points. It had been those Chains that had kept the notes from piercing through her body just now.

But even so, it was clear from the current situation that Xiao Bai was no match for this Sixth-Level Demon.

"Still struggling... poor child..."

The songstress stopped attacking. Like a marionette, she drifted beneath threads that vanished into the void and floated before Xiao Bai.

A hint of pity unexpectedly appeared on her puppet face. She extended a hand toward Xiao Bai and said:

"...Accept me. Acknowledge me. You are qualified to join us... Become... one of us."

The songstress's voice was sweet and graceful. Even when speaking, she sounded as if she were singing.

Simply listening to her voice gave people the illusion of "beauty," even though her face was merely a false, carved appearance.

This was the Songstress Witch.

A beautiful flower born from Nightmare Seeds of jealousy, hatred, resentment, and other such emotions.

But this flower was also a flower of death.

Because she had come to destroy life.]

What Just Flashed By?

(Wait, did I miss some crucial information? Why is a Demon inviting Xiao Bai to join them?)

(I'll be honest, this Demon... I'm into her...)

(Maybe magical girls are on the Demons' recruitment list?)

(And this Demon seems smarter than the previous ones. It's normal for her to try to turn a magical girl against them, right?)

The Songstress Witch's invitation to Xiao Bai set the comments buzzing.

Mainly because this was something that had never happened before.

Up to now, Yu Muqiu had dealt with quite a few Demons, including two intelligent ones. Yet no matter which Demon it had been, none had ever invited Yu Muqiu and the others to join them.

The first Speed Demon to appear had even used its intelligence to ambush Yu Muqiu and the others!

There had never been any invitation.

An invitation like the Songstress Witch's to Xiao Bai was truly a first.

"Mm, because she sensed the Demon aura on that child."

Youyou pointed out the key.

Compared to the viewers who did not know the full story, Youyou, as one of the school's top students, had some guesses.

The Demons' goal was to invade the world, eradicate all "foreign lifeforms" in it, and transform them into beings like themselves—or into their "slaves."

But if someone did not carry the aura of a "foreign lifeform" and instead possessed an aura similar to their own, the Demons would show that person a certain degree of goodwill.

When Xiao Bai had fought the Speed Demon and the Fish Monster Demon before, the aura she shared with the Demons had not been exposed.

But after fighting the Fish Monster Demon—or rather, during that fight—her ability to use the trident had been noticed by the Songstress Witch.

Thus, she could guess where Xiao Bai's magic came from, which was why she invited her.

After all, in this world that the Demons still could not invade at this stage, all the Nightmare Seeds were in Nino's hands.

The Songstress Witch had no companions. She needed one.

But despite saying that, Youyou spoke in a complicated tone.

"But that child won't agree."

"?" Fang Ming looked at Youyou in confusion.

Youyou said calmly, "Children with convictions like hers are the most troublesome. They're too naive. They press forward for the goals in their hearts, unlike adults like us, whose beliefs can be easily shaken.

"The Witch won't succeed."

Youyou came to that conclusion.

Fang Ming fell silent.

No... it wasn't quite as admirable as she imagined. Back then, he had simply been annoyed at getting beaten up so badly, so he had wanted to hit back.

He really had not thought that much about it...

["Heh, become a monster like you?"

Even while at an absolute disadvantage, Xiao Bai maintained her previously unlikeable attitude toward the Songstress Witch.

She sneered at the Songstress Witch and said:

"If that's the case, then I'll have to decline. After all... you're way too ugly!"

"!"

The word "ugly" immediately struck the Songstress Witch where it hurt.

The more intelligent a Demon was, the closer it came to being a true lifeform, and the more it possessed the "flaws" of ordinary intelligent beings.

Dislike for certain things, fondness for others, and, as in this case, hatred for certain words.

The Songstress Witch had been born from humanity's ugly desires. Humanity's disgust toward ugliness, along with ugly thoughts born within people themselves, had gathered together in this nearly abandoned amusement park and condensed into the Songstress Witch's existence.

Six Nightmare Seeds had granted the Songstress Witch life, elevated the essence of her existence, and transformed everything that had once represented ugliness into the purest form of beauty.

Her figure was beautiful. Though her appearance had been carved, it was beautiful as well.

Her singing was even more beautiful. She herself embodied the word "beauty."

Therefore, what the Songstress Witch hated most was being called ugly.

Because it exposed her true nature.

How did that saying go again?

Right. Lies do not hurt people. The truth is the sharpest blade.

So Xiao Bai's "blade" stabbed straight into the Songstress Witch's heart. Twisted cracks appeared across that beautiful face.

"Hehe, what a sharp-tongued child..."

The Songstress Witch laughed in anger. She spread her arms as if preparing to dance and said to Xiao Bai:

"It seems I'll need to punish a naughty child. First... I'll sew that irritating mouth of yours shut! Ah~~~"

Melodious music accompanied by beautiful vocals rang out once more. Countless notes and staffs spread through the air, forming a magnificent musical score.

The score that should have existed only in books had now been granted life by the Songstress Witch. Different scales and notes surrounded Xiao Bai in the distance together with the staffs.

Xiao Bai stood at that moment and watched the music rushing toward her. She slowly closed her eyes.

Countless memories emerged behind her, but they quickly shattered into motes of light and merged into her body.

Then—

Xiao Bai's magic suddenly rose to a new level. Her supposedly depleted magic instantly filled again and even grew stronger. Chains rippled through the air, emerging from the void in every direction and colliding midair with the notes flying toward Xiao Bai!

Songstress Witch: "?"

What was that?

The Songstress Witch had not seen what Xiao Bai did. She only felt that Xiao Bai had suddenly unleashed a power she could not understand.

The notes were shattered by the Chains, and the Chains were destroyed by the notes. Their battle was like colliding gunfire and artillery, obliterating the nearby buildings and floating wreckage.]