Magical Girls Exposed!

The EDs of the previous episodes had been like this. Some people had guessed that there was probably an important character on the Swing too—maybe a magical girl, maybe someone else.

And now, that guess had come true.

The silver-haired magical girl who appeared at the very end of this episode was sitting on the Swing, drinking milk tea.

When Yu Muqiu stopped walking and the ED music ended, she raised her head and met Yu Muqiu's eyes.

The final shot was a close-up of Yu Muqiu's smile.

The ED ended.

Wait... looking at where everyone was standing, why did it seem like I'd become part of the protagonist group?

Fang Ming stared at the close-up shot in the ED and sank into deep thought.

He was in the OP, and he was in the ED too.

Based on Fang Ming's years of viewing experience, his role was probably that of an outsider who opposed the protagonist group early on, but became an important ally in the middle and later stages?

So he counted as one of the protagonist group too?

But all I wanted was to make those kids obediently go back to school... Fighting Demons was far too dangerous. It would be better left to an adult who could grow without limits.

So how had he somehow ended up in the protagonist group?

"Alright, Mr. Fang Ming. The video is over. We can leave now, right?"

After the video ended, the hat-wearing officer beside him spoke to Fang Ming.

Fang Ming nodded. "We can."

"Mm. Teams One and Two, watch the surrounding area. We're escorting Mr. Fang Ming downstairs now."

"...?"

Listening to the hat-wearing officer give orders over the radio, Fang Ming's head filled with question marks. "Officer, I'm... just an ordinary person. I shouldn't need... this much protection, should I?"

The hat-wearing officer smiled helplessly at that.

"You don't understand. After magical girls appeared, people and objects related to them all had to be investigated and protected. Because not everyone in this world wanted magical girls to exist. There were also some people...

"In any case, for your safety, these protective measures are necessary."

"I see..."

Fang Ming understood what the hat-wearing officer meant.

Not everyone liked magical girls, and not everyone cheered excitedly at their appearance like the people in the bullet comments, as if they were following idols.

Where there was light, there was darkness. Where there were people who liked something, there would also be people who hated it.

The bullet comments in the Sky Screen had been filtered. There were many more people who felt jealousy and disgust toward magical girls.

Some people might even try to harm magical girls and their families.

Before Fang Ming had been exposed by the Sky Screen, Federal Government enforcers had already been secretly protecting the area around him.

Those people had not been protecting Fang Ming. They had been protecting Yu Muqiu, who was connected to him.

After all, everyone now knew that Yu Muqiu had become a magical girl because she possessed "hope" and "love" in her heart.

So if Yu Muqiu's family and companions all faced danger, would Yu Muqiu herself still have "hope" and "love"?

Only magical girls could deal with Demons. Even if the Federation rolled out missiles and used nuclear bombs, they could not hit Demons that had hidden inside a Nightmare Barrier.

That was the conclusion the Federation had drawn from the magical girls' descriptions.

So, in order to protect this world, they naturally had to protect magical girls.

And to protect magical girls, they naturally had to protect their families as well.

Fang Ming was benefiting from his cousin's good fortune.

Since his own identity as a magical girl had not yet been exposed, the police were only symbolically protecting Fang Ming and were not strictly monitoring him.

While in the car, Fang Ming was bored, so he opened the Magical Girl Website and looked through the updated information.

Unlike Duda Encyclopedia or Wikipedia, the Magical Girl Website did not provide detailed accounts of someone's life and history.

This website was a product born from the existence of the Sky Screen. It only recorded information that had appeared on the Sky Screen.

For example, the website's homepage featured a beautiful CG close-up of Yu Muqiu, with Yu Muqiu's detailed profile beside it.

[Name: Yu Muqiu

Aliases: Muqiu, Xiao Qiu, Cute Qiu (nickname given by netizens)

Signature Color: Pink

Magic Used: Light Magic

Character Profile:

A character appearing in Magical Girl Xiao Qiu, a second-year student at Spring City No. 3 High School. She became a magical girl after forming a contract with Nino, a visitor from another world.

When she first became a magical girl, she was quite inexperienced. She had to struggle for a long time just to defeat an ordinary Demon familiar.

But after a period of training, she had grown into a mature magical girl.

During the "Café Demon Incident," she and Chen Xiaoxia defeated the "Coffee Demon."

During the "Outing Incident," she saved Murong Xiaochun, who had been dragged into a barrier and nearly killed by the "Book Demon," then gained Murong Xiaochun as a new companion.

While investigating the Nightmare Seed, she and her companions set off for neighboring Rock City during summer vacation. During the investigation, they encountered the "Wisdom Demon" and were once placed in danger.

At the crucial moment, they were saved by the fourth magical girl, who appeared...

(Further information will be added as the story progresses)]

This was a website specifically dedicated to introducing magical girls. Beneath each magical girl's profile were their own support threads.

Fang Ming first glanced through the profiles of the earlier magical girls as usual.

Only then did he open the link containing a Sky Screen screenshot of his Magical Girl Form and look at his own profile.

[Name: Unknown

Alias: Silver-haired Queen (nickname given by netizens) (temporary)

Signature Colors: White, black (?)

Magic Used: Scythe Magic (?), unknown

Character Profile:

A character appearing in Magical Girl Xiao Qiu. Everything about her is currently unknown. Her identity is mysterious. She is the fourth magical girl, and she also appears to be the only magical girl so far who does not need to form a contract with Nino.

She first appeared at the end of Episode 4, when Yu Muqiu and her group were attacked by the Wisdom Demon and were clearly losing. The moment she appeared, she instantly killed the Demon that the three of them had struggled to handle.

She was suspected to be extremely powerful. According to netizens' guesses, she was very likely a magical girl from another world.]

Heh, a magical girl from another world? Netizens really had wild imaginations...

Looking at his profile, Fang Ming chuckled to himself.

Still, a profile like this was good. At least for now, no one seemed to suspect that this magical girl had been transformed from a boy.

Then it was even less likely that anyone would suspect him.

Thinking that, Fang Ming looked down at his support thread and discussion thread. He wanted to see what the netizens thought of him.

Discussion Thread and Agreement

The first thing Fang Ming opened was the discussion thread.

The first thing that caught his eye was a notice.

(This is the discussion thread for magical girl Scythe-chan. Please discuss rationally. Starting fights, insulting characters, and discussing topics unrelated to Scythe-chan are prohibited!)

This was a comment pinned by an administrator, serving as both an announcement and a statement.

After skipping past the notices at the top, he finally reached the actual discussion.

(1F: Front row, front row!)

(2F: Pfft... Scythe-chan?)

(6F: Since nobody knows her name and she's holding a scythe, they called her Scythe-chan? That's way too perfunctory...)

(7F: It's fine. Before they knew Xiao Chun's name, they called her "Mama"...)

(8F: ...There are still way too many Wawa juniors online.)

(15F: Anyway, we'll probably learn her name next episode. Let's talk about this new magical girl instead.)

(16F: Cool! Powerful! Her Majesty the Queen!! We love you, aaaah!!)

(17F: Wake up, person above. She appeared for less than a minute, and you're already calling her Queen? Isn't that a little unreasonable?)

(18F: Mm, it's because this girl's presence feels really strong. Compared with the other magical girls, she seems more like a battle-hardened warrior...?)

(19F: No, the main thing is that she instantly killed the Speed Demon that had Xiao Qiu and the others fighting so hard, right?)

(20F: Huh? Wasn't it the "Wisdom Demon"?)

(21F: The official announcement was just released. Mama Xiaochun posted it. They said that compared to "Wisdom Demon," "Speed Demon" was more suitable for this newly appeared Demon. Apparently, new Wisdom Demons will show up later...)

(22F: So this Demon really wasn't a one-off...)

(23F: Wait, has the title "Mama Xiaochun" just been decided like that?)

(24F: After all, Xiao Chun's motherly aura overflows in everyday life...)

(25F: Aren't you guys getting off topic?)

(39F: Judging by where she stands in the ED, Scythe-chan should be part of the protagonist group? But judging by where she stands in the OP... I'm not sure what to say.)

(40F: What's there to be unsure about? She's an enemy in the early stages, then gets redeemed and becomes a companion later. That's a standard magical girl show trope!)

(41F: Exactly! She saved Xiao Qiu and the others the moment she appeared. There's no way she could be a bad person!)

(42F: ...Hard to say. She could also be a Demon in Disguise.)

(43F: Person above, I'll beat you to death!)

The discussion thread about the new magical girl quickly climbed past a hundred replies.

And it had only been up for less than an hour.

Still, that was normal. The magical girls in the Sky Screen were now "world-class" idols. Not only did local residents support them, but every other region had its own fan groups as well.

Fang Ming had appeared for less than a minute, but since he had appeared in both the OP and ED and was so powerful, it was perfectly normal for the discussion to be this heated.

He just wondered what their expressions would be like if they learned that Fang Ming had only just become a magical girl at the time.

No, no, no... It would be better if they never found out about something like that for the rest of their lives!

Fang Ming quickly stopped that train of thought and looked at another support thread.

Compared to the discussion thread, which required rational discussion, the contents of the support thread were much simpler.

Most of them were comments expressing their love for "Scythe-chan," along with all kinds of fan art that had been drawn within that short hour.

In less than an hour, the entire support thread had already reached several hundred replies, and that was after malicious spam and meaningless posts had been deleted.

Looking at the support threads for the other magical girls, every single one had already surpassed ten thousand replies!

If the administrators had not intensely screened the content every week and occasionally selected featured posts, those threads would probably have reached hundreds of thousands of replies by now!

That showed just how much everyone loved magical girls.

However, compared to those magical girls, Fang Ming himself had received far less discussion.

Opening the link containing his male photograph, Fang Ming looked at the profile that had been compiled for him.

[Name: Fang Ming

Aliases: Brother Fang Ming, Brother Ming, Cousin

Signature Color: Black (because his hair was black)]