Magical Girls Exposed! Chapter 8

Fang Ming cursed inwardly, but he quickly stopped when he looked at the images in the opening sequence in surprise.

The earlier shots had not changed. Yu Muqiu, Chen Xiaoxia, and Murong Xiaochun appeared one after another, along with himself in Magical Girl Form, wielding a scythe as Yu Muqiu's "opponent."

That was nothing.

The key was the various minor supporting characters flashing by near the end of the music.

There were Yu Muqiu's classmates, Chen Xiaoxia's younger brother, Xiao Chun's older sister and father, and...

Fang Ming's original body.

"I actually got a few frames too?"

He had not appeared in the opening sequence before, yet in this episode, his original appearance showed up in it.

Thinking of how the others who had received this treatment were all Magical Girls, cold sweat instantly poured down Fang Ming's back.

Could it be... this episode was really going to show the process of him becoming a Magical Girl?

Gah! Anything but that!

Fortunately, no one in the comments had noticed it yet. They were all focused on what would happen next.

After the opening sequence ended, the story continued from Yu Muqiu's mention of the "fourth Magical Girl" at the beginning.

["Y-You... who are you?"

Yu Muqiu stared blankly at the scythe-wielding Magical Girl before her, asking in both confusion and surprise.

The silver-haired girl holding the scythe looked at her without any expression. In the end, she did not say a word. She spun her scythe, suddenly leaped up from where she stood, and jumped into the air.

Then she quickly vanished from Yu Muqiu's sight.

"W-Wait! Don't go...!" Seeing her about to leave, Yu Muqiu reached out to stop her, but she was far too fast. The moment Yu Muqiu spoke, the silver-haired girl had already disappeared.

All that remained was Yu Muqiu staring blankly at her retreating figure.

Just who was this fourth Magical Girl...?

Yu Muqiu was still pondering that when she suddenly heard Chen Xiaoxia calling out:

"Xiao Qiu! Come... come look!"

"What is it?"

Yu Muqiu turned toward Chen Xiaoxia and asked. But before Chen Xiaoxia could answer, Yu Muqiu saw what was in front of her and widened her eyes with a cry:

"T-Three Nightmare Seeds?!"

That was right. After the Demon died and the Nightmare dissipated, what remained behind was not one Nightmare Seed, but three.

This Demon had actually been formed from three Nightmare Seeds!]

(No wonder that Demon was so strong.)

(With three Nightmare Seeds, that makes sense.)

(But didn't Rock City only have three? Then what was the one Xiao Qiu killed earlier?)

(It's common knowledge that the Four Heavenly Kings come in five. They said there were three Nightmare Seeds, so what's strange about there actually being a fourth?)

(No, aren't you all focusing on the wrong thing? Doesn't anyone want to know where Xiao Bai came from?)

(This episode should explain it... right?)

The comments above began discussing the Nightmare Seeds.

Fang Ming also recalled what had happened back then.

At the time, the calico cat named Nino had sensed the presence of three Nightmare Seeds.

But there had not actually been three. What she sensed had merely been three "groups" of Nightmare Seeds with the strongest energy signatures.

One of those groups was inside the Speed Demon above.

It had three inside its body.

The two remaining clusters of Nightmare Seeds contained four and six Seeds respectively.

Because the energy of those three clusters was so obvious, Nino had only sensed three groups, overlooking the other smaller Nightmare Seeds.

The one Yu Muqiu dealt with at the hospital had been one of those remaining smaller Nightmare Seeds.

Besides that one, there were several more in Rock City.

Including the clusters Nino had sensed earlier, tiny Rock City actually had sixteen Nightmare Seeds.

Even Spring City, where Yu Muqiu lived, did not have as many as Rock City!

The six Seeds outside the city, the sixteen here, and the two that had ended up in other cities.

Those were all the Nightmare Seeds Xiao Qiu would need to deal with this season.

It was only at this point that Xiao Qiu and the others realized something was wrong.

[After everything was over, Xiao Chun used her Healing magic to treat them, and the injuries on Xiao Qiu's group soon healed. The three girls and one cat went to a pavilion in the residential complex's park to discuss the three Nightmare Seeds.

First were the three taken from the Demon, which Chen Xiaoxia placed on the table. The pitch-black, gem-like Nightmare Seeds reflected an eerie yet beautiful light.

Then there was the Nightmare Seed Yu Muqiu had obtained by killing the Demon at the hospital. She held it in her hand and brought it close to the other three.

"Isn't that four of them?!"

Chen Xiaoxia was the first to grab Nino by the scruff and shake her back and forth. "Didn't you say you only sensed three last night?!"

"I don't know either! Stop shaking me, I'm getting dizzy, I'm getting dizzy!"

Nino was shaken so hard by Chen Xiaoxia that she became dizzy and disoriented. Only with Yu Muqiu's help did she escape those "demonic claws," landing beside the four Nightmare Seeds to inspect them over and over.

After examining them for quite a while, Nino finally raised her head. A grave expression appeared on her little cat face as she told the Magical Girls:

"Sorry, I misjudged it. There may be more than three Nightmare Seeds in Rock City..."

"Isn't that obvious?! There are already four right here!"

Chen Xiaoxia immediately snapped.

But Nino shook her head. "No, that's not what I mean."

As she spoke, she pointed at the Nightmare Seed in Yu Muqiu's hand. "The signal from this one is very weak. If I weren't so close, I wouldn't be able to sense it at all."

After saying that, Nino pointed to the other three. "And these... in my senses, they count as one."

"...?" Chen Xiaoxia froze, not quite understanding. "So...?"

Xiao Chun understood quickly. She suddenly stood up, her eyes widening as she looked at Nino.

"So what you mean is, the 'three' you sensed yesterday were actually three clusters of Nightmare Seeds?! And there are two more Demons like the one we encountered today...?!"

Hearing Xiao Chun's words, Yu Muqiu and Chen Xiaoxia finally understood what was happening.

They both looked at Nino, their faces filled with shock.

They hoped it was not true. They hoped to hear Nino deny it.

But unfortunately—

Nino said nothing.

She merely nodded softly, confirming Xiao Chun's guess.

So everyone fell silent, and no one spoke for a long while.]

Could It Really Be Because of Me?

(Good, the main plot is clear now.)

(Isn't this weird? Doesn't Xiao Qiu live in Spring City? Why does Rock City have so many Nightmare Seeds?)

(No idea... maybe the plot needs it.)

(What the hell do you mean, the plot needs it?)

The doubts voiced by the comments scrolling across the Sky Screen were also Fang Ming's doubts.

When he first learned how many Nightmare Seeds Rock City had, Fang Ming had found it strange. Why had the city where Nino fell only had a single-digit number of Nightmare Seeds, while Rock City had a full sixteen?

Especially after the Sky Screen aired Magic Autumn, Fang Ming found it even stranger.

Because according to the Sky Screen's setting, Yu Muqiu was the protagonist, and Spring City, where she lived, was the story's main setting. Logically, Spring City should have had far more Nightmare Seeds than the other cities.

There was no reason for Rock City to have so many instead.

Could it really be because of Fang Ming?

Hahah... ha... ha...

...No way, right??

[The number of Nightmare Seeds far exceeded Nino's expectations, and there were even Wisdom Demons formed by multiple Nightmare Seeds gathered together.

Compared with ordinary Demons, Wisdom Demons were a full tier stronger.

According to Nino's information, the Demon formed from those three Nightmare Seeds was only a Lower Rank Demon.

The Demon that had beaten the three Magical Girls one-sidedly had only been Lower Rank. Then how strong would Middle Rank... or Upper Demons be?

The three Magical Girls' moods grew heavy.

Even after returning to Fang Ming's home, none of the three girls could cheer up.

Then they saw Fang Ming letting out a mournful cry inside the house:

"My drafts!!!"

"?"

The three girls looked at each other after hearing that cry. In the end, Yu Muqiu knocked on Fang Ming's bedroom door and asked:

"Brother Fang Ming? What happened?"

"Damn it! I don't know why, but the power suddenly went out just now! I didn't save my draft!!!"

Fang Ming came out of his room and shouted in grief and indignation. His eyes were bloodshot, making it obvious that he had stayed up late the previous night.

A power outage?

Yu Muqiu and the other two froze. After exchanging glances, cold sweat instantly trickled down their backs. They all avoided Fang Ming's gaze without daring to look at him.

When a Nightmare Barrier was formed or dispelled, subtle effects would appear. The closer someone was to where the Nightmare Barrier formed, the stronger those effects became.

Electromagnetic interference, temporary Illusions, a loss of direction... and—

Power outages.]

(Cousin: I was working just fine when the power suddenly went out. Do you three have any idea why?)

(Xiao Qiu: Don't know~ Xiao Qiu knows nothing~)

(I'm dying, who knows how long Cousin had been writing that draft? One power outage ruined everything.)

(This is the price of living with three beautiful girls!!!)

(The comment above is so jealous!)

Looking back now, what happened on the Sky Screen still made Fang Ming want to laugh.

At the time, he had suddenly been dragged into the barrier, so naturally he had no time to save the draft he was working on. When he returned, he discovered that the barrier's formation had caused the power in his home to cut out for a moment.

Though it had only been an instant, it still forced his computer to shut down and erased his draft.

With his worldview completely shattered and his manuscript gone, Fang Ming's mood had hit rock bottom.

So everything shown on the Sky Screen had absolutely not been an act. He had truly been suffering.

[Xiao Qiu and the other two knew that Brother Fang Ming's draft being erased probably... perhaps... possibly had something to do with them.

After feeling guilty for a while, they chose to skip over the subject and found some excuse to hide in their assigned guest room to discuss things.

After that little interruption, everyone naturally returned to the main subject.

"Anyway, let's put aside the Nightmare Seeds for now. What's with that fourth Magical Girl?"

Chen Xiaoxia asked Nino.

Nino shook her head. "I don't know."

"You don't know?!" Chen Xiaoxia asked in surprise.