A Girl's Training

(Bai Ziye)

The air-conditioned mall was filled with holographic advertisements.

Every one of them featured Magical Girls.

These days, compared to idol celebrities, products endorsed by Magical Girls sold better. It was practically a dimensionality-reduction strike across industries, leaving all those internet celebrities doomed. Since the income was indeed substantial, many Magical Girls relied on commercial endorsements to earn extra money.

Advertising income usually depended on popularity.

And a Magical Girl's popularity was tied to her combat record.

In other words, the stronger the Magical Girl, the more popular she was, and the more money she could earn through such channels. The one most enthusiastic about idol activities was the top-ranked one... the cutest idol in the Milky Way.

Sirius. However, she donated nearly all of that income to the Association, where it became bounties for other Magical Girls.

Ceruno leaned close to my ear and whispered, "Yezi, we've been here for over half an hour, and just like we thought, nobody recognized me!"

She was clearly just out shopping normally, yet she was excited like a child.

"Of course they wouldn't recognize you. Everyone's impression of you is based on pink and fluffy hair. With a mask on too, anyone who could still recognize you would have to be a die-hard fan."

"Hey, Yezi, you're acting like you don't care, but you're secretly thrilled to be shopping with a beautiful girl at my level, aren't you?"

She seemed very lively.

But I couldn't quite tell whether it was an act or how she genuinely felt.

"Secretly thrilled? You haven't even let me enjoy myself."

I made a joke, then asked, "Besides, do you want me to treat you like a real girl?"

"Is it wrong to treat me like a girl?"

She squeezed her faint brows together and gave me a pitiful look.

"I started training for exactly that purpose."

As she spoke, she spun around in front of me. Her black high-waisted short tiered skirt bloomed like a flower, and even that casual glance back made my heart skip a beat.

Seeing that I had said nothing for a while, she smiled with a blush. "Yezi? What is it? Stunned by how pretty I am?"

She really was cute.

Even without the pink elements, she was still exceptionally cute, and her looks were right in my strike zone.

If this was an act, then she was playing it quite well.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't happy to be spending time with such a beautiful girl.

But thinking it over carefully, if A-Yao became a "real girl," then given our relationship, it would not be strange at all for us to naturally cross that line. The development Miluno had desperately avoided might end up happening in another way.

"Until we go home today, I'll treat you like a girl. Consider it part of your training."

"Yay, Yezi, you finally figured it out!"

Ceruno broke into a delighted smile when she heard that.

"This is just me compromising and going along with your act. Here, let me carry the bags."

After making that clear, I took the clothing bags from her hands.

"Thanks~"

"It's only natural to carry things for a girl, even if you're stronger than me now."

"Hehe, are you practicing being boyfriend material too?"

A-Yao had been a rich second-generation heir to begin with, and she had become even wealthier after becoming a Magical Girl.

With her abundant finances supporting her, she enjoyed shopping to her heart's content. Whenever she saw something she liked, she bought it without blinking. Some clothes, she did not even try on before taking them. In just over half an hour, she had already added more than a dozen casual outfits to her wardrobe. Her lifestyle was absurdly bourgeois.

At heart, she was still an otaku. She picked out Japanese-style outfits like shirts, pleated skirts, and knee-high socks, happily trying them on for me... To the point that even when she paid for them herself, the clerk gave us a surprised look.

I had been mistaken for her boyfriend.

And the kind of pretty-boy boyfriend who made his girlfriend pay.

"We've picked out enough clothes. Next comes the Boss battle."

She meant buying underwear.

I reminded her, "Girls don't use gaming metaphors like that. You need to change that habit too."

"Huh! But there are girls who play games too, right?"

"Definitely, but don't forget what your goal is, or what kind of girl Heat Haze wants you to become."

"Yezi, you're so strict."

"I was just saying."

An underwear store really was different from other clothing stores. It was a male forbidden zone. While there was no rule explicitly banning men, even girls who brought their boyfriends inside would draw strange looks.

For Ceruno, whose mindset had yet to fully change, going in alone could indeed be called a Boss battle.

Conversely, as long as she could conquer an underwear store, she would count as qualified as a girl.

Because of the mall's layout, the underwear stores were clustered together. I found a bench among the row of lingerie shops and sat down.

"Yezi, you're just going to sit here?"

"Dummy, I can't exactly go in with you, can I? Look at all the men sitting here. Why do you think that is?"

This row of benches was like utility wires along the road, with boyfriends and husbands waiting for their loved ones packed together like sparrows, boredom written all over their faces.

Ceruno naturally understood how awkward it was for men to be here.

Because she was trying to overcome that very awkwardness right now.

"Then I might take a while. You'll wait for me, right?"

"Go and come back quickly, but choose carefully too. You're the one who'll be uncomfortable if it doesn't fit."

"Oh! Yezi, you really know your stuff!"

"A little better than you~"

The look on Ceruno's face as she entered the store reminded me of myself a year ago.

Still, she was even worse than I had been a year ago. Her timid manner practically radiated guilt. She looked like she might be mistaken for an underwear thief.

But she would adjust soon enough.

After that, all that was left was waiting.

But I hated waiting.

So I decided to find an opportunity to slow myself down and quickly skip through this boring stretch of time.

(Sun Yao)

I went in alone.

An underwear store truly was a forbidden zone for men and a pure land for women. Even the air seemed sweeter... Oh, it really was scented with a faint fruity perfume.

The female clerks and other female customers did not give me any strange or disgusted looks either. After all, I was just like them now, and naturally belonged here.

Even though I understood that, I still felt a sense of wrongdoing.

I tried to look calm, but my face kept turning red. I had only been a girl for two days, and I still had not adjusted to this new identity. Even those awful, lewd thoughts kept surfacing on their own.

No! I have to restrain myself!

This was training as a girl. Calmly selecting underwear I liked—that was the proper behavior of a lady.

Even if I was only pretending, I had to make it look convincing.

The styles in this shop were rather girlish. They did not sell any so-called decisive underwear. The designs took a cute approach, using sheer gauze instead of the usual hollow lace, which suited how I looked now.

I knew I was cute.

Yezi thought I was cute too.

So I wanted to become even cuter.

I made a round through the store, looking at the dazzling array of underwear, and quickly realized something.

Since I had undergone a physical examination at the Association, I knew my measurements. But I could not understand the sizes marked on the underwear, so I had no idea which one I should buy.

Normally, this would be the time to ask a clerk.

But social anxiety was an occupational disease for otaku, so I chose to ask Baidu instead.

"Is there anything I can help you with, little sister?"

I had barely taken out my phone when a kind woman spoke to me. I nervously turned around, only to find that the person standing there was...