Heat Haze

(Sun Yao)

Enduring the scorching afternoon sun, sweat soaked my back as I lay prone on the roof of a four-story building, watching the Phase Wormhole from afar.

A twisted ring of blue light surrounded a bottomless black center.

Calling it black was not quite right. Light simply vanished after passing through the ring, making it impossible to see the other side of the wormhole with either the naked eye or a camera.

Gulp—

The surroundings were terrifyingly quiet. Even the cicadas had fallen silent, and the sound of swallowing saliva was startlingly clear.

I was probably the only living person left within this sealed-off area aside from the magical girls.

I had wanted to contact Yezi and tell him to take shelter first, only to realize I had left my phone in the shop. Still, I had no intention of going back. As a magical girl enthusiast, I had to witness a magical girl battle with my own eyes.

"It's a shame I can't film this..."

I had successfully slipped past the police blockade, yet forgotten the most important thing. No one would believe it if I told them.

Watching with my own eyes definitely would not be as clear as drone footage, but this was like going to a concert—it was all about the atmosphere. If I wanted to enjoy a clear view of the battle, I could just watch the recording later.

Unfortunately, Miluno probably would not come at this hour.

She only acted at night, which was why she was called the "Moonlit Gale."

During the day in D3 District, another magical girl named Heat Haze was generally in charge. Her magical girl name sounded cool, but the nickname everyone gave her was...

"Sigh, I came all this way only to see Miss Fire Turkey. What a shame."

The moment I sighed, someone stepped on my back.

"Sorry you had to see me! Want to bet I'll kick you right off this rooftop? You're obviously some fat otaku, yet you've got the nerve to sneak onto the scene and peep? Trying to become a dead otaku?!"

I turned toward the cursing girl. She stood with her back to the sun, and although I could barely open my eyes, I still recognized her.

"Fire... Miss Heat Haze?"

"You meant Fire **?! I'll blow you to pieces!"

This magical girl, with splayed chicken feathers atop her head, was Heat Haze.

Her skin was slightly tanned, and she wore a cool tube top and an asymmetrical short skirt. Her tropical outfit brought to mind the blazing midday sun, just like her name.

Just as her name and nickname suggested, she was a fire-type magical girl. Though it was widely recognized as a high-damage attribute, it was also the most common one, making it seem somewhat cheap—unlike Miluno's speed type, which was extremely rare.

"How did you find me?"

"What a joke. Do you know why the surveillance airships send drones near the wormhole? You didn't think they were just there to record battles for otaku like you, did you? Don't be ridiculous! They scan the nearby terrain, analyze the Monster's abilities, and provide tactical support to magical girls. In other words, you were discovered the moment you entered this shop!"

"I'll hide properly."

That was how I answered, but Heat Haze lifted her leg and kicked me in the ass.

"Hide my ass! You've got one minute left! Get the hell out of here! Then go enjoy prison food in detention!"

Bzzz—

The wormhole erupted with a towering blue pillar of light. Something descended along that beam, passed through the wormhole's ring, and entered this world.

Then it threw back its head and let out an earth-shaking roar.

"Looks like we don't have one minute."

From afar, it looked like a white stone humanoid, sharp-edged and faceless.

"...Hide first."

Heat Haze stopped paying attention to me after saying that. She spread her arms and jumped from the rooftop. Wing-shaped gliding membranes opened between her arms and sides as she swept over the stone Monster's head, scattering a shower of phosphorescent motes.

She glided down and landed.

The next second—

A chain of explosions erupted. The blast waves nearly blew me off the roof of the four-story building.

Fire Phosphor, which detonated after a delay once released—this was Heat Haze's magic.

Its area of destruction was astonishing, but because she could not concentrate it on a single point, every time she defeated a Monster, the entire street was nearly wrecked too.

Still, that thing looked tough. One attack might not be enough to finish it.

Other than those in the Top 10, few magical girls had the power to instantly kill a Monster...

"Not even... a scratch?"

Heat Haze's pride and joy, that violent explosion, had failed to harm the stone Monster at all. A faint firelight glowed from within its white stone body, making it resemble blazing lava.

Explosion-resistant.

Had someone deliberately sent out a targeted Monster after noticing that Miluno did not operate during the day?

When her attack failed, Heat Haze hurled several more flying feathers. They too carried Fire Phosphor; the instant they struck the Monster, explosions burst forth with power comparable to small missiles.

Roar—

The stone Monster roared again. Terrifying heat burst from the cracks in its rocky body as it charged at Heat Haze with agility that defied expectations.

Then came another explosion.

It was even more violent than Heat Haze's. Shops on both sides of the street were half-destroyed by the blast, and the already sweltering summer air became as unbearable as hell.

Heat Haze spread her wings and rode the blast into the air. She began scattering denser Fire Phosphor—something big was coming.

"Crap!"

But she had flown too high, and some of the Fire Phosphor drifted onto the rooftop where I was.

Fear drove me to scramble to my feet and run. I might have been a magical girl enthusiast, but I had no intention of dying at the hands of a magical girl.

Boom—

An explosion loud enough to nearly shatter my eardrums erupted behind me, followed by a wave of heat and a shockwave.

I stumbled and crawled into the stairwell on the top floor, barely avoiding most of the possible damage.

"Whew, that scared the hell out of me."

Even so, watching a magical girl fight a Monster from this close, the burning sensation on my back made me forget my fear. My racing heart drove blood through my body, every beat pounding against my eardrums.

Still, staying alive came first.

There was a back door downstairs. If I left through there, I could get away from this street that had turned into a battlefield.

I had only reached the second floor when Heat Haze crashed through the window from outside. She happened to land at the entrance to the second-floor stairwell, several feathers from her headpiece snapped.

She looked miserable. Her prideful explosions could not inflict any meaningful damage, while the stone Monster was stronger than her. For the moment, she had no solution.

"Cough, cough. Why the ** are you still here?"

Yet she still looked up at me.

"Are you okay?"

"I have my own way of dealing with this! Run first!"

However, the sound of a door being smashed open came from downstairs. The stone Monster was coming up the stairs.

"...I don't have anywhere to run now."

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"I'll hold it off. Jump down from the second floor."

"I can't jump down from the second floor."

"You dead otaku really are pathetic!"

Still cursing, she shoved me into the second-floor shop and shut the stairwell door.

A series of explosive booms came from downstairs, but it did not take long for the flimsy door to be blown open. Heat flooded the entire second-floor shop, and I felt my hair beginning to curl. The violent impact nearly knocked me unconscious.

Then the floor collapsed.

In my hazy consciousness, I felt myself falling, then hitting something.

"Ugh..."

Burning pain crawled across my back.

"Hey! Fatty!"

It was Heat Haze calling out.

I gritted my teeth and opened my eyes, only to see her struggling to hold up a floor slab that was about to crush me.

She snarled hoarsely, "If you're awake, crawl out of there already!"

Then, the next second, the stone Monster charged like a raging bull and sent her flying together with the floor slab she had been supporting. I was saved as a result, but Heat Haze, struck without any defense, fell in the plaza and could not get back up for a while.

She was badly hurt. After all, the defensive power of that battle outfit of hers looked terribly low.

However, that charge from the stone Monster had not caused an explosion. Its body had returned to its original white color.

I understood.

It had absorbed the power of Heat Haze's explosions, turning itself into a lava-like bomb.

"Miss Heat Haze, don't use Fire Phosphor! It's absorbing the energy from the explosions!"

I called out the warning instinctively, but the Monster turned and looked at me...

It had no facial features. Where its head should have been was merely an uneven chunk of stone.

But it was definitely looking at me.

Fear, guilt, helplessness, hatred for my own weakness.

Chaotic emotions filled my mind. I wanted to run, but when I tried to stand, I realized my left leg would not obey me. I fell onto the ground littered with debris again.

I had injured my leg when I fell from the second floor. Standing was already difficult; escaping was out of the question.

This was awful.

Once an ordinary person was targeted by a Monster, there was no room to escape.

Only at the brink of death did I regret my foolish actions... I should have taken shelter with Yezi.

"Waaah!"

Heat Haze roared and detonated Fire Phosphor beneath herself, rising into the air on the blast. With her arms spread, she pounced onto the stone Monster's back and covered its head with her gliding wings.

She was a magical girl who mainly fought with magic. Close-quarters brawling like this did not suit her style, especially when she was so badly injured.

She was not merely buying time for me to escape. Countless tiny yet densely packed particles of Fire Phosphor were gathering around the Monster...

Heat Haze intended to self-destruct.

She even squeezed out enough strength to shout at me, "Run!"

I dragged my injured leg and tried to leave, but the instant I turned around, something struck my back.

Heat Haze was swung into me by the stone Monster like a rag doll, smashing me face-first onto the ground.

Suppressing the pain, I checked Heat Haze's condition. She could no longer lift her arms, and the gliding wing on her left arm had been torn apart by the Monster. She could not fly anymore.

Then came another explosion—Heat Haze's final Fire Phosphor.

But when the smoke cleared, it still had not harmed the stone Monster.

It had even fed it energy. The white stone had become searing lava, its temperature distorting the surrounding air.

"This guy is way too incompatible with me... We're done for..."

Heat Haze said this while leaning against me. Having a magical girl lying in my arms was something I had dreamed of, yet all I felt was guilt.

"I'm sorry."

"To die together... with someone like you... I'm really unlucky..."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

The Lava Monster standing in the street looked our way.

Heat gathered in its uneven mouth, while waves of steam poured from the cracks in its body.

Clearly, it was about to charge over and explode again.

But we had no way to evade it.

Just as Heat Haze said, it was all over.

"Time-Freeze!"

A voice rang out from the sky, hope amidst despair.

The next instant, as if an electromagnetic cannon had pierced it from above, the Lava Monster's upper body was blasted to pieces before collapsing with a thunderous crash.

"...Miluno."

A cold-faced girl stood behind the pile of stones that had once been the Monster.

She was my favorite magical girl, but right now, all I wanted was for Miss Heat Haze to survive...

"Please, help her!"

The severely injured Heat Haze was sent to a medical facility exclusively for magical girls.

As for me, having entered the combat zone without authorization, I was taken away by armed police.

I admitted everything.

I bore responsibility for Heat Haze's injuries, so even if I had to go to prison, I accepted it.

But not long afterward, people from the Magical Girl Association took custody of me, and I boarded a helicopter bound for the Association headquarters.

The young woman who had taken me from the police station asked, "Sun Yao, do you know why you were able to get out?"

"...My dad?"

"No. We did ask Chairman Sun what he wanted, but he had no intention of bailing you out."

My father and I did not have a good relationship.

If I went to prison over this, he probably would not even come see me.

"I figured... Then why?"

"Heat Haze may be unable to get out of bed for quite some time because of this incident."

She looked at me and asked bluntly, "Sun Yao, do you want to take responsibility for this?"

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