Teaching Her Badly

Every city had its own Hero Association branch, and Shencheng, a sprawling metropolis, was naturally no exception.

Hell Shrike was the codename given by the Shencheng Hero Association to that deep-blue catgirl magical girl.

"I didn't expect there to be so many videos. She's been active in Shencheng for two or three years already."

Glancing at the date of the announcement that had first assigned the codename, Su Tianqing was a little surprised.

First of all, Hell Shrike—or rather, Hellcat—was a Villain Magical Girl with the same role as herself.

But the very notion of being a villain was rather forced.

The Codex said she was the sole best-qualified candidate. There couldn't possibly be a second Mercury Codex in the world handing out daily missions, could there?

If there were no missions or rewards, and Villain Magical Girls were unwelcome to begin with by the Hero Association, why had she remained active for two whole years?

With that question in mind, Su Tianqing watched every video related to Hell Shrike one by one.

.

She watched from class until dismissal, and only after lunch, when she returned to her rental apartment for a midday nap, did Su Tianqing finally finish roughly going through all the videos related to Hell Shrike.

"There really are a lot of these videos," Su Tianqing grumbled.

Hugging a pillow as she lay on her stomach on the bed, the little fox's tiny feet lazily patted the mattress, while her tail swayed back and forth at either side of her body.

From those videos, Su Tianqing had summarized several key points:

Hell Shrike was nowhere near as famous as she was. Over the past two or three years, the videos involving her had shockingly low view counts.

That might have had something to do with how she operated—

Unlike herself, Hell Shrike had no ability to summon monsters, nor did she have a flashy anonymous livestream room or an anti-censorship passive skill. Their differences were fundamental right from the starting line.

After all, only she had the Codex.

And the reason the Hero Association had classified her as a Villain Magical Girl was a series of actions she had taken.

Su Tianqing scrolled to the bottom of the videos and watched them from the beginning.

—A deep-blue rookie magical girl had attacked a girl walking home after late-night self-study.

But she had not harmed the girl. After being missing for two hours, the girl appeared outside a nearby hospital and was quickly treated. Aside from dizziness, she showed no other abnormalities.

After that, one to three incidents of girls being attacked and disappearing occurred in Shencheng every month.

Yet without exception, every missing girl in those cases had been delivered to a hospital. None had been injured, and the most serious symptom was dizziness lasting two or three days.

Hospital surveillance cameras had clearly captured Hell Shrike delivering them to the entrances, so all of those incidents were collectively attributed to the deep-blue magical girl.

And the incident that confirmed her status as a Villain Magical Girl was even more absurd:

Once, a monster attack occurred at a Shencheng shopping mall, and the Association dispatched a local magical girl to handle it.

After the monster was defeated, Hell Shrike suddenly appeared and ambushed that magical girl, abducting her in front of everyone while she was still transformed.

After an hour with no word of her whereabouts, the abducted magical girl appeared outside a Hero Association office, also unconscious.

Afterward, that magical girl suffered dizziness and blurred vision for a day, but no traces of injury were found either.

"Strange..."

Su Tianqing murmured to herself, fiercely wagging her tail as her little feet slapped the bed harder, unable to make sense of it no matter how much she thought.

It was too strange!

Attacking passersby was actually a pretty serious matter, as the Hero Association's reaction made clear.

Before causing trouble, she always notified unrelated civilians to evacuate. She would never randomly pick a passerby off the street and attack them. That was the virtue a Villain Magical Girl ought to have!

A villain's targets should be the proper magical girls!

Attacking passersby? That was what evil organizations did!

"But she didn't actually hurt any of those girls, did she?" Su Tianqing pointed out the common thread in those incidents.

That was right. The girls themselves had not been injured, and symptoms like dizziness and blurred vision naturally faded after a couple of days.

In a sense, Hell Shrike really had not done anything heinous.

That only made her true intentions even harder to understand.

On one hand, she attacked girls; on the other, she did not harm them at all... She had even stood on Su Tianqing's side and taken the initiative to support her last night...

"Why exactly does she do these things... She's so strange..."

"Forget it! I'll stake out the places she shows up tonight. If there's anything going on, won't asking her face-to-face settle it all?"

The little fox talked to herself, rolled over, pulled the blanket over herself, and Fox Fox took a nap.

.

Meanwhile, at Nan Xiaofeng's school.

Hua Ling silently carried her lunchbox to the dishwashing area, silently turned on the faucet, and silently washed the lunchbox.

Nan Xiaofeng poked her head out from behind a nearby corner and looked with Bailing at the dishwashing girl, who seemed somewhat dazed.

"Something's been really off about her since this morning," Bailing said, patting Nan Xiaofeng on the head.

"More like she's been strange since last night," Nan Xiaofeng replied quietly.

Ever since Hua Ling had canceled her transformation last night, she had remained in this dazed state.

The doctors repeatedly examined her and found no injuries, but she simply could not muster any energy.

"So strange..."

"Why don't you go ask her, Xiaofeng?"

"Take a guess whether I've already asked today." Nan Xiaofeng rolled her eyes at the White Sable Spirit beside her.

Hua Ling silently finished washing her lunchbox, then silently turned toward the classroom under Nan Xiaofeng's gaze. She did not say a word the entire time, as dull as a winter melon.

It was not until Nan Xiaofeng saw her absentmindedly nearly toss the lunchbox into the trash that she could no longer stand it.

"Hua Ling! That's your lunchbox! Don't throw it in the trash!"

Nan Xiaofeng hurried forward and snatched the lunchbox away. Hua Ling shuddered, turned back blankly, and only then realized what she had just done.

"Ah... Xiaofeng... Sorry..."

"Hua Ling, you've been really weird today!"

After tossing away the crumpled tissue Hua Ling had used to wipe her mouth, Nan Xiaofeng put her hands on her hips and seriously looked at her companion.

"You've seemed strange since last night. Are you feeling unwell?"

"Yeah, what happened? Tell us already," Bailing urged as well.

Hua Ling parted her lips slightly, seeming to hesitate and struggle inwardly for a while.

After a long time, she softly said:

"...Xiaofeng, can I ask you something?"

"What is it? Go ahead." Nan Xiaofeng readily agreed.

Seeing that, Hua Ling took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Her cheeks reddened, as though she were embarrassed by what she was about to say:

"I had a dream yesterday... I dreamed that I... um... that..."

"That what?" Nan Xiaofeng asked in confusion.

"Xiaofeng, do you think that between girls, it's possible to do... that kind of thing...?"

"Ah?"

Nan Xiaofeng and Bailing both froze.

Bailing fell silent for a while, then drifted away while coughing, leaving only Nan Xiaofeng, who completely failed to understand the question, looking utterly bewildered.

"That kind of thing?... Wh-what kind of thing?"

"I-I-I mean! I mean, that kind of... that..."

Hua Ling stammered, her cheeks bright red as she shyly tucked in her neck.

Nan Xiaofeng suddenly understood something, and a blush rapidly spread across her face as well. She desperately wanted to throw her head back and scream:

You damn stinking fox! You've taught Hua Ling bad things! Aaaaaah!!!

The culprit naturally could not hear that inner howl from afar.

Beside a blanket far away, a golden fluffy fox tail hung down as Fox Fox slept soundly.