Magical Girls Have to Be Idols Too

"Cloud City South Station has arrived. Passengers disembarking, please gather your luggage and belongings and exit in an orderly manner."

Following the crowd getting off, Zhou Mo finally emerged from the carriage, which was filled with the mingled smells of all kinds of food and stinky feet.

"Phew... I finally survived."

Zhou Mo rubbed her sleepy eyes, adjusted slightly to the somewhat glaring sunlight, then took a deep breath of fresh air. Only then did she feel her mind clear up a little.

"The air outside really is better."

After leaving the station and truly setting foot on the streets of Cloud City, Zhou Mo could not help but sigh at the bustling scene before her.

Ah, this light. Ah, this water. Ah, those huge—cough, cough.

She awkwardly looked away.

"Let me see, the location is..."

Zhou Mo took out her phone, somewhat clumsily opened a ride-hailing app, and searched the map for her new address.

While she was booking a ride on her phone, she suddenly caught sight of a girl hurrying past across the street.

As for why Zhou Mo had noticed her at a glance among the crowd, it could only be said that the girl's outfit was indeed eye-catching.

She wore a pink-and-Bai pleated dress, and even her hair was pink. Her twin ponytails swayed behind her as she ran, while both hands gripped a strangely shaped magic wand.

"Is this the legendary cosplay?"

She briefly marveled at the girl's appearance, but quickly withdrew her gaze.

Not long after, a ride-hailing car stopped nearby.

After approaching it and confirming the number with the driver, she got in.

The car slowly pulled away. Zhou Mo watched the cityscape retreat beyond the window as her thoughts drifted.

Ever since she could remember, she had spent most of her time in the village. She had grown up eating meals from every household, and the farthest she had ever gone was the nearest town. This was her first time traveling far from home.

"Xiao Mo, you're the smartest child in the village. To send our village's first college student out into the world, we've decided to let you study in the city. We've already found you a school and a place to live. Once the term starts in a while, you'll set off."

That day, the village chief grandpa had suddenly pulled her aside and said those words. And just like that, Zhou Mo had been sent to this unfamiliar city without really understanding why.

Fortunately, she had been to the small county town before, so she knew a little about modern city life.

"Anyway, food, clothing, housing, transportation... it probably isn't all that different from village life, right?"

As Zhou Mo sank into her memories, she casually spotted a Bai cat sitting solemnly by the roadside.

It had been an utterly unremarkable Bai cat, but whether by coincidence or not, Zhou Mo had happened to notice it from the car.

City cats even waited for red lights. How rare.

Her thoughts wandered slightly.

When the car turned onto another street, she caught sight of another Bai cat flashing past the roadside.

Once, twice, three times...

"Hm?"

Zhou Mo turned to look behind the car and blinked in confusion. Why did it seem like she had seen Bai cats sitting by the roadside three times in a row?

Just as she wondered whether she was seeing things, an explosion like a thunderclap rang out in the distance.

With a screech, the car suddenly braked. Zhou Mo slammed headfirst into the front seat, forcibly snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Whoa there, miss, you okay?"

The middle-aged driver turned around and asked Zhou Mo with apologetic concern.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. What happened just now? Was there an accident?"

Zhou Mo rubbed her aching forehead and waved a hand.

"Nothing major. Maybe another Magical Girl is fighting again."

"?"

The driver seemed to have said Magical Girl. Had she heard wrong?

Zhou Mo opened her mouth, not knowing what to say.

Perhaps seeing how she wanted to speak but hesitated, the driver looked rather surprised and said,

"Huh? You don't know? This is a Cloud City specialty. You can usually find out about it online."

"Well, I've always lived in a village before, so I don't really know much about the outside world."

Zhou Mo scratched her head as she spoke.

"I see."

The driver stroked his chin, then tapped around on the car's screen a few times until an image appeared.

"There should be a livestream right now. Take a look and get a feel for it."

The sight on the screen left Zhou Mo stunned.

It showed an aerial view of the city. The streets below were riddled with craters, with countless plumes of black smoke rising as if the area had been bombed.

In the middle of it all, a pink-haired girl with twin ponytails stood on the cratered street. She held a slender staff and struck a fighting stance.

It was the girl Zhou Mo had seen on the street, the one she had suspected of cosplaying.

And standing before the girl was a huge masked monster with two bull horns growing from its head.

The two were facing off.

At the sight of this, Zhou Mo's brain instantly crashed. She could not process anything she was seeing on the screen.

"Huh? It's Miss Xia Ya. I need to sit up for this."

The moment the driver saw the pink-haired girl on the screen, he immediately grew excited.

"Uncle, is this some kind of movie?"

Zhou Mo could not help asking the driver.

"What movie? That's a Magical Girl fighting a monster. It's all real, and it isn't far from here."

"Haha... Uncle, you're really funny."

"You don't believe me? How about I take you over there to see?"

Seeing Zhou Mo's skeptical expression, the driver raised his brows.

Without waiting for her answer, he started the car and headed for the scene.

Zhou Mo found it difficult to describe everything she saw.

At the scene, a girl who looked delicate and soft, dressed in a pink skirt and looking adorably sweet, was locked in fierce combat with the bull-horned masked monster. Their figures sometimes sped across the streets, their collisions leaving round craters in the ground. At other times, they flew into the air, setting off waves of shockwaves overhead.

The driver had said this was a Magical Girl, but this fighting style seemed a little off.

Could this be some legendary warrior?

"No, this isn't the time to be thinking about that!"

Zhou Mo shook her head fiercely and hurriedly said to the driver,

"This place is too dangerous. Let's get out of here!"

However, the driver did not move. He merely lit a cigarette and said confidently,

"It's fine. Magical Girls have magical barriers protecting them while they fight. As long as the Magical Girl hasn't been defeated, the monster won't hurt us."

"If you don't believe me, look around."

Sitting in the car, Zhou Mo looked around.

She found many people standing on the street, all taking out their phones to record. Some people in the surrounding buildings were also poking their heads out to watch.

"What kind of city is this..."

Zhou Mo was completely speechless.

In the distance, after an aerial clash, the bull-horned monster was knocked back to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Monster, you can no longer resist. Accept judgment!"

The pink-haired girl hovered in the air, looking down at the monster. It had already collapsed onto the cracked ground, utterly drained of strength.

She immediately raised the magic wand in her hand. As she chanted, countless particles of light condensed from the air and gathered at the tip of the wand.

"Magic Power Release: Ultimate Flash!"

A dazzling beam descended. The monster offered no resistance, and its form was swallowed by the pink-and-Bai pillar of light.

Another deafening explosion rang out, but this time Zhou Mo was right there at the scene. She had already gotten out of the car and stood with her mouth wide open, staring at the sight for a long time without closing it.

The screams one would expect from people facing disaster never came. Instead, a crowd erupted into cheers welcoming victory.

"The stage is coming! Hurry and get ready!"

"Huh?"

Zhou Mo did not understand what the driver meant before she saw him suddenly run anxiously to the back of the car, take something from the trunk, then run back and hand her two sticks.

"Come on, take these. Let's go join the fun too."

Zhou Mo blankly accepted the glow sticks, then was dragged by the driver toward the slowly descending pink-haired girl.

Before the two could get close, a burst of dazzling light suddenly erupted where the pink-haired girl stood, forcing Zhou Mo to close her eyes.

When she opened them again, the devastated street had already vanished. The damaged buildings and roads around them had been restored to normal after a wave of pink light.

An open-air stage rose from the intersection, and crowds gradually gathered below it.

Onstage, the pink twin-tailed girl held a microphone. As she danced cheerfully, she sang a song Zhou Mo had never heard before.

"Ho hey! Ho hey!"

"Xia Ya-chan! I really love you! For you, I'm buying a hundred support tickets!"

Zhou Mo stood there stiffly, watching everything unfold before her. Beside her, the driver had unzipped his jacket to reveal a Bai shirt underneath, printed with a cartoon image of the pink-haired girl, while his glow sticks waved wildly in his hands.

This city had to be insane.

By the time she came back to her senses, it was already evening.

After getting out of the car and saying goodbye to the driver, Zhou Mo stood blankly in front of one of the apartment buildings in the residential complex.

What had she just seen? Magical Girls? A stage?

It had to be some kind of high-tech display, perhaps holographic projections or something.

She had seen high-tech performances like that online too, such as drone shows. It was probably something similar. This was a big city, after all. It was normal for it to be more advanced.

Zhou Mo finally convinced herself. Dragging her luggage upstairs, she found the right floor, searched through her keys for a while, and was about to open the door.

Just then, a sound came from the stairwell. Zhou Mo turned her head and saw a twin-tailed girl with several strands of pink highlights in her bangs.

The girl froze the moment their eyes met.

"Uh, hello. I'm the new resident here. We'll be neighbors from now on, so please take care of me."

Zhou Mo greeted her somewhat awkwardly.

"Mhm, hello."

The twin-tailed girl nodded and responded softly, then lowered her head and walked past Zhou Mo.

"P-please take care of me too."

After standing at her door and hesitating for a moment, the girl turned her head and quietly said another word to Zhou Mo before closing the door.

Zhou Mo glanced at the tightly shut door opposite hers, did not think much of it, took out her key, and entered her apartment.

It was a one-bedroom apartment with a living room. It was more than enough for one person.

After looking around the living room, she dragged her luggage toward the bedroom.

╱/(◕‿‿◕)\╲

"..."

The moment she entered the bedroom, she looked up and met the eyes of a Bai cat sitting on the bed.

"Waaah!"

Zhou Mo was startled by the creature that had appeared out of nowhere. She staggered backward several steps and nearly fell flat on her butt.

Steadying herself, she took a closer look. The Bai cat had crimson eyes. Though it looked like an ordinary cat, there were strange red markings on its back.

Unable to tell what breed it was, Zhou Mo observed the strange Bai cat. The cat tilted its head and looked back at her, and for some reason, its gaze carried a hint of scrutiny.

"Young lady, enormous magical power lies dormant within you, meow."

Zhou Mo's eyes widened as she looked around.

Who had just spoken?

"What are you looking at? Look over here, meow."

Only then did Zhou Mo follow the voice and realize the cat was still staring at her.

"Was that you talking? You... what are you?"

She asked tentatively.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Rabi, and I'm from Zohar, a talent agency whose main business is cultivating Magical Girl idols."

The Bai cat began introducing itself.

"?"

Perhaps the things she had witnessed today had already surpassed her understanding too much. Even facing a talking cat now did not feel particularly world-shattering.

She had seen Magical Girls in anime, and she understood idols, but she did not understand what the two had to do with each other.

"Magical Girls are the guardians of this city, symbols of hope, dedicated to fighting monsters corrupted by the Abyss. What you saw today was exactly that."

As if it had read her mind, the Bai cat calling itself Rabi explained.

"Most importantly, Magical Girls can create immense commercial value for the company as idols."

"..."

"So, how about becoming a Magical Girl, meow?"

Zhou Mo could not help saying,

"Wait a second. Magical Girls are supposed to be girls, right? No matter how you look at me, I'm just an ordinary male high school student!"

Rabi sighed in a humanlike manner, closed its eyes, shook its head, and said,

"Talent does not lie. There is no rule stating that male humans cannot transform into Magical Girls."

"...I think the real question is why humans can become Magical Girls at all."

"Let me verify it for you."

Without explaining further, two red Rings of light burst from Rabi's eyes, instantly illuminating the room.

Zhou Mo instinctively raised a hand in front of her face. When the light faded, she looked at the Bai cat in confusion and found that nothing seemed to have changed.

"There's a mirror on the wardrobe."

Rabi's tail stood upright, pointing at the wardrobe beside them.

Zhou Mo blinked, not understanding what it meant for a moment, but she still walked over.

However, when she reached the mirror on the wardrobe—

A petite girl, or rather, a petite creature, stood within the mirror.

Her silver-Bai hair cascaded to her waist, her face flawless and delicate enough to seem breakable at a touch. Her pale blue eyes seemed to hold starlight within them.

She wore a blue-and-Bai dress, with Bai thigh-high stockings on her legs, making her look exceptionally cute and pure.

It was Zhou Mo's first time seeing such a beautiful girl, and she could not help staring blankly.

Cute. Want to marry her.

But why was this girl inside the mirror? Where was she?

Zhou Mo moved, and the girl in the mirror moved as well. She reached out to touch the mirror, and the girl opposite her extended her hand at the same time. Their palms faced each other, pressing against the mirror together.

The girl froze.

"...Huh?"