Training, Heart-to-Heart Talk, and a Promise

"Your posture is wrong here. Raise your arm a little higher like this. Again."

At dusk, at an abandoned construction site with no one around, Xia Ya pointed out the mistakes in Zhou Mo's movements while she was in Molis form.

Starting today, Xia Ya officially began guiding Zhou Mo through idol training.

They kept practicing like that for two hours.

It was not until break time that Zhou Mo flopped down onto an I-beam nearby, looking utterly exhausted. Right now, she felt that being coached by Xia Na was even more tiring than fighting monsters.

"Here, catch."

Xia Ya handed Zhou Mo a bottle of water.

After thanking her, Zhou Mo took it, unscrewed the cap, and gulped down a large mouthful. She recovered a little.

"How are you doing? What do you think of training at this intensity?"

Sitting beside her, Xia Ya tilted her head toward Zhou Mo and asked with a hint of concern.

Zhou Mo forced a smile.

"It's fine, I guess. Maybe just a tiny bit more complicated than fighting during the day."

"I see. That's good, then."

Xia Ya smiled and nodded.

"I was worried the intensity wouldn't be enough. Since I promised to guide your idol training, I have to do my job properly."

Haha, maybe don't be quite so responsible.

Zhou Mo grumbled inwardly.

"Come to think of it, Miss Molis's account gained a lot of followers today."

Xia Ya suddenly said this, then pulled out a phone from who knew where and showed Zhou Mo the screen displaying Molis's account information.

"Look, you've already passed ten thousand followers."

"Really?" Zhou Mo looked over curiously and saw that the follower count had climbed just above ten thousand.

With more than ten thousand followers, it seemed she had escaped the bottom rung. She ought to count as an official Magical Idol now.

"That's pretty good."

Zhou Mo made a brief comment about her account, then said nothing more.

Seeing that she did not seem especially happy, Xia Ya felt a little curious. Then she said to herself:

"Back then, um... a few months ago, when I first reached ten thousand followers after becoming a magical girl, I was happy for days. I even had a proper celebration."

As she spoke, she glanced at Zhou Mo, paused, and continued:

"Miss Molis reached this point only a week after her debut. You really do have a talent for being a magical girl."

"Ahaha, really? Thanks for the compliment."

Zhou Mo scratched her head awkwardly and gave a perfunctory reply.

Of course, she understood how Xia Ya had felt back then, but she herself did not really feel anything.

In her eyes, she had only fought monsters twice, and not even half a month had passed.

She felt neither the weight of reaping rewards after hard work nor any real sense of what that string of numbers on her account meant.

She simply could not bring herself to be happy about it.

"The reward for subjugating monsters, as well as the livestream earnings, have already been transferred to your card."

Rabi's voice suddenly rang out in her mind.

[Transfer Treasure received: 24,000 yuan.]

"Awesome!"

Zhou Mo sprang to her feet, raised her arms high, and cheered loudly.

Followers were great! Followers were all my family! Whoever said they were just a string of numbers again would have a problem with me!

Seeing the magical girl before her suddenly become excited, Xia Ya, who had still been lost in her memories, froze.

Though she had no idea what had happened, seeing the other girl's joyful smile made her smile as well.

Then Xia Ya suddenly came up with a good idea and said to the still-excited Zhou Mo:

"To celebrate you reaching ten thousand followers, how about we go get something delicious together this weekend?"

"Huh?"

Zhou Mo, who had been cheering with her fist raised, immediately stiffened upon hearing that. She turned to look at the pink-haired girl who had said it.

"Th-that wouldn't be appropriate, would it?"

She hesitantly tried to refuse.

"Um, if you want to hide your real identity, you can go as a magical girl. Is that okay?"

Xia Ya continued, tilting her head as she looked at Zhou Mo with an expectant expression.

"Say yes. Say yes. Say yes."

Rabi repeated those three words over and over in Zhou Mo's mind.

Why was this fairy getting involved?

Zhou Mo felt that Rabi's sudden appearance at this moment carried some deeper meaning, but faced with the delicate and adorable pink-haired girl making such a request, she really could not bring herself to refuse.

"Then... okay."

She scratched her head and reluctantly agreed.

"Yay! It's settled, then."

This time, it was Xia Ya's turn to cheer, while Zhou Mo could only smile awkwardly beside her.

"But won't this outfit be too conspicuous?"

Zhou Mo lowered her head and looked at her magical dress. It was perfect for a magical girl, but walking down the street dressed like this would draw far too much attention.

"You can condense your magical dress into casual clothes, like this."

As Xia Ya said this, light glowed around her. Her pink-and-white ceremonial dress transformed into an ordinary pink sailor-style school uniform, with thigh-high white stockings and cool little shoes on her feet.

The moment Zhou Mo saw it, she recalled what she had looked like during her first transformation.

Thinking back, she really had seemed to be wearing another outfit then, nothing as intricate or gorgeous as what she wore now.

She tried suppressing her magic power. Once it calmed, the dress sustained by that power changed as well. After a flash of shifting light, she returned to her original simple blue-and-white dress.

Her hair remained silver-white, though. That was something she could not hide.

Looking at Zhou Mo's current appearance as an ordinary girl, Xia Ya stroked her chin and nodded slightly.

"Mm, not bad. Molis really is adorable."

"Ahem, ahem."

Zhou Mo coughed several times in succession, cutting off the other girl's words as she returned to the combat form of her magical dress.

Seeing Zhou Mo change back, Xia Ya recalled the Red Form she had displayed during the day. Only then did she remember that Har seemed to have told her something.

"Xia Ya, um, when you train tonight, ask that Molis about her other form."

That was what the pink fairy had told her at the time.

So Xia Ya asked Zhou Mo again:

"By the way, during the day, I saw that you seemed to have another form. Do you know what that was about?"

"Huh? Oh, you mean this?"

Zhou Mo froze for a moment, then understood what Xia Ya meant. With a thought, her clothes changed once more into Red Form.

Watching Zhou Mo switch forms as though she were rapidly changing outfits, Xia Ya still found it hard to believe.

"How did you do that?"

Hearing the question, Zhou Mo shrugged and replied as though it were obvious:

"It's simple. You just think about it."

"But the magical girls I know don't have other forms. They only have one magical dress."

Xia Ya explained further, then muttered quietly to herself.

"This... feels like the wrong genre..."

"Oh, is that so? Then I don't know either. I just remember that when I was planning to summon my Magic Armament, I sensed this form inside my body. I thought it was normal."

Zhou Mo raised an eyebrow and waved her hand dismissively.

Looking at Zhou Mo's Red Form, Xia Ya suddenly had an idea.

"Miss Molis, how about we have a match?"

"...Huh?"