Magical Girl Molis

In a deserted corner some distance away, Rabi watched the battle between Zhou Mo and the Monster.

Beside it, a spherical camera drone hovered in the air, recording everything on the battlefield.

As it watched, Rabi suddenly spoke.

"Did you cause the Monster's abnormality?"

"Zola."

At the mention of that name, Rabi's crimson eyes glanced toward an empty patch of ground.

Before long, a Xiao Qiao figure suddenly appeared on the seemingly empty ground.

It was a black cat with green vertical pupils and equally mysterious red markings on its back.

"Is this the magical girl you chose? She could crush a Surface Tier Monster in her very first battle. Her potential is terrifying."

The black cat called Zola licked its paw and spoke in human words as well.

"To find such promising talent, you truly live up to being the company's former gold-medal manager."

"You still haven't answered my question."

The Bai cat Rabi turned its head, its crimson pupils staring straight at it.

"Well, of course I wanted to add a few twists to the battle. Magical girl idols need eye-catching fights to draw more attention, don't they?"

Rabi merely reminded it calmly:

"You know we cannot interfere with magical girls' battles."

The black cat licked its paw, utterly unconcerned.

"Of course. We can't interfere 'directly.'"

Its dark green vertical pupils turned toward the Monster.

"That Monster only came into contact with the Abyss recently. It still had room to grow. I merely drew out all its potential."

"Still, it's a shame we didn't get to see the magical girl lose against those tentacles. That would have stirred up the audience's emotions even more."

"Zola."

As the black cat spoke, Rabi beside it suddenly turned to look at it and cut it off.

"What is it?"

The black cat Zola turned back and met Rabi's gaze.

"The Abyss is our enemy."

"I know."

"..."

Rabi silently watched it for a long time before finally looking away.

"There won't be a next time."

Seeing Rabi's attitude, Zola tilted its head, a trace of curiosity appearing on its face.

"What a surprise. The gold-medal manager who raised the Ten Great Magical Girls and was famous for being radical actually cares about magical girls' safety. That doesn't suit your style."

Faced with the question, Rabi said nothing more and merely watched Zhou Mo in the distance.

Zhou Mo held up her spear with one hand, then lowered it moments later, the spearhead striking the ground.

She shook her wrist and muttered a complaint.

"So heavy..."

She hadn't expected that even with her current strength, wielding the spear one-handed would still be a little difficult.

"Forget it. Let's end this quickly."

Zhou Mo gripped the spear with both hands, her tone relaxed.

Ahead of her, the Monster had recovered from the pain, and its severed tentacles had regrown.

"Don't underestimate me!"

It roared, and every tentacle on its back lunged at Zhou Mo.

Facing the tentacles attacking from every direction, Zhou Mo no longer dodged. She simply spun her spear a few times, precisely and efficiently severing every tentacle.

A cold glint flashed past, and her figure appeared before the Monster.

Pfft!

Before the Monster could even scream, the Moonlight Spear had pierced through its chest.

The Monster staggered back several steps. Staring at the gaping hole in its chest, it continued to mutter.

"No, I haven't collected all the panties in the world yet. I can't fall here..."

Black mist surged around its body once more, and the wound in its chest slowly healed at a visible pace as black mist particles filled it in.

Zhou Mo narrowed her eyes slightly.

"What powerful regeneration."

She immediately shut her eyes, raised the spear before her, and let pale blue magic power sweep over her body. Her silver hair fluttered in the air, countless motes of light rising upward as the spear blade lit up as well.

Once the pale blue radiance condensed at the spear tip, Zhou Mo opened her eyes. Grasping the shaft with both hands, one before the other, she lowered the spear tip to an extremely low position and thrust directly at the recovering Monster.

"Moonstream Radiance."

As the magical technique activated, Zhou Mo turned into a streak of light and instantly pierced through the Monster's body. Her figure then appeared behind it, while the Monster froze in place.

The next moment, countless cutting rays completely engulfed the Monster, slicing through the air and its body alike.

The Monster trembled and glanced back at the girl behind it. Its body cracked apart inch by inch, then with a bang, turned into countless particles of light that gradually faded away.

As the Monster was destroyed, the surrounding pedestrians erupted into cheers once more.

"Good! That's what a magical girl should be like!"

Amid the cheering, however, the crowd carried not only relief at surviving the disaster, but also a faint sense of anticipation.

On the battlefield, Zhou Mo put away her spear and let out a relieved breath.

"It's finally over."

Yet just as the Monster dissipated, Zhou Mo's body stiffened, and an inexplicable emotion surged into her heart...

"Why? Why can't my preferences be accepted?"

For some reason, Zhou Mo seemed to hear the Monster's dying words.

"People's preferences are free. Some people like black stockings, some like Bai stockings. Everyone can understand each other's preferences. Why is it only me? Why am I the only one who gets hurt? No one can understand me! That's why I became a Monster. I'll use my fists to make everyone accept my preferences."

"What do you like?"

Zhou Mo questioned it in her heart.

"I like panties. Preferably ones worn by little girls."

"Isn't that just a freaking pervert?!"

Zhou Mo could not help blurting out a complaint, her fist clenching again.

"What the hell? Is this haunted or something?"

She muttered, shaking her head in an attempt to suppress the sudden emotion.

After finally calming herself down, she looked up again and saw the crowd around her staring at her expectantly. A sudden sense of foreboding rose in her heart.

"W-What is it?"

Zhou Mo instinctively took a step back, feeling as though something bad was about to happen.

Before she could think any further, a dazzling blue-and-Bai light suddenly erupted beneath her feet, blocking out all sight.

When Zhou Mo opened her eyes again, the scene before her left her standing there in a daze.

In the plaza outside the supermarket, an open-air stage had risen from the ground, and she stood in its center.

Countless stage lights shone down onto her dumbfounded pretty face.

Below was a restless, excited crowd of all ages, every one of them holding two glow sticks that emitted a pale blue light.

"Gasp..."

Based on yesterday's experience, Zhou Mo quickly realized what situation she was in.

She sucked in a breath. Faced with the people surrounding both her and the stage, Zhou Mo found them more terrifying and frightening than a billion murderers.

"A magical girl's victory idol stage appears after she defeats a Monster."

Rabi's voice rang out in Zhou Mo's mind again.

"This is your debut battle as a magical girl, so make sure you put on a good show."

After saying that, Rabi's voice disappeared again.

"So this is what a debut battle meant?!"

Zhou Mo was stunned.

She sighed helplessly and looked at the audience below the stage, considering what she could perform.

Singing? She couldn't. She had barely listened to any songs.

Dancing? She couldn't. She only knew how to do radio calisthenics.

After thinking for a long time...

"Hahaha, I can't do anything."

She completely gave up.

Zhou Mo stood at attention on the stage.

The audience below went from cheering, to whispering among themselves, to eventually falling into a tacit silence.

"Top Tier idol stage girl Guang Lian's brand-new stage performance is about to begin."

Apart from the advertisement playing on the screen outside the mall, there was no other movement.

"The performance failed, huh."

Inside the room, Rabi sat on the bed and spoke with an insufferably smug expression.

Zhou Mo lay on the bed with lifeless eyes, completely ignoring Rabi's words.

Rabi blinked and sauntered up to her.

"I think you should have a lot of questions."

Hearing that, Zhou Mo finally turned her head and climbed out of bed.

She sighed before finally speaking.

"Explain it. About magical girls, about the stage. What was that power I gained from the stage?"

Not long ago, while she had been standing on the stage like she was being punished, she had felt threads of unknown energy flowing into her body.

It was not enormous, but it was endless.

As the power entered her body, the magic power within her was completely replenished, and she even felt herself become a little stronger.

Looking at the serious Zhou Mo before it, Rabi fell silent for a while before slowly speaking.

"Magical girls are those who form contracts with fairies like us and gain magical power. Since ancient times, they have taken fighting the Abyss as their duty."

"In fact, everyone has magical potential. However, magic power comes from human emotions, and changes in the emotions of the human heart can be converted into tremendous energy capable of overturning the laws of reality.

"Among humans, the emotions of adolescent girls are the purest and richest. That is why we chose girls as our contract partners."

"As for the Abyss, you are not at a level where you can learn more about it yet. You only need to know that it is our enemy."

Rabi's explanation of magical girls sounded rather traditional, and Zhou Mo had no trouble understanding it. However, she still had a question.

"I see. Since everyone has magical potential, why did I, a guy, become a girl? Couldn't my gender stay the same?"

"You're right, but could you still be called a magical girl then?"

"Then why does it have to be magical girls?!"

Zhou Mo complained in frustration.

She sighed helplessly and continued asking.

"So what does this have to do with becoming an idol? Why did I gain magic power on stage?"

Rabi continued its explanation.

"Besides girls, there is another group in the new era whose emotions are equally pure. That is, otaku!"

"?"

Zhou Mo slowly produced a question mark.

Rabi straightened up in a very human-like manner and spread its two paws.

"Otaku possess emotions just as pure as adolescent girls. But unlike girls, whose emotions tend to be more closed-off and delicate, they are very skilled at placing those emotions onto other things. Anime, games, novels, and idols are all projections of their emotions."

"Thanks to the development of the internet, the idol otaku community has gradually expanded. If their emotions could be placed on magical girls, magical girls might be able to use that emotional energy to increase their own power.

"So Zohar Company developed the Discrete Emotional Energy Collection and Conversion Device, gathering the emotions idol otaku project onto magical girl idols and injecting them into the magical girls' bodies."

"And so, magical girl idols of the new era were born."

"..."

After hearing Rabi's explanation, Zhou Mo immediately understood.

"So the mysterious power that suddenly poured into me on stage earlier was the emotional energy of the people there..."

"But there aren't that many idol otaku, are there? Shouldn't most of the people there have been normal people?"

"Anyone who develops feelings for an idol is an idol otaku."

"...Fine. If you say so."

At last, she asked a question she had wanted to ask all along.

"One more question. Before coming to Cloud City, why had I never seen any information related to magical girls online?"

Zhou Mo had been puzzled by this ever since yesterday. It was as though magical girls had suddenly appeared only after she came to Cloud City. She had even wondered whether she had been transported to another world.

After hearing the question, Rabi lowered its paws, tilted its head, blinked, and put on an adorable expression before speaking.

"...Naturally, it's an information cocoon. If you've never come into contact with such things, you naturally won't see them online."

"Is that so?"

"That's so."

After saying that, Rabi offered no further explanation.

A moment later, it changed the subject again.

"Oh, right. There's one more thing."

Rabi held up a phone with its tail. Displayed on it was an account on the Weibo social media platform.

"Magical Girl Molis."

"This is the magical girl name I registered for you. From now on, you'll carry out idol activities as Magical Girl Molis."

"...Huh?"