First Encounter with a Ferocious Beast

Witches had once ruled the world, darkness shrouding the entire globe and nearly turning everyone into slaves of the dark.

Yet under the relentless battles of magical girls, witch-related threats were always eventually quelled.

The most recent great witch disaster had occurred only ten years ago.

Nowadays, witches were not particularly numerous. Many were defeated by magical girls shortly after forming. Jiangyang City's public security ranked among the best in the country, leaving witches with little room to operate.

People also knew that the young witches of Jiangyang City could not grow, largely because four witches were simply too powerful, leaving no room for other young witches to exist.

The moment other young witches showed themselves, they might be tortured to death by those four witches first.

Those four witches were—Abyss Witch, Crying Witch, Ghost-Faced Witch, and White Witch.

—Of course, that was the information known by the vast majority of ordinary people. The true dark side was something ordinary people could never know.

Take Dark Witch, for example. She was renowned throughout Witch World, yet completely unknown to ordinary people.

The reason was simple: most people who mentioned her name were dead.

"Wow! A pink magical girl I've never seen before!"

"So cute! Why is she so pink? She must be a really adorable girl, right?"

A magical girl's color was always closely linked to her personality.

Pink magical girls were relatively uncommon. In this Magical Girls' Apartment, Huali was the second pink magical girl. His arrival and adorable appearance drew countless glances from the people around him.

Huali gave the people discussing him a slight bow in apology for disturbing them, constantly searching around with his eyes for Fu You.

Only then did Fu You emerge from the shadows.

Upon seeing Fu You, Huali hurried over to his side.

"Senior!"

"You've recovered already?"

Seeing how energetic Huali was, Fu You was somewhat surprised.

The injuries Huali had suffered yesterday were now almost invisible, and he showed no trace of fatigue as he ran over.

As a healing-type magical girl, he was naturally tougher than other magical girls. Still, being able to fully recover his energy in just one day at least showed that his recovery ability surpassed that of most magical girls.

Huali clenched his fist. Beneath his white fingerless glove, the little fingernail painted with pink polish lightly pressed into his palm.

"Yeah! Are we continuing our training today? I thought about it for a long time, and I know how to fight now!" Huali said.

Fu You nodded. "Come with me. Our enemy today is Abyss Witch."

"The Witches' Society?"

"No, Abyss Witch herself."

"...Huh? I'm fighting Abyss Girl?!!!!!!!!"

She was only Abyss Witch. Was there really any need to make such a fuss?

Huali's voice was so loud that it drew startled cries from the people nearby.

Many had heard of Abyss Witch's fearsome reputation. Hearing that they were going to fight Abyss Witch, the surrounding onlookers suddenly became excited.

"Abyss Witch? Isn't she elusive and impossible to track down? Do you know where she'll appear?"

"You aren't bluffing, are you? There are only two of you going against Abyss Witch?"

"Where are you fighting? I want to go take pictures!"

Fu You's least favorite situation had occurred.

Those magical girls would feel more or less intimidated by the dark aura around him, but these ordinary people who were not afraid of trouble could not sense what the darkness on him represented. Naturally, they lacked the respect magical girls showed him.

Fu You grabbed Huali's hand and pulled him out of the crowd. Without explaining much, he kicked off with both feet and vanished from the crowd in an instant.

Huali, however, seemed to still be enjoying all the attention. He continued waving to the people around him who greeted him.

Magical girls appearing here was nothing unusual, especially since this place was right across from Magical Girls' Apartment.

"Where are we going? The opponent can't really be Abyss Witch, can she? Can we beat Abyss Witch? I only just became a magical girl, and I'm not skilled yet. I won't hold you back, will I?" Huali chattered nonstop.

It gave Fu You a headache.

This guy talked a little too much.

"Shut up."

Fu You snapped at him.

Huali immediately fell silent and said nothing more.

Sensing that Huali had suddenly become a little too quiet, Fu You grew slightly curious and glanced back at him. His expression had become much more serious.

He did not look particularly upset.

That was a good thing.

If it had been another girl, getting scolded like that by him might have already made her teary and aggrieved. Men had their advantages too. At least they were not so fragile.

Their destination was the hospital's rear courtyard.

The courtyard was huge, with no important buildings in it—only several single-story structures and a large area that had once been wasteland, now lightly developed into a place for patients to exercise and take walks.

The space was large, but the hospital was right beside it. If they accidentally damaged the hospital during a fight, they would most likely face a hefty bill, perhaps even terrifying punishment.

The Special Incident Response Department wanted magical girls to deal with the Witches' Society and ferocious beasts, yet imposed extremely strict limits on the damage magical girls caused. Fu You found that utterly unreasonable.

Magical girls' attacks did not only strike the Witches' Society. They could just as easily inflict devastating damage on buildings and ordinary people.

If they accidentally caused a collapse at a subway station or brought down one or two buildings, the punishment magical girls faced might be no less severe than that of a terrorist who blew up a building. Their magical girl status would be permanently stripped, and they would most likely spend the rest of their lives in prison. As magical girls, they might even become experimental subjects used to extract magical power—

Most magical girls did not know about those experiments.

Precisely because of such an obvious weakness, the Witches' Society could always escape through public facilities. When faced with such situations, magical girls sometimes had no choice but to watch members of the Witches' Society leave. And whenever Witches' Society members blended into a crowd, magical girls did not dare attack the crowd at all.

Magical girls' actions were restricted by others, but the Witches' Society had no such conscience. They would attack ordinary people and magical girls alike without restraint.

—Fu You found that utterly incomprehensible, though many magical girls saw nothing wrong with such rules.

Fu You had chosen the hospital's rear courtyard as their meeting place precisely because he was familiar with the Witches' Society's habits.

If a fight broke out here, Abyss Witch would have plenty of ways to escape openly, while magical girls, afraid of harming the hospital, would be forced to stop and watch her leave.

As the two neared the hospital's rear courtyard, they could already hear waves of commotion coming from within.

"It's magical girls! We're saved!"

"There's a ferocious beast inside! Hurry, go save them!!"

The panicked people fleeing the area showed Fu You and Huali the way.

Fu You was slightly startled and hesitated for a moment. Yet in that moment of hesitation, Huali rushed ahead of him instead.

Moving against the flow of the crowd, the two quickly charged into the hospital's rear courtyard.

"Caw, caw, caw, caw! Human flesh! Delicious!!"