Magical Girls' Apartment

Fu You returned to his room and undid his transformation.

As darkness surged up and receded, he became a boy again.

Having met the Abyss Witch, he had completed half of today's itinerary.

He told the Abyss Witch to come again tomorrow for two reasons. First, to meet this month's quota. Second, to let the pink-haired rookie magical girl he had yet to meet witness the cruelty of battle—

For a rookie's first battle to be against the Abyss Witch, she would surely gain invaluable experience, right? More importantly, this would let him take care of both matters at once. No matter how he looked at it, it was a worthwhile deal.

New magical girls always had far too many fantasies. Most girls of fifteen or sixteen had yet to grow up mentally. They did not understand the cruelty of battle and thought everything was still just make-believe.

Magical girls were often dressed beautifully—cute, elegant, or lovely—as though their existence was meant to show the world what beauty was.

But no matter how pretty they dressed, it would not make them stronger. To defeat their enemies, they ultimately had to fight. And fighting meant getting hurt and dying.

She disliked most magical girls.

Magical girls who went onto the battlefield still worrying about whether they had exposed themselves or whether they looked pretty enough would be better off dying sooner rather than later.

Would the magical girl she was going to meet be one of those types as well? After all, pink magical girls were usually quite naive.

Still, he had grown used to things not going his way. After all, if everything in this world went according to his wishes, it would have exploded long ago.

Training rookies was not some remarkable task, either. To repay the debts he owed, there was no reason to refuse this kind of work.

He took out the card and glanced at it again, and an inexplicable irritation rose in his heart.

Pink hair.

That color made him sick from the bottom of his heart.

Just thinking of that same hair color as the Dark Witch's made his whole body uncomfortable.

The Dark Witch, Jiang Ke'an.

She was a complete and utter pervert.

Whenever he recalled what he had experienced with her, goosebumps rose all over his body.

If he had remained a magical girl all along, then according to the script, the Dark Witch Jiang Ke'an should have been the final and most terrifying enemy of his magical-girl career.

He should have fought with everything he had to defeat the Dark Witch. If he lost, he would die at her hands. If he won, he could enjoy the highest treatment afforded to magical girls: retire, find a good man to marry, then have a daughter and let her become a magical girl of the next generation.

But his script had gone slightly off course. Not only had he failed to defeat the Dark Witch, he had even fallen into corruption and become a witch.

But that was all in the past. Now, he was merely an ordinary professional magical girl who fought to make a living.

After tidying up his appearance in the mirror, he headed for school.

Even though the battle had happened not long ago, news of the Abyss Witch had already spread through the campus.

The witch who had been silent for two years had appeared again. It should have made people uneasy, yet here, it had become a hot topic of conversation.

"Have you heard? The Abyss Witch has come back to life! There's a video online. It's blurry as hell, but those black stockings, that pale skin... damn..."

"Wasn't she supposed to be terrifying? Why are you talking about her like some newly debuted idol?"

"What do you know? That sickly beauty, that amazing figure—look at those thick thighs, and those huge breasts! Damn, you people who only like pale, petite, skinny girls could never understand how wonderful she is!"

"I only care whether magical girls' clothes get damaged in battle..."

Fu You lay sprawled over his desk and ignored them.

These people...

They would be better off destroyed.

He had always been a loner in class. He had no interest in these childish kids.

As an adult, there was no need to lower himself to their level.

He drifted through the day until night fell. Then it was time to go to the Magical Girls' Apartment.

The Magical Girls' Apartment was a benefit specially provided by the Special Incident Response Department for magical girls. Every magical girl could apply for a room there.

The Magical Girls' Apartment was very close to the school, less than a hundred meters to the right after leaving the school gates.

The apartment building was not large, only five stories tall, with eight rooms on each floor. At full capacity, it could house only forty magical girls.

But that was more than enough. Only magical girls from the Jiangyang High-Tech Zone lived here. Jiangyang City as a whole had over a hundred magical girls divided among five major districts. Naturally, magical girls from the other districts had other Magical Girls' Apartments to live in. At present, only around twenty active magical girls lived in this building.

If Fu You wanted to, he could apply to live there as well. But he was not particularly willing to.

He came to a somewhat secluded corner beside the apartment building and transformed again.

As her viewpoint lowered and her body was wrapped in soft silk, she knew her transformation was complete.

A heavy mass of hair suddenly settled on her head, making her somewhat uncomfortable. She adjusted her hair, swept her gaze across several passersby staring at her, gave them a disdainful look, pursed her lips slightly, and strode toward the Magical Girls' Apartment.

He was clearly unhappy, even irritated, yet several boys nearby let out meaningless sounds of admiration.

Disgusting.

When she arrived in front of the apartment building, other magical girls were heading inside as well, since school had just ended. But she was the only one who had transformed into a magical girl.

Even if Sun Feiliu had not reminded him, he would have transformed into a magical girl before entering.

After all, this was not a place men should come to, nor was it somewhere he wanted to enter as a man.

Just as no man would walk into a women's restroom for no reason.

The Magical Girls' Apartment offered many benefits: free food, free tea, a laundry room, bathhouse, and mini clinic. Simply stepping into the first-floor lobby made one feel as though they had entered a dreamlike world.

The moment one entered, there were attractive sofas and cute plushies everywhere. Empty cups sat on the tables, with drink dispensers beside them. Usually, the first thing magical girls did after returning to the apartment was sit on the sofas and have a drink.

There were also all sorts of magical-girl merchandise here, such as life-size magical-girl standees slightly taller than Fu You, all kinds of magical-girl outfits, plush toys, models, figurines...

Magical girls were not merely warriors used to fight ferocious beasts and witches. They were also products that could be promoted and sold as idols.

She did not like this colorful world very much. Keeping her head down, she silently walked deeper into the apartment.

The apartment manager had intended to greet her, but seeing how quickly she was walking and how she kept her head lowered, did not say anything.

This place made her uncomfortable.

She did not want her footsteps to make any noise, but her gold-trimmed boots concealed height-boosting inserts. She was originally only a little over one and a half meters tall, but the lifts had forcibly brought her close to one sixty.

She was already used to the feeling of wearing heels, but she had never learned to walk quietly in them. The soft tap-tap-tap sounds along the way were still clearly audible.

A magical girl's outfit would not change according to her wishes. If she could alter it, she would definitely get rid of the bow on her chest and that huge gemstone. It seemed that the outfit knew her chest was flat enough, so it used the bow to imitate curves, making her figure unexpectedly shapely from the side.

So even if she did not like the shoes, she could only get used to them.

"She's so dark! Could she be some kind of fallen magical girl?"

"How can a magical girl be all black? She looks so fierce."

"Shh! Keep it down, she's looking this way."

The girls passing by pointed and whispered about her.

She gave them a sidelong glance without speaking. Maintaining what she considered a cool and aloof posture, she kept her head lowered and continued forward.

Not only magical girls lived here. Most magical girls were underage girls, and most had not yet reached the point where they could take care of themselves. So the apartment had always allowed magical girls to bring family members or friends to live with them and help care for them.

For magical girls whose power came from love and justice, if their lives lacked "love," their strength would decline considerably.

Room 503 was on the top floor.

She did not want to wait for the elevator, so she decided to take the stairs.

But as soon as she reached the stairwell, she heard a somewhat cutting voice—

"Isn't this Fu You?"

Above her on the stairs, a blonde girl in casual white clothes was looking down at her.

The blonde girl was dressed maturely enough that one might take her for a young homeroom teacher at first glance. Her shoulder-length golden hair was parted evenly down the middle, revealing a broad forehead. Her slightly gloomy eyes made her look as though her next words would be, "I could hear you making noise from the stairs."

But Fu You knew that the girl before her, Lin Lan, had just turned eighteen. Compared to her, she was the younger girl.

Fu You did not want to deal with her and continued upward.

Lin Lan crossed her arms and looked coldly at him.

At one sixty-five, Lin Lan seemed like an elder standing beside Fu You. Even with heels, Fu You was only one sixty tall—and that was counting the extra two centimeters from the bow atop her head tying up her twin tails.

Fu You passed by her without speaking. As he approached, the girl also shifted slightly aside, avoiding any bodily contact with Fu You.