First Training

Fu You gave up on lecturing her. Gripping her staff in one hand, she darted forward and rushed in front of Huali, sweeping the long staff horizontally.

Huali could see the unusual seriousness in Fu You's eyes, and she could also see that Fu You had no intention of holding back. As the long staff swung, it battered the air hard enough to produce a fierce howl.

Huali's staff was very short, only as long as her forearm. Compared to Fu You's long staff, calling such a tiny wand loli-sized would have been generous.

Huali had wanted to block with her wand, but then she wondered whether her little wand would break if that long staff hit it. So she withdrew her hand, intending to twist away from Fu You's attack range.

But how could Fu You let her dodge so easily? When the first swing missed, she immediately adjusted her stance, spun with the momentum of the swing, and brought the long staff down in a powerful chop.

The tip of the staff seemed to have been designed with a ring-shaped structure to protect the gemstone. It struck Huali squarely on the head.

Though the staff looked as if it were made of wood, when it truly hit her, it rang out like metal.

"Thud!!!!!!!!"

"Urgh...!"

Huali cried out miserably. Her legs gave way, and she collapsed onto the ground.

When that staff came down on her head, Huali felt as if she had been walking down the street when a roll of steel suddenly flew out from nowhere and landed squarely on top of her head.

If she had not been a magical girl, she would have been flattened into a card by now, right?

For an instant, she even had the illusion that the enormous magical girl standee on the first floor of Magical Girls' Apartment had been beaten into shape by this very staff.

Her head had taken such a severe blow that her vision blurred, while a violent ringing filled her ears.

She quickly cast a Healing Spell on herself, and only then did she gradually recover.

Fu You spun the long staff around in her hand, walked up to Huali, and unceremoniously pointed its tip at her again.

"Get up."

The way she held her staff made her look less like a mage and more like a warrior wielding a spear, staring down an enemy.

Fu You was small and possessed an indescribable cuteness, but after taking that blow, Huali understood that Fu You truly had not treated her as some helpless newcomer. She had not even treated her like a person.

If she got hit two more times, she really would die.

She staggered to her feet.

Though the Healing Spell had healed her injuries, it had not eased the pain.

Fu You did not give her much time to catch her breath. She stepped forward again, raising her staff and bringing it down in a straight vertical chop.

This time, Huali did not try to take it head-on. Though her legs still felt weak, she managed to leap a large step backward and evade the strike.

Fu You's staff smashed into the ground, pulverizing the pebbles beneath it.

Huali swallowed nervously.

That was the kind of force that had hit her head just now? This senior had been trying to kill her, hadn't she?

If she had not been a magical girl, she definitely would have died from that first strike, right?

She was utterly stunned, but Fu You gave her little time to think.

After missing again, Fu You spun once more. Her golden hair whirled with her body as the long staff traced a complete circle before sweeping toward Huali again.

Huali backed away and dodged again.

Then Fu You began attacking in a steady rhythm—horizontal sweeps, vertical chops, thrusts, upward strikes, and downward smashes.

None of her movements were fast, but neither did they leave Huali much time to think.

Though Fu You did not reveal the slightest expression, she felt a little more approval for this young magical girl.

After being hit by her, Huali had not cried or thrown a fit. Nor had she hesitated. She had quickly entered a fighting state.

That was what a magical girl should be like.

For Huali, who had absolutely no combat experience, simply keeping up with Fu You's movements was already difficult enough. Dodging the attacks required her to give it everything she had.

Still, her body was flexible enough. A magical girl's body naturally possessed excellent flexibility, allowing her to perform many movements that ordinary people simply could not. Even when Fu You attacked from extremely tricky angles, Huali could always twist herself into positions that normal people would struggle to achieve and evade Fu You's attacks.

For example, bending backward one hundred and eighty degrees was already an action that ordinary people could hardly manage.

But because she had no actual combat experience, even with such powerful physical abilities, she could not make proper use of them.

After exchanging several rounds with Fu You, she finally found a few tricks to using her body. Gradually, she began to move more naturally. Jumping, shifting, weaving, dodging—every movement became smoother and smoother.

Though the giant staff hit her twice along the way, her Healing Spell allowed her to recover quickly. And since she had tried to evade each time, even when she was hit, they were mostly just grazing wounds.

As she gradually grew familiar with Fu You's movements, Huali began to feel as if everything before her was a game. Fu You, the boss, possessed terrifying attack power, but her windups were obvious and her movements broad and open, making it easy to tell what kind of attack was coming.

Once she knew which direction the next attack would come from, dodging became much easier.

As she grew more proficient at evading, her confidence gradually rose as well.

She noticed that every time Fu You smashed downward, the long staff striking the ground would slow her down for a moment. That pause happened to be Huali's chance to strike back.

With that thought in mind, she began looking for an opportunity. Finally, after Fu You launched another downward smash, Huali slipped sideways past it and simultaneously brought her little pink wand down hard on Fu You's head.

The force of that strike flattened the bow atop Fu You's head for an instant, and Huali could vaguely hear a soft "puchi."

Fu You stopped moving after being struck, while Huali panted heavily.

The staff in Fu You's hand vanished. Then she knocked aside Huali's wand and adjusted the bow on top of her head, pinching it back into place.

"You pass for today," Fu You said.

"What happens if I don't pass?" Huali was still gasping for breath.

"Don't pass? I don't know. You might die, I suppose," Fu You said.

"Hey?! You don't have to make it sound so terrifying, do you?!"

"Hmph."

"Also... Senior, aren't you a magic-type magical girl? Why are you so strong?"

"Who told you I was magic-type?"

"Your staff is huge! Anyone can tell you're magic-type!"

"Having a staff automatically makes me magic-type?" As Fu You spoke, she summoned her staff again.

This time, she spun the enormous staff around in her hand like Sun Wukong twirling a cudgel. Then, holding it in one hand, she viciously smashed its tip into the ground.

The instant the staff hit the ground, Huali would have sworn she saw a flash of lightning.

The staff cut through the air and struck the ground with a sound like thunder cracking.

The movement was so fast that Huali did not even see when the staff had landed. By the time she realized it had struck the pebbles on the ground, all that remained was a black crater, with a faint red glow still lingering around the edges of the stones.

Huali swallowed nervously.

So the strike that had hit her head earlier had already been a heavily restrained attack from her senior.

Fu You made the staff disappear again.

"No matter why or for what purpose you became a magical girl, you must first understand that a magical girl's fate is to fight."

"...Aren't magical girls meant to stand for love and justice?"

"But the means by which magical girls uphold love and justice has always been violence."

"...I understand."

"That's enough for today. Tomorrow afternoon, after class, meet me at the convenience store across from Magical Girls' Apartment."

"Mm, okay!"

That single attack against the floor was enough for Huali to understand just how extraordinary her senior was.

A magical girl's staff could actually be used as a melee weapon? She had never heard of such a thing.

—Wait, was that really a staff? Maybe it was just a hammer that looked like one?