The Peak

The day of Knight's concert.

By six in the morning, a long line had already formed outside the Stadium.

All 2,400 cameras were online. Drone formations cruised silently beneath the clouds, security gates stood in a row, and every item brought inside had to pass three inspections.

In the command room, Old Wei sat at the center, more than a dozen screens before him showing live feeds from every corner of the Stadium, inside and out.

"East sector clear."

Celestial Star stood atop the roof. With a sweep of her gaze, she took in everything happening in the east sector.

"West sector clear."

Ranger was stretching.

"Underground utility network clear."

The report came from a member of the Action Team.

Masked Heroine stood on the light tower at the Stadium's highest point, her cape snapping in the wind as she looked down at the crowd gathering below.

"Everyone." She pressed her comm. "The whole city is watching us today. Stay sharp."

"Understood!"

The leaders posted throughout the venue answered as one, their morale high.

The Branch Director was on edge, too.

If this worked, Our City's economy would get a tremendous boost.

But if it failed...

He did not dare think about it.

At ten in the morning, the audience began entering.

"Yang Chen, hurry, hurry, hurry!"

Chen Qianqian tugged on Yang Chen's sleeve and jogged through security, excitement practically spilling off her face.

"Slow down... Our seats aren't going anywhere..."

Yang Chen stumbled along behind her, looking utterly defeated.

He wore a baseball cap today, its brim pulled low.

Not to play Jiahao, but to hide his face.

He had spent half the previous night studying himself in the mirror and concluded that almost no one would take him for a boy at first glance anymore.

Perhaps because of the cap, though, the moment he stepped inside, he felt someone scrutinizing him.

Yang Chen looked up.

It was Celestial Star.

Celestial Star recognized Yang Chen and looked away.

She's taking this seriously... Now I'm getting nervous, too.

Under the Association's direction, the audience filed in orderly fashion until all eighty thousand seats were filled.

Silver glow sticks formed a rolling sea. Cheers and screams mingled, making the ground beneath his feet hum.

"Waaaah!" Chen Qianqian covered her ears and shrieked. "There are so many people! This is incredible!"

Yang Chen looked up, too.

Then the defeated look on his face froze for a moment.

The joy, anticipation, and love of eighty thousand people were like eighty thousand tiny lights, gathering above that sea into a breathtaking glow.

To his senses, that "light" was so warm it almost made him want to cry.

If not for the faint traces of cold hidden deep within it.

Yang Chen's pupils contracted slightly.

They're here.

They really came.

But where?

He glanced around without drawing attention to himself. Amid the roar of voices and shifting light, those traces of malice slipped away like eels. The instant he touched them, they dissolved into the crowd.

"Yang Chen! Our seats!"

Chen Qianqian's voice pulled him back.

Front row, almost dead center. The view could not have been better.

Yang Chen sat down. To his left was Chen Qianqian, her face flushed with excitement. A few seats to his right—his gaze swept over, then paused.

A rosy-cheeked middle-aged woman was carefully straightening a glow stick. Her ticket stub was pinned neatly to her chest, and she looked as solemn as if she were attending a ceremony.

Several Association security officers stood beside her, evidently there for her protection.

Knight's mother.

Yang Chen recognized her and hurriedly looked away, pulling his cap even lower.

She can't recognize me... In theory, she's only met Love, not Yang Chen, but what if she does?

"Ladies and gentlemen," the announcement began, "the show will start in thirty minutes."

Another tidal wave of cheers rose.

Backstage.

Knight stood motionless at the entrance to the stage.

She had changed into her costume. Her silver light armor had been adapted for the stage, and the shield crest on her shoulder plate gleamed coldly beneath the wing lights.

Her cape hung perfectly still behind her.

Today, she looked more radiant than ever.

But there was not the slightest curve to her lips.

She was steeling herself.

She would be onstage soon.

Waiting for her were eighty thousand eager spectators, along with countless citizens watching the livestream.

They had come with expectations of her.

They wanted to see a dazzling Knight.

Then there was Old Wei's warning.

No matter what happened, she could not leave the stage unless things truly spiraled out of control.

Whatever danger her companions faced, she had to stay onstage... And staying there was not enough. She had to appear calm and keep performing flawlessly.

"Knight!" the stage manager called. "Thirty seconds!"

Knight took a deep breath and straightened her back.

"Ten, nine, eight—"

Every light in the venue went out at once.

In that same second, the cheers of eighty thousand people became a single, synchronized chant:

"Knight! Knight! Knight!"

"Three, two, one—"

"Knight, you're on!"

The spotlights blazed to life.

A silver figure shot up from the lift. Before eighty thousand watching eyes, she leaped into the air and turned—

Her cape whipped around.

The arc she had practiced for three whole weeks, forty times and then forty more, carved a fierce, dazzling streak of silver above the Stadium. Like a sword drawn from its sheath, it split the entire night.

She landed.

In that instant, raw power and stage presence came together perfectly.

"ROOOAR!!"

The roar of eighty thousand people nearly tore the roof off the Stadium.

The sea of glow sticks churned wildly. Comments flooded the livestream at an explosive rate. In the command room, Old Wei watched the emotion-monitoring graph shoot to its peak, his palms slick with sweat.

Knight stood at the very center of the light and raised her head.

She saw her.

Front row, dead center: the woman holding her glow stick high, tears shining in the corners of her eyes.

Their eyes met.

Her mother gave her a thumbs-up.

Knight's eyes grew hot. Then she smiled and tightened her grip on the sword-shaped microphone.

"Hello, everyone."

Her voice carried through the speakers, across the Stadium, throughout the city, and into every glowing screen.

"I'm Magical Girl Knight."

"Tonight—"

"Let's have a great time together!"

For the third time, the crowd's roar surged skyward.

The excitement reached its peak.

And beneath the Stadium, in an unseen corner, a row of black indicator lights silently changed from red to green.