Chen Qianqian Was Kidnapped

Two days after the concert, Chen Qianqian grew quieter.

In class, she often stared at Yang Chen's back, her expression unreadable.

Yang Chen was hiding something from her.

For days, she had been torn over whether to ask him about it.

If she didn't ask, she couldn't put her mind at ease. It felt as though a barrier stood between them.

But if she did, she might touch a painful nerve.

The image of Yang Chen charging toward the Fallen Beast in the park kept flashing through her mind.

So did the look on his face when he left the concert.

What exactly was he hiding?

She had considered all kinds of possibilities.

Had he gotten into trouble somewhere? Was someone harassing him? Or... was he sick and didn't want anyone to know?

Every possibility made her heart sink a little further.

"Qianqian? Are you feeling unwell?"

At the front of the classroom, the teacher had noticed that Chen Qianqian looked pale.

Chen Qianqian couldn't focus on class anyway, so she took the chance to ask for leave and go home.

Her mom and dad were home today. She would ask them what she should do.

Yang Chen watched Chen Qianqian leave, worry in his eyes too. But when he offered to take her home, she turned him down.

At four in the afternoon, the sun was shining.

There weren't many people on the street at that hour.

As Chen Qianqian walked, she thought about how to tell her parents about Yang Chen.

She was so absorbed that she failed to notice the gray van fifty meters behind her. It had followed her around a second corner.

The van's side door slid open. A towel with a sickly sweet smell clamped over her mouth and nose from behind.

"Mmph—!!"

The sudden attack threw Chen Qianqian into a panic.

She struggled with all her strength, but she couldn't overpower an adult. In the end, she was dragged into the van, and the phone slipped from her pocket and struck the ground with a heavy thud.

As the school day drew to a close, Yang Chen's phone suddenly buzzed.

He thought Chen Qianqian had sent him a message, but when he checked, he found a text from an unfamiliar number.

Who was this?

Puzzled, Yang Chen opened the message.

But the moment he saw what it contained, his fingers clenched around his pen and snapped it in two.

It was a photograph.

In the photo, Chen Qianqian was tied to a chair, her hands bound behind her back and tape over her mouth. Her head hung low, and she was unconscious. Behind her stood a mottled concrete wall.

Chen Qianqian had been captured!?

Without a moment's hesitation, Yang Chen stood, told the teacher he needed to leave, and ran out of the classroom without waiting for an answer.

I let my guard down... How could I let my guard down about this?

Actually, after becoming a Magical Girl, Yang Chen had put a safeguard on Chen Qianqian.

He could sense whenever a Fallen Beast appeared near her.

But he had never imagined that the Liberation Faction would target her!

If they captured Chen Qianqian with their bare hands, the alarm wouldn't trigger at all.

Why? Why Chen Qianqian?

Had they discovered my identity? But that shouldn't be possible...

Yang Chen turned into a secluded alley.

He could vaguely sense that Chen Qianqian hadn't been hurt, but what if something happened?

Ding~

Just as he was about to transform, his phone rang again.

"Mr. Yang, our helpful citizen."

"The way you stood in front of that Fallen Beast at the park was positively dazzling."

"We've been watching you for a long time. Someone like you, with a heart full of light—"

"When you fall into despair, the darkness that bursts out is the sweetest, the richest."

"Come alone. The address is below. Don't call the police. Don't tell the Association—you know we're watching."

"Before sunset. After that, the offer's off."

"...The Liberation Faction."

So my identity hadn't been exposed...

The Liberation Faction seemed to want to drive someone as devoted to justice as him into despair so they could draw out negative energy...

The smugness in their words made Yang Chen grit his teeth so hard they nearly cracked.

So what if they're watching? Once I transform, I can reach Chen Qianqian in an instant.

I'm Dawn Rank. As if I'd let them threaten me.

But as hair loosened by his frantic run drifted across his eyes, a thought suddenly came to Yang Chen, as though planted there by a ghost.

A cold idea rose to the surface.

—This is an opportunity.

He froze. Then a wave of self-loathing seized him. What am I thinking at a time like this?!

But the thought didn't go away. It lay before him, cold and clear.

He could hide the changes to his body less and less with each passing day.

Lately, when he looked in the mirror each morning, he could barely recognize the "boy" staring back.

He could cut his hair and hide his features behind his bangs, but he couldn't conceal the change that seemed to come from his very bones.

A couple of days ago, a supermarket cashier had taken one look at him and said, "Miss, you can pay over here."

How much longer could he hide it?

A month? Half a month? Or just a few days?

Sooner or later, the identity of "Yang Chen" would vanish entirely as he continued to change.

How would he explain it then?

No one would believe that a man could transform into a Magical Girl... So many things happened across the world every day. Why would he be the only one this happened to?

Even Chen Qianqian and her parents might think that a kind Magical Girl was only telling them a comforting lie after his "death."

Rather than let that happen, he might as well say a proper goodbye...

He could use what happened tonight as his chance.

In the west of the city stood an abandoned cold-storage warehouse.

As the sun sank behind the buildings, Yang Chen stood before its rust-streaked iron door.

He adjusted the brim of his cap one last time.

Then he raised a hand and pushed the door open.

"I'm here."

The boy's voice echoed through the cavernous warehouse, stirring up a cloud of dust.

"Let her go."

Behind him, the iron door slowly swung shut.