The Association Comes Calling

That afternoon, at Chen Qianqian's home.

When the doorbell rang, Chen Zhou was stretched out on the sofa, enjoying a nap after his narrow escape.

"Coming, coming—"

He shuffled to the door in his slippers. A man and a woman stood outside. The man was around forty, with a square face and a crisp suit.

The woman was in her early twenties. She held a clipboard, and her hair was tied in a neat ponytail.

"Mr. Chen Zhou?" The square-faced man showed his ID. "Field Operations Department, Local City Branch, Magical Girl Association. My surname is Wei, and this is my colleague, Miss Lin."

Chen Zhou's drowsiness vanished in an instant.

The Association.

On Blue Star, those two words carried about as much weight as the police, fire department, and military combined.

"Oh! Please, come in!" Chen Zhou hurried aside, then called over his shoulder, "Wanwan! People from the Association are here! Make some tea!"

In the living room, Old Wei and Lin Guo sat down on the sofa.

Su Wan brought out tea. Chen Zhou sat bolt upright, his back straight as a schoolboy's.

"You're here about last night, aren't you?"

"Yes." Old Wei got straight to the point. "Mr. and Mrs. Chen, first, on behalf of the Association, I'd like to apologize. A Fallen Beast appeared in the west of the city last night, and our monitoring failed to catch it. I'm sorry you were put through that. Miss Lin will go over the compensation process with you shortly."

"Second, we'd like to learn about... the Magical Girl who saved you."

The atmosphere in the living room shifted.

Chen Zhou and Su Wan exchanged a glance.

"You don't know who she is?"

"I'm afraid not. She appears to be a Magical Girl who awakened only recently. We don't have much information about her, which is why we came to speak with you in person."

"I see..."

While they talked, Su Wan tapped at her phone, then held it out for Chen Zhou to see.

Lin Guo noticed that it appeared to be the Association's official website.

What a cautious couple...

Once they confirmed their visitors really were from the Association, Chen Zhou finally relaxed.

"That Magical Girl last night..."

"She seemed a little strange. What do young people call it these days—chuunibyou?"

"That Aberrant wanted my wife and me to kill each other, but we refused. It must have gotten angry. Black mist billowed out, and hundreds of hands lunged at us at once!"

They refused?

Fallen Beasts almost never kept their promises, but some people still did awful things for the slightest chance of surviving.

And this couple refused?

Lin Guo saw the way Su Wan looked at Chen Zhou and knew he wasn't lying. Respect flickered in her eyes.

People like them were rare...

"Just when we thought we were done for..."

"There was a boom overhead... and that Magical Girl who called herself the Pure Love Warrior appeared. I think her name was Love."

"She said something about love and protecting it, then punched the Fallen Beast."

"It all happened in a blaze of light, but I'm pretty sure the thing vaporized on the spot."

Lin Guo scribbled on her clipboard without looking up. "Mr. Chen, could you describe what the Magical Girl looked like?"

Vaporized on the spot, though? Was she really that strong?

"Pink!" Chen Zhou declared. "Very pink!"

Lin Guo's pen stopped.

"...Pink?"

"A long pink-and-white dress, like a gown, with purple trim! Long pink hair! And her eyes—" Chen Zhou pointed to his own. "Her pupils were stars! Pink stars!"

Lin Guo looked down at her clipboard, then up at Old Wei. "Brother Wei," she whispered, "there's no Magical Girl like that in the department's records..."

And how to put it...

From that description, she sounded like a more traditional Magical Girl from the early days.

Magical Girls these days all had such distinctive styles.

Old Wei's expression didn't change. He merely nodded.

"Pure Love Warrior..."

"Yes. She also said, 'I praise those who cherish pure love, and protect those who cherish pure love'... or something like that." Su Wan repeated the words carefully, a faint smile on her face. "Then she said, 'What kills you is pure love.'"

"She seemed like a sweet young girl."

The living room fell quiet for a few seconds.

Old Wei held his teacup and sank into thought.

That line... did sound a bit like something a chuunibyou kid would say.

But when someone might be a Dawn Rank powerhouse, whatever she said was right.

"Did she say anything else before she left?" Old Wei collected himself. "Any detail at all."

"She did!" Chen Zhou remembered. "She said our 'love' drew her here!"

"Drawn here by 'love'..." Old Wei repeated thoughtfully, filing it away.

Just then—

Ding-dong.

The doorbell rang again.

"Who could that be at this hour..." Chen Zhou muttered as he went to answer it.

Yang Chen stood outside with a toolbox in hand, smiling.

"Uncle, I came to return your toolbox!"

Halfway through, he spotted the two people in the living room.

The suit. The clipboard. The ID bearing the Association's insignia, laid out on the coffee table.

The smile on Yang Chen's face froze for a good half second.

Then he smoothly finished his sentence.

"You have guests? I'll get out of your way! Bye, Uncle! Bye, Auntie!"

He turned to leave.

"Hey, where are you going?" Chen Zhou grabbed him by the back of his collar and hauled him inside. "Perfect timing, A Chen! These people are from the Association! They're investigating the Magical Girl who saved your aunt and me last night!"

"Huh? A Magical Girl?"

Yang Chen put on a surprised expression.

After all, "he" wasn't supposed to know that a Magical Girl had saved Chen Zhou and his wife.

"And who's this?" Old Wei glanced over.

"Our neighbor's kid, Yang Chen. I've watched him grow up." After the quick introduction, Chen Zhou turned back to Yang Chen, bursting with excitement. "A Chen, you have no idea! Your aunt and I nearly died last night! A Magical Girl saved us! She was pink, and she was incredible! She took out the monster with one punch!"

"If only back then..."

Smack!

Su Wan planted a swift, decisive hand over Chen Zhou's mouth.

Puzzled, Lin Guo looked up the relevant information...

Poor girl...

After reading Yang Chen's file, Lin Guo looked at him with a trace of pity.

"What if I told you I'm a guy?"

Lin Guo looked puzzled. Her gaze settled on Yang Chen's face, paused, then dropped to the hand resting on his knee—pale, slender, with delicate knuckles—before returning to his face.

Then she looked down at the file.

"You really are. Otherwise, I might have suspected you were Magical Girl Love."

Pfft!

Yang Chen spat out the water he had just drunk.

Feeling everyone in the room looking at her, Lin Guo realized she had been too blunt.

"Ah... well."

"I thought he was a girl. I hadn't read the file carefully... Cute girls becoming Magical Girls is common knowledge, right?"

That was true enough.

The atmosphere returned to normal.

Yang Chen could feel that cold sweat had already soaked his back.

He was drenched in it!

"What's this, a tea party?"

At that moment, Chen Qianqian finally came home. Club activities had kept her at school after classes.

Ten minutes later, the Association staff took their leave.

Old Wei left a business card and made an earnest request of Chen Zhou and Su Wan.

"If that Magical Girl appears again, please contact us immediately. The Association means her no harm. On the contrary, we'd like to offer her registration, support, and certain conveniences. Having a Magical Girl of her caliber willing to protect this city is a blessing for everyone here."

Yang Chen watched the two of them leave without a word.

Registration, support, conveniences... Honestly, it was tempting. With the Association's resources, protecting the city would be much easier, and Qianqian and the others would be safer.

But—

He looked down at his hands, prettier than a girl's.

Registration meant a physical exam.

And a physical exam meant being exposed.

A boy who had turned into a Magical Girl, whose body was still, little by little...

"No." Yang Chen spoke softly. "Not yet."

"Let me... carry this alone a little longer."

Smack!

A hand suddenly landed hard on his shoulder.

"What are you doing standing here in a daze? Don't tell me you're imagining what you'd look like as a Magical Girl?"

Yang Chen: ?