The Association Comes Calling

That afternoon, at Chen Qianqian's house.

The doorbell rang while Chen Zhou was sprawled on the sofa, enjoying a post-crisis nap.

"Coming, coming—"

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

The woman looked to be in her early twenties. She held a clipboard, her hair tied back in a neat ponytail.

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

Chen Zhou's drowsiness vanished in an instant.

The Association.

On Blue Star, those two words carried roughly the combined weight of the police, the fire department, and the military.

"Oh! Please, come in!" Chen Zhou fumbled out of the way, then called over his shoulder, "Su Wan! The people from the Association are here! Put some tea on!"

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

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

"You're here about last night, right?"

"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. Our monitoring failed, and you were put in danger. Lin Guo 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 her?"

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

So that was it...

While they talked, Su Wan tapped at her phone, then passed it to Chen Zhou.

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

What a cautious couple...

Only after confirming that their visitors really were from the Association did Chen Zhou finally relax.

"About that magical girl last night..."

"She seemed a little strange. Kind of like what young people call 'chuunibyou'?"

"That Aberrant tried to make my wife and me kill each other, but we refused. It must've gotten angry, because black mist poured out, and hundreds of hands lunged at us!"

They refused?

Fallen Beasts almost never kept their promises, but some people still did terrible things for even a chance of survival.

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.

They're remarkable people...

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

"There was a boom overhead... and this magical girl who called herself a Pure Love Warrior appeared. I think her name was Love."

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

"It was all so dazzling, but I'm pretty sure I saw that Fallen Beast vaporize on the spot."

Lin Guo scribbled on her clipboard and asked without looking up, "Mr. Chen, could you describe what the magical girl looked like?"

Vaporized on the spot, though? She's that powerful?

"Pink!" Chen Zhou said firmly. "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 at his own. "Her pupils were stars! Pink stars!"

Lin Guo glanced down at her clipboard, then up at Old Wei. "Brother Wei, there's no one like that in the department's registered magical girl files..."

And how to put it...

The description sounded like one of the more traditional magical girls from the early days.

Magical girls these days were all so distinctive.

Old Wei's expression didn't change. He gave a slight nod.

"A Pure Love Warrior..."

"Yes. She also said, 'One who sings of pure love, one who protects pure love'... something along those lines." Su Wan repeated the words slowly, a faint smile on her face. "Then she said, 'What kills you is pure love.'"

"She seemed like a very sweet young girl."

The living room fell silent for a few seconds.

Old Wei held his teacup, lost in thought.

Those lines... how should I put it? They do sound like something a chuunibyou kid would say.

But if she was a major figure who might be of Dawn Rank, whatever she said was right.

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

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

"Drawn here by 'love'..." Wei repeated thoughtfully and committed the detail to memory.

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, grinning.

"Uncle Chen, I came to return your toolbox!"

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

A suit. A clipboard. An ID bearing the Association's emblem laid out on the coffee table.

Yang Chen's smile visibly froze for half a second.

Then he finished in one smooth breath.

"Oh, you have guests? I'll head back, then! Bye, Uncle Chen! Bye, Auntie Su!"

He turned to leave.

"Hey, hey, hey! What's the rush?" Chen Zhou grabbed him by the collar and hauled him inside. "Perfect timing, Ah Chen! The Association's here! They're investigating the magical girl who saved your Auntie Su and me last night!"

"Huh? A magical girl?"

Yang Chen put on a surprised expression.

After all, "he" wasn't supposed to know that Chen Zhou and his wife had been saved by a magical girl.

"And who's this?" Old Wei asked, looking over.

"Our neighbor's kid, Yang Chen. We've watched him grow up." After a casual introduction, Chen Zhou turned excitedly back to Yang Chen. "A Chen, you have no idea! Your Auntie Su and I nearly died last night! A magical girl saved us! She was pink! Incredibly strong! She took the monster out with one punch!"

"If only back then—"

Smack!

Su Wan planted a hand firmly over Chen Zhou's mouth.

Puzzled, Lin Guo pulled up the relevant information.

Poor girl...

After reading Yang Chen's file, Lin Guo looked at him with a touch 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—fair-skinned, slender, with delicate knuckles—before returning to his face.

Then she looked down at the file.

"Oh, you really are. Otherwise, I'd have suspected you were Love, the magical girl."

Pfft!

The water someone had just drunk sprayed straight back out.

With everyone in the room looking at her, Lin Guo realized she'd been too blunt.

"Ah... well."

"I thought he was a girl. I didn't read the file carefully... And it's common knowledge that cute girls are more likely to become magical girls."

Fair enough.

The atmosphere returned to normal.

Yang Chen could feel cold sweat soaking his back.

I'm drenched!

"What's this, a tea party?"

Just then, Chen Qianqian came home from school, having stayed late for club activities.

Ten minutes later, the Association visitors said goodbye.

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. Quite the opposite—we'd like to offer her registration, support, and other assistance. Having a magical girl of her caliber willing to protect this city is a blessing for everyone here."

Yang Chen watched the two visitors leave without a word.

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

But—

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

Registration meant a physical examination.

A physical examination meant being exposed.

A boy had turned into a magical girl, and his body was changing bit by bit...

"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: ?