Magical Girl Ziwei

The violet-gold meteor made no deafening roar. When it landed, it raised a thick ring of dust that swallowed the center of the battlefield.

The Monster Hunting Bureau agents, who had closed their eyes and waited for death, felt none of the pain they had expected. The attack never came.

They opened their eyes in alarm and stared into the heart of the dust cloud.

The dust slowly cleared.

A figure stood within it.

The Monster Hunting Bureau squad captain's pupils contracted to pinpoints.

It was a... woman.

No. She was something that should not exist in this world.

She was tall, with long violet-gold hair that stirred in the night wind and firelight.

She wore no standard combat uniform, but an intricately designed violet-gold set of Magical Armor that used an outrageous lack of fabric. Black silk traced her flawless figure, while the lines of her legs showed faintly in the dark.

Her face betrayed little emotion. She looked cool and proud, and visible, dreamlike motes of magic drifted around her.

Most absurd of all, she carried a Dark Gold Giant Scythe taller than she was, and one foot rested elegantly on a crimson tentacle of the F-rank Blood Curse Species Monster.

Her extravagantly stylized appearance clashed almost unnaturally with the cruel battlefield of shattered walls and raging fires around her.

On the outside, Su Bai maintained the aloof pose he had learned from anime. Inside, he was screaming.

There's way too little fabric on this damned Magical Armor! The night wind is freezing my bare legs!

And this hovering thing! I nearly lost control when I landed. If I hadn't built up my core strength through years of physical training, I'd have fallen flat on my face in front of everyone!

"It's... an illusion!" The squad captain snapped back to his senses and roared at his team. "Keep your minds steady! It's a mental attack! High-level Monsters can unleash deadly illusions before they die!"

The agents understood at once. They bit the tips of their tongues, trying to use the pain to dispel the unreal sight before them.

How could a Demon Hunter look like that? She looked like a character straight out of some over-the-top fantasy picture book!

Exactly! How could there be a Magical Girl in the world of Demon Hunters?

"ROAR—!!!"

The F-rank Blood Curse Species whose tentacle she had pinned let out a furious, earthshaking roar.

Its enormous body rolled violently, and dozens of tentacles lashed the ground. The shockwave completely shattered an abandoned apartment building nearby that had already been falling apart.

Boom!

Chunks of reinforced concrete rained down in every direction.

"Ah!"

As the building collapsed, a short cry came from the edge of the ruins.

A girl in the uniform of Xinghai City Girls' High School lay trapped beneath a heavy load-bearing wall. It pinned her lower body, and no matter how hard she struggled, she could not move.

Deadly danger was upon her in an instant.

"Damn it!" The Monster Hunting Bureau squad captain's eyes nearly split with rage. But he and his team had already exhausted their abyssal energy. All they could do was watch as the Blood Curse Species swung a massive tentacle coated in corrosive slime down at both the trapped girl and the "illusion" in the center of the battlefield!

The attack covered both targets.

Everyone there, including the girl pinned beneath the wall, instinctively fixed their eyes on the radiant Magical Girl.

They could practically see what would happen next.

She would chant a mysterious spell in a sweet voice, conjure a dazzling magic circle, and block the devastating blow with a sacred shield.

That was how heroes always made their entrance in stories.

But as Su Bai faced the two incoming attacks, only one thought filled his mind.

Finish this fast, collect the money, and leave.

Flashy nonsense? No way.

The next second, everyone watched in utter disbelief.

The Magical Girl they had taken for an "illusion" moved.

She chanted no spell and took no defensive stance.

Her figure vanished from where she stood.

When she reappeared, she was in the path of the tentacle hurtling toward the schoolgirl.

Gripping the enormous Dark Gold Giant Scythe with both hands, she swung with a ferocity utterly at odds with her slender figure, slashing straight through the incoming tentacle toward the Monster itself.

Slash—!

Violet-gold light coated the dark gold blade, tracing a perfect arc.

The crimson tentacle, thicker than a bucket, and the Monster's incredibly hard skull behind it were sliced apart without the slightest resistance.

The cut was smooth and even, as though she had sliced through warm tofu rather than the Monster's tough shell.

The Monster's massive body went rigid for a second. Then it split cleanly in two and crashed to the ground.

Foul-smelling blood and entrails burst across the ground.

The entire battlefield fell truly silent.

The Monster Hunting Bureau agents' understanding of the world shattered completely.

Could an illusion... cause physical damage like that?!

Su Bai ignored the still-twitching corpse. In a flash, he appeared before the trapped girl.

With one hand, he grabbed the concrete load-bearing wall pinning her down. It weighed several tons at least.

Then, under the girl's vacant stare, he used his absurd magical strength to casually fling it a hundred meters away.

"Thank... you..."

The schoolgirl had just been rescued and was about to thank him.

But her mysterious savior turned away in a flash and headed straight for the Monster's corpse without looking back. There, she retrieved a faintly glowing F-rank Tier 2 Abyssal Core.

Every movement was smooth and practiced, her purpose almost outrageously clear.

With the spoils collected, Su Bai immediately wanted to leave.

Talk to the authorities? Absolutely not!

I'm not letting anyone find out this Magical Girl is actually a boy.

Just as he was about to make his escape, the rescued girl spoke behind him, her voice weak but brimming with excitement and adoration.

"P-please... may I know your name, great guardian?"

The girl struggled to sit up. Her eyes shone with fervor, and she reached out as if to catch hold of that dazzling light before it vanished.

Magical Girl Ziwei stopped.

She kept her back to them and did not turn around. In her cool, mature voice, she replied simply:

"Magical Girl Ziwei."

With that, she said no more.

Su Bai hesitated no longer. He became a brilliant violet-gold meteor and shot into the sky, vanishing into the black night in an instant.

Among the ruins, he left behind a group of speechless Monster Hunting Bureau agents questioning everything they knew—

And a girl who clutched the hem of her uniform, etching the name "Ziwei" deep into her heart.