The Exhausted Magical Girl

The night sky stretched deep overhead.

A brilliant violet-gold meteor streaked across the sky above Xinghai City at a terrifying speed.

The wind slammed into her face so hard she could barely keep her eyes open.

Magical Girl Ziwei hurtled through the air hundreds of meters above the ground.

She glanced down at her alarmingly skimpy magical outfit, and her mouth twitched.

"Whoever designed this outfit must have a screw loose! How am I supposed to fly this fast wearing so little?"

She shouted her complaints into the night wind in a cool, languid, mature voice.

The gale lifted her skirt, and cold night air rushed underneath.

No matter how strong her magic was, the black stockings on her legs could not keep out the chill at this altitude. Goose bumps rose across her skin.

She could only fly as low as possible, hoping to avoid anyone looking up from below.

But the attempt was pointless.

Violet-gold particles of light she could not control spilled wildly from her body into the night.

She was glowing like a thousand-watt searchlight.

She fought the wind and shouted in frustration.

"Why the hell am I putting on a light show in the middle of the night? I'm a walking target!"

With no other option, she kept flying.

Then the phone tucked into a hidden pocket of her magical outfit began vibrating like crazy.

She finally managed to pull it out. The screen was lit.

On the Monster Hunter Mutual Aid App, the blood-red bounty notification had completely changed.

A line of large text now displayed the mission status.

[An unidentified Demon Hunting Flesh Mage has forcefully intervened. The "West District Abandoned Factory" mission is now locked. Settlement suspended!]

"Settlement suspended?"

Ziwei's beautiful eyes widened, and her voice shot up an octave with panic.

"No! My hundred grand!"

Before she could tap for details, a trending news alert popped up at the top of her phone.

#Unidentified Violet-Gold Flying Object Spotted Above Xinghai City#

The attached photo was a blurry nighttime shot taken on a phone.

At its center, a violet-gold beam cut across the West District night sky.

She opened the comments for a look. Messages were already flooding in.

"Look over by the West District Abandoned Factory!"

"With effects like that, it's gotta be some super-powerful monster hunter, right?"

"Bullshit. What monster hunter has effects that flashy? And looks that cute? That's a Magical Girl!"

By the time she finished reading, her blood pressure had soared. Her temple even throbbed twice.

"Do these people have nothing better to do than stay up all night? Something happens, and they rush to post about it!"

Her sense of danger surged.

If she kept drifting around like this, someone would get a telephoto lens and shoot a whole set of ultra-high-definition photos of her.

She had to end the transformation right now.

She stopped in midair, forced her eyes shut, and focused with all her might.

"Turn back into Su Bai... turn back into a man..."

She muttered the words over and over.

More than ten seconds passed. The night wind still chilled her thighs, and nothing about her body changed.

She opened her eyes in frustration and hurled the dark-gold scythe toward the ground.

The moment it left her hand, the scythe spun in midair and settled obediently back against her palm.

"You stupid thing! Don't you know what it means to go back where you came from?"

She grabbed the lace fabric of her magical outfit and gave it a hard tug.

Not even a wrinkle appeared.

"What kind of stupid setup is this? At least give me a log-out button!"

Ziwei gritted her teeth against the night wind and decided she had nothing left to lose.

She took a deep breath and declaimed to the empty sky.

"Magical Girl Ziwei—transformation, release!"

Her voice carried so far that it echoed through an old alley below.

Beside a dumpster, a stray calico cat looked up at her, then went back to searching for fish bones.

Other than making a complete fool of herself high above the city, she achieved nothing.

Ziwei's cool expression crumbled. Her beautiful eyes flattened into two lifeless lines.

"They didn't even give me a manual. What a rip-off."

Just as despair filled her, a strange emptiness spread through her body.

It was hunger, immediate and overwhelming.

Grrr...

An astonishingly loud protest came from the stomach of her curvaceous body.

The sound seemed absurd coming from someone dressed like her.

"So hungry..."

She clutched her stomach as the muscles in her arms and legs grew sore and weak.

For several seconds, her vision doubled and blurred.

The magic inside her, once powerful enough to destroy heaven and earth, was now draining away at an accelerating rate.

Her mind raced, and she quickly realized why.

A few hours earlier, when she had gone out Demon Hunting, she had eaten nothing but a bowl of instant noodles made with hot water in the kitchen.

The transformation was not sustained by some mysterious energy from another dimension.

It was burning through its host's own fat and calories at a furious pace.

The dazzling violet-gold glow could no longer hold steady.

The particles of light turned into solid fragments and peeled away in sheets from her flawless skin.

The ornate lace outfit, the heavy dark-gold scythe, the waist-length violet-gold hair—

Everything that embodied that reality-defying power vanished as the light fell apart.

The instant her magic stopped holding her aloft, gravity took over again.

Her body dropped, and her feet struck the rough concrete hard.

Su Bai had returned to his original appearance.

He wore a charcoal hoodie, sweatpants faded from washing, and sneakers with soles worn smooth.

Before he had even caught his breath, he looked down and stared hard at his body.

His chest was flat.

Still not reassured, he reached down and checked the most important place.

"Still there. It's all still there."

He let out a long breath. His heart finally settled back into place.

He looked up and surveyed his surroundings beneath the night sky.

This was nowhere near his home. He was on the roof of an unfamiliar, aging apartment building.

He took out his phone and turned on location services. The map showed he was at least three kilometers from home.

Then his legs began trembling uncontrollably, and the last of his strength drained away.

"Three kilometers... I'm supposed to drag myself home when I'm half-dead from hunger? Just kill me now."