It Was My Will That Summoned the Magical Girl

Su Bai tossed his keys onto the cabinet.

He walked around the sofa without a trace of expression and headed straight for the kitchen.

"Oh."

Su Bai gave that flat, one-syllable response and switched on the range hood.

"What do you mean, 'oh'?!"

Su Xiaoxiao chased him straight into the kitchen, which was hazy with cooking fumes.

"A miracle that overturns everything we know about the world just happened! Can't you show even a little surprise?"

She shoved her hot phone screen right up to Su Bai's eyes.

On it was an extremely blurry screenshot taken from a distance at night.

A cluster of purple-gold light hung in midair. A tall, slender human silhouette was barely discernible within it.

The comments section had gone wild.

"Did a god descend to earth?"

"Has the Monster Hunting Bureau developed a new laser weapon?"

"Could everyone zoom in on the outline? Is that the hem of a little skirt?"

"A Magical Girl? In this day and age? Have you watched too much anime?"

Su Xiaoxiao pointed to the comment about the skirt and declared with absolute conviction,

"See? People online have sharp eyes! Someone else reached the same conclusion I did!"

She raised her chin proudly.

"She's definitely the legendary Magical Girl! I told you this cruel world still had room for romance!"

Su Bai extended one finger and pushed the phone away from his nose with open distaste.

He turned, took two portions of dried noodles from the cabinet, and dropped them into the boiling water with practiced ease.

"How much of your summer homework have you finished?"

"Su Bai! Is there anything in your head besides making money and homework? Can't you have a little awe for a miracle?"

Su Bai put the lid on the pot.

"If you don't finish your homework today, the noodles in this pot are going into one bowl. Yours."

The threat of losing her dinner worked almost instantly.

Su Xiaoxiao stamped her left foot in anger.

Right then, her stomach betrayed her with a thunderous growl.

She gave a reluctant huff and headed to her room, clutching her phone.

She continued grumbling loudly all the way there.

"What a cold-blooded, dried-up man. Not a romantic bone in your body. You don't deserve to witness the great cause of Magical Girls."

The range hood rumbled.

Su Bai stood quietly at the stove, watching thick white foam begin to rise around the wide noodles.

Through the bedroom door, he could hear his sister belittling him while singing her idol's praises.

The corners of his mouth lifted into the faintest, gentlest smile.

Here in this cramped, shabby rental apartment,

the radiant, untouchable idol she worshipped was cheerfully cooking noodles in clear broth because he had finally paid off his debts.

The contrast, impossible to explain to anyone, left him feeling strangely amused.

When the noodles were done, Su Bai turned off the heat.

Carrying two large bowls of steaming noodle soup, he walked to Su Xiaoxiao's bedroom door.

He freed one hand and knocked twice, hard.

The lock clicked.

The door opened just wide enough for an arm.

A fair little hand shot out and deftly took her bowl.

Just before the door shut again,

Su Xiaoxiao's utterly earnest voice floated through the gap.

"Hajige, I've decided. I'm starting Xinghai City's first Magical Girl fan club."

Her voice rang with fervent, unshakable conviction.

"If that purple-gold lady ever appears again, I'm going to be the first one there to cheer her on, no matter how far away it is!"

Su Bai stood frozen outside her door, holding his own bowl of noodles.

What a devoted little sister.

His own sister had vowed to gather a group and cheer for him from the front row.

Meanwhile, he—the savior idol the world admired—

was worrying whether his next transformation would leave him starving on the street.

Night fell.

In the living room of apartment 703 at Xingfuli Apartment,

Su Xiaoxiao sat cross-legged on the worn fabric sofa.

She had gone all out. A laptop, tablet, and phone were open on the coffee table in front of her, three screens running at once.

Her fingers clattered across the keyboard as she built a social group called "Lady Ziwei Fan Club" at a nearly feverish pace.

In less than half an hour, she had already recruited three hundred and seventy members.

Su Bai came over from the kitchen carrying two glasses of cooled boiled water.

He set one on the coffee table and glanced absently at the chat window.

Su Xiaoxiao was furiously typing out a lengthy post.

"Everyone! Lady Ziwei is definitely no ordinary superhuman! Her light is purple-gold! Have you looked it up? No superhuman in history has ever released purple-gold energy! That means the source of her power lies completely beyond the known superhuman system! She's the legendary Magical Girl chosen by the Will of the World!"

Su Bai stared at the string of exclamation marks, then looked away without expression.

"Aren't you going out with your friend tomorrow? Get to bed early."

"Hajige, don't interrupt me! I'm doing something great for the future of humanity!"

Su Xiaoxiao didn't even look up. Her fingers flew over the keyboard in a blur.

Su Bai sat down in the armchair beside her, holding his glass of water.

"Will your great cause fill in the last two pages of your summer homework?"

"..."

Stung, Su Xiaoxiao snapped her laptop shut.

She turned and fixed Su Bai with a solemn stare.

"Hajige, you're so boring it's criminal! Hmph. Just wait until my best friend Xia Ning and I awaken as Magical Girls!"

She folded her arms and lifted her chin slightly.

"But as my brother, you have a duty to understand Lady Ziwei's greatness and romance."

She pulled out her phone, found the extremely blurry nighttime screenshot she had saved online, and held it right in front of Su Bai.

Then she launched into an elaborate interpretation that lasted over ten minutes and followed its own airtight logic.

"Look at how she landed. Left foot forward and slightly bent, right foot behind her to push off."

Su Xiaoxiao pointed excitedly at the purple-gold blur on the screen.

"That's the classic Evil-Breaking Descent Form! It means that before she even touched the ground, she'd already scanned the entire battlefield for energy and locked onto her tactical targets!"

Su Bai quietly took a sip of water.

His left eyelid was twitching like mad.

Evil-Breaking Descent Form, my ass.

The damned magical outfit's hovering mechanism was so hard to control that he had misjudged the landing and nearly fallen flat on his face. That step forward with his left foot was just a stumble to keep his balance.

Completely absorbed in her explanation, Su Xiaoxiao never noticed the subtle shift in her brother's expression.

"Now look at her weapon! See that semicircular outline? Doesn't it look like a giant scythe?"

She stared at Su Bai, eyes shining.

"In ancient mythology, scythes have always symbolized the harvesting of sinful souls! She came specifically to reap high-level monsters! There's no way symbolism that divine is a coincidence!"

Su Bai silently took another sip of water.

She was right about the scythe.

But what the hell was this business about harvesting souls? He just thought a giant scythe was handy for cutting enemies down.

...No, wait. The scythe came bound to the transformation. He hadn't chosen it at all.

"And Hajige! Do you know the most important, most miraculous part of this whole thing?"

Su Xiaoxiao suddenly leaned in and lowered her voice, looking as though she held the secrets of the universe.

"Lady Ziwei appeared the day after I finished writing that Transformation Guide!"

Absolute fervor burned in Su Xiaoxiao's eyes.

"Do you know what that means? The Transformation Guide I wrote resonated with the Will of the World! My fervent prayers summoned Lady Ziwei into this world!"