Nightingale and the Morning Star

"Huh?!"

As her magic power dissipated, Bai Xiaoxiao, dressed in a blue-and-white sailor uniform, fell to the ground in a daze.

She reached up and felt her neck.

"It's... it's still there...?"

She could hardly describe what she had just felt. Her neck had suddenly gone cold, and by the time she came to her senses, her transformation had already been undone.

And she wasn't the only one who was shocked.

When the magic power dissipated and the perception filter stopped working, the smile suddenly vanished from Miss Hell's face.

Why was Bai Xiaoxiao here?

She froze for a moment.

Memories came flooding back.

Ever since that incident, Mo Zhen and Bai Xiaoxiao's relationship had never been very good.

It had started with their mother's death two years ago.

It had been a terrible blow to everyone in the family. Even Mo Chou had spent a year in a depression, living on alcohol with his beard unshaven.

Even when he did show up, he would just clutch a bottle and drink himself senseless, paying no attention to anything and leaving the children at home entirely to their own devices.

Before that, after Bai Qiushi's death, Mo Chou, Mo Jin'an and Bai Zhixia had disappeared for three months without a word of explanation.

It was as if they had vanished from the face of the earth, leaving no trace.

As a result, Mo Zhen, who had been fourteen that year, had been forced to take on the responsibilities of an older brother during those three months.

He had looked after Mo Xiaochuan and Bai Xiaoxiao on his own while attending school, helping both of them work through their psychological problems and processing their negative emotions.

And that was where the rift between Mo Zhen and Bai Xiaoxiao had begun.

Bai Xiaoxiao had refused to accept the fact of their mother's death. After taking a leave of absence from school, she had shut herself in her room and tried to take her own life several times.

Mo Zhen had comforted and stopped him many times, and had argued with her just as often, until the day neither of them could stand it anymore.

He had said impatiently:

"If you want to jump, then jump. Do you think I want to deal with you? Anyway, if you die, the one who'll be saddest isn't me, it's Mom in heaven. That's all!"

After hearing those words that year, Bai Xiaoxiao had fallen silent for a long time. Then she had climbed down from the windowsill without a word, gritting her teeth, her eyes red as she desperately held back her tears.

Clutching the white dress she wore, she had tilted her head up and glared fiercely at Mo Zhen, like a ferocious little lamb:

"I hate you, Mo Zhen!"

"At Mom's funeral too, you didn't shed a single tear. I hate you!"

From then on, the two had rarely spoken. Even when they had something to say, they passed messages through Mo Xiaochuan. They had never even added each other on WeChat.

Later, the three missing adults had finally returned home.

They had looked exhausted and travel-worn, but none of them had said anything.

Only Bai Zhixia, holding back her tears and full of guilt, had hugged them and said to Mo Zhen, "I'm sorry. Thank you for everything you've done during this time."

A year later, Mo Chou had finally begun to emerge from the pain of losing his wife, keeping the family from falling apart.

There was no doubt that Mo Zhen before and after his rebirth was the same person, with the same soul. Only the world he lived in had changed drastically.

As a result, the memories that had surfaced in an instant also affected the present Mo Zhen.

Compared with his previous life, the relationship between her and her sister had been even worse after their mother's death.

That was because Mo Chou had not been quite so depressed in his previous life and had given Bai Xiaoxiao at least some sense of security.

On top of that, Mo Zhen himself had not been under so much pressure.

But in this timeline after his rebirth, especially during the three months when Mo Chou and the other two were missing, Mo Zhen had been under an overwhelming amount of pressure.

Eventually, he had become increasingly obsessed with pursuing the power of a superhero, longing to gain invincible strength to soothe the agitation and unease in his heart.

That was also why he had chosen to run away from home and inject himself with Compound Nine despite the risks.

Unexpectedly, that chain of events had unsealed the memories of his previous life.

At that point, the memories gradually faded.

She maintained her persona as a magical senior, quietly taking a deep breath:

"It looks like you really are a rookie."

"I've... already lost?" Looking at the school uniform she was wearing, Bai Xiaoxiao had no choice but to acknowledge the fact.

The little white dove on her shoulder was drenched in sweat. Fortunately, this young lady hadn't gone for the kill.

It had never seen an ability like hers, one that could kill invisibly. At a glance, it was clearly no ordinary magic; presumably, it was a Cursed Technique passed down through her family.

At that moment, Hell looked down at her and said, "Did that hurt? I was holding back just now, you know."

Bai Xiaoxiao touched her neck. "Um... it didn't hurt, but, Senior Hell, why did you insist on fighting me?"

Miss Hell was momentarily at a loss for words. Then she snorted softly and turned her head away:

"I just wanted to test the strength of this year's newcomers. Come on. I'm in a good mood today, so I'll help you rescue them and deal with this witch domain while I'm at it."

With that, she walked straight ahead.

"Huh?... Senior, wait for me!"

Bai Xiaoxiao hurried after her.

In a view only Hell could see:

[Congratulations, Miss Witch. You have completed beginner mission 1: defeat a superhero/magical girl.]

[You have obtained: trait · Sukuna-Level Total Magic Power.]

[Transformation status.]

[Magic codename: Hell.]

[Danger level: D＋.]

[Strength: D→D＋]

[Speed: D→D＋]

[Defense: D→D＋]

[Magic power: D→B＋]

[Charm: S-rank.]

[Ability: Cursed Technique · Malevolent Shrine.]

[Trait: "Sukuna-Level Total Magic Power"]

After obtaining "Sukuna-Level Total Magic Power," Mo Zhen's magic power stat had shot straight up to B＋.

And thanks to the "magic power enhancement" that came with being a magical girl, her other stats had also risen to D＋.

The reason her danger level had not increased by much was that the threat she posed to human civilization had not actually increased much in essence.

Put as a formula, danger level equaled the maximum destruction you could cause if you took on all of human civilization head-on, alone.

And the waters of this world ran deep.

Even in the open, there were beings like Peacemaker who could be called gods among men. Who knew how many monsters were lurking in the shadows, not to mention her own invincible S＋ dad?

In the endlessly stretching corridor.

Mo Zhen and Bai Xiaoxiao had not gone far when a violent explosion came from around the corner ahead.

It was followed by chunks of familiar flesh and severed limbs blasted into the air, along with violent fluctuations of magic power.

"It's Senior Nightingale!" Worried, Bai Xiaoxiao hurried over.

The two rounded the corner, and the scene before them rapidly shifted and reassembled. What appeared before them was an enormous abandoned auditorium.

On the auditorium stage, a magical girl in a dark purple dress wielded a scythe, fighting the giant babies that kept crawling onto the stage.

Her scythe was extraordinarily large. Whenever she swung it and inflicted wounds, the giant babies she struck began to swell.

Finally, they exploded with a boom.

"Senior Nightingale!"

Bai Xiaoxiao stood at the edge of the cliff formed by the corridor and called out anxiously.

Hearing her voice, Nightingale instinctively glanced at them from the stage. "Xiaoxiao?"

"Mommy...!"

"Don't leave me!"

From every direction, the seemingly endless giant babies reached for her once more.

Nightingale swung her scythe with movements that were graceful yet powerful, letting it carry her body through a complete turn.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

After a brief delay, the giant babies exploded one after another. Nightingale immediately leaped into the air, preparing to leave the stage.

But suddenly, countless arms reached out from behind the surrounding curtains and grabbed for Nightingale.

"Troublesome things..."

Nightingale frowned in midair.

Since entering the witch domain, she had been its primary target, and it had been wearing her down from the start until now.

"Dismantle."

The gray-haired girl beside Bai Xiaoxiao suddenly raised a hand.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

In an instant, a barrage of invisible slashes filled the air, chopping every outstretched arm to pieces as easily as slicing melons and vegetables.

Seeing this, Miss Hell couldn't help the slight upward curve of her lips.

All she could say was that, with both Malevolent Shrine and Sukuna-Level Total Magic Power at her disposal-

The sheer wheelchair-tier strength of this slashing Cursed Technique was something else. It was hard to feel depressed when using it: the more she sliced, the better it felt, and the better it felt, the more she sliced. It was more addictive than Fruit Ninja.

Nightingale was surprised. She used magic power to stand in midair and looked at the gray-haired figure beside Bai Xiaoxiao.

That was undoubtedly a magical girl, but she was someone Nightingale had never seen before.

A magical girl who came from another district to help?

In Tianhe, an international metropolitan area as large as Tokyo Metropolis and home to over twenty-five million people, magical girls usually operated according to district.

"What are you looking at me for?"

The gray-haired girl suddenly looked up, her rose-red eyes turning toward Nightingale:

"Don't get distracted during a fight. That thing isn't dead yet."

As soon as she spoke, a pair of black arms suddenly drew the curtains shut at the center of the stage. Immediately afterward, masses of flesh gathered behind them.

Click, click!

The lights went out one after another, until only the lights on the stage remained on in the entire auditorium.

"Rustle..."

The red curtains gradually opened, revealing a faceless girl in a ballet dress. A melodious piece of classical music began to play throughout the auditorium.

Hell folded her arms and frowned slightly at the sight, thinking:

The Nutcracker?

Bai Xiaoxiao nodded beside her. "That's right. It's Grigorovich's version of The Nutcracker, created in 1966. It's also the version our school uses most often."

Hearing this, Hell shot Bai Xiaoxiao an unreadable glance. The reason she recognized the ballet was that Bai Xiaoxiao had practiced it back then.

Although Bai Xiaoxiao had quit the school ballet troupe after their mother died, her friend seemed to still be in it.

Bai Xiaoxiao suddenly remembered something, her pupils trembling slightly. "I think... I know who that witch is."

Nightingale landed beside Bai Xiaoxiao at that moment. "Who?"

Bai Xiaoxiao looked at the figure dancing gracefully on the stage:

"Fukui Miki, a first-year high schooler one grade above me. She was also the previous captain of our school's ballet troupe. I heard something happened to her six months ago. Her accidental pregnancy was discovered, so the school stripped her of her position as captain."

"Not long after that, she disappeared from the hospital."

Nightingale blinked softly. "Now that you mention it, I remember. When I had just awakened last month, I heard there was a magical girl in Jinghai District who fell and became a witch after killing her boyfriend."

"You only awakened a month ago?"

Hearing that detail, Hell looked at her in surprise.

Nightingale held her scythe behind her back with both hands and smiled:

"Mm, that's right. Speaking of which... I haven't asked your name yet. My codename is 'Nightingale.' What about you?"

Hell met her gaze. They were a pair of gentle, mysterious violet eyes, quietly watching her with curiosity and a smile.

She found that gaze a little hard to bear...

"Hell."

As she spoke, Miss Hell turned her head away.

"Huh?" Nightingale was startled. "That's a scary codename!"

She immediately became a little worried about the mental health of the gray-haired girl before her.

Other people might not take it seriously, but for magical girls, mental health was absolutely a top priority!

While the three were talking, the girl on the stage suddenly stopped. The faceless girl in the ballet dress sat down where she was, hugging herself as her whole body trembled violently.

"So cold..."

"So cold, so cold..."

A voice echoed from every direction, gradually growing louder.

As magic power flickered, a pitch-black magical dress slowly appeared on the faceless girl.

Her face was restored at the same time.

Hell's assessment was: very eerie.

The girl's eyes were entirely black, and paired with her black ballet dress, she really did look like a black swan.

[Witch manifested.]

[True name: Witch of Frenzied Dance.]

[Danger level: D＋.]

"Here she comes." Nightingale slowly raised the scythe in her hands, her expression grave. "This magic power is stronger than I expected. She's actually D＋..."

Under the Earth Alliance's rating standards, danger level D already meant having enough destructive power to easily destroy an entire building.

Bai Xiaoxiao was anxious, but after a magical girl was defeated and her transformation undone, she could not transform again for twenty-four hours.

As a result, she could not take part in the coming fight.