Ke Mingqing felt like this summer break had dragged on forever—so long that he had almost forgotten what a classroom looked like, or even that he was still a high school student.
It was as if White Jack and the superhero Blue Pigeon were nothing more than a dream, just some adolescent fantasy casually doodled in a sketchbook by an utterly ordinary student.
Whenever he turned back from the window, however, the sight inside the classroom yanked him right back to reality: a player ID hovered above Kuroki Hitomi's head, while a super-human species panel floated over Kiyono Sakura.
Unless he was legally blind, it was impossible for Ke Mingqing not to notice those two sitting among a bunch of muggles.
It was like browsing a shelf of teen romance novels and spotting two dark, twisted horror books warning, "If you don't gouge out your own eyes after reading, you will commit suicide within three days."
Kiyono Sakura rested her chin on her hand and glanced back, her lips curling into a smile.
Ke Mingqing rolled his eyes at her.
Kuroki Hitomi lifted her gaze from her book, quietly observing their visual exchange.
Propping up his chin, Ke Mingqing sat alone in the corner of the classroom and went back to staring blankly out the window.
A moment later, an old, balding teacher in his fifties walked in and stepped up to the podium. The entire classroom immediately fell silent.
Ke Mingqing was just about to dig his textbook out of his desk when a player Chat Panel suddenly popped up in front of him.
[Kuroki Hitomi: Why does Magical Girl Sakurahime know you?]
[Ke Mingqing: She's Little Red Riding Hood's friend, and we were on the Comet Fragments escort team together. Isn't it perfectly normal for us to cross paths?]
[Kuroki Hitomi: But how does she know you're Blue Pigeon?]
[Ke Mingqing: My sister accidentally exposed me, but that's not very important.]
[Kuroki Hitomi: Is your sister already showing signs of Witchification?]
Ke Mingqing froze.
Staring at the text on the panel, he stayed silent for a few seconds before turning his head to glance at Kuroki Hitomi sitting nearby.
Kuroki Hitomi had her head bowed, quietly taking notes. The teardrop mole at the corner of her eye and her lowered gaze made her look exceptionally focused; no one would ever guess she was multitasking.
[Ke Mingqing: How did you know?]
[Kuroki Hitomi: Li Chunchun told me. He said, "A magical girl who stays around a witch will imperceptibly be infected by the witch's magic." He also said, "There is a magical girl in Leijing whose aura feels very much like a witch." That has to be Ember.]
Li Chunchun... that male magical girl among the players?
Ke Mingqing thought to himself as the face of that absolute psycho flashed through his mind.
[Ke Mingqing: Yes, my sister is indeed showing signs of Witchification. In fact, it's a bit worse than that. These past few days, her witch persona keeps taking over, sneaking into my room in the middle of the night and stuff.]
Kuroki Hitomi fell silent, her pen pausing slightly on the paper.
[Ke Mingqing: Don't worry, I can handle her.]
[Kuroki Hitomi: You will die. Witches are completely unreasonable creatures.]
[Ke Mingqing: At least for now, she is still within my control.]
The bell rang. Class was over.
A breeze blowing in from the sports field tossed the curtains, and the dappled morning light spilling through the window formed a faint pillar of illumination on the podium.
It was Ke Mingqing's turn for classroom duty today. He wiped the chalkboard clean, stepped through the patches of sunlight out of the classroom, and leaned against the corridor railing to look down.
Suddenly, he spotted two familiar figures walking out of Class One's door: An Youlu and Xia Zili.
Xia Zili's grades had always been among the best in the school. Even during her tenure as a magical girl, she hadn't slacked on her homework.
An Youlu was even more hardcore, studying bitterly late into the night by lamplight just to escape poverty. She was one step away from pasting "Make It Out of the Mountains" on her desk. Of course, one couldn't rule out the possibility that she used Magic Cards to cheat during exams.
Regardless, both girls had been placed in Class One, where all the top students gathered.
Ke Mingqing suddenly recalled what Kuroki Hitomi had just told him in the classroom. He turned his head and quietly stared at the space above An Youlu's head.
[super-human species codename: Magical Girl Little Red Riding Hood (Danger Rating: A Rank)]
"A Rank?" Ke Mingqing raised an eyebrow. A thought struck him: No way... Little Red Riding Hood actually got stronger in such a short time? Is it exactly like Kuroki Hitomi said? Has she been infected by my sister's magic?
He didn't even dare imagine what kind of title Little Red Riding Hood would get if she fell and became a witch. Maybe the "Witch of Poverty and Fake Innocence," or the "Witch of Venomous Tongues and Scheming Hearts"?
Sensing a gaze from afar, An Youlu whipped her head around like a fierce little tiger, her eyes meeting his defensively across the crowd.
Seeing it was Ke Mingqing, she froze for a split second. Then her cheeks flushed red, and she crossed her arms in an "X" to make a "No" gesture.
Ke Mingqing rolled his eyes, unable to stand it. He thought to himself, Could this trash-scavenging Little Red Riding Hood be any more dramatic?
"Oh? I didn't expect you to have a thing for your girlfriend's maid. Men really are frivolous creatures," Kiyono Sakura said, suddenly walking over with a curious look.
"I just didn't know she was in Class One. I rarely see her around." Ke Mingqing turned his head to gaze out at the sports field, ignoring the internet-famous Japanese girl's teasing.
"Is that so." Kiyono Sakura nodded. "Well, consider it a misunderstanding then."
A moment later, Ke Mingqing suddenly asked, "By the way, I'm a bit curious. How many witches are there in the witch cult 'Tower of the End'? Would you mind telling me?"
"Sure, as long as you're willing to be friends with me."
"Yeah, yeah, we're friends."
"Great. Making friends with the superhero who just defeated the Clock Maker makes this trip abroad completely worth it." Kiyono Sakura's lips curled up. "It's not just China right now; everyone back in Japan is talking about you too. Honestly, the whole world's internet is currently dominated by your trending searches."
Ke Mingqing didn't think much of it. "Anyone with a brain knows Rain Crow did most of the heavy lifting. I'm just riding his coattails."
"I didn't expect Mr. Blue Pigeon to be so pragmatic and modest. I thought you'd be a smooth talker like you appear on camera." Kiyono Sakura smiled faintly. "Then I'll get down to business. The 'Tower of the End' originally had four witches, but one was killed by the joint efforts of the Three Giants. So now, there are three witches left."
"Only three?"
"Correct. They are the Witch of Despair, the Witch of Calamity, and the Puppet Witch."
Ke Mingqing hadn't expected her to answer so readily. He turned his head slightly and asked,
"Is it really okay to just tell me straight out like that? Don't you magical girls have non-disclosure agreements?"
"Magical girls aren't regulated as strictly as superheroes. Besides, this isn't exactly a secret," Kiyono Sakura replied.
"What kind of abilities do those three witches have?"
"Here, see for yourself." Kiyono Sakura pulled her phone from her school uniform pocket, opened a video directory, and handed it to him.
Ke Mingqing took her phone, glanced at the three file names in the directory, and tapped on the one labeled "Witch of Despair."
Witch of Despair. Gender: Female. Originally "Magical Girl Oboro." Age: Unknown; currently estimated to have lived for over two hundred years.
"Why specifically list 'Gender: Female'? Don't tell me there are male witches?" Ke Mingqing asked.
"You guessed it. If there can be male magical girls, why couldn't there be male witches?" Kiyono Sakura smiled, resting her chin on her hand. "Though cases like that are extremely rare."
The file mentioned an incident from decades ago in the town of Rjukan, Norway: the Witch of Despair passed through the town, causing over ten thousand residents to commit suicide simultaneously in a single night. A single photograph survived the incident.
A figure entirely shrouded in a turbulent gray flow turned her head slightly on a long street. Eyes as dark and profound as a gray veil met the camera, and the lens froze on that exact moment.
Looking at the silhouette of the Witch of Despair in the photo, Ke Mingqing muttered,
"Is it really that absurd? Her abilities can affect an entire town."
"That is what a witch is..." Kiyono Sakura said softly.
"Don't say that like you're narrating a reality show."
Ke Mingqing grumbled as he exited the Witch of Despair's file and opened the second document in the directory.
This file logged a series of details about the "Witch of Calamity."
Witch of Calamity. Gender: Female. Originally "Magical Girl Fortune." Age: 132 years old. On a white page, this witch's ability was recorded with crystal clarity: "Manipulation of large-scale natural disasters."
The Witch of Despair's file only contained one incredibly blurry photo, but the Witch of Calamity was different; her file included many videos.
Ke Mingqing tapped a video at random. In the footage, a young woman in a long black-and-purple dress stood atop a TV tower. She was tossing her head back and laughing in the pouring rain, while the City below her was being ravaged by an earthquake and Torrential Rain.
The whole world seemed to tremble at her laughter. A moment later, the screen went dark.
"Those few famous massive earthquakes in Japan have everything to do with her," Kiyono Sakura noted.
"Now I know why Japan gets earthquakes so often."
Ke Mingqing murmured to himself as he closed the Witch of Calamity's file.
The last one was a witch with an unknown name, unknown age, unknown gender, and an unknown original magical girl codename.
There was no photo of her in the file, but there was a video. In it, a little girl who looked about six years old floated beneath a pitch-black canopy of sky, tossing down a black-and-white stuffed rabbit. The plush toy plummeted from the heavens, instantly expanding to the size of a massive mountain and crushing an entire town.
Kiyono Sakura caught a glimpse of the video's progress from the corner of her eye and said mildly,
"We still don't know her true name. The Three Giants have tentatively designated her the 'Puppet Witch'."
Ke Mingqing pondered for a couple of seconds, thinking that all three of these entities looked like they started at least at A++ Rank. Not to mention, Xia Zili had said that these three witches also controlled a weapon known as the "Night of the End."
"What is the Night of the End?" he asked.
"A stage apparatus. Rumor has it that it amplifies a witch's power," Kiyono Sakura answered. "As for what exactly it is, we aren't sure either."
"Then how do you plan to stop these witches?"
"Take it one step at a time. Teacher Xi Ziyue's strength is nothing to scoff at either; she is the 'strongest magical girl of this generation'."
"We'll win."
Ke Mingqing sighed, turned off the phone screen, and handed it back to Kiyono Sakura.
Kuroki Hitomi walked out of the classroom hugging her books. The moment she saw Ke Mingqing and Kiyono Sakura's backs, she froze in her tracks; in a corner of the corridor, Xia Zili frowned.
An Youlu looked at the young miss, then looked at her senior. She sucked in a sharp breath, lowered her head, and started memorizing English vocabulary:
"Abandon... abandon... abandon."
Xia Zili quickly dragged An Youlu away. Raising an arm, she gently pinned her against the wall by the stairwell, interrogating her about why Kiyono Sakura knew Ke Mingqing.
Some boys whistling as they walked by tossed out cheap, teasing remarks typical of high schoolers, like "True love transcends gender!" and "Congratulations on the successful matchmaking!"
Xia Zili covered her face and sighed, her ears turning slightly red.
An Youlu, however, cupped her chin and said with a bashful look, "Getting pinned against the wall by my senior makes my heart race so fast. I suddenly feel like a girl wouldn't be so bad either—" But before she could finish, her mouth was covered by the other girl.
"Forget it, I'll go ask him myself."
Xia Zili said, stepping out of the stairwell and brushing past Kuroki Hitomi.
Kiyono Sakura had already returned to the classroom by this time. Xia Zili walked up to Ke Mingqing: "I need to talk to you."
"About what?"
"Let's talk somewhere else," Xia Zili said, walking away before he could respond.
Ke Mingqing followed her. As he walked down the corridor, he brushed shoulders with a white-haired, blue-eyed teenage boy in a school uniform. The boy had albinism; everything from top to bottom was white, right down to his eyelashes.
Sensing Ke Mingqing's peripheral gaze, the boy gave him a polite nod before continuing on his way.
Ke Mingqing faltered slightly. He definitely didn't recall a guy like that existing in their school. Catching up to Xia Zili, he asked,
"That wasn't the magical girl transfer student from Iceland, was it?"
"Who else would it be?" Xia Zili replied without looking back.
Ke Mingqing glanced back over his shoulder at the white-haired boy's head. A super-human species panel slowly popped up in his vision.
[Codename: Magical Girl Winter Hunter (Danger Rating: A+ Rank)]
"A male magical girl?" He narrowed his eyes, recalling some unpleasant memories.
Xia Zili nodded. "Right. And he isn't the only male magical girl. The company recently recruited someone incredibly absurd. That person joined our squad after completing a two-month internship."
Ke Mingqing blinked. Even though he already knew the answer in his heart, he still asked,
"Who?"
"His name is Li Chunchun, codenamed 'Magical Girl Red Moon'." Xia Zili paused. "Oh, right, he goes to this school too. He's right next door in Class Two."
"What a coincidence." Ke Mingqing raised an eyebrow, thinking to himself, Kuroki Hitomi, you never told me about this. Why is that absolute idiot going to our school?
As the siblings spoke, a cold, sharp voice suddenly drifted over from down the hallway.
"Are you Ke Mingqing?"
Ke Mingqing raised his brows and turned toward the voice. A schoolboy with the player ID "Li Chunchun" hovering over his head was slowly walking over, coming to a halt right in front of him.
"Yeah, I'm Ke Mingqing."
Ke Mingqing nodded, but Xia Zili turned away to face the wall in silence, fighting back the urge to bash her head against it. She really didn't want to look at this guy.
"I have a question to test you. Who do you think is stronger: Blue Pigeon or the Clock Maker?" Li Chunchun asked with deep intensity.
"Who do you think?"
"I think the weaker one is gay." Li Chunchun suddenly raised his hand, forming it into the shape of a gun and pressing it against his own chin.
"The Clock Maker lost, so the Clock Maker is gay," Ke Mingqing said. "But is the Clock Maker being gay really that surprising?"
"That makes sense..."
Li Chunchun raised an eyebrow, muttering with a solemn expression as he slowly walked away, his hand still resting against his chin.
Ke Mingqing sweatdropped in silence. He thought to himself that if all one hundred players were this brain-dead, he might as well do a good deed before he died and just exterminate them as a public service, instead of bothering with some grand superhuman massacre.
Only when Li Chunchun had left did Xia Zili turn back around. "That was Li Chunchun, the other male magical girl I just mentioned."
"Oh. Don't you think he and that Icelandic magical girl are a perfect match? If these two male magical girls got together, wouldn't they have a hundred different ways to play?" Ke Mingqing ticked them off on his fingers. "They could be gay men, lesbians, female-dominant, traditional hetero, reverse hetero... An entity compatible with every single romantic permutation in the world has been born."
"Stop, stop, stop. Is there something wrong with you?"
Looking thoroughly disgusted, Xia Zili clamped her hand over her brother's mouth. After a long moment, she released him and asked softly,
"So, what is your relationship with Kiyono Sakura?"
At that moment, the bell for class rang.
"We'll talk when we get home..."
Dropping that sentence, Ke Mingqing shrugged and headed back toward his classroom. Xia Zili furrowed her brows as she watched him leave.
However, he didn't expect that returning home that day would throw him into a completely different mess.
It was around five in the afternoon. The moment the school dismissal bell rang, Ke Mingqing hopped on the school bus and went home.
But as soon as he unlocked the front door with his key, he saw a scruffy man in a police uniform standing in the entryway, waiting for him.
"A'Qing, you're back..." Ke Mingwei slowly turned his head, his deep eyes fixing on him. "I have something to say to you."
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