Volume 1 Chapter 17: Just a Passing Magical Girl
Hearing the girl teasing her, Amethyst froze on the spot. For a moment, her mind could not process it at all.
She had been talking about a serious and urgent problem. One careless mistake, and they could both die here.
And yet this girl was actually... praising her for being cute?
The whole situation felt absurd, like worrying about tomorrow’s meal while standing in the middle of a life-or-death crisis.
Before, Amethyst only suspected that Miss Bai always acted however she wanted because she had been spoiled since childhood.
But now...
She was beginning to wonder whether a certain someone’s intelligence was even at normal human level.
“Eh? But I’m not wrong.”
Bai Muxue acted as if she completely did not understand the danger of the moment. She leaned closer to Amethyst and seriously stared into her beautiful purple eyes.
“You really are cute like this.”
“Bai Muxue!!!”
Even though blood was still at the corner of her mouth and her whole body felt weak, Amethyst felt anger burning inside her chest.
I risked everything to save this girl, and this is what I get?!
She completely dropped her usual calm and elegant manner, grabbed Bai Muxue by the collar, and shouted,
“Are you even listening to me?! Can’t you see how dangerous this place is?!”
What time is it now?!
She had no interest in arguing about whether she was cute or not!
“Mhm, even when you act tsundere, you’re still cute. As expected of Teacher Shen.”
But when Amethyst’s usually cold voice had already turned hoarse, Bai Muxue’s smile still remained unreadable.
Her fingers lightly brushed across Amethyst’s pale soft lips and casually wiped away the blood at the corner of her mouth.
The gentle touch on her lips made Amethyst freeze for a moment.
Then a blush quickly appeared on her pretty face.
“Y-you—!”
………………………
“Uh... where did that girl even come from?”
In the distance, Heidi looked blankly at the two girls stuck together on the rooftop, feeling as if her mind had gone empty.
If she were just an ordinary passerby, shouldn’t she be screaming and running away in panic?
That was what everyone on the street had done just now.
How could someone not fear their fusion beast at all, and even climb onto the rooftop to watch?
Wasn’t she afraid of dying?
And also...
Even though it had taken some damage, their fusion beast was still working fine.
So why were these two completely ignoring it and arguing with each other instead?
“Humans really are difficult creatures to understand...”
Heidi pinched her chin with one hand and sighed seriously.
“Eh? Eh? You mean they are... flirting while arguing? So that’s what this is?!”
It seemed something whispered in her ear, because the girl’s face turned slightly red, and she suddenly looked enlightened.
So the girl who suddenly appeared on the rooftop just now… came to witness her partner’s heroic figure in battle!?
But flirting in a place like this...
That was really hard to understand.
Weren’t they in a life-and-death battle just now?
How did it suddenly turn into flirting with someone else?
“Uh... then maybe we shouldn’t disturb the two of them yet?”
Heidi timidly whispered to the side.
But at that moment, a thunder-shaking roar rose below.
The disaster beast did not care whether the two girls were flirting or doing anything else.
Amethyst’s repeated attacks had already fully ignited its rage.
“ROAR—!”
To the disaster beast, it made no difference whether the person before it was Amethyst or anyone else.
They were all just tiny dust that would soon be swallowed.
Seeing this, Amethyst’s heart shook violently.
She no longer had time to argue with Bai Muxue.
She slightly raised her wand and moved the smaller girl behind her.
“Listen carefully. I’ll buy you some time. Use that chance and run, understand?!”
Facing the completely enraged giant beast, Amethyst spoke in a low voice without turning her head.
The mark on the right side of her neck had already started flashing.
That meant her power was almost gone.
At this point, defeating the disaster beast and that strange girl was impossible.
But at least...
She could still create a chance for Bai Muxue to escape.
Strangely enough...
Even though she disliked this girl so much, at this moment, she still wanted her to live.
Just when Amethyst had made up her mind, the girl behind her let out a small sigh. Then she stood on tiptoe and lightly patted Amethyst’s shoulder.
“…Fine. Remember to repay this favor later. If you die here, it will cause me a lot of trouble.”
Bai Muxue showed no fear toward the roaring giant beast in front of them. She spoke words that Amethyst could not understand at all.
“What do you mean? What are you talking about?”
Amethyst quickly grabbed Bai Muxue’s shoulder and asked.
But the girl had no intention of answering. She quietly took out a small black box from her clothes.
—The same kind of box Amethyst had.
“That is… a Magic Box?”
Amethyst froze in place.
This girl was also… a magical girl?
But Bai Muxue said nothing more. For some reason, hesitation appeared on her pretty face.
In the end, she still placed a black brooch into the slot inside the box.
As if she had finally made her decision, she softly sighed.
“Trans… form.”
The moment Bai Muxue finished speaking, black flames suddenly burst from her body and shot into the sky.
The force of it made Amethyst and even the disaster beast step back by instinct.
Then the black flames slowly weakened.
In their place, a slender and graceful figure appeared behind Bai Muxue.
It was a small girl wearing a gothic dress, with snow-white long hair. Her form was blurry, making it impossible to clearly see her face.
【Embrace your power, my lady】
The girl leaned close to Bai Muxue’s ear and whispered softly, her voice gentle like a lover acting spoiled.
Then, with those words, her lovely figure suddenly changed into a terrifying skeleton.
Inside its empty eye sockets, faint ghostly flames flickered.
With a sharp crack, the skeleton’s arm covered in black energy pierced straight through Bai Muxue’s chest.
The black flames swallowed her small body once again.
“This is…!”
Seeing such a crazy and bloody scene, Amethyst opened her mouth in shock. Her pupils shrank, and the surprise on her face grew stronger.
Was this really a magical girl transformation?
How could there be… such a frightening transformation?
In Bai Muxue’s sight, the red countdown in the corner was rapidly changing.
From thirty days left…
Down to only seven days.
【Imagination, ideals, fantasy】
Countless shadows of girls in dresses flew toward Bai Muxue.
The layers of light kept stacking onto her body.
【Creator who controls all things, move forward toward the paradise of ideals】
The black flames slowly faded.
The girl who had been covered in fire gradually revealed her new form.
—A short black velvet gothic skirt showed off her slim waist. Blood-red trim gently moved in the wind. On her black silk gloves hung a silver chain with an amethyst gem.
Her pale smooth skin softly shined under the sunset.
Black thigh-high stockings wrapped around her slender, shapely legs, ending in small black boots with gray patterns.
Her black hair had turned half silver-gray.
Her dark eyes had changed into two different colors. One deep blue, the other bright purple.
With rose-red eye shadow, the once delicate and pitiful girl now carried a cold and striking charm, like moonlight mixed with sharp frost.
【Magical Girl Kaguya, transformation complete】
“Magical Girl… Kaguya?”
Amethyst spoke the name in a daze, as if her soul had been drawn toward the person before her.
Cute yet seductive.
Young yet deep and distant.
These completely different qualities had gathered in one person, yet fit together perfectly.
She was like the moon in the night sky.
Clear, gentle, yet also cold and proud.
Meanwhile, Heidi, who had only been secretly watching from afar, had now flown above the rooftop.
Her timid face now carried seriousness.
“Um… who exactly are you?”
Kaguya played with a strand of hair beside her ear and answered casually:
“Just a passing magical girl. Do you have a problem with that?”