When they stepped out of the Association building, the sky outside was bright and clear.
The two of them stopped on the steps at the entrance. Shizuru looked down at the terminal on her wrist, while Nuomi perched on her shoulder, flicking her hair with its tail. Yuki Kurokawa stood beside her, cradling Star-trail in her arms. For a moment, no one spoke.
Shizuru was the first to break the silence. “Since we go to the same school, you can come find me directly if anything happens.”
She paused, looking at Star-trail in Yuki Kurokawa's arms. “But I still have to thank it. Star-trail, that form shift wasn't a one-time thing. You left a portion of your mana in my circuits. I can feel it.”
Star-trail poked its head out from Yuki's arms. “That mana will naturally dissipate through your own mana circulation over the course of about a week. If you need to activate it again, just contact me.”
“Well, I'll be off now.”
Shizuru waved and hurried away before Nuomi could say anything. She knew that if they stayed any longer, Nuomi would just cling to Star-trail again.
...
Sunday morning sunlight squeezed through the gap in the curtains, landing right on Qiluo's eyelids. She rolled over in her bedding, burying her face in the pillow in an attempt to block out the light.
“...A rare Sunday,” she mumbled into her pillow. Her alarm hadn't gone off; she had set it herself. 7:00 AM on weekdays, 9:00 AM on weekends. It was currently 9:03 AM.
She lingered in her bedding for another five minutes before slowly sitting up, her hair sticking out in a messy bedhead.
Star-trail wasn't in the apartment; it had gone back to the Kurokawa residence with Yuki after the physical exam yesterday. When she went to sleep last night, she had dialed Star-trail's senses down to the absolute minimum, giving herself a night off.
It seemed Star-trail had completely moved into the Kurokawa home.
Must be nice, living in a big house. I wonder when I'll get to live in a big house.
Today, she didn't have to act as a Contract Spirit.
Sitting on her futon in her pajamas, she stared blankly into space for a long time before standing up to draw open the curtains. Sunlight flooded in, brightly illuminating the entire room.
It happened to light up the small green plant on the windowsill, which she had rescued from a discarded corner of the convenience store. She watered the plant, then stood in front of the window and stretched.
Since coming to this world, she hadn't actually gone out to explore under the identity of “Qiluo Tian Gong.”
“Decided.” She hopped out of bed, opened her closet, and picked out a light-colored short-sleeved shirt and a dark blue long skirt from her meager selection of casual clothes. She looked just like an ordinary high school girl about to go shopping with friends on the weekend.
Even though she had no friends to go shopping with.
Going alone was fine too. In fact, for the place she wanted to visit, going alone was actually more convenient. An amusement park. While working her part-time job at the convenience store, she had heard a night-shift coworker mention that the newly opened amusement park in front of the station had a viewing tower from which you could see the silhouette of the entire city.
Her coworker had said this in passing while pouring broth into the oden pot, but she had remembered it ever since.
As a former observatory technician, she had always had a weakness for high places.
The morning sun was pleasant. A short queue had already formed at the entrance of the amusement park, mostly consisting of families with young children and couples in pairs.
Standing alone in the middle of the queue, Qiluo bought her ticket and grabbed a park map. She studied the layout as if analyzing a research paper, then headed straight for the tallest structure in the center of the park.
The viewing tower was a popular attraction that required queuing. After waiting for twenty minutes, she stepped into the sightseeing elevator under the guidance of a staff member.
As the elevator ascended, the entire city slowly unfurled beneath her. The clusters of buildings looked like a pile of knocked-over toy blocks, and the distant mountain ridges showed a pale blue hue at the edge of the sunlight.
Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the observation deck, she gently pressed her fingers against the glass, feeling its cool touch.
“Not bad,” she said to her reflection in the glass, before taking the elevator back down.
This was what she had truly wanted to confirm. This city was worth protecting.
After coming down from the viewing tower, she strolled leisurely through the park.
As she passed a crepe stall, a young woman with two children was queuing ahead of her. The kids were standing on their tiptoes, pointing at the strawberry sauce flavor on the menu, while the woman smiled and ruffled their hair.
A young woman with two children... she must be very happy.
Unlike a certain black-haired woman who refuses to sleep in the middle of the night just to write combat notes, working herself like a mule. Qiluo finished her crepe, balled up the napkin to throw it into a trash can, and decided to tackle the roller coaster.
The queue for the roller coaster was even longer. She waited for forty minutes and got thrown around for a full three minutes. When she finally got off, her hair was so messy she looked like she had just gone hand-to-hand with an Erosion Body. She combed through her hair with her fingers and smiled at her disheveled reflection in a nearby funhouse mirror.
Riding a roller coaster alone is actually pretty liberating. She repeated the thought to herself.
Time flew by. In the afternoon, she bought a vanilla ice cream cone and sat on a bench to eat it slowly. The sun painted the park's Ferris wheel in gold, and the cold cream melted on her tongue, feeling much like the wind that had rushed down her collar on the roller coaster earlier.
Qiluo stuffed the last bite of the waffle cone into her mouth, brushed the crumbs off her hands, and stood up, preparing to head home.
Then, she saw a tiny, round, milky-white figure hop out from behind a cotton candy stall.
Nuomi. Qiluo suddenly choked slightly on her last bite of ice cream. She quickly averted her gaze, casually scanning her surroundings like any ordinary person would.
Sure enough, Shizuru Kirishima was standing in front of a shooting gallery, holding a toy rifle and aiming at a pink plush rabbit on the shelf. The sleeves of her thin, dark blue jacket were rolled up to her elbows, and her long hair was tied in a casual low ponytail. Ordinary people couldn't see Contract Spirits, so Shizuru couldn't see Nuomi. Qiluo had to pretend she couldn't see anything either.
Shizuru's aim wavered slightly, and she missed. She lowered the rifle and rubbed her wrist. The middle-aged stall owner offered her another rifle, but she shook her head, seemingly having no intention of trying again.
Qiluo stood a few meters away, pretending to watch a passerby playing a basketball arcade game, though her peripheral vision remained fixed on Shizuru. She didn't mean to pry; she just wasn't sure why she felt so guilty.
Nuomi hopped away on its own. Its two tails swayed gently behind it, and the soft jingle of its bell was almost completely drowned out by the noisy background sounds of the park.
Nuomi ended up near a trash can close to a taco stall. It huddled by the trash can, looking up at the price board above the stall, its ears twitching in turns as it earnestly studied the taco menu.
Okay, here was the problem: a cute Contract Spirit that ordinary people couldn't see was running around an amusement park all by itself, while its contractor was off playing shooting games. If anyone who could see Contract Spirits happened to pass by, there would be trouble.
Pretending to be an ordinary tourist who had suddenly developed a deep interest in tacos, Qiluo casually sauntered over to the stall. She stood about two meters away from Nuomi, pretending to look down at the menu while actually standing back-to-back with the little furball.
“So many flavors,” Nuomi mumbled to itself, its ears drooping in thought. “Does Shizuru like spicy or non-spicy... Last time she had curry, she chose medium spicy... but that was curry... for tacos...” The stall owner, a bearded middle-aged man, was deftly wrapping a taco for another customer.
“...” This was a trap.
A minute later, a small cheer and applause erupted from the direction of the shooting gallery. It sounded like someone had finally hit the rabbit. Nuomi clearly heard it too. It abandoned the taco stall and hopped back toward the shooting gallery.
Qiluo breathed a sigh of relief. Then, she suddenly realized she had already ordered a taco and was currently pulling out her wallet to pay.
Oh well. She would just have it for dinner.
She found an empty bench with a view of the Ferris wheel and sat down. The beef in the taco was a bit overcooked, but the sauce was quite good.
Sitting on the bench, she folded the taco wrapper into a neat little square, tossed it into a nearby trash can, then stood up and brushed the crumbs off her skirt.
Visiting an amusement park alone wasn't so bad after all. She didn't have to accommodate anyone else's pace, didn't have to find topics to chat about while queuing, and didn't have to pretend to agonize over choosing between strawberry and chocolate sauce at the crepe stall.
She got up from the bench and prepared to walk toward the exit.
Clouds began to gather over the amusement park from all directions, moving so fast it looked as if they were being dragged by something invisible.
The mana concentration in the air spiked sharply, causing the belt wrapped around her wrist to vibrate weakly.
Erosion Bodies. And more than one. She tapped her fingers twice against the armrest of the bench and quickly switched to Star-trail's remote senses. Star-trail was currently perched on the desk at the Kurokawa home, Snowrealm's combat notes spread out in front of it. The moment her consciousness connected, it raised its head, its ears twitching.
Yuki Kurokawa was sitting at the desk writing something. Qiluo took a peek through Star-trail's eyes.
It was a shopping list with “butter, low-gluten flour, strawberries” written on it. She was preparing ingredients for her next batch of cookies.
Nothing requiring a Magical Girl's intervention had occurred today, so Yuki was currently focused entirely on a perfectly ordinary weekend baking plan.
Well, you go ahead and prepare then~ It's just a few low-tier ones anyway, let Mingyue handle them.
The tourists in the amusement park had yet to realize what was happening. They were still queuing for ice cream, taking photos, and walking toward the roller coaster. The children's laughter and the cheerful background music from the park's broadcast system blended together, creating a surreal contrast with the gray clouds rapidly gathering overhead.
Is my relaxing weekend gone again?
The park broadcast suddenly cut off the background music, replacing it with a female staff member's voice, which was clearly trying to suppress her panic: “Attention all guests, due to sudden weather conditions, some park facilities will be temporarily closed. Please follow the guidance of our staff and proceed in an orderly manner to the nearest indoor shelter. Please do not panic—”
Before she could finish, the first batch of Erosion Bodies dropped from the gray clouds at the top of the viewing tower. Three low-tier ones, resembling three masses of decaying halos peeled from the cloud layer.
They landed on the observation deck of the viewing tower, their limbs clawing at the edges of the guardrails as they hissed.
Screams erupted from the crowd at the base of the viewing tower. The female voice on the broadcast was still trying to maintain order, but no one could hear what she was saying anymore.
Qiluo ran a few steps toward the viewing tower against the flow of the crowd, then ducked into an unnoticed alleyway in the park.
Where was Nuomi? It should be with Shizuru right now.
Shizuru. She thought rapidly as she ran down the alley. Shizuru was the only one in the amusement park who could fight.
At the end of the alley was the employee entrance at the back of the viewing tower.
Qiluo pushed on the door. It was locked. She detached the smallest magic crystal from her belt, pressed it against the lock, and shattered the lock cylinder with a basic mana pulse. Once the door opened, she slipped inside and gently pulled it shut behind her.
The interior of the viewing tower was much quieter than the outside. The evacuation of the staff was mostly complete, and only emergency lights flickered in the corridors. She walked up one flight of stairs and found a window that offered a view of the outside without exposing her position.
Outside the window, the battle had already begun.
Nuomi's shockwave erupted from the center of the plaza in front of the viewing tower, blasting all three low-tier Erosion Bodies back several meters.
A dark blue figure descended from the sky, her scythe drawing an arc under the daylight.
Mingyue landed right in the center of the plaza, slamming the butt of her scythe into the ground. The impact cracked several of the paving stones beneath her feet.
Resting her hand on the window frame, Qiluo fixed her gaze on Mingyue. This wasn't the usual Mingyue.
She was using the new form she had only acquired yesterday.
With a horizontal sweep of Mingyue's scythe, the first low-tier Erosion Body was sliced in half. Black mist spewed out, and she leaped and flipped through the dark fog, swinging her scythe in a full moon arc that severed the second one and the newly landed, off-balance third one. In less than two breaths, all three low-tier ones were wiped out.
But the gray clouds did not dissipate, and three more fell. This time, they were three mid-tier ones.
What? Three mid-tiers?
Their bodies were covered in a carapace-like exoskeleton, their defensive power clearly far superior to the low-tier ones from earlier.
One of them landed on the exterior of the viewing tower, its limbs gripping the tracks of the sightseeing elevator as it slid down, screeching with a grating metallic sound.
Mingyue looked up. The structure of the viewing tower was too high; fighting on the tower's body would endanger the tourists who were still evacuating.
She needed to pull the battlefield away, but the sliding Erosion Body clearly had no intention of giving her that option.
Mingyue clearly realized this too. Giving up on drawing the fight away, she kicked off the ground and leapt, intercepting the descending Erosion Body head-on.
Her scythe sent sparks flying along the track, its blade slicing into the gaps of the Erosion Body's carapace. She used the momentum to anchor herself onto the metal framework of the tower's exterior.
Meanwhile, the other two mid-tier ones had landed on the ground and were flanking from both sides of the plaza. Mingyue, stuck on the tower, couldn't free herself to deal with them.
Qiluo's fingers tightened on the window frame. She seemed to be talking to herself, or perhaps trying to talk herself out of a decision she had already made.
The two mid-tier Erosion Bodies bypassed her defensive line from both sides of the plaza, closing in on the entrance to the ground floor of the viewing tower. Dozens of tourists who hadn't managed to retreat into the shelter were still crammed inside, and through the glass doors, people could be seen screaming while holding their children.
Shoot, this is bad. I should have called Yuki Kurokawa. I thought there were only three low-tier ones—how are more joining? That's not fair.
Calling Snowrealm now was out of the question. Even if she flew, she wouldn't make it from the Kurokawa residence to the amusement park in time. She couldn't use her main body's own mana; the world's rejection felt like an invisible film wrapping around every shred of her mana, and she had no idea what would happen if she used too much of it.
That left only one option.
She turned around, leaned her back against the wall, and closed her eyes, sinking her consciousness into Star-trail's magic circuit.
Star-trail was currently perched on the desk at the Kurokawa residence, raising its head the moment she connected. She channeled a portion of Star-trail's mana, pouring it into her own body through the conscious pathway between her main body and her clone.
Rate on N.U.
