Chapter 3 | This Magical Girl Is a Bit Strange

She cast one last glance at her reflection in the display window, then turned and continued walking.

Solving the food problem was simpler than she had anticipated. At the early market just a street away, an old woman selling vegetables reacted to the magic crystal in Qiluo’s palm in a completely different way from the convenience store clerk.

The old woman stared at the glowing blue stone for a long time, then looked up at Qiluo’s face, then back down at the stone. Finally, with an attitude of ‘I’m too old to be afraid of anything,’ she exchanged a bag of oranges, three rice balls, and a bottle of water for the crystal.

“Little girl, is this a gem?” The old woman turned the crystal to the sunlight, its blue glow reflecting on her wrinkled face. “I don’t understand these things, but it looks pretty. My granddaughter likes shiny things.”

“Something like that,” Qiluo replied, accepting the food. “Thank you.”

“Thank me for what? It’s a barter, isn’t it?” The old woman carefully tucked the crystal into her apron pocket and smiled. “When I was a child, country markets often did things this way.”

Qiluo carried her food to a bench at the end of the early market and sat down. The rice balls were plum-flavored, with a red pickled plum wrapped inside the rice. As the sour and salty flavors burst on her tongue, her eyes suddenly felt a little warm.

It wasn’t from emotion, but from the sourness. Eating completely unfamiliar food, she recalled that at this time yesterday, she had been drinking tea and eating small cakes in the Royal Astronomical Observatory’s duty room, calculating next month’s magic supply quota.

She ate all three rice balls, then two oranges. The oranges were sweet, and the juice clung to her fingers, sticky.

Then Qiluo stood up and began today’s most important task: gathering information.

The method was simple: walk, observe, listen. She walked from the early market to the shopping street, from the shopping street to the residential area, and from the residential area to near a school.

Along the way, she saw countless posters, signs, and advertising screens, on which the same keywords repeatedly appeared. Magical Girl. This was more than just a word; it was a cultural phenomenon. Stores had Magical Girl merchandise, TVs in electronics shops played animated Magical Girl commercials, and two schoolgirls walking past her were discussing Magical Girls.

“Did you see it? Meruru’s Star Form, the stars on her skirt actually glowed!”

“I saw it, I saw it! I absolutely love that Transformation Sequence, it’s so well-made. The real Meruru couldn’t be better than that, could she?”

“Who knows? But I bet the real Meruru is even prettier than on TV!”

Qiluo slowed her pace, following the two girls to listen a bit longer. From their conversation, she gathered several key pieces of information: First, people in this world called those who could use magic Magical Girls.

Second, were real Magical Girls also made into anime? Why hadn't this been revealed immediately? Why hadn't everyone known right away?

The second point particularly intrigued her. Cognitive interference. This meant that a Magical Girl’s transformation wasn’t just a change in appearance; it also involved some kind of magical effect that interfered with perception. This level of magic construction wasn't something ordinary beings could achieve. In her original world, only high-tier Temple Magical Beasts had similar abilities.

This world was far deeper than it appeared on the surface.

Qiluo drank a few sips of water from a park fountain and continued her information gathering.

In the afternoon, she found several books about Magical Girls in a corner of a large bookstore. She pulled one out, leaned against a bookshelf, and sat on the floor to read.

The book’s contents confirmed and supplemented her conjectures. The power of Magical Girls in this world came from magical creatures, magical constructs from alternate dimensions, diverse in appearance, possessing the ability to form contracts with humans.

After contracting, humans gained the ability to transform and fight, while magical creatures received a certain energy feedback through the contract. The true identity and origin of magical creatures had almost no public records; researchers could only confirm that they came from an alternate dimension adjacent to this world.

Alternate dimension.

Qiluo closed the book and returned it to the shelf.

She had wanted to keep reading, but why was the clerk next to her staring at her? Knowledge should be shared, shouldn’t it? How stingy!

Was her own world considered an alternate dimension adjacent to this one? If so, then she, Qiluo Tian Gong, already fit this world’s definition of a magical creature. From an alternate dimension, possessing magic.

Was I a magical creature all along?

Once this thought surfaced, it couldn’t be suppressed.

She had felt resistance yesterday when using the cleaning spell.

The same today.

It was like she couldn’t use magic. What did her teacher call this back in school?

World rejection?

I should have paid attention in class! This isn't my fault! Who knew the teacher's lectures were like lullabies!

Alright, no use dwelling on the past. Brain, think! What was the solution?

Qiluo hugged her head and squatted down, as if that would help her recall her student-day knowledge.

...

I remember now! I need to become a part of this world! Integrate into its rules!

For example, in other sword-and-magic worlds, a person like Qiluo, who possesses magic, would need to become a mage or something similar in that world. If her magic was above that world’s threshold, then she would be a Sage or a Witch.

In this world, those who can use magic are Magical Creatures.

So, if I become a Magical Creature, that solves it, right?

I’m a genius! I truly deserve to be a graduate of the Royal Academy of Magic!

Good! I am currently human, so I’ll use my power to construct a mimetic clone, creating an appearance that matches this world’s impression of a magical creature. This way, I won’t have to worry about being rejected by this world, because magical creatures are native to it.

Fantastic, I’ve understood everything!

More importantly, if the Eye of the End truly is approaching this world, then this world is doomed. She didn’t have a chance to stop the Eye of the End in her original world, but in this world, she could at least do something.

Qiluo ran out of the bookstore and found an empty bench in the park to sit on.

She definitely hadn’t run out because she was squatting in a corner giggling like an idiot and couldn’t bear the looks people were giving her.

She pulled her robe out from under her arm, spread it over her knees, and her fingers slowly traced the star-trail pattern on the lining.

She needed to design a magical creature.

An image that was cute enough, mysterious enough, and charming enough for a teenage girl to want to form a contract with. It didn't need to be too big, not too scary; ideally, small enough to perch on a shoulder.

Silver-white fur was a good choice: clean, and related to the starry sky. A cat-fox hybrid body: the agility of a cat, the elegance of a fox. Add a star-shaped mark on its forehead, make its pupils rotating star maps, and have starlight particles float at the tip of its tail.

Perfect, what a cute image!

Qiluo closed her eyes and began to construct the magic within her mind.

This was what she was best at.

To put it simply, her brain was working overtime. Qiluo was best at fantasizing, imagining herself suddenly having the power to extinguish the star of death in the sky, becoming an admired Witch whose name would be written into history.

A magical creature’s body didn’t require a real physiological structure, just a sufficiently stable magic framework and natural mimetic behavior. For consciousness, she could use a split-mind technique to control both her main body and the clone simultaneously; this would require some practice, but it was entirely feasible with her mental strength level.

She had also thought of a name.

“Star-trail.”

It shared the same name as the pattern on the lining of her robe. It was both a mark of her past and her new identity in this world.

The construction work lasted the entire afternoon. As the setting sun once again dyed the sky orange-red, Qiluo opened her eyes. On the robe draped over her knees sat a silver-white creature.

Thirty centimeters tall. A cat-fox hybrid body. The star-shaped mark on its forehead glowed faintly in the twilight. Deep within its pupils, a star map slowly rotated. Starlight particles at the tip of its tail sprinkled down with each wag, dissipating into fine dust of light the moment they touched the air.

It tilted its head to look at Qiluo, and Qiluo tilted her head back at it.

One hundred percent synchronization. Sensory sharing normal. Motor control normal. Magic consumption within acceptable limits.

“Hello,” Qiluo said.

Star-trail opened its mouth and let out a clear call, echoing with a hint of the cosmos. It wasn’t a cat’s meow, nor a fox’s bark; it was a sound somewhere between a wind chime and a harp. Qiluo was very pleased with this effect.

“From today on, I am you,” she told Star-trail, her tone as serious as if making a solemn vow. “You are Star-trail, a magical creature from an alternate dimension. I am Qiluo Tian Gong, an ordinary transfer student. We are not the same person, understood?”

Star-trail nodded, sprinkling Qiluo’s lap with starlight particles from its tail.

“...Alright, the first step is complete.”

Qiluo picked up Star-trail and placed it on her shoulder, then stood up to stretch her legs, stiff from sitting all afternoon. The small silver-white creature perched steadily on her left shoulder, its tail wrapped around her nape, the tip gently resting on her right shoulder, like a scarf.

She turned her head to look at it. Star-trail was also looking at her, her face reflected in its rotating star map pupils.

“Next,” Qiluo Tian Gong said, gazing at the city lights beginning to illuminate in the distance, her voice calm and firm, “I need an identity. An identity that allows me to enter a school.”