The next day dawned bright and clear, a gentle breeze weaving through the streets where traffic had begun to stir, though the sidewalks remained nearly deserted.
Who wouldn’t fear crossing paths with a freak?
As fate would have it, a freak did indeed emerge that day.
And, by some twist of misfortune, a magical girl was also out and about.
Beneath the shadow of an overpass, a towering figure loomed, its silhouette far too massive to belong to any ordinary human.
One glance was enough to know: this was no man.
“Huff, huff! To think you’d dare approach me, Jawbreaker, instead of fleeing?”
His voice, deep and resonant, echoed under the bridge as he stepped from the shadows.
Sunlight glinted off his terrifying steel jaw, its surface gleaming with a sharp, menacing brilliance.
This was no ordinary bruteāa hulking figure clad in scant cloth, his presence overwhelming.
Yet, to his misfortune, the girls he intercepted met his gaze with either silent disdain or mocking amusement, clearly underestimating him.
Luo Jialan flashed a reckless grin, striding forward to the front of the group with purpose.
Su Mu, meanwhile, whipped out her handheld device and began scanning.
Opportunities to flex her abilities in real combat were rare, and she wasn’t about to let this one pass.
[Scanning in progressā]
[Subject: Steeljaw. Baseline magical energy: E-rank.]
[Proceed with deep data extraction?]
Reading the results, Su Mu’s lips curled into a sly smile, her eyes crinkling with delight.
She stepped closer, her voice dripping with mockery.
“Heh, I thought a big guy like you would be something. Turns out, you’re just a small-time punk!”
Steeljaw’s face twisted, his voice rumbling from that metallic maw as he glared at the insolent girl.
“Foolish little wretch, you dare mock me? We’ll see how that mouth of yours fares after I teach it a lesson!”
Su Mu’s grin didn’t falter, but her fingers danced across her device with lightning speed.
‘Talk to me like that? Did you buy your bravado wholesale?”
“Click!”
[Deep extraction complete. Intercepted data as follows:]
[Liu Hao: Unemployed drifter, male, in high spirits.]
[Steeljaw: E-rank magical strength, bite force equivalent to an elevator’s steel doors closing. No public persona.]
[āProceed with modification?]
A total small fry.
Su Mu was about to tweak his data when Luo Jialan stepped forward, her hand already gripping the gleaming military saber that had appeared as if by magic.
“Ho! Two of you, eh? Gahaha, no matterātwo or twenty, I’ll crush you all the same!” Steeljaw bellowed.
Su Mu’s patience snapped.
She executed the modification.
‘Turn this punk’s jaw into a toilet!’
In an instant, Steeljaw felt his jaw grow heavy, but before he could react, Luo Jialan’s figure blurred past him like a gust of wind.
A flash of steel, and her saber gleamed pristine, untouched by blood.
Yet in the next moment, the creatureānow sporting a grotesque toilet for a jawāwas engulfed in a spray of crimson.
His shocked eyes darted back as his body, beyond his control, collapsed to the ground.
The arc of her blade had sliced through the seams of muscle and bone, severing the nerves in his limbs.
Dragged down by the weight of his new porcelain appendage, he crashed to the pavement.
What an utterly unlucky small fry.
Luo Jialan spared his life.
A creature of this caliber only needed to be incapacitated and handed over to the Combat Division.
Su Mu, staring at the toilet-jawed monstrosity, was reminded of a time when she herself had been cornered.
Another E-rank freak, powerless to fight back.
The Combat Division claimed low-tier freaks were given tasks akin to prison labor, a chance to keep living.
But Su Mu didn’t buy such obvious lies.
This world was brutally unkind to freaks.
Most were stripped of any chance to choose their fate, driven by hunger to commit atrocities.
But if they chose to feed on others’ suffering, they should’ve known the consequences of failure.
Su Mu could only sigh.
It was an irreconcilable conflict.
Humans turned into freaks lost the right to a peaceful existenceāunlessā¦
Unless they were like her.
Perhaps, one day, she could teach Mi Xian some tricks, and let her pass them on to other freaks.
‘They stir up trouble online, and when they’re ripe for the picking, I’ll swoop in with admin privileges and harvest them. Heh.’ š
“What a devious little plan, Su Mu. I like it,” Irina’s voice chimed in her mind, startling her.
“But you know, freaks can choose their fates. Some even become magical girls, like you and me.”
Irina’s cryptic words sent a jolt through Su Mu.
‘So I really did transform from a freak into a magical girl?’
“It’s not easy, but the proof is standing right in front of you. Cherish this hard-won life, dear.”
‘Of course I will.’
The Combat Division arrived swiftly to clean up the mess.
After offering their respects, they whisked the toilet-jawed freak away.
Someone muttered about why the creature had a toilet for a jaw, but Su Mu pretended not to hear, brushing it off with a vague smile.
***
Beyond the overpass, the salty breeze of the sea swept through, tousling Su Mu’s soft pink hair.
She marveled at the sensationāshe’d never seen the ocean before.
Her steps grew lighter, almost giddy, as she slung her bag over her shoulder.
Noticing her excitement, Miti, trailing behind, felt a sudden urge to sneak up and surprise Su Mu with a playful grab.
But with so many eyes around, she held back.
‘Wait till we’re in the waterāI’ll give that little mouse a shock she won’t forget!’
The moment the boundless sea came into view, Su Mu’s blue eyes widened, reflecting the hues of sky and water.
She started toward the beach, only to be tugged back by Luo Jialan.
“Hey, slow down! You haven’t changed yet!”
Su Mu giggled, peeling off her T-shirt and shorts to reveal a snug peach-white swimsuit underneath.
‘As if I wouldn’t come prepared.’
The others followed to change into swimsuits.Ā
Tang Nai snapped her fingers, and her clothes vanished, leaving her in a sleek black swimsuit.
Though her figure wasn’t flat, and her skin glowed with a subtle sheen, she lackedā¦ impact.
After all, as a famous physicist once theorized: the greater the mass, the greater the attraction.
Su Mu’s gaze drifted to Ye Wanqing, whose proud stance screamed confidence.
Her red swimsuit, adorned with a cartoonish yellow duck, clashed hilariously with her mature demeanorāa child’s design on a woman’s frame.
‘How can a duck be that bigā¦’
“Staring, are we?” Ye Wanqing teased, smirking.
“Come on, get in the water!”
But before she could bask in her triumph, Su Mu’s attention was yanked away by a force far greater.
Motes approached, one hand shading her eyes as she squinted against the sun.
And the gravitational pull that stole Su Mu’s focus from Ye Wanqing?
It was an order of magnitude greater.
In that moment, Su Mu understood the principle of tides.
When a celestial bodyālarge, pale, and perfectly roundādraws near, its gravitational pull causes the sea to rise.
And lookāright now, the tide was coming in.