Luo Shuangxing, who was called into Xia Mo’s room, looked at the girl in the black dress sitting casually on the living room sofa, her expression slightly tense.
She really wanted to ask, “Sister, was it really necessary to make such a big deal out of this?”
Changing clothes and coming to Xia Mo’s room just to discuss special training with me and Xia Mo?
“That’s right. We encountered enemies with quite formidable strength before. To avoid being caught off guard the next time we face them, I think it’s necessary for us to undergo special training,” Xia Mo nodded.
Since this was her idea, she naturally had to explain it clearly.
“Were the enemies we faced a few days ago really that strong?”
“Extremely strong. Don’t be fooled by the fact that they didn’t cause any damage to Xinghai City in the end. That was only because two of us were exceptionally strong Initial Bloom-class magical girls. If it had been magical girls with strength similar to mine, the battle would have been very difficult.”
Xia Mo nodded solemnly.
Luo Shuangyue, who was inadvertently praised by Xia Mo, showed a proud expression as if to boast, “That’s right, I was the MVP of that battle.”
“I see. But Senior White Night hasn’t appeared to train us for a long, long time. Xia Mo, are you thinking of training on your own?” Luo Shuangxing casually brought up White Night while Luo Shuangyue was still basking in her pride.
Since Xia Mo and Luo Shuangxing’s honeymoon trip to Jidong City, Ziye hadn’t shown up again.
Where would Senior White Night be? Ah, that’s truly hard to guess. Don’t you think so, my dear elder sister?
Luo Shuangxing shot Luo Shuangyue a strange look.
The pride on Luo Shuangyue’s face instantly vanished. She cleared her throat heavily and steered the conversation back on track.
“Ahem! I don’t know anything about this Ziye or White Night nonsense. If you want to train, then train. Why come find me?”
She was currently playing the role of Dark Moth, a villain on a different path from the magical girls. To join their special training meeting, she needed a good reason.
“When it comes to protecting Xinghai City, we’re on the same side,” Xia Mo then smoothly delivered the prepared reasoning that persuaded Luo Shuangyue to join the discussion.
She transformed again and released Ye Lin.
The three of them, girl and spirit, launched into a heated debate on how to deal with the hard shells of the magical beasts.
Luo Shuangxing’s idea was the simplest and most straightforward: Xia Mo’s current Floating Cannon couldn’t efficiently pierce the magical beasts’ armor simply because the energy wasn’t concentrated enough. If the power were focused, the Floating Cannon’s destructive power could multiply.
It was like a faucet with a constant water flow—the smaller the opening, the greater the impact force.
“This method works. The cannon mouth can be reduced to this size,” Ye Lin, as the weapon spirit, approved of Luo Shuangxing’s idea.
But the Floating Cannon’s mouth couldn’t be shrunk too small, or the weapon itself would be damaged during use.
It wasn’t possible for Xia Mo to shrink the cannon’s mouth to the size of a needle’s eye and magically increase its armor-piercing ability by countless times, defeating everything instantly.
Such a result would only cause Xia Mo’s Floating Cannon to explode under the intense internal pressure.
“Reshaping the front end of the Floating Cannon to make it suitable for dealing with armor?” After Luo Shuangxing proposed the simplest method, Luo Shuangyue began to use her imagination.
Since other magical girls could shape their magic into arrows, couldn’t Xia Mo make the front of her Floating Cannon look like that?
Right now, Xia Mo’s Floating Cannon was like a round log—flat at the front, relying solely on magical force impact for damage.
Sharpening the front end could elevate the impact power of the magic, perhaps even piercing the enemy directly.
“It’s a bit challenging, but I’ll try.”
“What if the magic carried special properties?” Ye Lin scratched her head.
“Like a highly corrosive poison or something?”
That was also a good idea, but Xia Mo couldn’t use it.
“No, I can’t make my magic possess those kinds of properties.”
Xia Mo’s magic had no special attributes. She had reached the Initial Bloom level by unleashing the power of bonds with her companions.
This made her magic very abstract—a ‘bond’ attribute.
Normally, this magic wasn’t different from ordinary magic, but when she felt the hearts of her friends or had a strong desire to protect them, her bond magic could explode with dozens or even hundreds of times the power.
To put it simply, it was a purely mental magic attribute.
It was also the magic attribute most capable of creating miracles.
But while this magic had a very high ceiling, its floor was extremely low.
Magical girls with this attribute could only have slight improvements in weaponry and magic power compared to Bud level after reaching Initial Bloom.
In other aspects, there was really no difference.
It was like taking a Bud-level magical girl, slightly expanding her six dimensions, and tossing her into Initial Bloom. If it weren’t for Luo Shuangyue’s training and Ye Lin’s support, Xia Mo’s status at Initial Bloom would be much lower than it was now.
“Sigh, so weak.”
“Hm?” Xia Mo raised her eyelids, thinking she heard something rude.
Luo Shuangyue immediately backed down when Xia Mo glared at her. “My bad, sorry!”
Luo Shuangxing showed a helpless expression at their interaction. “Do you two even remember your current roles? One’s a hero, the other a villain. Could you stop acting so ambiguous?”
“Shuangxing, you’re coming to train too. You might not encounter King-class magical beasts, but General-level ones could need your attention,” Xia Mo glared at Luo Shuangyue once more before quickly steering the topic back.
Luo Shuangxing’s current situation was similar to hers, so applying Xia Mo’s training methods wouldn’t be a problem.
It also involved compressing magic power and reshaping the Floating Cannon.
Speaking of which, Luo Shuangyue suddenly remembered something.
At Luo Shuangxing’s rate of progress, she should be close to Initial Bloom level by now, right?
As long as Luo Shuangxing hadn’t missed training these past days, even if she hadn’t hit a bottleneck, she should at least feel the frustration of not being able to improve.
“How is her current strength?” Luo Shuangyue asked indirectly.
“She still has some distance from Initial Bloom, but I feel like I’m almost hitting the ceiling of Bud level,” Luo Shuangxing answered.
“But I still have no idea how to break through.”
Luo Shuangxing was currently struggling to decide her future path—whether to follow her sister’s close-combat style, Xia Mo’s ranged support style, or other disciplines.
She still couldn’t decide, and without a decision, she couldn’t break through to Initial Bloom.
Such an important life choice was best made cautiously.
Luo Shuangyue thought her younger sister should take some more time to think carefully before making a choice.
“There’s one more question. You two know how to train, but what about your cat? What’s she going to do?”
Xia Mo and Luo Shuangxing could apply formulas to solve their training, but among Xinghai City’s magical girls, there was still an outlier—a catgirl who defied all logic.
Xiao Mimi, a catgirl who excelled in flexible stealth attacks like a cat, was poorly matched against heavily armored magical beasts.
With her tiny paws, she probably couldn’t even scratch the enemy’s shell.
“Hm… maybe we can extend her claws with magic?” Luo Shuangxing raised her hand and made a fierce gesture.
Like a lightsaber from a cartoon, such a thing might work for close combat against armor, right?
“I don’t think it will be very effective… but for now, it seems like the only option,” Luo Shuangyue thought it wasn’t reliable but couldn’t come up with anything better.
They couldn’t really have Xiao Mimi imitate big cats and bite with sharp teeth, right?
She didn’t have sharp teeth!
Well, let’s settle on this for now.
The General- and Soldier-level magical beasts that Luo Shuangxing and Xiao Mimi need to deal with shouldn’t be too powerful.
After all, the early General-level beasts could be soloed by Luo Shuangxing.
If it weren’t for the sheer numbers, there’d be no need to retreat and wait for Xia Mo to return.
“Then let’s meet tomorrow at 4 PM at the Magic Department’s training ground. We’ll start special training,” Xia Mo announced firmly. “Dark Moth, you’re coming too—as our target!”
“Eh?” Luo Shuangyue showed a timely surprised expression, as if to say, why do I have to come?
She was only called here to offer ideas. How did she become the target? That’s not right.
Of course, this was all an act, purely to reinforce Dark Moth’s image.
After all, a villain facing such a request from magical girls couldn’t accept it so cheerfully without any reservations.
“Help us out. Besides you, we can’t find anyone else to help,” Xia Mo clasped her hands together and pleaded sincerely.
“If you agree, I’ll grant you a favor!”
“Well… okay.”
Faced with Xia Mo’s sincere request, Luo Shuangyue nodded heavily after what seemed like a difficult inner struggle.
But after nodding, she still said stubbornly, “Don’t make this a habit!”
“Got it! Understood!”
Watching these two elder sisters put on a show, Luo Shuangxing felt embarrassed for them inside.
Was it really necessary to act out so much?
Sister, can you really refuse Xia Mo? Just agree quietly. Who are you fooling with that reluctant act?
Tsundere is so outdated, haven’t you heard?
Sigh, whatever. Let them play. It’s just a little fun between close sisters.
Luo Shuangxing, a lonely single, sighed inwardly.
Love really was baffling.
“Teacher, here’s my leave request.”
The next day, Luo Shuangxing walked into the office and handed her pre-prepared leave slip to her homeroom teacher.
Although all classes ended before 4 PM, there was still an hour and a half of Club Activities afterward.
This period also required leave to skip.
The teacher glanced at Luo Shuangxing’s leave slip, his expression becoming a little complicated.
The reason written was total nonsense: “My brother was hit by a car and I need to take care of him.”
At least say your brother caught a cold, right?
If her brother saw this slip, he’d probably be subjected to a strong “brotherly” scolding.
“Luo Shuangxing, next time write your leave reasons seriously,” the teacher said helplessly as he signed the slip.
These days, students found it easy to get leave as long as they came and handed in a request honestly. Teachers generally approved them.
“Got it, teacher!” Luo Shuangxing chuckled and happily ran out of the office.
Just as she ran out, she almost bumped into Xiao Yi standing just outside the door.
“Xiao Yi, why are you standing here?” Luo Shuangxing asked, startled and almost losing her footing.
She glanced behind Xiao Yi but didn’t see the class monitor nearby. Strange, those two used to be inseparable.
Xiao Yi lowered her head, clutching something in her hands.
After a few seconds of silence, she finally summoned the courage to look up and say, “I have something to tell you, Shuangxing.”
Something to tell me? Luo Shuangxing was confused but followed Xiao Yi to a slightly quieter spot.
Then, Xiao Yi handed over what she was holding.
It was a very beautiful pendant. Inside the transparent gem of the necklace, a spiral slowly rotated, continuously drawing Luo Shuangxing’s gaze.
“Shuangxing, we’re friends.”
Then, Xiao Yi’s voice sounded softly in Luo Shuangxing’s ear.
Friends? Are we really friends?
Luo Shuangxing withdrew her gaze, unsure of what Xiao Yi meant.
She recalled that their contact hadn’t been frequent, only once closely during the time she helped Xiao Yi evacuate.
With so few interactions, could they really be friends?
“Are we friends?” Xiao Yi repeated, this time as a question.
Her eyes were filled with longing and hope, like a pitiful little creature.
Luo Shuangxing bit her lip, still unable to refuse.
“Yes, we are friends.”
Xiao Yi immediately cheered, then opened her arms and said, “Then Shuangxing, can you give me a hug?”
Ah? Luo Shuangxing was completely lost. Had their relationship really progressed this fast? Was this okay?
They just asked if they were friends, and now it had become a hug request…
After the hug, does that mean…
No, no, can’t think like that.
They were decent people. Xiao Yi probably just developed some dependency after last time.
Thinking this, Luo Shuangxing opened her arms and hugged Xiao Yi briefly, then quickly separated.
This brief hug made Xiao Yi’s eyes shine even brighter. Her lips moved slightly as if she wanted to say something.
But after hesitating for a few seconds, she gave up and instead reached out to take back the pendant from Luo Shuangxing’s hand.