When Luo You rushed to the scene, she was amazed to find that the dimensional beast had already been dealt with.
Mu Shui… Of course, it wasn’t her.
The magical girls of Flower Sea City didn’t have the ability to take down a ghost-class dimensional beast alone.
“Xingyue….”
Luo You sensed a lingering fragrance in the air and instantly identified its owner.
But she couldn’t see her anywhere.
It seemed Xingyue had just happened to pass by and casually defeated the dimensional beast in passing.
“Mu Shui, what happened?”
“Ah! Th-that! It was Lady Xingyue!”
Mu Shui stammered with excitement.
Xingyue’s method of subjugation was practically an art—she showed no mercy and simply crushed the dimensional beast outright.
It didn’t even look like a battle.
Stepping on a bug while passing by might be harder; at least you have to lift your foot to do that, but Xingyue just glanced at it, and the dimensional beast died.
“She just looked at it and it died?”
Luo You was shocked.
Good grief, no wonder that Xingyue girl is always casting flirtatious glances during the duels before the Empress—turns out she’s trained some kind of eye technique!
You’re really something, aren’t you.
Fortunately, I have divine particles protecting me, otherwise who knows when I’d have fallen for her tricks!
Despicable woman!
“Where is she?” “She left.”
“How’s the scene? Any casualties?”
“None found so far…”
From behind, a few streaks of magical light belonging to magical girls arrived belatedly—it was Luo Zining and Qiushui, among others.
When they saw the dead dimensional beast on the playground, their expressions were stunned, their pupils practically trembling.
Especially Luo Zining, who was utterly horrified inside.
She’d only arrived about half a minute later than Jinlin, yet the beast had already been taken down?!
How terrifying!
“Notify the relevant departments to come and collect the corpse, leave one person to check for any injured, the rest of you, as you please!”
Luo You gave simple instructions and led the way off herself.
“Lady Jinlin… ♥ So cool!”
A group of magical girls swooned, eyes turning into hearts, nearly drooling.
“As expected of Lady Jinlin, that unrivaled sense of security!”
“I’ve never seen Lady Jinlin panic, she’s so reliable.”
“And just now, she so casually declared herself an ‘Egalitarian’—saying that kind of thing in front of the media, she’d get torn apart!”
“I’ve decided! I’ll become an Egalitarian from now on too!”
At this point, the magical girls of Flower Sea City branch finally noticed Luo Zining’s presence.
“Hm? Little Red Riding Hood? Why are you still here?”
Wh–?! Luo Zining was petrified on the spot.
“Ah, ah, that’s not what I meant! I just thought you’d gone to the Nine Seas, so why are you suddenly back?”
“…Just dropped by on my way.”
Luo Zining turned back with a somewhat broken heart, looked for a moment in the direction Jinlin had left.
“I have something to do at the branch, I’ll be going ahead!”
With that, she sped away at top speed.
After hearing her former teammates’ almost godlike praise for Jinlin, Luo Zining became even more determined to observe Jinlin up close.
She just had to!
To earn such admiration from teammates, either she had some brainwashing ability, or there was something about her that Luo Zining had to learn!
After returning to Flower Sea City’s branch, she just happened to see Jinlin return to the Training Room, so she hurriedly reined in her magic and secretly followed.
At that moment, the Training Room was empty.
Jinlin walked in, grabbed a bottle of ice water from the fridge, chugged it down, and, under Luo Zining’s stunned gaze, her long silver hair gradually turned gold.
“Phew–! Maintaining this hair color spell is such a pain, it really distracts me!”
Jinlin casually fanned herself with her hand, complaining loudly as if to vent:
“Trying to keep up the image of a ‘leader’ is so~~~ tiring! I can’t even show any wavering emotions in front of the team, it’s way too hard!”
“What ‘Egalitarian’? Hah! What a joke! I just want to keep casualties as close to zero as possible, I’m just as conflicted, okay! But you’ve got to face reality sometimes, you know!”
“So exhausting! Way too exhausting! Who could handle this? Did the Ten Seats seniors all get through it this way? Maybe I should just quit altogether.”
After a few more complaints, she seemed to have rested enough, turned her hair back to silver, and walked out of the Training Room as if nothing had happened.
***
Meanwhile, hidden in the shadows, Luo Zining felt as if she’d entered a “colorless” state.
Meaning, her mind was almost at a standstill.
Can’t show any wavering in front of the team?
[Come to think of it, whether it was Jinlin’s answer to the media during the last terror incident, or her decisions just now when weighing the lives of civilians, she made up her mind without the slightest hesitation…]
Luo Zining stared blankly at the empty Training Room.
Back during the Flower Sea City terror attack, it had been an extremely dangerous situation.
Every magical girl present wanted to rush in and save people immediately—it’s human nature, even more so for magical girls.
But Jinlin went against the tide and made it clear she wouldn’t storm into the Thousand Goods Mall to catch the culprits right away, even stating it boldly in front of the media.
That waiting period meant giving up on some lives that could have been saved.
Luo Zining had no idea what kind of pressure Jinlin must have borne to make that call.
Did Jinlin waver back then?
Most likely, in private, she complained just as bitterly as she did now.
“So that’s it… her entire image is built on ‘never wavering’…”
Luo Zining muttered softly.
It was precisely this sense of stability that made Jinlin’s beliefs spread among the magical girls—turning girls who had originally supported Xingyue and Manjushahua into Jinlin’s fans.
If Jinlin were to waver even once, her image might not crash all the way to zero in the magical girls’ eyes, but it definitely wouldn’t be so sacred anymore.
“In other words, should I learn to endure like her?”
“…No, that’s not right.”
She shook her head.
“If I just copy Jinlin’s formula, it’ll never quite fit me. It’s not enough to just mimic her—I need to go a step further, improve on it… Otherwise, I’ll just be a ridiculous imitator forever…”
“My past actions—Haizhe and Huahua know them all. It’s too late to build an unwavering persona in front of them now, but not every road is blocked. There are always other ways…”
Luo Zining felt like she’d found something, so she sat cross-legged on the spot, unmoving for a long time.
Her focus was wholly on her thoughts, completely unaware that every move was being recorded from behind by a certain brat with a camcorder.
***
Zhizhi quietly slipped away.
She went straight to Xingyue’s dorm, removed the magic that hid her presence, and turned off the camera.
“All done!”
“Yo, got it all on tape?”
Luo You, waiting in the dorm, took the camcorder from her.
“Just like you said, I caught every moment she was spying on you these days—no way she’d ever expect that, right? That’s what I call Red Hood catches the phantom—Zhizhi’s always behind!”
Zhizhi placed her hands on her hips with pride, while that weird background music started playing again.
Luo You couldn’t really appreciate the taste in bgm, but the atmosphere was clear—it was all about one thing—“Alright, alright, when we get home, Mama will give Zhizhi a special treat~”
“Hey! I told you not to pretend to be my mom in that tone!”
“Alright, alright, we’ll talk at home.”
Well, after all, she’d already agreed to it last time in the bath.
Not that it mattered; even if she didn’t use this little devil succubus tone, Luo You was confident she’d turn Zhizhi into her own Starwrath force girl soon enough!
By then, she’d have to accept whatever flavor of ‘Mama’ she was given!
Zhizhi had no idea about these wicked thoughts. Inside, she was still a pure child, happily awaiting her Mama’s reward.
Bouncing over with happy steps, she came up to Luo You and asked, “I got the video, how are you going to use it?”
“Of course, I’m sending it to her colleagues.”
With that, Luo You sent both Mu Shui’s monologue video and Zhizhi’s footage with a swish to the magical girls at the Nine Seas branch.
Let the magical girls there know just how much effort Luo Zining was making for them—surely it would help her immensely.
“Youyou… To go this far for your junior, you’re really so gentle, so kind, Yasashii~~!! suki~!”
“Hey, do you want to try a different kind of motherly love when we get back? Ever heard of rattan-braised pork?”
It was Luo You’s first time feeling a bit embarrassed at being teased like that.
“Seriously, not many magical girls would do this much for a junior, you must really like her, huh? What do you say, want to be Little Red Riding Hood’s Onee-sama?”
Onee-sama and imouto are perfectly normal elsewhere, but in the Magic Alliance, they’re practically synonymous with ‘yuri.’
“Whoa! What an expression of pure disgust!”
Zhizhi was startled by the look of revulsion on Luo You’s face.
“Alright, alright, just kidding.”
She’d only wanted to check; honestly, she didn’t want UU to become someone else’s Onee-sama at all.
Oh?
Zhizhi’s bright eyes glanced at the door, then at Luo You, and she grinned mischievously.
“Hehe~ I’ll be heading back to the border then, won’t bother you two.”
“Mm, go on.”
Luo You already knew that an uninvited guest had arrived outside the door.
The real owner of this room!
Knock knock–
“I’m coming in.”
Xingyue entered without waiting for a response, locking the door behind her.
She strode across the corridor straight into the room.
“Yo, Xingyue, I knew you’d come looking for me, so I came to your dorm ahead of time to wait.”
Luo You greeted her calmly, eyes on her phone.
She’d already guessed Xingyue would come after hearing she’d subjugated the dimensional beast—no surprise there.
However, her greeting strangely received no reply from Xingyue.
Luo You looked up from her phone.
Only then did she notice Xingyue’s gaze was fixed on the pillow on the bed.
Or rather, on the pair of feet resting on that pillow.
“Ah.”
Luo You’s mouth opened in a small “o.”
Shoot, I’ve gotten into the habit of propping my feet on Xingyue’s pillow whenever I come to her dorm, didn’t even notice.
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