Give children a little self-destruction shock to their worldview.

Page 165

This same rigor was also applied to Mayumi Haga.

Furthermore, because Mayumi Haga's learning progress in this area is too slow, Rania's gaze towards her is becoming increasingly dangerous. Having been absent without asking for leave these past few days, Rania will probably skin her alive in her dreams.

The term "live skinning" here is not an exaggeration; Rania would actually do it.

However, for Mayumi Haga, such an extreme approach was practically nothing more than playing around.

Looks like I'll have to explain things to Rania properly tonight...

Mayumi Haga is completely clueless when it comes to coaxing people, especially since Rania is a strange and eccentric young witch. After spending so many years together, she has come to understand just how difficult Rania can be.

Having spent the afternoon mentally preparing herself for the questioning that evening, Mayumi Haga fell asleep with a slightly uneasy feeling, waiting for the clear sound of bells to enter her dreams as usual, carried by the wind.

But she only had one uneventful night, without any dreams.

This was the first time in over half a month that Mayumi Haga had slept so well. However, upon waking, while feeling refreshed, confusion and vague worries crept in.

...Where is Rania?

.................................................. .......................

To be honest, Mayumi Haga did not neglect Lania despite being busy on weekdays.

Because the other party possessed the body of her classmate Kagura Yu, after Lania did some strange things to Kagura Yu's body, the rather shy Kagura Yu avoided Haga Mayumi for a long time.

Mayumi Haga also felt a little uneasy. Seeing that the other person was keeping their distance, she also considerately did not approach them.

Therefore, unless there is an emergency, she generally will not take the initiative to talk to Kagura Yu unless Lania comes to her.

I really should go find Kagura-kun now...

It was only then that Mayumi Haga learned from Hitomi Tono that Yu Kagura had been admitted to the hospital.

After all, since no one else knew that Kagura Yu was possessed by Lania, and magical girls wouldn't be discussed with ordinary people, Kagura Yu naturally became to have little interaction with Haga Mayumi on the surface.

In addition, the recent events have been intense and complicated, causing Mayumi Haga to miss many days of work. Later, during the holidays, when she wasn't in school, she had even less opportunity to contact him.

Standing outside the ward, Mayumi Haga realized that she hadn't seen Yu Kagura for a long time.

Because she intended to find Lania, Mayumi Haga intentionally or unintentionally avoided everyone else and stood alone outside the ward.

She knocked on the door, and a voice from inside said, "Come in," so Haga Mayumi went in.

The purple-haired girl's face looked normal, but there was an indescribable worry and anxiety in her expression.

Previously, when others asked Kagura Yu why she had disappeared and why she was wearing pajamas in the neighboring Strange City, she would always fall silent or give vague answers, saying that she didn't remember either.

It wasn't until Mayumi Haga appeared before her that she finally found a lifeline. Her eyes lit up, and she grabbed Mayumi's sleeve, crying out, "Ranya, Miss Ranya—"

Mayumi Haga patted the back of her hand, signaling her to calm down a bit. She then composed herself, sat back on the hospital bed, and recounted what had happened that day.

That day, Rania, whose mood had suddenly turned extremely bad, used her body to leave during the night.

After arriving in Strange City, Lania left her body and disappeared without a trace.

"Miss Rania doesn't seem to be in good condition..." Kagura Yu said with great concern.

Her words were actually quite euphemistic; to put it more bluntly, Rania's soul was like a candle flickering in the wind.

A sense of foreboding gradually spread through Mayumi Haga's heart, and she felt a heavy weight on her mind. After obtaining relevant clues from Yu Kagura, she decided to head to Strange City without delay.

As she left the ward and went down the stairs, her gaze suddenly caught sight of two people talking under a tree in the distance outside the window.

One of them was someone she knew well; it was her unreliable guardian, Miss Sugiyama Rikka.

The other person was someone she had never met before.

However, judging from the other party's dark blue hair color and similar age to Sugiyama Rika, it is very likely that he is an old acquaintance of Sugiyama Rika in the field of magic.

The two people appeared to be arguing.

Text: 259. Hoshino Yui

During her magical girl days, Sugiyama Rika had a rather special teammate.

Magical Girl Blue Star, whose real name is Hoshino Yui, is not an ordinary human.

In fact, neither its appearance nor its internal structure is beyond the scope of human beings.

What truly sets her apart from ordinary people is the way she was born.

She is a life conceived through magic.

Hoshino Yui's genes come from a magician from a thousand years ago.

This predecessor, known as the Blue Star Witch, is an indelible figure in the history of magic, being the pioneer of human alchemy.

A thousand years later, descendants used the blood left behind by the Blue Star Witch and the human alchemy technology she developed, which is now taboo, to create Hoshino Yui.

Hoshino Yui perfectly inherited the magical talent of that Blue Star witch, and her appearance is almost identical to that ancestor. After becoming a magical girl, she is incredibly powerful.

In Miracle City at that time, a new generation of magical ability users, represented by the magical girl Akagi, were very active. However, due to her pride, Hoshino Yui did not join that silly team at first.

Later, in order to occupy an important spiritual vein and recreate the twilight era when black magic flourished a thousand years ago, the black magic society sought out Hoshino Yui.

This bizarre organization thrusts Hoshino Yui into the spotlight, placing her on the opposite side of the ridiculously powerful magical girls.

Of course, this crisis was also successfully resolved by the magical girl Aka, also known as Sugiyama Rika and her friends.

In short, he beat up Hoshino Yui, who had gone astray in a moment of madness, and brought her back to the right path.

Despite the conflict, they eventually became very good friends.

However, after the Five Colors Squad disbanded back then, Hoshino Yui left the city and hadn't kept in touch with these old friends for a long time, until now when she suddenly appeared in front of Sugiyama Rika.

Twenty-eight-year-old Hoshino Yui looks pretty much the same as before.

She had shoulder-length dark blue hair with a white highlight at her temples. Her outfit was androgynous, featuring a loose black shirt paired with an A-line long skirt, a silver necklace, and a sparkling crystal blue earring on her left ear.

The two stood face to face, and it was clear that he was about the same height as Sugiyama Rikka.

Sugiyama Rika was delighted by Hoshino Yui's sudden appearance: "Long time no see, Yui! It's been almost ten years, hasn't it? Where have you been all this time? Oh, right, Ayasa's about to get off work, we can all go out and get together later. Do you remember Yoko? She's here too, it's a pity Rika had to go to work first, but if you come, you can just call her over. You're not in a hurry to leave, are you? We can all have a nice meal together this weekend..."

This guy just keeps talking.

Hoshino Yui interrupted Sugiyama Rika's rambling: "I don't have time to get together with you guys."

"Huh?" Sugiyama Rika looked completely bewildered. "Is something urgent?"

"Can you stop being so carefree all the time..." Hoshino Yui couldn't do anything about Sugiyama Rika's optimistic idiot, "It's about the spiritual veins."

The word "spiritual vein" made Sugiyama Rika pause, and the smile on her usually optimistic face faded slightly.

She said, "I can't control things like spiritual veins right now."

Logically speaking, after a magical girl breaks her contract with a gem monster, she is no longer obligated to protect the city's spiritual veins.

Not only that, but they also lost the ability to directly interfere with the spiritual veins.

Even active magical girls rarely receive recognition from the spirit veins, let alone those who have ended their careers.

Therefore, when Hoshino Yui revealed that there was a problem with the spiritual vein, Sugiyama Rika subconsciously chose to conceal it.

Strictly speaking, only Terasaki Ayasa and the current magical girls knew that she had become the head of Miracle City.

When her previous colleagues left, Sugiyama Rika hadn't even officially taken office yet.

Where exactly did Hoshino Yui come from...?

Moreover, the anomalies within the spiritual vein are currently beyond the comprehension of outsiders, unless someone like Sugiyama Rika establishes a connection with the spiritual vein...

and many more.

Sugiyama Rika realized something, and she looked up in surprise at Hoshino Yui, a rainbow light flashing in her pupils.

The other person's body underwent the same change as his own, that is, he became an elf.

However, progress will be slower, and it is still in its initial stage.

If Sugiyama Rika's assimilation progress has reached 50%, then Hoshino Yui's progress has only reached 1%.

This is also why Sugiyama Rika didn't notice the problem with the other person at first; after all, the degree was too slight to be noticed without careful observation.

"When did you..." Sugiyama Rika opened her mouth, her face full of disbelief.

After leaving Miracle City, where did Hoshino Yui go, and what happened to her?

She had no idea about any of these things.

Back then, Hoshino Yui said she was going to find the truth about her birth, and then she disappeared from everyone's sight. She never showed up at the annual gatherings, and there was no news of her at all. It was as if she had vanished into thin air.

I never expected to be in this state after coming back.

and many more.

Sugiyama Rika noticed the silver necklace on Hoshino Yui's chest and realized that the pattern on the necklace looked quite familiar to her.

The last magic user to adorn themselves with these star elements was the magician from the Star Tower.

Could it be that……

“I saw my mother,” Hoshino Yui said. “The one who gave me life and brought me into this world. She is now inside that tower.”

……I see.

Sugiyama Rika understood why Hoshino Yui was there.

It is estimated that the other party found the Tower of Stars by chance after leaving Miracle City, and the assimilation on their body is also the Tower's entry ticket.

After all, members of the Star Tower had also come looking for her.

But, that Blue Star Witch is actually inside the tower...?

I remember the magician saying that most of the predecessors had entered a deep sleep and would only wake up when the world faced a crisis.

In other words, was that Blue Star Witch one of the few who were clear-headed?

Or……

Combining the anomaly of the spiritual vein with Hoshino Yui's expression, Sugiyama Rika had already found the answer.

It seems that it was awakened because of the recent anomaly in the spiritual veins.

The souls of many great predecessors slumber deep within the spiritual veins and within the Star Tower, only awakening when they sense danger.

“So, my mother asked me to deliver a message to you,” Hoshino Yui said. “She hopes you can go to the coordinates of the Star Tower immediately; your power is indispensable.”

The smile on Sugiyama Rika's face finally disappeared completely.

She hesitated for a moment: "But it seems like you have very little leave for visiting relatives."

Text: 260. It'll be terrible when the guardian comes back!

"Is this about family visit leave?!" Hoshino Yui didn't expect that Sugiyama Sataka would still be thinking about this kind of thing at this crucial moment. She really wanted to grab Sugiyama Sataka by the collar and yell at her like she used to, "Is the world about to end?!"

“Um,” Sugiyama Rika slowly raised her hand, asking earnestly, “which of these wasn’t a major crisis that threatened to destroy the world?”

"...It seems so."

Hoshino Yui thought about it carefully and realized that every time a crisis, supposedly of a world-class nature, struck, it was always resolved smoothly.

"Wait, I almost got past you! Even if we've always been able to handle this, we can't let our guard down!" Hoshino Yui realized.

It is absolutely unacceptable to become arrogant because of past successes.

Unlike Sugiyama Rika, who is always inexplicably confident, Hoshino Yui is more cautious and composed.

She wants to be as prepared as possible when facing unknown threats.

"You're always so leisurely, it's infuriating." Hoshino Yui's teeth itched at the sight of that stupid face.

How infuriating! And this guy actually beat me back then!

This also shows that Sugiyama Rika is indeed quite outstanding, after all, Hoshino Yui herself is already a copy of a once-in-a-millennium genius.

Perhaps Sugiyama Rika won back then because of the protagonist's halo, but generally speaking, in children's magical girl works like these, there won't be a plot where the protagonist of the previous work is weakened and used as a stepping stone for the next generation.

Furthermore, Sugiyama Rika is still in her prime, and her magical abilities have not declined; on the contrary, they are much stronger than they were at their peak.

Even Hoshino Yui, who was once her teammate, can no longer see through Sugiyama Sataka's true strength.

When she first learned that she had to return to Miracle City to ask Sugiyama Rikka for help, her feelings were quite complicated.

After all, she had always wanted to prove herself to Sugiyama Rika, and unilaterally regarded her as her lifelong rival, which shows that she was a very competitive person.

From birth, she knew that she was a creation of the Blue Star witch's genes, flowing with the exact same blood as that great witch, and her magical talent was naturally among the strongest in the world.

Hoshino Yui knew she was a genius, and before meeting Sugiyama Rika, she firmly believed that she was the best.