In the dark bedroom.
The melodic opening theme of the Magic Girl show echoed through the room, and a call notification lit up on the phone screen, but no one answered the call.
“Hello, the number you have dialed is currently unattended. Please leave a message.”
“...Hello, is this Ms. Iris?”
A woman's voice came from the other end of the line, a bit distant and unclear.
“We understand your situation, and the Hero Association has decided not to pursue today's events. I sincerely hope you can recover soon.”
“Regarding the letter you submitted today... the Association's Human Resources Department respects your decision, but please consider it carefully. We will delay our response by one week.”
The call ended, and the screen showed “Recording Saved.”
After a long silence, a rustling sound came from the bed in the bedroom.
The girl, who had been covered by a quilt, sat up from the head of the bed, her hair disheveled, her eyes vacant, staring blankly at the gradually dimming phone screen.
And the dozen or so saved call recordings on the screen.
Hua Ling had no desire to listen, silently burrowed back under the covers, continuing to cover her head with the quilt.
The air conditioner was on in the bedroom, but the girl still felt a bone-chilling cold.
“—You can't protect anyone.”
In a daze, the girl seemed to hear that mocking laughter again in her ears.
Hua Ling curled into a ball, staring blankly at the pitch-black darkness inside the quilt.
...
It was eight o'clock in the evening.
At the entrance of Rong City's Southwest Forest Park, a giant Monster was obediently lying prostrate on the street, resting with its eyes closed.
In a bubble tea shop not far away, the staff were holding up their phones, snapping photos of the Monster, and some even tried to take selfies with the golden figure in the distance, but they couldn't get a good shot.
“...A bit boring, isn't it?”
Golden Fox mumbled softly, sipping from a pearl milk tea given to her by a Fox Fox fan employee at the bubble tea shop.
Hellcat sat silently beside Xin Yuehu, gazing at the Crab Monster dozing on the ground not far away, and couldn't help but yawn.
“Meow wah————”
“...Is Kitty tired? How about we call it a day?”
“A little. If Fox Fox wants to play a bit longer, you can wait.”
“I just find it a bit boring, but...”
Su Tianqing tilted her head, glanced at the bubble tea shop not far away, and waved with a smile at the staff.
She had arrived thirty minutes ago.
The Monster was summoned on the spot in the depths of the Forest Park.
But after waiting for a long time and not seeing Iris appear, the three of them—Hellcat, Golden Fox, and Cheshire Rabbit—stood for twenty minutes without seeing anyone. They had no choice but to come to the bubble tea shop outside the park to buy some drinks.
Su Tianqing still remembered the scene of buying bubble tea at that time—
“Hello, two pearl milk teas, one rich milk tea, all warm.”
“Eh? Are you... Xin Yuehu?”
“Yes, I am.”
“No need to pay! I'm your fan, Fox Fox! This one's on me!”
“Ah... That's too much trouble.”
“It's fine, the boss isn't here today anyway, so it can just be counted as damage from a Monster attack.”
Just like that, the villains each received a warm bubble tea and sat side by side on a street bench, waiting listlessly.
Normally, Iris should have appeared today to stop the Monster attack.
But she showed no signs of appearing, and the ones who came to stop them were actually three heroes playing poker not far away.
The leader was a muscular blonde male, Su Tianqing remembered him, S-Class Hero Steel Frank.
Then there were the familiar Meteor and Qi Yun. The three completely ignored the bored Magic Girls over here and sat there playing cards on their own.
“...Hey! Uncle Frank!” Su Tianqing called out loudly.
“Don't call me uncle! I'm only in my thirties, alright?!”
“Isn't that already uncle age?” Nan Jiayu added, complaining.
Frank was about to retort a few more words when he was suddenly glared at by Qi Yun across the table, so he obediently sat back down and continued playing cards.
The three of them were there to monitor Xin Yuehu and the other two villain Magic Girls.
But since Fox Fox had no intention of fighting the heroes, and the three heroes were helpless against Star Realm Magic, both sides simply kept to their own corners.
“Forget it! It seems Ms. Iris won't be showing up today, so let's call it quits.”
Su Tianqing stood up, stretched, and said.
Cheshire Rabbit, who was sitting next to her drinking bubble tea, also stood up, timidly glancing at the three heroes looking their way from not far off, and shrank her neck.
“Hmm? Are you leaving?”
Steel Frank looked back and said.
“Yes, Fox Fox came to play with Ms. Iris, but why didn't she come today? Do you know why, Uncle?”
“How could I know.”
“I see... Anyway, goodbye~”
Having said that, Golden Fox gripped her magic wand and waved it casually. The Crab Monster was re-contained into a Monster capsule and disappeared, and the three of them also quietly vanished under the effect of teleportation magic.
At the entrance of the Forest Park, only the wailing bubble tea shop staff remained, along with the three silently standing heroes.
“...Iris, how is she doing?”
Qi Yun put down her poker cards and asked Meteor.
The girl shook her head.
“She didn't answer my call, and I heard that even Observer couldn't get into her bedroom. I don't know what her situation is right now.”
“Sigh... I hope that child can recover soon, after all...”
The three fell silent again at the same time, no one saying anything more.
...
Later that evening.
Su Tianqing sat at home, sipping a glass of milk.
The phone screen was playing a new video from Magic Girl Fox Fox Official—A Full Exploration of Controlled Ms. Hyacinth. The content was rich, with a huge number of bullet comments, and was expected to be a strong contender for a popular video at the end of the year.
But a friend message popping up on WeChat made Su Tianqing immediately switch over.
Friend: Xiaoyu.
“Tianqing, get a good rest tonight, I'll explain everything in detail tomorrow!”
Accompanied by a cat bowing emoji.
Hehe~ Kitty is feeling guilty. The villainous Fox Fox thought with a mischievous smile.
“Okay, then it's settled for tomorrow, alright?”
She had an idea in her mind.
As for Xiaoyu, Su Tianqing felt that she didn't want to hide it for too long.
If possible, just tease her a little to see her interesting reactions. If Ben Hu continued to impose guilt on Kitty with two identities, wouldn't Ben Hu completely become a scummy Fox Fox?
Moreover, if this matter caused Xiaoyu pain, it was something Ben Hu did not want to see.
Ben Hu likes pure love! Sweet pure love! Pass on all that angsty, stomach-ache-inducing stuff!
But Xiaoyu's reaction was indeed very interesting. Before fully entering the Fox Fox and Kitty pure love line, why not enjoy her adorable blushing reactions a bit more?
Thinking of this, Su Tianqing couldn't help but drink two more sips of milk.
In any case, for now, she would check the secret codex tasks, and then go take a bath and sleep—
Her internal monologue had not yet finished when a magic fluctuation came. Su Tianqing immediately stopped reaching for the secret codex and turned to look out the window.
Soon, a white shadow appeared outside the window, making eye contact with her through the glass, and quickly flew in anxiously.
“Tianqing! Something terrible has happened!”
“Bai Ling?...What happened?”
Su Tianqing was stunned for a few seconds, not understanding why this Observer would suddenly fly to her place.
Her heroic identity wasn't under Bai Ling's jurisdiction, so why would this Observer...
“Something very bad! Very ominous!”
The White Sable Spirit said breathlessly and anxiously:
“Iris... Iris, she, she submitted her resignation letter to the Hero Association... She doesn't want to be a Magic Girl anymore!”