Every city has its own Hero Association branch, and Shanghai, as a super metropolis, is naturally no exception.
The term Hell Shrike was the codename given to that dark blue Cat Girl Magic Girl by the Shanghai Hero Association.
"I didn't expect there to be so many videos. She's been active in Shanghai for two or three years already, huh?"
Looking at the announcement date for the initial codename, Su Tianqing was slightly surprised.
First, Hell Shrike—or rather, Hellcat—is a villain Magic Girl with the same positioning as herself.
But the positioning of 'villain' itself is very far-fetched.
The secret codex said she was the only best suitable candidate; there couldn't possibly be a second Mercury secret codex in the world giving her daily quests, could there?
Since there were no quests giving rewards, and villain Magic Girls themselves were not tolerated by the Hero Association, why would she continue to be active for two years?
Carrying this doubt, Su Tianqing watched all the videos related to Hell Shrike one by one.
.
From watching during class until after class, and then after eating lunch and returning to her rental house for a nap, Su Tianqing finally finished roughly browsing through the videos related to Hell Shrike.
"There's quite a lot of these videos, huh?" Su Tianqing complained.
Hugging a pillow and lying on the bed, the little Fox Fox's two small feet gently patted the bed, and her tail swayed back and forth on either side of her body.
From these videos, Su Tianqing summarized several key points:
Hell Shrike was not as famous as herself; the view counts for videos related to her over two or three years were surprisingly low.
This might be related to her operational logic—
Unlike herself, Hell Shrike did not have the ability to summon Monsters, nor did she have her flashy anonymous live stream room and anti-censorship passive skills, so there was a fundamental difference at the starting line.
After all, only she had the secret codex.
And the reason she was positioned as a villain Magic Girl by the Hero Association was due to a series of actions she took.
Su Tianqing scrolled to the bottom of the videos and watched them from the beginning.
—A new dark blue Magic Girl attacked a girl returning home from evening self-study late at night.
But she did not harm the girl. The girl reappeared in front of a nearby hospital two hours after losing contact and was quickly treated. Aside from dizziness, there were no other abnormalities.
After that, one to three incidents of girls being attacked and disappearing occurred in Shanghai every month.
However, without exception, all the girls who disappeared in each incident were sent to the hospital, all unharmed, with the most severe reaction being dizziness for two or three days.
The hospital's surveillance cameras clearly captured Hell Shrike bringing them to the entrance, and these incidents were uniformly attributed to the dark blue Magic Girl.
And the catalyst for her being confirmed as a villain Magic Girl was even more absurd:
On one occasion, a Monster attack occurred at a shopping mall in Shanghai, and the Association dispatched a local Magic Girl to deal with it.
After the Monster was defeated, Hell Shrike suddenly appeared and ambushed this Magic Girl, abducting her in her transformed state in front of everyone.
After an hour of no news, the abducted Magic Girl appeared at the entrance of the Hero Association office, also in a coma state.
Afterward, this Magic Girl also experienced dizziness and blurred vision for one day, but no signs of injury were found.
"Strange..."
Su Tianqing murmured to herself, wagging her tail vigorously, and the action of her small feet patting the bed also became more forceful. She was completely baffled.
Too strange!
The nature of attacking passersby is actually quite serious, as can be seen from the Hero Association's reaction.
Before causing trouble, she would notify unrelated people to evacuate in advance; she would not randomly pick a passerby on the street to attack. This is the virtue a villain Magic Girl should possess!
The villain's target should be the legitimate Magic Girls!
Attacking passersby? That's what evil organizations do!
"But actually, she didn't harm those girls, did she?" Su Tianqing pointed out the commonality in these incidents.
That's right, the girls themselves were not injured. Symptoms like dizziness and blurred vision naturally subsided after a couple of days.
In a way, Hell Shrike truly did not do anything heinous.
That makes it even harder to understand her true intentions.
On one hand, she attacks girls, but on the other hand, she doesn't harm them at all... She even stood on her side, and last night she took the initiative to support her...
"Why does she do these things anyway...? It's really strange..."
"Forget it! I'll stake out the place she frequents tonight. If I have any questions, I can just ask her directly, and everything will be resolved!"
The little Fox Fox mumbled to herself, rolled over, pulled up the covers, and Fox Fox took a nap.
.
Meanwhile, at Nan Xiaofeng's school.
Hua Ling silently carried her lunchbox to the dishwashing area, silently turned on the faucet, and silently scrubbed her lunchbox.
Nan Xiaofeng poked her head out from around the corner nearby, looking with Bai Ling at the somewhat dazed girl washing dishes.
"Her state has been really off since this morning, you know," Bai Ling said, patting Nan Xiaofeng's head.
"Or rather, it was strange last night," Nan Xiaofeng replied softly.
Since disengaging her transformation last night, Hua Ling had been in this dazed state.
Doctors repeatedly checked her but found no injuries, yet she just couldn't perk up.
"So strange..."
"Why don't you go ask her, Xiaofeng?"
"Guess if I've asked her today," Nan Xiaofeng rolled her eyes at the White Sable Spirit beside her.
Hua Ling silently scrubbed her lunchbox clean, and under Nan Xiaofeng's gaze, she silently turned and walked towards the classroom, not saying a word the entire time, as dull as a winter melon.
It wasn't until she saw Hua Ling, dazed, almost throw her lunchbox into the trash can that Nan Xiaofeng finally couldn't stand it anymore.
"Hua Ling! That's a lunchbox! Don't throw it in the trash!"
Nan Xiaofeng quickly stepped forward and snatched the lunchbox. Hua Ling trembled all over, turned back blankly, and only then realized what she had just done.
"Ah... Xiaofeng... I'm sorry..."
"Hua Ling, you're really not right today!"
After throwing away the used tissue in her hand, Nan Xiaofeng put her hands on her hips and looked seriously at her companion.
"You've been acting very strange since last night. Do you feel unwell?"
"Yes, what happened? Please tell us," Bai Ling also urged.
Hua Ling slightly opened her mouth, as if hesitating and struggling internally for a while.
After a long pause, she softly said:
"...Xiaofeng, can I ask you something?"
"What is it? Just say it," Nan Xiaofeng readily agreed.
Seeing this, Hua Ling took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, her cheeks slightly flushed, seemingly shy about what she was about to say:
"I had a dream yesterday... I dreamed that I... well... that..."
"That what?" Nan Xiaofeng asked, puzzled.
"Xiaofeng, do you think... that kind of thing... can happen between girls...?"
""Huh?""
Nan Xiaofeng and Bai Ling froze simultaneously.
Bai Ling was silent for a while, then floated away while coughing, leaving only Nan Xiaofeng, who hadn't understood the question at all, looking utterly confused.
"That kind of thing...? Wh-what kind of thing?"
"I-i-i-it's! It's, it's that kind of... that..."
Hua Ling stammered, her cheeks bright red, shrinking her neck in shyness.
Nan Xiaofeng suddenly understood something, and a blush quickly spread across her face. She wanted to yell up to the sky:
Damn smelly Fox Fox! You've corrupted Hua Ling!
The instigator, of course, would not hear this inner cry from afar.
A golden fluffy fox tail hung down beside the distant covers, and Fox Fox slept soundly.