‘I’m not really one to seek the limelight,’ Yuan Qing thought. After all, he had always prided himself on being a slacker, but after being constantly taunted by his own Familiar, he couldn’t help but feel a bit disgruntled.
To be honest, he had accepted the challenge with the intention of causing a bit of trouble, and he felt a pang of regret as soon as the words left his mouth. However, there was no turning back now. ‘Sorry, Miss Mine.’
On the battlefield.
Yuan Qing and Hifumi stood back-to-back, spaced 1 meter apart.
Hifumi’s cold blade pointed toward the ground, a faint white halo still lingering around her body.
Yuan Qing’s black robes fluttered slightly as a few raven feathers drifted down. His body was moving faster than his thoughts.
In that split second when Hifumi’s blade had lunged forward, his wings had already folded instinctively. The hardened feathers parried the white light while his right foot stepped back half a pace. He leaned into the motion to dissipate the impact, drifting away from the tip of the blade like a literal feather.
Although he didn’t have the strength to counterattack, he had managed to keep up with the rhythm of the strongest member of the new generation.
This wasn’t the result of calculation; it was instinct. He didn’t quite understand where this instinct had come from.
Raven stood on a low wall nearby, completely stunned. It had nearly been thrown off by Yuan Qing’s sudden burst of speed.
“Do you still want to fly?” Hifumi asked, turning with her blade in hand.
Without giving him time to react, Hifumi’s second strike followed immediately. The cold blade traced an arc through the air, slicing in from the side.
The surrounding Magical Girls couldn’t even track the movement of this strike.
Except for Yuan Qing.
He even had enough mental capacity to think, ‘This girl’s swordsmanship is actually quite good.’
With a flap of his wings, he pulled himself upward. Avoiding the strike, he spread his wings wide to catch the wind and pivot before diving straight down.
“Crane!” Yuan Qing executed the piercing strike once more.
Hifumi looked up at him.
His “Crane” lunged toward Hifumi’s defensive stance. She held the cold blade horizontally in front of her, blocking the strike.
A shockwave exploded between the two of them, causing the surrounding bushes to sway violently.
Hifumi took half a step back, and Yuan Qing used the momentum to bounce away, creating distance between them again.
The sounds of the surroundings suddenly rushed back into his ears.
“Oh my god! Did you see that!”
“Too fast! I couldn’t see a thing!”
“Miss Raven can actually trade blows with Miss Kazamai!”
There were also the faint clicking sounds of phone cameras being aimed at them.
Hifumi ignored the noise. She looked at Yuan Qing, something shifting in her gaze.
“That ‘tactical reserve’ you mentioned earlier,” she suddenly spoke, “is real.”
Yuan Qing raised an eyebrow slightly. “Ah, that’s right.”
“That half-second gap — you used it again just now,” Hifumi said, raising her blade to point at him. “When I blocked your ‘Crane,’ you were half a beat slow in retracting your move. But that slowness was intentional, used to borrow the momentum to bounce back.”
“…”
“I want to know, where is your limit?”
“…”
Yuan Qing didn’t answer.
Hifumi waited for a moment. Seeing no response, she nodded. “It’s fine if you won’t answer. I’ll find the answer myself.”
With those words, the third strike came.
This time, it wasn’t a simple slash, but a rapid succession of thrusts. The cold blade left three afterimages in the air, each one aimed at a vital point.
Yuan Qing spread his wings.
It wasn’t for defense, but to create a gust.
With the first beat of his wings, raven feathers scattered everywhere, obscuring her vision.
With the second beat, his body shifted sideways, dodging the first thrust.
With the third beat, Yuan Qing’s body spun, and the second thrust grazed past his black robes.
Then, he reached out his hand.
He wasn’t attacking; he was grabbing.
His fingers passed through the dancing raven feathers and accurately clamped down on Hifumi’s wrist.
The third thrust stopped exactly 3 centimeters away from Yuan Qing’s chest.
The entire area fell silent.
“Your limit…” Hifumi whispered. “Is it here?”
Her wrist jerked, breaking free from Yuan Qing’s grip. At the same time, she pulled back her blade to put distance between them again.
Yuan Qing shook his hand. The vibration from her escape had left his arm feeling numb. “Of course not here.”
Hifumi watched him, but she didn’t launch the next attack immediately.
She sheathed her blade and stood still as if lost in thought.
The surrounding noise rose again, though it was much quieter than before. The other Magical Girls seemed to have realized something as well.
“I want to ask you a few questions,” Hifumi said suddenly.
Yuan Qing blinked. “Now?”
“Now.”
“Alright.” Yuan Qing wanted to take this chance to rest anyway. The longer this dragged on, the more his popularity points would rise, increasing his chances of winning.
Hifumi stowed her weapon. Her silver-white combat suit shimmered slightly, but she didn’t fully deactivate her Magical Girl form.
“Your training method — who taught you?” she asked.
Yuan Qing thought for a moment. “Nobody taught me.”
“Nobody?”
“Yeah,” Yuan Qing almost wanted to shrug, but Mine Mizuho wouldn’t do that. “I just… mess around.”
Hifumi’s brow furrowed slightly. “You can produce that kind of flow just by ‘mucking around’?”
“…I’m a newcomer, so there are many things about being a Magical Girl that I don’t understand yet. I hope for your guidance, Senior.”
Yuan Qing had intended to just act like a complete amateur, but considering he was currently playing the role of Mine Mizuho, he had to answer this way.
“That move where you grabbed my wrist,” Hifumi continued, “the angle, timing, and strength were not things a newcomer could achieve. That is muscle memory formed through long-term combat experience.”
Yuan Qing remained silent.
In his head, however, he was thinking, ‘Long-term combat experience? Where would I get that from?’
Hifumi waited for a short while, and seeing that he wouldn’t answer, she changed the question. “How long do you train every day?”
This question was even harder to answer.
He couldn’t exactly say, ‘I train for 0 minutes a day and spend most of my time sleeping,’ could he?
“It varies. It depends on the situation,” Yuan Qing could only answer vaguely.
“What situation?”
“It depends on how long I train as an idol each day,” Yuan Qing paused, trying to recall if Mizuho had left him any clues. “After all, as my Familiar said earlier, idol training also helps with combat.”
His memory provided no actual answer.
Hifumi fell silent.
The surrounding Magical Girls fell silent.
Raven, perched on the low wall, nearly toppled over.
However, after her silence, Hifumi nodded. “I understand. Your talent is indeed extraordinary.”
Yuan Qing: “…”
‘What do you understand? Even I don’t understand!’
Hifumi raised her cold blade again. “Then, let me see exactly where your limit lies.”
The moment she finished speaking, she lunged forward again.
But this time, she was faster.
So fast that the surrounding Magical Girls didn’t even have time to gasp. So fast that the phone cameras could only capture a blurry afterimage.
But Yuan Qing’s eyes managed to keep up.
He saw it.
He could even see the tiny cracks forming in the stone tiles beneath Hifumi’s feet as she sprinted.
He could see the shifting angle of the blade in her hand and the rhythm of her breathing.
He could see the blade arriving right in front of him.
Yuan Qing stepped to the side. The cold blade grazed his black robes, slicing through several raven feathers.
He didn’t retreat. Instead, he took a step forward — a step that put him directly within Hifumi’s optimal strike range.
Hifumi saw this small maneuver as well.
Yuan Qing’s right hand reached out, his fingers once again aiming for her wrist.
But this time, Hifumi didn’t give him the chance.
She flipped her wrist, and the cold blade traced a bizarre curve, sweeping upward from below.
Yuan Qing was forced to pull back his hand and retreat, but Hifumi’s blade didn’t stop.
One, two, three…
A continuous flurry of slashes followed. Every strike was faster, fiercer, and more cunning than the last.
Yuan Qing’s wings flapped constantly, his body dancing and dodging through the flashes of steel. Countless feathers were sliced away, scattering through the air, yet he never once left the range of Hifumi’s attacks.
Hifumi’s sword grew faster and faster, and the light in her eyes grew brighter.
“How much longer can you hold out?” she asked.
“Of course not now,” Yuan Qing replied.