Rainwater dripped from the tips of her hair, mixing with the muddy water and blurring her vision.
Su Bai hoarsely defended herself, her voice so weak it was nearly swallowed by the rain.
“It’s not like that… I never had any malice. I’ve never done anything to hurt anyone…”
Since becoming a magical girl, she had focused solely on growing stronger to protect the city.
In her free time she buried herself in training and rarely initiated playful interactions with her teammates.
On the contrary, her three teammates often took the initiative to approach and get close to her, though she usually politely pushed them away.
Yet no one could have expected that even this would fail to earn their trust.
“It’s true that you haven’t done anything bad yet, but who can guarantee the future? Hiding a man’s identity while disguising yourself as a magical girl—who knows when you might turn on us.”
“Using this pretty shell to deliberately get close to us… were we supposed to wait until you climbed into our beds before exposing you?”
“Disgusting. Pervert.”
The three of them spoke in turn, every word laced with venom.
The association staff handling the aftermath began whispering among themselves.
Many quietly took out their terminals and started recording, their cameras locked firmly on the disheveled figure of Su Bai kneeling on the ground.
The dense murmur of discussion drilled into Su Bai’s ears, each comment more cutting than the last.
“Hard to believe someone so quiet on a normal day could be this kind of person.”
“So the top S-rank combatant was just a cross-dressing fraud. Who knows if that power was even stolen.”
“A man couldn’t possibly awaken magical girl powers. She must have used some crooked method. People like this should be locked up and put on trial.”
“Completely unworthy of holding the power to protect the city.”
Endless malice, mixed with the icy rain, poured down on her.
Her entire body went rigid.
The pain throughout her body vanished, replaced by a piercing, bone-deep chill.
Su Bai stopped struggling.
The pure, flawless light that had always supported her completely extinguished, leaving only empty eyes.
Memories of the past surged up one after another.
The day she broke through her limits and became a Super S-rank of the association, everyone had crowded around to congratulate her, burying her in flowers and praise.
The four of them had stood side by side, covered in blood as they slaughtered monsters.
Afterward they had held a victory banquet together in the association’s recovery center, all laughing with naive joy.
They had even promised to wipe out every last demonic beast.
Su Bai had long since treated this place as home and regarded all of it as the place she belonged.
In the end, those warm moments of trust and standing together had been nothing more than her one-sided wishful thinking.
Su Bai slowly lowered her head.
Rain washed over the ID card lying in the mud, the writing blurred by dirty water.
Reality was simply this cruel.
Yes, she could understand how her teammates felt.
In their eyes, perhaps she had been the one to betray them first.
If she were in their place, she might not have been able to accept such deception either.
Perhaps this is what I deserve.
A bitter smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.
The sky was still raining.
Rain mixed with what might have been tears, or sweat, or blood, slid down her cheeks and into the corner of her mouth.
A bitter taste exploded across her tongue.
The golden-haired girl showed no hesitation.
She immediately urged impatiently, “Stop wasting time. Hurry up and disable her transformation device. I want to see what kind of disgusting face is hiding under that pretty shell!”
Of course it was not merely something she said aloud.
She was fully aware that White Iris’s magical reserves were unfathomably deep.
Once Su Bai recovered even a little and restored her magic, no one present combined would be able to restrain her.
The association representative immediately lowered her head and operated the tablet.
An invisible suction force suddenly latched onto the residual magic remaining inside Su Bai’s body and began continuously drawing it outward.
Soft white light rose around her body—the sign that the transformation was being released.
Every magical girl’s transformation device was uniformly crafted by the association.
The association held the highest authority and could remotely seal or reclaim them at any time.
This was the fundamental reason a powerless association could restrain so many powerful magical girls.
From the very beginning, everything had been under the association’s control.
The white light flared outward, then shattered like broken glass and vanished.
With the magic battle skirt gone, Su Bai was exposed to everyone’s eyes.
She wore a simple white shirt and a red-and-black checkered short skirt.
Her skin was fair, her figure slender and soft.
Her features bore an eighty-percent resemblance to the youth on the ID card, yet her overall silhouette was completely that of a young girl.
In terms of appearance, she crushed everyone present.
The surrounding crowd froze as one.
The expected image of a slovenly, perverted male shut-in never appeared.
In its place stood a clean, gentle girl.
The golden-haired girl paused for only half a second.
She had not expected that Su Bai would still look so refined even after the transformation was lifted.
However, she was clearly prepared and did not let the surprise throw her off.
She immediately put on an exaggerated act and shouted loudly,
“Hahahaha, well done, Su Bai! I thought you were just a cross-dressing pervert, but I never expected you to deliberately dress like a girl even on ordinary days. Did you take some kind of medicine for this look?
Everyone, take a good look. Who knows, maybe something filthy is still hiding under that skirt.
So this is your little fetish? Deliberately dressing up like this—were you already planning to crawl into our beds under the banner of ‘getting close’?
Bah, disgusting.”
Those who had briefly felt sympathy because of Su Bai’s appearance were ignited by these words.
Everyone treated it as nothing more than a disguise meant to deceive the eye.
Whatever pity had remained vanished, and the malice only deepened further.
“It’s not a disguise! After I transformed, my body completely changed. Magic reshaped my physique. From the inside out, I am a girl. I never wanted to deceive anyone…
And climbing into anyone’s bed? That never happened…”
Su Bai lifted her head and defended herself with every ounce of remaining strength.
The once clear and soft voice had gone hoarse, reduced now to a powerless, broken sound.
“Who knows if that’s true? Maybe you already…”
“Even if it’s true now, what about later?”
“Even if you’re a girl right now, the thought that there’s a perverted man inside that body still makes me sick.”
Everyone whispered among themselves.
The disgust on their faces grew heavier.
Not a single person was willing to truly listen to her explanation.
In the face of this collective violence, every word she spoke only turned into a form of sophistry.
The golden-haired girl’s gaze swept across the necklace at Su Bai’s neck—the one set with a silver-white iris gem.
That was her transformation device.
A flash of greed and desire passed through her eyes.
She stepped forward, seized the necklace in one hand, and yanked it downward with force.
The sharp chain dug into the skin at the back of Su Bai’s neck.
A bright red line of blood immediately appeared.
The sharp pain made Su Bai’s entire body tremble.
The gem on it had already lost its luster and now looked like nothing more than an ordinary ornament.
The golden-haired girl played with the gem necklace for a moment, her throat bobbing as her eyes filled with greed and reluctance.
Only under the watchful gaze of the association representative did she finally hand it over unwillingly to a nearby staff member.
She clapped her hands and looked toward the other two.
“Let’s go, sisters. This isn’t over. Su Bai, we’ll meet again!!!”
The moment the words fell, Violet, who was still restraining Su Bai, flung her away as if discarding trash.
Already drained of magic and covered in injuries, Su Bai could no longer hold on.
Her vision went black, and she toppled straight into the muddy water, completely losing consciousness.
Seeing this, the three magical girls turned and left as well.
Only the hushed discussions of the association staff remained in the field.
The association representative gave the unconscious Su Bai lying in the mud a casual glance and instructed her subordinates in an offhand manner.
Her fingertips repeatedly stroked the transformation device in her hand as she said lightly, “How pitiful. Take her back first and let her recover from her injuries.
After all, the association is still her nominal adoptive guardian to the outside world. We can’t go too far. But those Super S-rank benefits are out of the question from now on.
Conveniently, the administrative department is short on staff. Assign her to the lowest F-rank clerical position for now so she can at least earn a living. As for how to deal with her later, the higher-ups already have arrangements.”
The rain continued to fall without stopping.
The ID card on the ground had long since been mixed with muddy water until the words on it were no longer readable.
Everyone present clearly understood one thing.
The pure and flawless iris that had once protected the entire city had completely withered on this day.