“Am I really that important?” Su Bai muttered to herself, full of confusion.
She truly could not figure it out.
Ever since she lost her power, she had believed herself to be a discarded chess piece.
Yet looking at things now, that was not the case.
Or rather, she had indeed been treated as a discarded piece at first, yet something must have happened later that caused certain people to notice her again and discover some kind of “value” in her.
Su Bai could not understand it.
She was actually not special at all.
Her transformation device had not been issued by the association through official channels like those of other magical girls.
Instead, by chance, she had picked it up from the body of a fallen magical girl.
Recalling that day, Su Bai had still been in the form of a boy.
As usual, she was walking home from school under the afterglow of the setting sun.
The sky was as blue as a gemstone.
The familiar smell of everyday life filled the streets.
Everything was no different from ordinary days.
Yet beneath the calm surface, a sudden disaster was brewing.
Without any warning, the originally clear sky was suddenly torn open by an invisible giant hand.
From the terrifying black fissure poured countless ferocious demonic beasts.
They brandished their claws and fangs, letting out bone-chilling roars that instantly shattered the city’s peace.
Su Bai’s heart was filled with fear.
She broke into a desperate run toward home.
Along the way the streets had become complete chaos.
People fled in all directions.
Screams and cries intertwined, as if the end of the world had already arrived.
When she finally arrived home gasping for breath, the scene before her eyes was like a sharp blade that stabbed fiercely into her heart.
The once warm home was now deathly silent.
The parents who had been waiting for her to come home lay quietly in a pool of blood, already without breath.
A massive wolf-shaped demonic beast was greedily gnawing on their corpses.
The bloody smell filled the air and made one nauseous.
Anger and despair surged up like a roaring tide.
Su Bai’s eyes were instantly filled with hatred.
Driven by a self-destructive impulse, she charged toward that demonic beast without regard for anything else, wanting only to perish together with the monster that had destroyed her family.
At that critical moment, a figure streaked over like a meteor.
It was a magical girl.
She wore a pleated skirt that was ninety percent similar to the battle outfit of [White Iris], yet the beauty of it could no longer be seen.
At this moment the skirt was covered in bloodstains, making it impossible to tell whether the blood belonged to her or to the demonic beasts.
Her body was a mess of flesh and blood.
She had clearly been severely wounded in the previous battle.
Facing the demonic beasts that continued pouring out from the rift without end, this magical girl was already powerless to continue fighting.
Her legs trembled slightly from the pain of her wounds.
Yet she still gritted her teeth, dragged her broken body, and firmly stood in front of Su Bai.
In that moment Su Bai for the first time deeply understood what it meant to protect.
That willpower also became the belief she would continue to practice from then on.
Yet at that time, this willpower was ultimately only the faint glow of a candle flame.
Very soon it was extinguished together with her body.
Su Bai only remembered that she had knelt on the ground and watched with wide eyes as the girl collapsed into a pool of blood.
Tears poured from her eyes without control as she begged through sobs for her not to die.
And that magical girl replied with a voice so weak it was almost inaudible.
It was also the only sentence she ever spoke to Su Bai.
“Don’t die. Please live on.”
This sentence sounded so strong yet so gentle in Su Bai’s ears, and she had firmly engraved it in her heart until today.
With the last of her strength she stuffed the necklace in her hand into Su Bai’s.
Then her hand fell weakly, and she closed her eyes forever.
That necklace was the transformation device of the nameless magical girl.
Su Bai found it truly difficult to guess what the dying magical girl had been thinking when she stuffed the transformation device into her hand.
Could it have simply been that in the final moments of her life she was entrusting this transformation device to her as a relic?
After all, for a magical girl about to pass away, this might have been the only item she could leave behind.
And Su Bai, the boy who had met her in that desperate situation, was the only person she could entrust it to.
Or perhaps, in the heart of that magical girl, she truly believed that Su Bai, who was male, would be able to use this transformation device and thereby survive the overwhelming attack of the demonic beasts?
Perhaps she was gambling, gambling on a possibility that ordinary people would see as negligible—the possibility of surviving.
Yet now, no matter how one speculated, it no longer seemed important.
Because the miracle had truly happened.
The moment she took the transformation device, light bloomed.
Su Bai’s body was reshaped by a mysterious power, and she successfully transformed, becoming the magical girl known to the world as [White Iris].
After transforming, Su Bai fought while retreating.
She swung her wand and fought the continuously surging demonic beasts to the death.
In the end, through her persistence, she successfully held on until the association’s reinforcements arrived.
Her thoughts pulled free from the heavy memories of the past.
Su Bai lowered her head and glanced at the large and small packages packed at her feet—several large cardboard boxes and a backpack containing some of her personal belongings from this department.
She took a deep breath, dragged these heavy items, and walked out of the association headquarters step by step.
The moment she stepped through the revolving door, the corner of her eye caught a conspicuous patch of green.
[Green Vine] was leaning against the carved stone pillar by the entrance, arms crossed.
Her long green hair swayed slightly in the wind, yet her eyes carried a coldness that could not be ignored.
She was clearly waiting for someone, and that someone was her.
“You’re waiting for me?”
Su Bai stopped walking.
Looking at the other’s posture, she already had a rough idea and took the initiative to speak.
[Green Vine] did not answer immediately.
She only stared fixedly at Su Bai with those icy eyes, no emotion visible in them.
It was as if she were looking at a lifeless object, or examining a pile of garbage about to be discarded.
The indifference made one’s heart turn cold.
“If you’re not going to talk, I’m leaving.” Su Bai could not be bothered to waste any more time.
She turned sideways and prepared to walk around her and leave.
“Worthless cross-dressing pervert.” [Green Vine] finally spoke.
Her voice was cold and hard, as if tempered with ice.
“Listen carefully. No matter how the association arranges things, whether you live or die is something I will absolutely not care about…”
When she reached the last few words, a dense killing intent suddenly surged up from the depths of her previously calm and expressionless eyes.
It was like a venomous snake hidden in the grass suddenly baring its fangs.
The air itself seemed to freeze for a moment.
“I know.” Su Bai met that killing intent without the slightest fear on her face.
Her tone was even firmer than usual.
“Are you finished?”
Having experienced the taste of being betrayed by the three teammates she trusted most, she had long since worn away all patience for these so-called “companions,” let alone any empathy.
No matter how obvious the other’s hostility was, to her it was nothing more than another icy reminder—
The current her already had nothing left to lose.
“Su Bai, enjoy this period of time well. Soon you are going to… be finished…” [Green Vine] left behind these words and then transformed into a streak of light and departed.