Ever since the Raven familiar and Yuanqing collaborated to become a Magical Girl, the Raven had gained a significant amount of popularity points from the version of “Mine Mizuho” the public imagined. Its previously nonexistent sensory abilities had been restored.
Yuanqing had also received a boost from the popularity points. Amidst the chaotic gazes and noisy clamor, both of them accurately captured the momentary shock and disappointment in Mizuho’s eyes.
They also realized the truth she had inadvertently exposed.
“What’s going on?” Yuanqing asked softly, but as soon as the words left his mouth, he realized it. “Wait, oh…”
The Raven realized it too, and gaped in shock. “You… you aren’t Mine Mizuho?”
For a moment, embarrassment stiffened their joints. Neither could say a word or make a move.
The Bat Monster seized the opportunity, flapping its wings at Yuanqing. Even if the blow didn’t land, the resulting air currents would be enough to disrupt his posture.
Acting on its own initiative, the Raven beat its massive wings, which seemed to blot out the sky, to avoid the strike. At the same time, crow feathers began to shed from its wings, swarming toward the Bat Monster.
“Why did Miss Mine suddenly freeze up?”
“You don’t understand; that’s called intentionally showing a weakness.”
“Showing a weakness to catch the enemy off guard… how beautiful!”
The Raven warned, “Since things have already come to this, don’t get distracted. Even if I’ve become weaker because I ran out of popularity points, I’m still one of the fastest among all the familiars.”
“Understood,” Yuanqing replied, quickly focusing back on the battle. “Feathers, become sharp.”
Instantly, the crow feathers that had fallen from the wings tightened their slightly spread barbs, shimmering with a silvery-white cold light.
Zhao Le flapped its wings, blowing those sharp feathers toward the Bat Monster.
“Skree!”
Numerous tiny wounds were sliced into the Bat Monster’s body, and small beads of blood began to seep out.
It was infuriating.
“Roar — “
Without bother to charge up, it immediately released a smaller sonic blast, determined to knock the nuisance in front of it out of the sky!
“Hurry, dodge!” the Raven shouted in Yuanqing’s ear.
“I know…” Yuanqing had already started moving to evade. The sonic blast only blew away a few crow feathers.
Although the wings had become much smaller due to the shedding feathers, they had also become more agile.
“Are you just going to keep dodging?” The Raven pecked at Yuanqing’s earlobe in frustration, even though it had been the one to order the dodge. “Hurry and use ‘Falcon’! You know, the kind of move where a Magical Girl shouts the name out loud and strikes a pose to release it!”
Yuanqing tried to adjust to the sensation of stabilizing himself in midair using only the wings. “Alright! Falcon, right? Falcon!”
A ring of crow feathers swirled around his right wrist. As he swung his hand, the ring of feathers quickly condensed into a diving strike that slammed into the Bat Monster’s chest.
“Awooo — “
“Again!” While flying toward the still-reeling Bat Monster, Yuanqing once again gathered a ring of feathers around his wrist to unleash his full power at close range. “Falcon!”
After the two-hit combo, the Bat Monster’s chest was torn wide open, revealing a gruesome hole that allowed one to see the scenery behind it.
The Bat Monster let out a shrill, miserable wail as its body plummeted from the sky. On the way down, its form continuously disintegrated into tiny fragments, vanishing into the wind.
The Raven was stunned for a moment before muttering to itself, ‘I didn’t expect him to be so talented…’
“What?”
Yuanqing genuinely hadn’t heard.
“Nothing!”
The onlookers and the livestream cameras instantly boiled over with excitement.
“Did you see that! That move! So clean!”
“Such a cold and elegant fighting style… as expected of Miss Mine!”
“Miss Raven’s rainy night slaughter, total silence! So cool!”
However, beneath the black robe, Yuanqing felt nothing but a wave of embarrassment. He could feel the gazes landing on him, so intense they felt as if they could burn right through the fabric.
Yuanqing landed by a puddle, and his wings completely dissolved into scattering feathers.
Just as he was planning to use the swirling feathers as cover to make a quick escape, he discovered the real Mine Mizuho, wearing a black trench coat, standing just a few meters away.
The two of them stared at each other through the curtain of rain.
Having calmed down from the sudden rush of adrenaline, Yuanqing finally realized how bad the situation was.
One was the genuine idol, soaking wet, with messy hair and an onigiri stepped on beneath her foot.
The other was a fake body double, clad in a Magical Girl’s feminine black robe, wielding power that should have belonged to someone else.
It was obvious the Raven had mistaken him for the wrong person. The Raven knew it too. And since Yuanqing had signed the Magical Girl contract in the heat of the moment, in a sense, this was the price to be paid.
“Who are you?” Mizuho asked, her tone unexpectedly inquisitive. “Why are you using my familiar?”
The Raven familiar stiffly turned its head, looking at Yuanqing and then at Mizuho in the distance. “This is a misunderstanding! I…”
Yuanqing also began to explain in a fluster, “This… don’t we look quite similar? So, it… it just got us confused.”
Mizuho looked closely at the face that was trying to avoid her gaze. They did look very similar.
Meanwhile, a plan began to brew in her mind.
Mizuho calmed herself down slightly. “I always dreamed of becoming a Magical Girl because it would increase my popularity, but looking at things now, there doesn’t seem to be a need to become one myself…”
Before she could finish her sentence, the surrounding media and fans began to rush toward them.
“Miss Mine! Please accept an interview!”
“Can you do that thing where you fall from the sky again?”
“Why is your familiar a raven?”
Their voices could be heard from a distance.
As if waking from a dream, the two people and the bird immediately took off running. ‘If we get caught, it’ll be trouble,’ the thought flashed through their minds simultaneously.
Ultimately, they managed to get into Mizuho’s car. Along the way, the Raven had been scattering feathers to block the cameras and hide the truth.
With a thud, the car door slammed shut, and Mizuho immediately started the engine to drive away.
“Ha… ha… I’m exhausted…” The Raven leaned against the seat, panting. “My popularity points aren’t high yet, and I overextended my power just to scatter feathers for you two…”
Mizuho adjusted her breathing to avoid panting undignifiedly. “So, the current situation is that because of me and you… what is your name?”
“Yuanqing. Luo Yuanqing.” Yuanqing grabbed a towel from the car and haphazardly wiped the rain from his body and hair.
“Are you a foreigner? You don’t have an accent at all,” Mizuho said, letting out her last bit of heavy breath. “In any case, it’s because Mr. Luo and I look so much alike that you made a mistake, Raven, and signed a contract with him, right?”
The Raven started fluttering again, splashing rainwater everywhere. “It’s not my fault you two look alike! And he just happened to show up at the time and place we agreed on! There’s nothing we can do now! The contract is signed, so you can’t become a Magical Girl anymore!”
Mizuho glanced at Yuanqing and the Raven in the backseat through the reflection in the window. “I’m not blaming you, but it really is miraculous. To think that two completely unrelated people in this world could look exactly the same.”
“Hmph, it’s all your fault!” The Raven pecked Yuanqing’s hand again.
“Ouch…” Yuanqing pulled his hand back in pain. “Back when you were trying to get me to sign the contract, didn’t you say a lot of nice things? How could you forget that now?”
Even though Yuanqing was a fairly talented contractor, compared to the popularity points Mizuho could provide, Mizuho was still more important.
The Raven turned its head away. “If I hadn’t thought you were Mine Mizuho, I wouldn’t have bothered with a guy like you who can’t even help me gather popularity points.”
“Hey.”
The Raven simply flew to the front seat. “The higher the popularity points, the stronger my power. I think Mine’s image fits me perfectly. Together, we would have definitely made the ‘Miss Raven’ Magical Girl image reach peak popularity! But now… hmph…”
“Hey.”
“No, this is fine as it is,” Mizuho said with a slight smile instead. “What I need is the image of a Magical Girl to increase my popularity, and the Raven needs a Magical Girl image to accumulate popularity points and grow stronger. Neither of us truly needs ‘Mine Mizuho herself to become Miss Raven.'”
“What about me?” Yuanqing asked.
Mizuho replied with a smile, “Of course, in return, I will give you as much help as I can. For example… are you short on money? I can provide a certain degree of financial assistance.”
Yuanqing asked further, “What about the Magical Girl subsidies?”
Mizuho answered again, “Those go to you, too.”
“I agree,” Yuanqing said without hesitation.
“Hey.”
This time, it was the Raven.