This time, Yuan Qing didn’t wait. As the girl in purple rushed toward him, he moved.
It wasn’t a dodge; it was a counter.
One punch.
It struck the girl’s defense, knocking her back 3 steps.
The girl steadied herself and looked at him in surprise. “Why did you take the initiative today?” she asked.
“I wanted to try something different today. Is that not allowed?”
Faced with Yuan Qing’s counter-question, the girl grit her teeth and charged again.
This time, Yuan Qing still countered.
One punch, two punches, three punches.
Each strike wasn’t heavy, but each one was perfectly timed to interrupt her momentum.
After fighting for 3 minutes, the girl stopped, panting for breath.
“I give up.” She raised her right hand.
Yuan Qing nodded to her.
The girl turned to leave, but as she reached the door, she looked back at him. “Are you… stronger than you were yesterday?”
“Maybe.”
Receiving only that response, the purple-clothed girl shook her head and pushed the door open to leave.
“Next! Yuan Qing, don’t dawdle!” Raven urged. “It’s not like you have shot puts tied to your feet!”
“I know.”
During that day’s practical combat, Yuan Qing fought ten opponents. He took them on one after another, switching to the next as soon as one was finished.
He no longer just defended; he took the initiative to attack. Each punch wasn’t heavy, but each was perfectly placed.
By the time he reached the eighth opponent, his breathing began to grow heavy.
By the ninth, his movements started to slow.
By the tenth, sweat began to bead slightly at his temples.
But when the tenth opponent admitted defeat, he was still standing.
“Ten,” Raven said as it flew down and landed on his shoulder. “Is that enough?”
Yuan Qing slowly exhaled. “Whew… we continue tomorrow.”
Yuan Qing shook his wrists. After those ten fights, his joints felt a bit sore.
Raven tilted its head to look at him. “Why the sudden change in fighting style today? No more stalling?”
“I just wanted to try it,” Yuan Qing said, rolling his shoulders. “It’s boring to just dodge all the time.”
“Oh? You’ve finally seen the light?”
Yuan Qing ignored it and turned toward the door.
Halfway there, he stopped and looked back at the training ground.
The empty arena was silent, with only a few black feathers swirling in the air, slowly drifting toward the floor.
“What is it?” Raven asked.
“Nothing.” Yuan Qing pushed the door open and stepped outside. “I’m running back.”
Raven gave a well-meaning reminder. “It’s still raining today.”
“Hifumi…”
“What?”
“Hifumi is much more intense than this rain,” Yuan Qing replied.
And so, Raven shut its beak.
—
Before heading home, Yuan Qing ran into a convenience store and bought a quick-meal rice ball, having it heated up.
His gaze swept across the magazine rack. An entertainment weekly sat there with Mizuho’s photo on the cover. It featured a sensational headline promoting “Miss Raven’s” dual dominance in both the idol world and the Magical Girl industry.
He went upstairs, opened his door, and changed his shoes—everything was the same as usual.
Yuan Qing placed his half-finished drink on the table, walked into the bathroom, and turned on the shower.
Hot water poured down from above, sliding down his cheeks. He opened his eyes, looking at the mist on the tiled wall, and let out a long breath.
After showering and changing into dry clothes, Yuan Qing walked out while drying his hair.
“Give the towel to me for a bit.” Raven naturally snatched the towel from Yuan Qing’s hand and rolled around inside it to soak up the rainwater on its body.
Yuan Qing ignored the bird and checked his phone.
Mizuho: ‘Raven said you finished? All ten? So fast?’
Mizuho: ‘?’
The messages had been sent half an hour ago.
Yuan Qing: ‘Didn’t check my phone. It was fast today because I went on the offensive.’
A few seconds after he sent the reply, the chat box showed “typing…”
Mizuho: ‘Weren’t you always just defending before? What happened today?’
Yuan Qing: ‘Felt like fighting.’
Mizuho: ‘I hope that combat experience is enough for when you face Hifumi.’
Yuan Qing: ‘I know.’
Mizuho: ‘Nervous?’
Yuan Qing: ‘No.’
Mizuho: ‘Then you’re truly impressive.’
He placed his phone on the table.
The sound of rain outside suddenly grew louder. Yuan Qing turned his head, watching the water flow down the glass in distorted streaks, cutting the night view outside into countless fragments.
Yuan Qing unwrapped the rice ball and took a bite.
The rice from the convenience store was a bit hard, but the saltiness of the seaweed was just right. Eating it on a rainy night helped fill the void inside him.
Raven rolled around in the towel a few more times until it was finally dry. It flapped its wings and landed on the table.
Yuan Qing took another bite of the rice ball, chewed a few times, and swallowed. He stared at the mess Raven had made of the towel and suddenly spoke.
“Raven.”
“Yeah?”
“Why did you choose Mizuho Mine back then?”
Yuan Qing was still eating as he spoke, his voice slightly muffled.
Raven still had a grain of rice in its beak. The entire bird froze on the table. After swallowing the rice, the bird hopped a couple of times to face Yuan Qing. “Why ask that all of a sudden?”
“I’m curious. Is that not allowed? There are plenty of popular idols, and Mizuho is the type of person who has zero talent as a Magical Girl.”
“Well, I can tell you…” Raven scratched its head with a claw, its feathers ruffled from the towel. “But… you can’t tell her, okay?”
“Yeah.”
Yuan Qing nodded.
However, Raven didn’t speak immediately. It hopped back and forth on the table as if organizing its thoughts or perhaps hesitating.
“You know,” it finally began, “there is a contract between a Familiar and a Magical Girl.”
“Mhm.”
“A contract isn’t just saying ‘I agree’ and being done with it. It binds us together. The Magical Girl’s power, the Familiar’s power, and even some deeper connections… My former contractor was a very strong person. She changed me.”
“Former contractor?” Yuan Qing was confused as to why the bird was bringing this up.
“Yes,” Raven nodded. “It’s because of that deeper connection between us that I gained the unique attribute of Popularity Value. But she stopped being a Magical Girl later. In this line of work, some do it for a lifetime, while others quit halfway. There are many reasons. She… anyway, before she left, she told me to sign a contract with Mizuho. How was I supposed to know Mizuho had no talent back then? After she left, my Popularity Value dropped to a very low level, which blurred my vision. That’s how I ended up signing a contract with you in such a muddled state.”
“That’s it?” Yuan Qing asked.
“That’s it,” Raven shrugged. “I asked why her back then too, but you know, there are some things between a Familiar and a contractor that can’t be said. Professional ethics, you understand?”
“But you’re a bird.”
“So what if I’m a bird? Can’t a bird have professional ethics?” Raven flapped its wings in dissatisfaction. “Anyway, she didn’t give a reason, and I didn’t press her. But I trusted her.”
After saying that, the usually noisy Raven fell into a rare silence.
Yuan Qing looked at it. “After your former contractor kicked you to the curb, were you sad?”
Raven froze for a moment, then flapped its wings to fly up and land on Yuan Qing’s head, stomping on him with its claws. “Sad? Why would I be sad! A Familiar doesn’t have time to be sad over a former contractor! I’ve already signed a new one. Being sad would make me look unprofessional!”
“Then what do you call stepping on my head right now?”
“An on-the-job injury!”
Yuan Qing reached up, plucked Raven off his head, and set it back on the table.
“I’m done eating. You can have the rest. I’m going to sleep.”
With that, Yuan Qing curled up under his covers.
“You really…” Despite its words, Raven honestly began pecking at the rice ball. “Honestly, you give me a different feeling than Mizuho or my former contractor. I really think you’ll surpass Hifumi.”
“…That’s so cheesy.”
“I’m serious!” Raven snapped. “Don’t you feel it yourself? That day when you fought Hifumi, you — “
“I said, it’s cheesy.”
Yuan Qing interrupted the bird.
Raven stood on the table, huffing with its feathers puffed out. “How can you be like this? I finally managed to say something serious!”
“Yeah, serious. Very serious,” Yuan Qing said, rolling over in bed. “A bird talking to me about shining is like a fairy tale.”
“You!”
Raven hopped twice on the table in anger, but Yuan Qing had no intention of responding further.
It was another night of dreams. The promised battle with Hifumi in December was one day closer.
“…This rice ball tastes terrible,” Raven grumbled.