Chapter 51: Continue

The first round begins.

Sundae knew Miss Yonai was strong. Strong enough that no Magical Girl in the entire Tokyo metropolitan area was willing to spar with her. She also knew she herself was weak. Weak enough that even defeating a slightly stronger monster required Inu-oh’s help to barely scrape by.

“I’m coming in!” Sundae shouted, as if hyping herself up.

She stepped forward. The light at the tip of her staff flared instantly, and a pink-white beam shot straight toward Yuan Qing’s face.

Yuan Qing sidestepped. The beam grazed past his black robe, leaving a faint scorch mark in the air.

He hadn’t even raised a hand.

Sundae gritted her teeth. A second beam followed immediately, then a third, then a fourth.

Each shot was faster than the last, each more accurate. This was her specialty—rapid fire. But Yuan Qing just stood there, turning his body, pulling back his shoulders, tilting his head slightly.

Every beam grazed his black robe. The closest one missed his cheek by less than two centimeters.

Sundae could see the thin layer of raven feathers. Those tiny black downies moved like living things—they folded in as the beam approached, then spread back out after it passed.

“Miss Yonai…”

Sundae’s voice sounded shaky.

“What is it?” Yuan Qing said flatly.

Sundae shook her head. “No… nothing.”

Yuan Qing was watching.

Watching her steps, her breathing, the way she held her staff, the angle of her wrist when she fired the beams. Every detail, Yuan Qing was taking it in.

“Continue,” Yuan Qing said.

Sundae took a deep breath and raised her staff again.

This time, she didn’t shoot from the same spot. She started running around Yuan Qing, attacking from different angles.

Front-left, back-right, direct side, even jumping up to shoot from above.

This was a tactic she’d used in real combat before. Against monsters faster than her, she created angle differences by moving, and compensated for her speed disadvantage with those angle differences.

A small trick.

But Yuan Qing only slightly adjusted his stance, keeping his body facing Sundae no matter which angle she ran to or which direction she fired from. His front was always toward her.

He wasn’t turning to follow her movement. He was turning ahead of time.

Before Sundae reached her next firing point, his body was already adjusting its angle.

“Huff… huff…”

Sundae’s breathing grew hurried from the pressure. She knew she couldn’t beat Miss Raven, but still…

“It’s this much of a gap…” Sundae murmured quietly.

Inu-oh glanced back worriedly.

Sundae raised her staff again. But this time, she didn’t shoot immediately.

She stood still, looking at Yuan Qing. At his stance, his wings, the feathers slowly drifting across the surface of his black robe.

“Two minutes left,” Raven said, like an alarm clock reminding Yuan Qing.

Sundae raised her staff again.

“Inu-oh!” she called.

The small puppy familiar, who had been crouching at the edge of the field, leaped to his feet. The faint golden aura on his body flared brighter than before.

Sundae stepped forward and rushed to the side. At the same time, Inu-oh charged from the other direction, his small figure leaving a golden trail in the sunlight.

One person, one dog. Two directions.

Yuan Qing’s gaze shifted slightly.

Sundae’s staff lit up. The beam shot out, aimed at the ground in front of Yuan Qing.

The pink-white light exploded on impact, turning into a blinding curtain of light.

Yuan Qing squinted.

From within the light, Inu-oh had already leaped. But his target wasn’t Yuan Qing—it was Sundae.

Inu-oh’s paws landed on Sundae’s horizontally held staff. Sundae thrust upward sharply. Inu-oh used the leverage to spring himself, his small body flipping through the air, lunging straight for Yuan Qing’s face.

Yuan Qing sidestepped. Inu-oh sailed past his ear.

But in that same moment, Sundae’s beam was already there. She had been waiting for this.

Waiting for that split second when Yuan Qing would turn to dodge Inu-oh, waiting for the moment his vision would be blocked by the familiar, waiting for the moment his attention was split.

The beam cut through the air, aimed precisely at Yuan Qing’s chest.

“Got it!” Sundae cheered.

“…”

Yuan Qing didn’t dodge. He raised his right hand, fingers spread.

The beam hit his palm.

No explosion, no impact. The pink-white light, the moment it touched his palm, was wrapped by a thin layer of raven feathers, and then… dissipated.

“Huh?”

Sundae thought that move would at least have some effect.

Inu-oh landed on the ground, scraping with his four legs to stop his momentum, turning his head with his tongue still hanging out.

Yuan Qing looked at his palm. Several feathers were singed, slowly falling off as new feathers grew in to replace them.

“Nice coordination,” Yuan Qing said.

“It’s not over yet!” Sundae raised her staff again, a tremor in her voice she didn’t notice herself. “Inu-oh!”

“Woof!”

Inu-oh barked and charged again. This time he didn’t take the long route—he ran straight at Yuan Qing’s front.

Sundae followed behind him. Three steps.

Two steps.

One step.

Less than a meter from Yuan Qing, Inu-oh suddenly crouched low. All four little legs pushed off at once, his whole body springing from the ground toward Yuan Qing’s knees.

At the same time, Sundae leaped out from behind Inu-oh, her staff raised high above her head. Pink-white light gathered at the tip. She wasn’t going to shoot—she was going to smash down.

With all her strength, all her speed, all her weight—she would bring down this strike, condensed from all her magic.

Yuan Qing looked up at the pink-white light growing closer.

Then he took one step. His right shoulder dipped, and his whole body slipped into the trajectory of Sundae’s descent.

Sundae’s staff came down, but Yuan Qing’s body was no longer in that spot.

He was inside her guard.

Yuan Qing’s right hand shot out. His fingers locked onto her wrist, the one holding the staff—not a hard grip, just a gentle pull.

Sundae lost balance midair. The tip of her staff grazed past Yuan Qing’s back, exploding on the ground into a cloud of pink-white dust.

She staggered as she landed, stumbling forward two steps before barely steadying herself. Inu-oh also missed his target, rolling once on the ground before righting himself, his head still shaking.

“One minute left,” Raven’s voice came from the spectator area.

She couldn’t see it.

Sundae’s eyes were wide, but no matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t see Miss Raven’s weakness.

She had seen many powerful Magical Girls before, but that was just from the sidelines. This was only the second time she had personally experienced such strength—the first was when Miss Raven had saved her.

“Huff… huff…”

Miss Yonai hadn’t even attacked. From the start to now, two minutes had passed, and she had only been dodging, barely moving from her original position.

Yuan Qing stood still, looking at Sundae.

“Continue,” he said.

Sundae looked at her familiar. “Inu-oh.”

The puppy familiar raised his head, his watery eyes reflecting Sundae.

“Can you still run?”

“Woof! No problem!”

Inu-oh’s answer was short and firm. His four little legs tensed, his body lowered, and the faint golden aura on him was still glowing.

Still able to fight.

Sundae raised her staff again.