Chapter 12: Forming the Team

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“Stop!”

Suddenly, a delicate voice rang out.

At the sound, the white-haired beast-eared girl’s ears twitched, interrupting the fluid motion of her attack.

Wakaba seized the opportunity to crouch down and evade the luminous claw sweeping toward her from the girl’s right hand.

The white-haired beast-eared girl landed and immediately changed direction, rushing into the mist. In the blink of an eye, she vanished.

Wakaba rose to her feet. Seeing that her opponent had left, she pushed the grenade’s safety pin, which she had already pulled halfway from her chest, back into place.

But she did not let down her guard. Instead, she looked behind her.

“Are you all right?”

A plump girl in a pale-yellow dress approached with concern written across her face.

She appeared to be sixteen or seventeen. Apart from her waist not being particularly slender, she had a full bosom and shapely hips, making her an alluring beauty.

“Who are you?” Wakaba asked warily.

She had just been attacked for no apparent reason by that magical girl.

Naturally, she was on guard this time.

The girl in the yellow dress spoke gently. “You don’t need to be nervous. My name is Yuriko Ashida, and I’m a novice magical girl just like you. I hope we’ll get along!”

“You’re not surprised to see a magical girl like me?” Wakaba asked, relaxing her vigilance slightly.

“There aren’t many male magical girls, but they do exist. However…” A blush rose to Yuriko Ashida’s cheeks. “Male magical girls are extremely sought-after. Almost as soon as one appears, another magical girl will snatch him up and ask him to form a team.”

“Why is that?” Wakaba asked curiously.

“Because male magical girls are all incredibly strong, of course.” Yuriko Ashida looked envious. “Take you, Stranger-kun. You’re a novice, yet you managed to fight that insane magical girl to a draw!”

“Insane magical girl… You know her?” Wakaba asked.

Yuriko Ashida shook her head. “No. None of the magical girls around here know her. We only know that the Tainted Beasts corrupted her mind, causing her to frequently go mad and attack her allies. None of the nearby magical girls will team up with her.”

Then she warned Wakaba, “Stranger-kun, you should keep your distance whenever you see her. There’s no telling when she’ll snap, and nothing she says can be trusted.”

“I see. Thanks for the warning,” Wakaba said.

“Stranger-kun, you still haven’t told me your name,” Yuriko Ashida said.

Wakaba hesitated for a moment before replying, “My name is Yu Shimizu.”

“Shimizu-kun, let’s team up.” Yuriko Ashida made the suggestion in a sweet voice.

“Sorry, but I have something to do. I need to go back,” Wakaba politely declined.

“Shimizu-kun, if you head in that direction, you won’t be able to get back.” Seeing Wakaba’s puzzled expression, Yuriko Ashida explained, “There’s only one direction in the Realm of Mist, and it always leads toward the Tainted Beast. Even if you walk in the opposite direction, you’ll still be drawing closer to it.”

“Does that mean the only way out is to kill the Tainted Beast?”

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“Of course not. We can also wait until dawn. When the Realm of Mist disappears, we’ll return as well,” Yuriko Ashida explained.

Afterward, she glanced at Wakaba and said, “Shimizu-kun, if you’re in a hurry, the fastest way out is still to defeat the Tainted Beast. So, Shimizu-kun, will you team up with me?”

“All right.” After thinking it over, Wakaba agreed to form a team with Yuriko Ashida.

Yuriko Ashida happily came over and took Wakaba’s hand. Her sweet fragrance drifted over. “I’m so happy to be teamed up with Shimizu-kun! By the way, how many times have you entered the Realm of Mist?”

“Once.” After a moment’s thought, Wakaba answered honestly.

“Really?” Yuriko Ashida covered her small mouth and moved even closer to Wakaba, her ample chest almost brushing against her.

Her face was filled with surprise and admiration. “You fought that insane magical girl to a draw on your very first visit… As expected, boys really do have extraordinary talent when it comes to combat!”

The intensity of her admiring gaze made Wakaba feel a little embarrassed.

She began to wonder if she was truly that strong.

“How many times have you been here?” she asked in return.

“This is my third time.” Yuriko Ashida let out a dejected sigh. “But I’m too weak. The first two times, I could only follow two senior magical girls around and lend a hand. I wasn’t able to help with anything myself.”

A look of self-reproach appeared on her face.

Then, under Wakaba’s gaze, she quickly rallied. Taking Wakaba’s hand, she pointed with her other hand toward the direction in which the people from earlier had disappeared.

“Shimizu-kun, we should hurry and defeat the Tainted Beast.”

“Mm.”

Wakaba followed her in that direction.

Before long, they encountered the group of controlled pedestrians.

“They’ve been bewitched by the Tainted Beast. They’re ordinary people, and they’re innocent! No, I can’t just stand by and watch them get hurt!” Yuriko Ashida cried out, her voice filled with agitation.

She ran toward the people and tried to hold them back.

But it was completely useless. Instead, she tripped and fell.

She then activated her magic. The hair behind her head wove itself into a black serpent, which lunged toward the people’s necks.

Everyone bitten by the serpent fell unconscious.

“This is my magic, the Serpent of Intoxication!” Yuriko Ashida glanced at Wakaba and explained, “It has no destructive power. It can only make anyone it bites fall into a deep sleep. No matter how much you call them, they won’t wake up.”

“Shimizu-kun, there are too many of them. Come help me hold them back.”

Wakaba had no choice but to go over and grab hold of the people, doing her best to slow their advance.

By the time Yuriko Ashida’s magic had brought them all down, Wakaba was drenched in sweat.

“I’m exhausted.”

“For now, we’ll leave them here. Once we defeat the Tainted Beast, we’ll take them with us.”

As she spoke, Yuriko Ashida led Wakaba deeper into the mist.

The two of them chatted as they walked.

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Most of the time, Yuriko Ashida asked the questions while Wakaba answered them.

Wakaba also learned a useful little trick from her: by channeling magical energy into her eyes, she could sharpen her vision and see much farther.

They had not walked far when some ruins began to appear amid the overgrown grass.

Their style was unmistakably ancient.

“What happened to these buildings?” Wakaba asked curiously.

“I’m not entirely sure either.” Yuriko Ashida thought for a moment. “I only heard one of my seniors mention that the Realm of Mist isn’t part of the real world. It’s an illusion born when filth corrodes human desire. So these ruins should be manifestations of the desires in the victims’ hearts. They don’t really mean anything.”

“I see.”

Wakaba nodded.

Yet as she stared at the complicated, unfamiliar patterns that remained on the crumbling buildings, she could not help but wonder whether they were truly mere fantasies.

The two continued onward.

A short while later, they hid behind a broken wall in the midst of a vast ruin, secretly watching the bizarre monster several dozen meters ahead.

The monster appeared to be a severed hand. The palm alone was a meter across, and with the length of the truncated arm, its total length reached four meters. From a distance, it looked like a truck standing upright.

The severed hand was entirely gray and gave off a faint aura of death. In the center of its palm was a mouth lined with spiraling rows of razor-sharp teeth.

Unconscious pedestrians continued to appear around it, walking toward the monster one after another, only to be swallowed whole.

Anyone it devoured vanished completely, leaving nothing behind.

It had clearly eaten countless people, yet it seemed to be a bottomless pit. Its body did not grow, nor did it expel anything.

It completely defied the law of conservation of mass.

The moment Wakaba saw the Tainted Beast, she felt the faint pressure radiating from it.

There was no way she could defeat something like that, was there?

Why was the first Tainted Beast she encountered so powerful?

Where were the goblins?

Wasn’t she supposed to start by fighting weak monsters?

“Ashida, perhaps we should—”

Wakaba was about to suggest that they retreat and think things over.

But Yuriko Ashida looked at her with admiration and encouragement.

“Shimizu-kun, the Tainted Beast is right there. Go on and attack! You’re so strong—you can definitely do it!”