Chapter 104: After the Rain, the Sky Clears

By the time they stepped out of the arcade, it was already nearing noon.

The rain had weakened considerably, yet it still had not ceased.

The sky was shrouded beneath gloomy clouds, like a layer of gray veil. The pedestrian street was sparsely populated; only a few umbrellas could be seen moving through the curtain of rain. Moisture hung in the air, mixed with the scent of dust, bringing a faint chill.

Raindrops continuously poured down from the roadside trees. The leaves swayed gently in the breeze, their rustling sound like whispers. Rain streaks covered the shop signs, and the lights made the rain curtain appear hazy and gentle.

Two umbrellas, one tall and one short, moved side by side down the street. Senior Cuique and Xia Liang walked beneath them, silent for a moment.

In the end, it was Senior Cuique who spoke first: "Is this really okay?"

"What do you mean?" Xia Liang asked back with a light laugh.

"You know."

"I don't, though."

"... Why did you plead for them?"

Senior Cuique sighed: "When you winked at me back then, wasn't that exactly what you meant? To tell me not to be too harsh."

To be honest, when she first saw Xia Liang being harassed by delinquents, especially those "friends" who had once nearly harmed Xia Liang, her immediate reaction was to call the police.

Magical Girls are not police, nor do they have the obligation or necessity to punish ordinary people, but calling the police is something anyone can do.

Even if the offenders were merely a group of minors, Fang Ting City had a dedicated Juvenile Guidance Team responsible for punishing and supervising young people who had committed violations.

It was just that Xia Liang seemed unwilling to do so, which was why she had repeatedly hinted at Senior Cuique at that time.

Senior Cuique chose to respect the wishes of the party involved, so in the end, she only forced the other side to apologize. The slapping and the warning were carried out where Xia Liang could not see, simply because she could not bear to watch.

The arcade was crowded with many people and voices, so she had not asked Xia Liang the reason for that choice then, but now, she must ask clearly.

"I didn't mean that. I was just looking forward to you, Little Senior, showing your true power."

Facing Senior Cuique's question, Xia Liang spoke playfully, but upon seeing the somewhat calm and serious look in the other's eyes, she gradually closed her mouth and slowly let the smile fade from the corners of her lips.

Short boots clicked crisply against the waterlogged ground. Under the umbrellas, there was only the sound of footsteps and breathing for a moment.

"... If I must say, it is because we are actually the same kind of people."

She said softly: "Not loved by our families, not accepted by the collective, we finally gathered together, wanting to make ourselves look a bit stronger."

"Some gradually took the wrong path, others gradually gave up trying. But since everyone has already been abandoned once by the collective, or even by their own families, they fear being abandoned again, and so they began a common fall."

"Sometimes, when I look at them, it is like looking at another version of myself. If I had not met Lin Xiaolu, Little Senior, Moko, and the others, one day I too would have become like them."

"This mindset is strange, isn't it? Like seeing another version of oneself that failed to receive redemption. Even knowing it is futile, I still cannot bring myself to be ruthless."

The two umbrellas turned at the street corner and drifted past. Raindrops slid off the umbrella surfaces, splashing onto the concrete curb of the sidewalk.

"But they tried to harm you."

Senior Cuique answered calmly: "Facing the malice of others, indiscriminate kindness will only harm yourself."

"Even so, I chose to give them a chance. Because however brief it was, Li Yaqing once showed me kindness."

Xia Liang said with equal seriousness: "When I was alone, surrounded by rumors, mocked and isolated by other classmates, she told me, 'That's so cool,' and wanted to be my friend."

"If it hadn't been for her back then, I might not even be alive here now. I might have done something even more impulsive. After all, when I first lost my mom and dad, I once thought about taking my own life."

"If I had taken my own life back then, I wouldn't be able to meet Little Senior now."

"So, this is actually a somewhat selfish emotion of mine, but I selfishly hope she can get better."

"Precisely because we were once 'friends,' and once pursued 'love' together, I hope her ending will be one where she recognizes right from wrong, comes out, and becomes happy. If the Juvenile Guidance Team gets involved, then only punishment remains."

Xia Liang's words seemed somewhat hazy in the rain, interwoven with continuous thoughts, leaving behind

"So I agreed, but I will only give them one chance."

Senior Cuique, with a stern face, looked at the gradually weakening rain curtain: "I also hope the lesson I left her will make her realize what can be rewarded and what will face punishment."

"If they receive the lesson and see the reward, yet still cannot come out of it, then they can no longer blame the outside world. At that point, human nature is the hardest thing to change."

"Just like Magical Girls. Every Magical Girl was initially chosen with a pure heart. But when a Magical Girl begins to do evil and commits crimes, we cannot use 'she was originally a good child' to excuse her."

"Good deeds should be rewarded, and bad deeds should be punished. Even if the world is often not like this, we must all guard this original heart."

Finally, the two stopped at an intersection, because that spot happened to be the middle driving section of the pedestrian commercial street. A traffic light stood at the intersection, halting their steps.

— "Really, you're too serious, Little Senior."

Xia Liang suddenly smiled brightly: "Today is our date, after all. Let the little interlude pass like this. If this topic ruins the original good mood, that would be the thing that truly makes me sad."

"It's not a 'date' at all, is it?"

Hearing her words, Senior Cuique forced herself to relax her eyebrows, let out a long sigh, and glanced up at Xia Liang: "We're just going out to play together. That word is a bit inappropriate for the situation."

"Eh? But I genuinely feel like we are on a date."

Saying this, Xia Liang moved closer to Senior Cuique, reducing the distance between them: "Look, going out to play with someone you have feelings for, visiting a place full of memories, and even staging a hero saving the beauty. Isn't that a perfect date script?"

"Every word matches, but every specific concept has been substituted."

Senior Cuique, with drooping eyelids, commented: "What do you mean 'someone you have feelings for'? Saying 'friend' or 'partner' would be more accurate, wouldn't it?"

"Hehe, saying it that way is just more romantic."

Xia Liang said with a light laugh, but then seemed to realize something and looked up at the sky: "Ah, has the rain stopped?"

Senior Cuique also looked up, gazing along the boundary between the umbrella and the sky. She saw that a gap had opened in the dark clouds above, and a sliver of sunlight pierced through the clouds, illuminating the originally dim street.

"Before the second half, let's go eat lunch first."

Putting away the umbrella, Xia Liang said to Senior Cuique with a smile: "Our date today is far from over, isn't it?"

(End of Chapter)