The next day, afternoon.

The dismissal bell of senior high school sounded both precious and routine.

Outside the window, the laughter of students in the gym floated into the classroom building, making Luo Zining feel even worse.

Last night, Luo You had barged into her room, interrupting her ritual, and said something she still couldn’t let go of.

“That bastard actually said I’m flat-chested…!”

“And yesterday too! I specially ordered delivery for him, and he refused to eat it! Turned around and got himself a hundred-plus Fal lamb offal stew, when my daily meal allowance is only thirty!”

“Tonight I’ll draw you into my doujin and have you trained hard by a dozen men!”

Ding-dong—

A message came through on her phone.

Glancing at it, Luo Zining slung her backpack over her shoulder, but instead of going home, she walked into the adjacent faculty office.

Inside, a gorgeous female teacher in a business suit and sheer black tights saw her enter, promptly locked the door, and drew the curtains.

“Magical girl Little Red Riding Hood, you’ve done a great service!”

“…Huh?”

“The Divine Particles! The ones you brought back from your mission—The Magical Alliance has decided to award you a First-Class Merit!”

“Oh, I see.” Luo Zining replied with a blank expression.

The teacher, Zhao Xin, pushed up her glasses.

“You don’t seem very excited. This is a First-Class honor, you know.”

“If possible, I’d prefer something more… tangible over a spiritual reward.”
[Hint hint.]

“You little…”

Under Luo Zining’s watchful gaze, Zhao Xin pulled out a thumb-sized glass vial. Inside, nine brilliantly colored particles floated quietly in suspension.

Luo Zining knew exactly what they were—she’d retrieved them herself.

“You’re seriously just pulling out something as important as Divine Particles like that?”

“After testing, the organization has confirmed that you’re an extremely rare—extremely extremely rare—compatible individual. So the Alliance has decided to give you a portion to fuse with. Congratulations, this is a huge deal.”

“Eh… this stuff’s really that powerful?”

“Of course it is. You’ve heard of Eler—no, that Aurora Witch, right? That terrifying demoness? Word is, her power came largely from the Divine Particles.”

“Heh…”

As Luo Zining took the vial, the nine-colored particles inside began to stir as they neared her.

Seven years had passed, and yet “Elera” was still a forbidden name among veteran magical girls—proof of just how deep a shadow she had cast.

And the source of her terror… was the Divine Particles.

“That said, I’m just a newbie who became a magical girl less than a year ago. This kind of thing, I get it without sending gifts or making connections?”

Zhao Xin flushed a little at her words.

“Don’t talk like that. This is the Magical Alliance, not some morally bankrupt workplace. Here, we judge by merit and results. You may be new, but your power already rivals the top-tier magical girls. Once you fuse with the Divine Particles, you might even qualify for the next Selection Conference.”

“Wow~ The Selection Conference, huh? I could actually be one of the Ten Seats?”

Luo Zining gave a mildly surprised reaction.

The Ten Seats represented the ten strongest magical girls—the public face of the Alliance. They held immense power and prestige.

The strongest magical girl, Xingyue, held the First Seat.

For a rookie like her to even be considered as a candidate was already the highest possible recognition. That First-Class Merit was more or less just a PR move to polish her profile a bit.

But Luo Zining understood clearly—it wasn’t because she found the Divine Particles that she was awarded merit.
It was because she could fuse with them.

The Alliance’s generous investment in her was based on that compatibility.

Apparently, the entire Magical Alliance hadn’t found a single other person who could fuse with them successfully.

“Based on our data, your compatibility rate with the Divine Particles is around 33%. Our estimate is—”

“Huh? Only 33%? That low? Are you sure fusing it won’t fry me?”

“Calm down, calm down. Compatibility just affects how much power you can extract. There have been cases where people fused it and later had it safely extracted again.”

“Really now…? I remain skeptical.”

Luo Zining looked thoroughly unamused.

She had the distinct sense of being treated like some prized lab rat.
Sure, the Magical Alliance wasn’t that unethical, but still—she didn’t like it.

“Oh my? That’s such a shame~”

Zhao Xin arched her back in a stretch, and her dangerously prominent chest nearly smacked Luo Zining in the face through her shirt.

“From the limited experiments so far, those with higher compatibility tend to gain… more feminine traits after fusing. Like, say, a two-cup size increase overnight?”

“I’ll take it!”

Luo Zining instantly stuffed the vial into her bag, clutching it protectively like a mother hen.

“Hmph… Let me brief you on the next steps.”

Zhao Xin shivered slightly. Teen girls and their obsessions are terrifying…

“Ahem, the Alliance wants you to carry it on your person for a while before fusing. That way your body will be less likely to reject it. Wait for the right timing.”

“Got it. Anything else? If not, I’m heading home.”

“Uh—remember to come in for regular testing. We want to better understand how Divine Particles work.”

“Ok! I’m off. Text me if something comes up!”

Luo Zining darted out like a gust of wind, terrified Zhao Xin might take the vial back.

Hah! That bastard dared to call me flat-chested! Once I gain some real feminine charm, I’m slapping him with the truth of my curves!

“….Ah, kids these days. So impatient.”

Zhao Xin shook her head.

Currently, only five people in the Alliance had any compatibility with Divine Particles, and all hovered around 10%. Luo Zining’s rate was the highest by far.

She was already extremely gifted as a magical girl. If she fused with the Particles too…

Zhao Xin’s hand brushed her waist—where a faint scar remained, left by the Aurora Witch years ago.

Her lifelong shame.

With a sigh, she murmured,

“If only we knew what Elera’s compatibility rate was… we could estimate her true power level.”

---

At that moment—

“Divine Particles… I remember my compatibility was around 79%, wasn’t it?”

Before Luo You sat a plate, and on it were several drops of his own blood, cut from his fingertip.

The blood squirmed, as though alive, slowly creeping toward the wound to return.

“I’ve been suppressing the Divine Particles in my body for seven years now. Not sure if the compatibility dropped… Eh, not that it matters. I’ve sworn never to use them again.”

Every so often, Luo You would cut himself, just to test the particles’ activity level.

At peak, his blood wouldn’t even flow—sometimes, when forcibly extracted, he could sense the blood’s location from afar.

Now, with only mild movement, it meant the Divine Particles were mostly dormant.

“If nothing goes wrong, I should be able to extract them completely in… two months. What a hassle.”

Luo You sighed.

The Divine Particles were great and all, except for the fact they kept turning him into a woman.

Back when he was an officer in the Extranormal Organization, he was male only on the first day of joining.

After that, it was all girl—all the time.

And no amount of effort could reverse it.

At the time, he thought: Whatever, being a woman’s fine. As long as I still have the heart of a man, the body doesn’t matter.

But that battle with Xingyue showed him a bitter truth—

His “man’s heart” had long since collapsed.

Add to that the death of a close friend… and that was the final straw that made him leave the organization.

“Time changes everything,” Luo You muttered.

Years had passed.

Now he was a father, raising a daughter.

…Though, admittedly, adopting her was part of his effort to reclaim his lost masculinity.

Five years of raising her, and her rebellious nature still made him feel completely un-fatherly.

After all, when he adopted Luo Zining, she was already twelve—her personality was set. No changing it now.

And now he was breaking his back over this fujoshi daughter of his.

But thinking deeper—after all the terrible things he’d done to magical girls, did he really deserve an easy life as a father?

Zining’s rebellion might just be karma.

Luo You knew what he was.

A villain.

A major villain.

Back when he acted as Elera, he’d “reflect” on his sins daily… by hunting magical girls.
To prove his manhood.

He’d… done things to those delicate bodies—things that left most magical girls in the Alliance with complicated memories of her.

Honestly, Luo You still kinda missed those days.

“Mr. Luo, we’re done with the inventory. You’ve got this amount coming in.”

One of the delivery workers at the door held up six fingers.

“Alright. Transfer it to my account.”

Luo You nodded.

He could already imagine what would happen the moment his daughter came home.

He had just sold all of Luo Zining’s BL and fujoshi merchandise.

And with that—

The doomsday alarm sounded.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

The entire floor shook with Luo Zining’s air-raid siren scream as she returned.

Luo You squatted in the corner of the living room, clutching his ears.

His face looked like a burnt-out stickman.

Dead inside.