Chapter 53: Heeding Advice

"What's wrong?" Wakaba turned around, looking puzzled.

"Nothing, just asking." The man didn't elaborate.

Suspecting nothing, Wakaba took public transportation back home, planning to play video games until evening before heading out for an assassination.

"Shiratori-kun, are you on night shift again today?" At the gate of her yard, Wakaba ran into her next-door neighbor, the beautiful married woman Saori Uemura.

She wore a sleeveless light-green blouse on her upper body and a high-waisted white long skirt on her lower body, looking exceptionally fresh and elegant.

"Yes, it's night shifts all the time now," Wakaba smiled.

Given that the other party had frequently brought her food recently, or helped clean her yard and living room, it wouldn't do to give her a cold shoulder.

"That must be very tiring, right?" Saori Uemura carried a cloth bag and took two steps forward, the unique, mature fragrance of her body washing over the air.

"It's alright," Wakaba said.

"Shiratori-kun is so energetic; your job must be great!" Saori Uemura covered her mouth with a smile.

Then, she took a lunchbox out of her cloth bag: "Shiratori-kun, I made this conger eel soup at noon and specially saved a portion for you. Take it home and try it."

"Thank you, Mrs. Uemura." Seeing that it was food, Wakaba nodded without hesitation.

"We're all neighbors, helping each other out is only right." Saori Uemura handed the lunchbox to Wakaba.

Suddenly, her foot slipped, and she lunged into Wakaba's arms.

The ample softness of her chest pressed right against Wakaba's face.

"Oh, Shiratori-kun, I'm sorry." Saori Uemura quickly pulled away from Wakaba's embrace, a flush of shyness appearing on her face.

"It's fine, as long as Mrs. Uemura didn't fall." Wakaba's voice was clear.

Saori Uemura looked into Wakaba's eyes, as clean as usual.

She couldn't help feeling a bit resentful inwardly: *Such a dense man!*

Wakaba accepted the eel soup from her, expressed her thanks, turned around to return to her courtyard, closed the gate, and didn't even invite Saori Uemura inside for a sit-down...

The eel soup was still lukewarm. Too lazy to reheat it, Wakaba ate it directly and nodded with satisfaction.

"As expected of a housewife, her culinary skills are quite decent."

Afterward, she went up to her room on the second floor to play video games, staying there until nightfall.

Sectarian City, Southeastern Direction — Katsuno Town.

This was a villa district located on the outskirts of the city. A tributary of the Sectarian River flowed through it, with lush aquatic plants and overgrown trees and weeds lining both banks. In midsummer, the croaking of many frogs echoed from the low-lying areas near the riverbanks.

Bang, bang, bang...!

In the western direction of the villa district, a flurry of short gunshots rang out in the pitch-black night, quickly returning to tranquility.

The living room of a certain villa in the west had no lights on. A gentle breeze fluttered the sheer curtains of the French doors, and the bright moonlight seized the opportunity to sneak into the living room.

It illuminated a pool of blood inside, along with scattered corpses—as many as ten of them, lying helter-skelter. The stifling air was reeking with a pungent, nauseating scent of blood.

Most of these people died with their eyes wide open, which, paired with the blue tattoos on their faces, arms, backs, and chests, appeared somewhat ferocious.

Wakaba stood quietly in the pool of blood, glancing over these people, a flash of surprise crossing her eyes: "Aren't these the punks who were beating someone up in that alley earlier..."

Only after killing them did she remember where she had seen them.

It was the gang of punks in the alley she had seen on her way back after killing Kenji Yanagi.

They had beaten a man terribly.

Which had also indirectly made her resolve to "wip out Kenji Yanagi's entire family."

"This group of punks is really wealthy, able to live in a villa." Wakaba muttered, and began to loot them.

Ten minutes later, she had gathered thirty thousand yen in cash, ten handguns from their possession, and a few boxes of ammunition.

Feeling somewhat disappointed, she packed these items into her bag, then scattered potent solid fuel throughout the villa and set the place ablaze with a single fire.

Swish!

Circulating the magic within her body, she leaped onto the courtyard wall five meters away, transforming into a speeding black shadow that left the place behind.

Ahead of her, against the skyline in the direction of the city center, a faint reddish glow rippled.

She was far too familiar with what that red represented: a fire on the scale of "the one she had consumed at the Ding Shang Hotel"!

This was already the fourth fire of this scale she had witnessed these past few days.

"Why does it feel like there are so many fires lately... Could it be because summer has arrived~~" Wakaba thought to herself.

"Forget it, none of my business."

Pulling back her thoughts, as she vaulted over the villa gate, her rapidly dashing figure suddenly paused.

Her heart skipped a beat, and an indescribable craving welled up in her chest.

"This is... a Labyrinth Boundary!"

Instant comprehension bloomed in her mind, like a predator catching the scent of prey.

She immediately changed direction, following the pull of the Labyrinth Boundary, and arrived at the riverbank beside the villa.

"The aura of the Labyrinth of Mist is right in the river." Wakaba gazed at the quietly flowing river, her eyes shining brightly.

A Labyrinth of Mist meant core crystals, and core crystals meant immense power.

That was the most wonderful joy in the world!

An unparalleled paradise!

Moreover, she had already been targeted by the Security Bureau, making her urgency for formidable strength even more pressing.

"Hey, I advise you not to jump down." Suddenly, a girl's voice came from behind Wakaba.

Hearing this voice, Wakaba wasn't surprised at all.

She had already noticed someone approaching.

Her hand had already slipped into her jacket, gripping a gun and secretly aiming behind her, waiting for the moment the opponent jumped down from the tree to shoot her dead.

"Oh, it's you." Wakaba turned her head, looking at the white-haired, beast-eared girl on a nearby tree branch—Shinmuku, the one belonging to the self-proclaimed "Rebellious Witch" organization.

"This Labyrinth of Mist isn't something you can handle," Shinmuku said from her vantage point, her two erect ears twitching slightly as she spoke.

"You want to snatch it?" Wakaba narrowed her eyes.

Hearing this, Shinmuku's expression stiffened, and she glared fiercely at Wakaba.

*This guy's way of speaking is still as annoying as ever.*

"You know, the strength of a Blight Beast can be roughly judged by the scale of its Labyrinth of Mist. The Labyrinths of Mist you encountered before were only a few dozen meters in range in reality, but this Labyrinth right here is completely different," Shinmuku explained.

Wakaba looked at the river; it was about ten meters wide, and although she didn't know how long it was, it probably wasn't very far.

"Even if this Labyrinth of Mist is a bit long, it can't be that big."

"Ha? Do you know how long it is? I chased it all the way from upstream to downstream, and it's at least over five kilometers!" Shinmuku said.

Hearing this, Wakaba's brow twitched slightly, and she immediately said righteously, "We magical girls are allies of justice; how can we shrink back when encountering difficulties? If all of us are afraid, then who will protect world peace?"

Shinmuku: "..."

She clenched her hands into fists, cursing internally: *You insidious, treacherous, and shameless wretch, you have the nerve to call yourself an ally of justice?*

"Hmph, since an annoying person like you won't listen to advice, then go die!" With that, the branch beneath her feet trembled, and her figure vanished into the woods as a black shadow.

Watching the retreating figure, Wakaba curled her lip in disdain: "Hmph, trying to scare me? As if I, Wakaba, haven't seen the world."

With that, she sprinted along the riverbank, found a narrow estuary, leaped across to the opposite bank, and blocked a group of arriving magical girls.

None of these magical girls had weak auras, and there were six of them in total!

"Hey, I advise you not to jump down. This Labyrinth of Mist isn't something you can handle," Wakaba said with a straight face.

"Who are you?"

"Are you trying to steal the core crystal?"

The two leading girls among the six magical girls flashed murderous intent in their eyes.

"Didn't you know, the strength of a Blight Beast can be determined by..." Wakaba repeated what Shinmuku had just told her.

"Hmph, we magical girls fight for justice; we won't back down just because of a little setback," shouted the tall magical girl who led them. "And if you dare to get in our way, we won't let you off."

With that, she led the other five magical girls and jumped into the river.

They didn't even kick up any splashes; the moment they touched the water's surface, they vanished.

They weren't afraid of Wakaba following behind like an oriole catching the mantis.

Because there were six of them; teaming up in numbers wasn't just to defeat the Blight Beast better, but also crucially to prevent someone from playing the mantis stalking the cicada.

Wakaba looked at the slowly flowing river surface, accompanied by the croaking of frogs around her.

She waited an hour, but the Labyrinth of Mist still existed, which indicated that those six magical girls hadn't defeated the Blight Beast yet.

"It seems what Shinmuku said was true... This Blight Beast is no ordinary opponent!" Wakaba muttered to herself.

However, far from being afraid, the desire in her eyes burned even brighter.

Because the stronger the Blight Beast, the stronger the core crystal meant, leading to even greater power upon absorption.

She returned to the villa district to make thorough preparations, hid the bag on her back in the backyard of a villa, equipped herself with two large-caliber handguns and several explosives, and headed back to the riverbank.

Swish!

She jumped into the river, and just as she was about to hit the water, her vision blurred, and a strong sense of weightlessness washed over her.