The villainous magical girl's daily mission is to find fault.

Chapter 255 Collectibles

Five minutes later.

Nightingale, carrying the assault rifle she had seized from the little gray wolf, ran wildly down the stairwell.

Hyacinths and irises followed closely behind, while terrifying bursts of gunfire rang out continuously from behind.

Compared to the Hellcat's continuous barrage of automatic rifle fire, the power of Cheshire Rabbit's KS23 shotgun terrified the three, causing them to flee in panic.

"Nightingale! Are you sure you dismantled the barrier?! I didn't sense the magic fading at all!"

Hyacinth fired suppressive shots behind her while calling out loudly to the nightingale in front of her.

"I really took it down! I checked it several times!"

"Then let's get out of here quickly—ouch!"

"Bang!!"

Another terrifying explosion came from behind. The wall behind Hyacinth was almost completely blasted down, and the scorching, gleaming barrage of shotgun shells bounced and reflected in the stairwell.

—Dragon's Breath Bullet.

From the moment it started, Cheshire Rabbit had been using magic to simulate the exaggerated effects of these bullets.

Although it is essentially a bird bullet filled with magnesium powder, it would be even more exaggerated and terrifying if placed on a bullet condensed with magic.

For example, the iris flower running ahead of her had been suppressed by this exaggerated firepower for a long time, and now she had no intention of fighting back at all, only thinking about running away as soon as possible.

Run as fast as you can! Whoever runs the slowest will get beaten up!

Especially after the barrier node was dismantled, the firepower of Hellcat and Cheshire Rabbit increased instead of decreasing. The latter even felt that KS23's firepower was not enough and began to pull out some more terrifying heavy firepower from the magic space.

Finally, after a brief escape and chase, the three rushed out of the basement and saw the Hero Association van parked not far away, with Aquamarine sitting in the passenger seat.

"Look! There are hyacinths over there!"

Aquamarine quickly called out to Red Zircon in the driver's seat and patted her companion on the shoulder.

Red Zircon glanced at the van, then jerked the steering wheel, tilting the van so that the open back door faced Hyacinth and her two companions who were rushing towards them.

Evacuation is imminent!

Looking at the waiting vehicles, Hyacinth seemed to see the dawn of victory.

Before she could even feel happy for a moment, the shotgun fire that had been chasing her out of the mall suddenly stopped, causing the three of them to turn around and take a look.

If they hadn't looked, it would have been fine, but upon closer inspection, the expectant looks on their faces suddenly turned into horror and horrification:

Cheshire Rabbit had put away her shotgun at some point, and what she was carrying on her shoulder was a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher!

RPG-28 rocket launcher.

"Oh no! Aquamarine! Get out of there!!!"

The hyacinth cried out loudly.

Aquamarine wasn't stupid either. When she saw the terrifying weapon in Cheshire Rabbit's hand, the two people in the driver's seat turned pale. They didn't care about helping Hyacinth anymore and stepped on the gas to try to speed away.

"Fire!"

Rocket launcher fired!

A scorching tail flame roared out, propelling the rocket straight toward the bread truck bearing the Hero Association logo.

Upon seeing the oncoming rocket, Red Zircon in the driver's seat screamed in terror and swerved the steering wheel with all his might, trying to dodge the attack with a beautiful drift.

Everyone held their breath.

Aquamarine was already contemplating what position she should take to get into the infirmary, Red Zircon was itching to make the steering wheel spark, and Hyacinth and the other two looked expectant but were filled with trepidation.

Can you dodge it?

"—Whoosh!!!"

"Crack!!!"

The rocket grazed the open rear door of the bread truck and flew away, blowing up an unfortunate car parked on the side of the road.

"Well done! Red Zircon, you did a great job!"

Overjoyed at having escaped unscathed, Aquamarine gave a hard pat to the still-shaken Red Zircon in the driver's seat.

But as soon as Hyacinth and the other two got into the car, Cheshire Rabbit pulled out his M2 Browning heavy machine gun from behind his back, which made everyone turn pale.

……

……

"Hahahaha! Hahahaha!"

"Run away! Cry your heart out! Hahahaha!!"

"..."

Intense fighting broke out outside the mall, with heavy machine gun fire coming in waves. Hyacinth and the others immediately abandoned the bread cart riddled with bullets and fled in panic while firing back.

Inside the mall, Su Tianqing stood calmly in front of the withered tree enclosed by a fence, glancing up at the tree that had been dead for many years.

This is a peach tree.

According to her own understanding of the Inari story and her memoirs from interviews, Inari's first transformation took place under this tree.

Over the years, even though the tree has long since died, people have not been willing to uproot it. Instead, they have carefully protected it and made it a scenic spot where people can make wishes.

"Ugh...why throw money away? You guys are so materialistic."

Su Tianqing peeked out and looked at the coins and banknotes scattered around the tree roots, then sighed.

But that makes sense. People always need some offerings when making wishes, and the coins in their hands become the most suitable and convenient offerings.

Shouldn't offerings be used to commemorate the dead? Inari-san isn't dead yet, isn't this a bit unlucky?

How about I collect all this money?

After much deliberation, the golden fox ultimately did not dare to steal the offerings.

But since Miss Inari set up a barrier under this tree, it means she did indeed hide something here. But where exactly is it...?

Thinking of this, Su Tianqing simply climbed over the fence, approached the withered tree, and began to carefully observe it.

The sounds of fire outside the mall gradually subsided, but the cat girl and rabbit girl remained vigilant on the perimeter, providing cover for Su Tianqing's search operation.

Where are the props...?

Su Tianqing circled the withered tree several times, wagging its tail in confusion, but still couldn't see anything that might be a relic of Inari.

The golden-haired fox girl stroked her tail for a while, then fell into deep thought.

Could it be buried under this tree?

That shouldn't be the case. After Nightingale lifted the seal, I sensed the magical reaction on this withered tree. So where could it be...?

"Secret manual, you'd better give me some hints, otherwise I..."

[Hint: Look at the branches of the tree]

I knew the secret manual would give me a hint!

The golden fox jumped around excitedly beside the dead tree, trying to see what was on the branch.

Soon, Su Tianqing picked a shiny little gadget off the tree branch.

It wasn't a very valuable gemstone; it was just a rather cheap rhinestone pendant, like the kind of inexpensive trinkets girls would buy from vendors outside the school after school.

"What? I thought it was some kind of treasure."

Su Tianqing looked disgusted.

Just as he was about to check if the secret manual quest was complete, the rhinestone pendant seemed to emanate a strange magic.

After a moment of disorientation, Su Tianqing suddenly awoke to a drastic change in the scene before her eyes—

The shopping mall was gone, and all that remained before him was a peach tree in full bloom. Under the tree stood a petite red fox girl, carrying a schoolbag, as if she were waiting for a bus.

Is this... an illusion...?

"Hello there."

A turtle spirit with a quartz shell descended from the sky, floated before the surprised red fox girl, and whispered to her:

"I sensed your magical potential."

"Would you like to... become a magical girl, child?"