Misa Tachibana opened her eyes and rotated her shoulders. The residual warmth from the massage still lingered, a long-lost cozy sensation that she was somewhat reluctant to let go of.
Tucking the inventory sheet under her arm, she pulled her phone from her pocket to check the time.
“It's getting late. You should head back. You have school tomorrow, right? High schoolers shouldn't stay out too late.”
Though her words sounded like she was chasing her out, her tone wasn't harsh.
She took a manila envelope from the side pocket of her wheelchair and handed it over. “This is the allowance for your time off. Take it—you've earned it.”
“Thank you, Store Owner,” Qiluo said as she accepted the envelope. She turned and walked toward the staff breakroom to grab her backpack.
When she reached the convenience store entrance, she looked back at Misa Tachibana, who was still sitting by the window.
“Store Owner, you should get some rest soon too.”
Misa Tachibana nodded. Only after Qiluo's footsteps faded did she place the inventory sheet on the table, picking up her completely cold coffee to take the last sip.
Misa Tachibana was in no hurry to return to the headquarters.
First, she went over to the convenience store shelves, picking up a few boxes of chocolate sticks from the new arrivals section. Then she circled around to the snack aisle and tossed several bags of potato chips and gummies into her shopping basket.
She paused by the refrigerated display case to grab a few cups of pudding. She remembered Amamiya mentioning last time that this brand tasted better than the one sold at the supermarket near their headquarters. She also grabbed two bottles of juice on her way.
The night-shift clerk at the register blinked when he saw her roll up with a basket full of snacks. “Store Owner, are you having a party?”
“Something like that.” Misa Tachibana handed over the bills. While waiting for the clerk to make change, she remembered something and grabbed a bag of marshmallows from a nearby shelf, adding it to the shopping bag.
This wasn't the first time she was heading back so late.
Every time she finished her shift at the store, she would bring some treats back to the headquarters.
Today it was chocolate sticks and pudding; tomorrow it might be bread and milk; and the day after, it could be the limited-edition potato chips that one of the little ones had been whining about for days.
The three of them were always clamoring for her to bring food back. Watching them scramble for the snacks, one would think she never bought them anything.
Although Misa Tachibana had never even been in a relationship, she often felt like she had three children of her own.
She had never been a mother, and she wasn't even sure if she counted as a proper guardian.
They called her Store Owner or Boss, never anything else.
But sometimes, when Kohinata was exhausted and fell asleep face-down on the coffee table, her mumbled murmurs sounded a lot like “Mama.”
The lights in the headquarters' breakroom were still on. As Misa Tachibana rolled her wheelchair inside, she saw several opened bags of chips and a half-finished bottle of juice scattered across the coffee table.
Night Sakura was sitting cross-legged on the floor, the glow of her laptop screen reflecting off her face as her fingers clattered rapidly across the keyboard.
Kohinata was sprawled on the sofa, her legs dangling over the armrest and swinging back and forth. Amamiya sat at the other end of the couch, cradling a manga volume in her hands.
At the sound of the wheelchair, Kohinata was the first to jump down.
“Boss is back! Whoa, the bag! I smell chocolate!”
“Store Owner, what took you so long?”
Night Sakura scrambled up from the floor and leaned in to sniff Misa Tachibana. She furrowed her brow. “Why do you smell like someone else today?”
“Today was the first day back for that clerk, Tian Gong. She gave me a quick shoulder massage, saying she'd learned a bit of it before. Though her technique wasn't very professional, it did make my shoulders feel much lighter.”
She placed the shopping bag on the coffee table. Kohinata was already eagerly rummaging through it, letting out a series of excited gasps: “This looks delicious!” and “Oh, that one is yummy too!”
Night Sakura accepted the marshmallows, her gaze still fixed on Misa Tachibana.
“A massage? Why did she offer to massage you?”
“Probably because she saw me rubbing my shoulders and felt bad.”
Night Sakura's hands slowed down as she tore open the marshmallow bag. She felt like she had heard the name “Tian Gong” somewhere before.
Kohinata pulled a box of chocolate sticks from the bag, tore it open, and took a bite, speaking through a mouthful. “Tian Gong? You mean that girl who cosplayed as Lightweaver at the school festival? I remember her! She looked exactly like the real Lightweaver in that outfit!”
“Yes, that's her.” Misa Tachibana recalled that day when Qiluo Tian Gong had walked out in her Lightweaver cosplay. Even she had been dazed for a brief moment.
“Could they be the same person?” Kohinata looked up from her pile of snacks, chocolate crumbs dusting the corner of her mouth. “How could a normal person cosplay Lightweaver so perfectly? Plus, she wouldn't even let us take pictures.”
“Miss Tian Gong doesn't have any mana fluctuations,” Misa Tachibana said, shaking her head slightly. “Lightweaver's mana spectrum is extremely powerful. If Miss Tian Gong were Lightweaver, there's no way I wouldn't have noticed from up close. Besides, Miss Tian Gong seems a lot more reserved.”
Amamiya set down her manga, initiating a conversation for once. “Sometimes, looking too much like the person proves it's not them. Someone as skilled at hiding her identity as Lightweaver wouldn't make a big show of wearing her own cosplay at school. That would be too conspicuous.”
Night Sakura tore open her bag of marshmallows, popped one into her mouth, and suddenly stopped chewing.
“Not necessarily. Lightweaver loves doing the opposite of what people expect. We had to chase her for so long just to get her to agree to join us. Maybe she wore her own outfit on purpose, thinking the most dangerous place is the safest. Not to mention, she has that kind of twisted sense of humor.”
“Whether she is Lightweaver or not, she is an employee at my store.”
Misa Tachibana's tone was gentle, but all three of them could hear the implicit “this matter is closed” in her words.
“She just went through that Erosion Body attack. If she wants to live peacefully as a normal student, there's no need for us to disturb her.”
Night Sakura pulled the last cup of pudding from the shopping bag, waving it in front of Kohinata like a trophy.
Amamiya leaned against the armrest of the sofa, the unfinished manga still open before her, her eyelids already half-drooped.
...
On the other side of town, Qiluo sat cross-legged on her bed, a notebook spread open in front of her as she twirled a pencil between her fingers over and over again.
Star-trail was curled up on her lap.
In her consciousness, she unfurled the mana fragments she had gathered today, one by one.
What she had to do now was quite simple: use Star-trail's mana to forge a signal, tricking the dormant contract mark into believing that the person it was waiting for had returned.
“It's a bit like forging an access card,” she muttered to herself, gently poking Star-trail's ear with the cap of her pen.
Star-trail tilted its head to look at her, as if saying, “Keep talking, I'm listening.”
She needed to temporarily alter the spectral characteristics of Star-trail's mana to mimic that of the deceased Contract Spirit. Then, using Star-trail as a medium, she would inject it into Misa Tachibana's circuit to reactivate the anchor.
But the problem was that the Contract Spirit was already gone.
Her only clue was the fragments embedded in Misa Tachibana's wound.
It was like digging up a few bricks from a ruin and trying to reconstruct the blueprints of the entire house.
Qiluo flipped her notebook to a new page and began sketching a circuit diagram.
She had to reverse-engineer the original owner's mana spectrum from the fragments first, then design a disguise plan for Star-trail.
Sucking on her pen cap, she suddenly remembered a very troublesome issue: a normal Magical Girl's magic circuit was a one-way closed loop, where the Contract Spirit acted as a medium for mana conversion, and the contractor used that converted mana to fight. If Misa Tachibana's circuit had the same structure, her current plan would have to be completely scrapped and restarted.
“Ugh, this is too hard!”
Qiluo buried her face in Star-trail's belly, letting out a muffled groan.
Rate on N.U.
