Give children a little self-destruction shock to their worldview.

Page 219

It's so big!

How can a cat be as big as a leopard?

Putting aside whether he could jump over the wall, given his size, it's unlikely he could hide and wander the city.

If a human with normal intelligence were here, they would be absolutely certain that the cat boss is either a magical creation or not a stray cat at all.

However, Hanaya Aya couldn't think of this. She wasn't familiar with the order of human society and still thought that such a large animal walking on the street wouldn't cause a commotion.

What surprised her most was something else entirely.

Why does Cat Boss smell like Mayumi Haga? After becoming human, she retained some of her abilities from when she was an adult dog, such as being able to talk to animals and having an excellent sense of smell.

She could pinpoint the location of the cat boss in the wind, and she could also sense that the cat boss's scent was exactly the same as that of the human, Mayumi Haga.

A person and a cat were looking at each other in the alley.

A few seconds later, Hanaya Aya suddenly realized: "So you're here to see the master too!"

"Haga Mayumi, who has simply turned into a cat and is here to chat with the stray cats to get information about Hanaya Aya: "...Meow."

"No, she is a real person, not a cat, and doesn't have an owner."

Although the meowing sounded completely unconvincing.

Faced with Aya Hanaya's curious gaze, Mayumi Haga sighed inwardly, finally piecing together the whole story.

She silently jumped off the wall. Since Hanaya Aya had come to her, there was no need for her to go through the trouble of investigating further.

"Meow.

"The cold-blooded cat boss told the curious Hanaya Aya to follow, and then led her with his cat-like steps toward his temporary residence."

Mayumi Haga, who has a family to support, couldn't stay in the athletes' dormitory, so she spent money to rent a house nearby.

She goes out every day to practice dance and other basic skills, and can also turn into a cat to investigate Hanaya Aya, while the others follow her in the form of jewelry, even when she turns into a big cat, there is a lot of jingling.

Since Hanaya Aya had come to her own door, she thought it best to just take her back.

--..-....---...--.....-....--.-....---.--Ever since reuniting with Mayumi Haga, Hitomi Tono has been openly hanging around here every day.

Actually, Kagura Yu also wanted to come over more often to exchange information, but Arisu Akari always needed someone to stay behind.

However, Tono Hitomi later introduced Haga Mayumi to Arisu Akari. After all, they were both contestants from the same strange city and were both ostracized by other contestants. It wouldn't be too conspicuous for them to stick together for warmth.

However, when discussing matters related to magical girls, everyone tacitly tries to keep Arisu Akari out of the conversation.

Akari Arisu is currently focused solely on participating in the competition and has no interest in magical girls.

Although everyone still trusts her character, after all, she was a magical girl in the previous timeline, it is clear that her current conviction is not yet strong enough to transform again.

Moreover, seeing how actively she was preparing for the competition, the others didn't want to dampen her rare enthusiasm. In short, they decided to let her fully ignite her idol spirit first, and then find another opportunity to explain later.

At this moment, Arisu Akari was still in the practice room, while everyone else was gathered at Haga Mayumi's place, staring at Hanaya Aya with wide eyes.

"You said you are... Ms. Hanaya Rika's dog?" Tono Hitomi was confused, and felt that something was off about what she said.

Can a dog become a magical girl after transforming into human form? It would be quite cute, though.

Hitomi Tono has an equal love for small animals.

At first, Mayumi Haga thought that Aya Hanaya was related to Rika Hanaya, since the two not only shared the same surname but also looked very similar, making them appear to be relatives at first glance.

However, it now seems that the truth is still quite surprising.

Could a child really do something like this? Although it's called "everyone," there are actually only three people in the room who can be considered human: Mayumi Haga, Hitomi Tono, and Yu Kagura. Everyone else is hanging around Mayumi Haga's neck.

Although Hanaya Aya gets nervous in places with lots of people, it's only because she's a little timid dog. Actually, she's not so afraid after she turns ten.

Later, they will show tension and unease because they are afraid that humans will discover that they are not human.

Now, she stared at the three men with wide, curious eyes, showing no shyness whatsoever.

In a daze, I seemed to see a beautiful and spirited golden retriever with its big, black grape-like eyes, its wet nose nuzzling against me.

Just looking at her like that, it's like you can smell the puppy scent on her.

I'm not talking about the smell, but the feeling it gives you.

"The green stone said I could choose what I wanted to become, and I said I wanted to become something similar to my little master, so I became like this."

"Hanatani Aya said."

She didn't dislike these people; they had a unique, pleasant, and friendly aura about them.

Perhaps if she broadened her knowledge a bit more, she would realize that this might be some kind of intuition as a potential magical girl.

Magical girls are attracted to each other.

The green stone is naturally referring to the gem beast Lily.

To everyone's surprise, the gem beast Lily, which should have been on Hanaya Rika, appeared on Hanaya Aya's body ten years after her partner disappeared.

Unlike other Jewel Beasts, in the original timeline, she did not break her contract with Hanaya Rika, but instead inexplicably continued the magical girl contract to this day.

If it weren't for the change in the timeline, she might have stayed by Hanaya Rika's side forever.

However, the changes in the world line clearly affected her, so after losing her partner, she had no choice but to seek help from Aya Hanaya.

However, because she used up too much magic power helping Hanaya Aya transform, she is currently in a shallow dormant state and only wakes up occasionally to give Hanaya Aya some instructions.

This is the same as the Gem Beast Lena on Kagura Yu's body.

Sounds outside the window

This was like a bolt from the blue for everyone.

Logically speaking, there were only three magical girls from the previous generation who were caught in the time-space turbulence: Rika Sugiyama, Ayasa Terasaki, and Yui Hoshino. However, after the world line changed, it wasn't just these three who disappeared.

Even the other two former magical girls who theoretically didn't join have disappeared without a trace.

Wow, looking at it this way, doesn't the Sugiyama family seem particularly miserable? They've lost two children. - Realizing that the previous Yellow Magical Girl of Magical Girl Iris was none other than Sugiyama Rika's younger sister, Sugiyama Yoko, everyone felt that the Sugiyama family seemed to be particularly unlucky.

By the way, in this timeline... is the Sugiyama family there? Logically speaking, it's unlikely that such a wealthy family business would disappear without a trace.

Mayumi Haga had already investigated, and Yu Kagura also knew a little about the inside story.

"Back then, when the two children of the Sugiyama family went missing, Mr. and Mrs. Sugiyama handed over the company to other members of the collateral branch and disappeared without a trace." Kagura Yu recalled this incident with great regret.

"So that's the reason. It seems that all five magical girls from back then have disappeared, but the Jewel Beasts might be able to escape like Lily."

At this point, Mayumi Haga remembered something and turned her gaze to Hitomi Tono, puzzled: "Hitomi, you said you had a Jewel Beast at the very beginning of this timeline..."

...

...

"...Oh, right!"

At first, Hitomi Tono thought that she had come here from the previous timeline, but Mayumi Haga had indeed seen her in this timeline. Hitomi Tono woke up after she fainted in this timeline.

Moreover, her gem beast Ryan, like Lily Lena, has entered a dormant period due to a lack of magic.

In other words... her Jewel Beast didn't come with her from the original timeline; it's very likely that it escaped from the mastermind in this timeline, just like Jewel Beast Lily.

Most likely, almost all the Gem Beasts escaped after Lena and are now searching for suitable children in this world without magical girls.

Tono realized this and finally remembered this part of her memory. She exclaimed, "It really is!"

I found Cai En after school... She didn't notice this part of her memory because she never consciously tried to recall it.

Now that Mayumi Haga brought it up, she was able to dredge up the relevant information from her own mind in this timeline.

"So, the Jewel Beasts are all looking for partners to form contracts with..." Kagura Yu counted the heads present and realized.

"Lily, Lena, and Ryan have all arrived, so the remaining two are..." They are the blue gem beast Bernie and the yellow gem beast Esther.

So, it's possible that these two gem beasts are looking for partners.

According to the information from the previous timeline provided by Hitomi Tono and Mayumi Haga, the partners chosen by these two Jewel Beasts will be Akari Arisu and Yuri Takajo.

"Speaking of which, Juri is still in the practice room, right?" Hitomi Tono realized this as well. "And what about Yuri?" Meanwhile, Arisu Juri was still practicing hard.

Although her rating wasn't ideal, it was a significant improvement compared to the start of the competition.

Akari Arisu has always been an overly competitive person, so she won't stop working hard until she's done her best.

In fact, in many ways, she can be called a genius. The fact that she was able to grow so quickly after just getting into the idol business is enough to prove her learning ability.

However, talent alone is not enough; talent alone can indeed easily reach the middle of the pyramid.

With such a large population, a simple sifting through the population would easily reveal so-called "geniuses" whose talents surpass those of ordinary people.

However, to easily reach the top using natural talent, one must be an "unparalleled genius." Moreover, it's like rowing against the current; if you don't move forward, you fall behind. Natural talent is determined at birth, but growth through hard work has no upper limit.

This idea might not hold true in other worlds, but in this world, the harder you work, the luckier you get—that's the most normal rule. A gentle god will reward all those who persevere.

If you put in the effort, it's not impossible to stand at the same level as the gods, or even surpass them.

Even if it's not the red color favored by the gods, they still live on this land of infinite possibilities.

Of course, Arisu Akari couldn't even begin to imagine all of this.

Her life seems to be accustomed to hard work, whether it's her studies or her current idol career; once she sets a goal, she will do her best.

Even in fields they've never explored before, they can delve into them without hesitation.

When she enters this state, nothing around her matters.

While these are certainly admirable virtues, and focus and diligence are equally beloved qualities, sometimes, if one's mind is filled with such thoughts, other things may quietly begin to grow.

For example, in a previous timeline, Arisu Akari had a conflict with Tono Hitomi.

She is too competitive, and she will not have a high level of goodwill towards her rivals from the beginning.

From this perspective, she is indeed somewhat annoying.

However, this is also because she lacks life experience and rarely experiences failure.

She is a genius who works hard, and also a genius who learns to work hard before she fails, which is why she is not very resilient to pressure.

In other words, because they haven't experienced many setbacks, their mindset isn't very stable.

In this world, Arisu Akari's life is not as smooth as in the previous timeline, so her negative personality flaws become less obvious.

Although she was an academic genius in Strange City, that achievement alone was not enough to turn her into the ego monster she was in the previous timeline, before she met Hitomi Tono.

She truly experienced the feeling of being inferior to others, becoming a cannon fodder supporting character in the ranking competition, and constantly savoring these feelings of resentment in her chest, turning them into the driving force behind this train of self-esteem.

She reports to the practice room every single day without fail, spending a lot of time training each day. Not satisfied with her current level, she wants to increase her training volume even more.

If it weren't for Kagura Yu and Tono Hitomi stopping her, she might have had a physical breakdown before the competition even started.

However, it's just a minor limit; you can get through it with perseverance.

Arisu Akari has no intention of being restrained and always sneaks in extra training when Kagura Yu and Tono Hitomi are busy with other things.

At first, the two of them were able to stop her, but now that the magical girl's matter is becoming more and more important, they can't stay here around the clock and can only check on her occasionally.

This gave Arisu Akari the opportunity to practice more.

Just as she was about to challenge the limits of human endurance, a strange voice suddenly came from outside the window.

"Squeezing yourself like this is not a rational choice."

"

Contract failed

"...Who?" Arisu Akari sensed something was off.

This doesn't seem to be the first or second floor, but the thirteenth floor?

Who is talking outside the window?

Is it some weirdo who just flew over to watch my training because he had nothing better to do?

This doesn't make sense, does it? Because there are strange people in this world, and it's daytime now, Arisu Akari didn't immediately think of the supernatural aspect.

She turned her head in confusion, but saw no one outside the window.

"Here, here!"

"The voice said, and tried to leap and bound on the windowsill."

After some effort, Arisu Akari finally found the small figure trying to get her attention on the windowsill.

It was a very cute little wolf with a blue, gem-like appearance.