Even if you're a corrupted magical girl, you still have to try to redeem yourself.

Yuuki Yuen never forgot that even though she was very familiar with Tomoe, and even though Tomoe had a very straightforward personality, she was like a meticulously crafted weapon that was always extremely lethal.

"What, what are you doing..."

Yuuki's unusual behavior also startled Baqi, who also realized the ambiguous state between the two.

"No, I won't do anything!"

Yuuki Yui began to stammer involuntarily. She lifted her leg, intending to step off Baqi, but the force from her waist pulled her back to where she was.

Ba Qi was holding her waist with both hands, her cheeks flushed with shyness, and she was pretending to be calm as she revealed her sharp little tiger teeth.

"Don't even think about running!"

"Who, who's trying to run away?"

Yuuki Yukino's voice became much softer due to her guilty conscience, and she swallowed hard as her throat bobbed.

"No?"

Baqi's hand moved down a few centimeters and pinched the soft flesh of Yuuki Yuki's body.

"ah!"

Caught off guard by Baqi's sudden attack, Yuuki Yuuki screamed, but the sound was more like a groan than a scream, making people blush even more.

"She made a cute sound, Xiaoyuan."

Baqi, taking advantage of the situation, slipped her hand under the hem of Yuuki Yuki's pajamas. The warmth of her hand touched the burning skin, and the restless hearts of both of them were ignited by the touch.

"Hey!" Yuuki Yui slapped Baqi's hand a few times, but this time Baqi didn't obediently pull her hand away.

It takes much longer to extinguish a lit flame than to light it.

But it's okay, the two of them have plenty of time.

However, Yuuki Yukino probably won't be able to go to bed early tonight.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Things That Must Be Done

"Speaking of which, what about your junior classmate?"

Wearing only a white shirt that barely covered her lower body, Yuuki Yukina stuffed her old pajamas, along with the sheets and blankets, into the new washing machine while asking Tomoe, who was making the new sheets, a question.

Baqi was wearing Yuuki Yuki's T-shirt, which wasn't much longer than the one Yuuki Yuki was wearing. When she bent over, it would inevitably expose her bare lower body.

The battle has just ended here. Even if Baqi were to sit right on Yuuki Yuuki's face right now, Yuuki Yuuki wouldn't be tempted at all, and wouldn't even give her a second glance.

After all, I just rode it...

As soon as Baqi finished making the bed, she quickly lay down and, as if she knew her place, slipped into the spare blanket she had just taken from the closet.

Do you think it's red?

Yuuki Yukino pressed the button on the washing machine, and the machine started working with a loud whirring sound, drowning out Baqi's voice.

"What?" Unable to hear what Baqi was saying, Yuuki raised her voice.

Ba Qi, huddled under the covers with only her head sticking out, shouted outside, "I said! Are you talking about Hong Moli?"

When Baqi mentioned Hong Moli, Yuuki Yuuki suddenly remembered that Hayashi Mustard lived next door. If Baqi continued to shout out something that would reveal her identity, they would be doomed.

Wait a minute, with Hayashi Mustard living next door, and I'm still recklessly replenishing my mana... Thinking back to the shameless, endless battles I had with Baqi before exam week, Yuuki Yuen felt a belated sense of social dread.

"Keep it down, keep it down, I can hear you." Yuuki Yuuki quickly shook the water off her hands and went into the room.

"Xiaoyuan started the argument first!" Baqi pouted and muttered, her tone not one of complaint, but rather like she was being coquettish.

"Okay, okay, I started the argument." He had more important things to discuss with Baqi. The fight on the bed was just an accident. In the end, he had to get back to the main topic: "Your junior sister threatened to kill me. How could I let her kill me peacefully?"

When it came to serious matters, Baqi also became serious, and she poked half of her body out from under the covers and sat up against the headboard: "Hong doesn't seem like the kind of person who would do this kind of thing."

"Oh?"

Baqi's words are quite intriguing.

"Look, Kurenai is a member of the magical girl organization and has been recruiting others, including Hyakki, right? But they are definitely not the direct leaders here, otherwise there would be no way to explain Kurenai's many statements."

Baqi traced lines on the blanket with her finger.

Yuuki Yui certainly knew the entire structure of the villainous organization, but she hadn't figured out how to share this information with Baqi yet, so she played along with Baqi: "For example?"

"When Xiaoyuan was fighting that green woman in the Moon Sea Tower, Hong mentioned what today's mission was, I remember it was something like that, which can be said to be the most direct evidence. She didn't need to create a mission for herself, right? Oh right, she also seemed to have mentioned some purpose, some kind of witness or something, but I can't remember exactly."

Baqi continued tracing patterns on the blanket with her fingers, then suddenly stopped, slapping her thigh hard through the blanket: "Hyakki isn't that leader either. If I remember correctly, Hong said something like 'our mission' that day. So the leader is someone else."

Baqi is right. These are things that can be directly judged from words. Being able to keenly discover the key points of words is also a commendable quality.

"Xiaoyuan, did you notice? The two times before, when you tried to win over others, it was with Kurenai and Hyakki. But this time, what did Kurenai say to Xiaoyuan? She said she wanted to kill Xiaoyuan directly, right?"

Baqi's tone suddenly became serious: "Xiaoyuan may not understand Hong, and she may not understand the difficulty of this matter, but Hong is the only child in Saint Youyou Academy who has always maintained the first place in all subjects in the first year."

"so what?"

It certainly sounds impressive, but Yuuki Yukino really couldn't understand why Tomoe would suddenly say that.

“Hong is not a smart child. She has to work twice as hard to get good grades, but hard work doesn’t always pay off. Xiaoyuan knows that, right? Hong is the same. She also has things she’s not good at, so she only uses her efforts where they’re needed.”

"Where should it be used?" Yuuki Yuen felt even more confused after hearing Baqi's words.

"She believes that the things she is confident about and the things she has to do are the only two things worth her effort. Achieving excellent grades is the only way to study at St. Yonyou Academy, which is something she has to do, so she devotes most of her efforts to studying. The things she is confident about are more trivial, such as performing on stage or helping two classmates make up. As long as she promises to do something, she will definitely do it."

“The Red Cross can do almost anything, which is a reward for her hard work, but there are also things she is not good at, and she will try her best to avoid them.”

These things were indeed unheard of by Yuuki Yuuki. The game wasn't a detailed setting, and few players would be interested in the life story of every single character.

Bachi was once a student at the Holy Age Academy, and she knows information that some players cannot.

"Xiao Yuan might feel safe and sound after returning, but if you put yourself in Hong's shoes, her goal was to pose a threat to Xiao Yuan, which is where Hong's mistake came from." Ba Qi brought up the key point: "So, Xiao Yuan, do you think that Hong coming to you alone and saying she wanted to kill you was something she was confident of doing, or something she had no choice but to do?"

Yuuki Yuen suddenly realized that, assuming that Tomoe's understanding of Koumori was correct, Koumori's sudden visit to her was indeed not very reasonable.

"So, she had no choice but to make me lose?" Yuuki Yuen tentatively stated her conclusion.

Baqi snapped her fingers: "Yes, that's right! If Hong wanted to do this herself, she would definitely do it more thoroughly than she has now. Although I'm saying this to belittle Xiaoyuan, if Hong appeared in front of Xiaoyuan out of her own volition, it means that Hong is fully confident that she can defeat Xiaoyuan."

"So that means someone asked Hong Mori to do these things, and the time was very tight, so Hong Mori came to me without being fully prepared?" Yuki Yuki said, stating her deduction.

"I think that's about right? Besides, fighting a magical girl is no joke. If something goes wrong, you could lose. It's understandable that Kurenai was cautious and didn't fight Yui. That's in line with her personality. So Yui did a great job!"

Baqi crawled over and reached out to pat Yuuki Yuki's head.

"Don't praise me! Baqi still has something to say, right?" Yuuki Yuuki stretched her head over and let Baqi stroke her.

"If I'm planning to beat up that short, blond guy, what's the safest thing to do?"

"Investigate beforehand, strike unexpectedly, and take advantage of someone's vulnerability." Yuuki Yuen blurted out.

However, every time Yuuki Yuki uttered a word, Baqi would shake her head in denial.

"No, no, no, none of that. The most important thing is to invite Yuuki along, right?" Baqi shook her finger, denying it for a long time, before placing that finger on Yuuki's lips.

“Isn’t that obvious?” Yuuki Yuen opened her mouth and gently bit Baqi’s finger, a sudden inspiration flashing in her mind.

She grasped what Baqi was trying to express.

Yuuki Yui took advantage of Kouma's cautious nature to stage a ruse that forced Kouma to retreat without a fight, but at the time she overlooked why Kouma, with her cautious nature, would come alone.

In fact, Yuuki Yukino had already given that answer—for the sake of Hyakki Senyū.

Hong Moli and Bai Gui Qianyou were almost inseparable, but their chance encounter this morning was an accident.

Yuki En's purpose at the time was simply to mention Chiyuu's name to scare Hong Moli and make her bluff more believable. She didn't think too much about it, nor did she have time to think about anything else.

So, did you just happen to guess Hong Moli's weakness by accident?

While observing Tomoe's expression, Yuuki Yuen stated her deduction: "If Koumori really wants to get rid of me, the most successful way is to bring Hyakki Chiyuu along, but she came alone, which means that Hyakki Chiyuu is either absent or..."

“The demons are very idle, at least that’s how it was this morning.” Baqi directly eliminated the wrong answer for Yuuki Eri.

"How did Baqi know?"

“I follow her account; she only got up at noon yesterday.”

This is truly the age of the internet; I never knew things could be like this.

“She never intended to call Hyakki Chiyuu. Koumori risked mission failure but didn’t call Hyakki Chiyuu because avoiding getting Hyakki involved was more important than mission failure,” Yuuki Yuki said with some skepticism, offering her final assessment.

“That’s right! That’s what I think too! There’s another speculation that can’t be taken as evidence: Hong threatened Xiaoyuan with friends before, so is it possible that she was threatened in the same way?” Baqi added a few more words.

"Isn't this connection a bit far-fetched? Hyakki Chiyu is also a magical girl, how can you use her to threaten Koumori?"

Given the relationship between Koumori and Hyakki Senyu as depicted in the game, this isn't impossible. However, as Yuuki asked Tomoe, how could the villainous organization use Hyakki Senyu to control Koumori? Yuuki couldn't figure this out.

“Xiao Yuan is right, it is indeed a bit far-fetched.” Ba Qi pondered for a moment, resting her chin on her hand. “But it’s not a big problem, we just need to verify it, right?”

"How can I verify something like this?"

"Of course, we'll bring Bai Gui Qian You back!"

Chapter Twenty-Five: Was I too kind?

"what?"

Yuuki Yukino mentally recalled syllable by syllable what Inuyama Tomoe had said to ensure she wasn't hallucinating.

She was certain that Baqi meant to bring back Bai Gui Qian You.

"Tie her up? The two of us? Go kidnap that Minister of a Hundred Demons' daughter?"

Yuuki Yukino repeatedly confirmed that she had not misunderstood.

"Yeah, tie them up and bring them back, what's wrong?"

Baqi spoke very casually, as if it were as simple as saying she was going out to have a meal with Yuuki Yukino.

Could it be that Baqi has been corrupted by the Black Demon Pattern again?

That shouldn't be the case. The battlefield with Baqi was just cleaned up. How could it have been affected so quickly?

Instead of letting your imagination run wild, it's much faster to confirm things with your own eyes.

"Baqi, stick your tongue out!" Yuuki Yuen commanded sternly.

"What does Xiaoyuan want to do?"

Yuuki's sudden seriousness softened Baqi's tone considerably. After asking a question, she obediently stuck out her tongue.

The black magic mark branded on Inuyama Hatsuki's tongue remained calm and undisturbed, indicating that it was indeed Inuyama Hatsuki's true thought, and not an extreme plan devised under influence.