You call this a love game?

"Xiaomei," she suddenly spoke, "would you like to come over to my house tonight? You can go straight to sleep if you're tired~"

"Huh?" Homura Akemi's eyes widened in surprise. "W-Is that okay?"

“Of course.” Mami Tomoe gave a perfect ladylike smile and glanced meaningfully at Shiraha. “It’s a good opportunity for Mom and Dad to meet you. After all, elders have more experience in some things.”

Bai Yu's hair stood on end. "Wait, Mami-nee, what are you going to say to Aunt Masaya?"

"Nothing much~" Mami Tomoe stood up, her pair of golden spiral twin tails looking exceptionally beautiful. "It was just talking about things like, 'My little Shiroha seems to be quite popular~'"

"Uh......"

Bai Yu's face turned deathly pale instantly.

Oh no! Aunt Masaya has always been very good to him. She has even hinted to him many times in front of the whole family that they can get married after high school and then consider which school would be better for them to go to. After graduation, Mami Tomoe can become a full-time housewife.

Aunt Masaya kept "selling" to him—yes, selling—she kept telling him how wonderful Mami Tomoe was, how gentle she was, and how she would definitely become a perfect housewife in the future, hoping he would stop hesitating.

However, he was not hesitant, but Mami Tomoe was not as good as Bayade said, at least not as pure.

Judging from the few times he drugged her, the girl was already incredibly sexually frustrated.

If Aunt Yadai found out that her beloved baby bok choy, which she had raised for several years, had suddenly been eaten by some unknown "country bumpkin," she would probably be furious.

They're probably going to break both his legs so he can only stay at home and never go out to philander again.

Although Aunt Masayo appears to be very gentle on the surface, she is actually quite dark inside, with endless scheming ideas. She would definitely be locked in the basement!

Although his house does not have a basement.

"Um..." He weakly raised his hand, changing the subject, "I suddenly remembered that there were still many suspicious places that weren't completely cleared out yesterday. Maybe a witch might be emerging. I have to go and check it out."

"It's alright. Since Akemi is also a magical girl, wouldn't it be better if the three of us teamed up? We could practice our coordination." Mami Tomoe then turned to Homura Akemi with a friendly smile. "What do you think, Akemi?"

Homura Akemi's eyes lit up immediately. "Really?"

But then her expression immediately darkened, and she lowered her head. "Um... but I've only just become a magical girl, and I'm not very good at using my abilities yet."

Mami Tomoe grabbed Homura Akemi's hand. "It's okay. With me and Shiroha here, you'll master the skills of using magic very quickly."

"Thank you so much! Mami-senpai!"

Bai Yu watched in despair as the two reached an agreement. Was it too late for him to escape now?

It was clearly too late. Mami Tomoe's ribbon had already silently wrapped around his wrist, while Homura Akemi stood by with an expectant look on her face, completely unaware of the chaotic situation she had just entered.

“Let’s go.” Mami Tomoe took Shiraha’s arm with one hand and naturally took Homura Akemi’s hand with the other. “Before it gets dark.”

----

Because Homura Akemi wasn't very familiar with her abilities, Mami Tomoe suggested that she practice and test them first to see how much of her current strength she could unleash.

The training ground was chosen under a relatively spacious bridge arch. The cement floor was quite sturdy, and there were a few discarded oil drums on it, which could be used as wooden stakes for practice.

"May I ask Xiaomei how long your time stop can last?"

Homura Akemi nervously pushed up her glasses. "Uh, about ten seconds..."

"Only ten seconds?" Mami Tomoe frowned. "That's not enough."

Bai Yu, who also possesses the ability to stop time, has a 15-second time stop duration. In addition, he can almost seamlessly connect time stops, leaving monsters with at most one or two frames of error tolerance. If they don't seize the opportunity, Bai Yu's next time stop will be activated immediately.

As for Homura Akemi, her abilities have definitely not been developed to their full potential. She can't even do seamless time stop, and she doesn't have any other attack magic besides time stop. It seems like things aren't looking too good.

Bai Yu can do everything she can do, and even do it better than her; she is completely his replacement.

But Mami Tomoe still wanted Homura Akemi to demonstrate her abilities first, just in case a miracle happened?

But it's clear that Homura Akemi's naivety isn't an act; she's genuinely innocent.

Bai Yu squatted on the steps to the side, watching Akemi Homura clumsily practice her time-stop ability. Every time the girl activated her time-stop, she would be flustered, either wasting two seconds because she didn't react in time, or still attacking the wooden stake after the time-stop ended.

"Stop!" Mami Tomoe couldn't help but rub her forehead. "You can't even scratch a witch like that."

Watching the girl smash the oil drum with a golf club, the drum only showed a noticeable dent, but the girl herself was already exhausted and collapsed on the ground, completely lacking the strength to continue fighting.

Homura Akemi sat on the ground dejectedly, her long black hair falling down to cover her face, looking extremely sad.

"I think what you're lacking right now is firepower."

Seeing the girl's downcast look, Bai Yu stopped slacking off and gently patted her shoulder to comfort her.

"Firepower?" Homura Akemi looked confused. "But I don't have any other weapons, and I don't know how to transform magic into something else like Mami-senpai."

"No, no, no, you do." Bai Yu smiled mysteriously and pulled a black spherical object from his belt. "This is your firepower."

"What is this?"

Not only Homura Akemi, but even Mami Tomoe looked at the thing in Shiraha's hand with curiosity.

She had never seen this thing before and couldn't understand how something so small could unleash such great power.

"Okay."

Seeing that the two girls' attention was drawn to him, Bai Yu gently rubbed the 'black ball', aimed at the abandoned oil drum in the distance, and with a little force, the 'black ball' in his hand flew towards the oil drum at high speed. The moment of contact, a burst of intense flames shot into the sky, and the scorching heat of the flames rushed towards them, almost burning their eyebrows. They could almost smell a burnt smell.

The oil drum was completely ruined; its surface was scorched black, and the rusted parts were glowing red-hot, dripping molten iron onto the ground with a sizzling sound, as if coated with white phosphorus. Small flames were still burning around the drum.

"This is..." Mami Tomoe covered her mouth in disbelief.

Such a small thing can unleash such powerful energy, especially since it's just casually stuffed in a pocket like a key. Nobody would believe it if I told them.

"Amazing!"

Upon seeing the explosion, Homura Akemi did not shrink back in fear. Instead, her eyes lit up as if she had discovered a fun toy and was eager to try it out.

"I remember you learned how to make explosives from me for a while, Xiaoyan, right? I'll send you the recipe later. You can try making it yourself. It's quite powerful as a weapon."

"Ah! Thank you, Shiraha-kun!" Homura Akemi's cheeks flushed with excitement. "Finally, I can help."

"Don't get too excited." Bai Yu flicked her forehead. "This thing is very dangerous. If you accidentally blow it up, you'll either die or get seriously injured. Although I've improved the formula, you still need to be careful when you're making it."

He wasn't idle during that year; he not only improved the magnetic field power, but also picked up the explosives he had only half-learned in the last simulation.

The rewards from the last simulation allowed him to create more powerful explosives faster.

Although this little thing looks only the size of a thumb, it actually contains a lot of powerful flammable and explosive materials compressed under the pressure of its magnetic field.

But through his skillful integration, the internal structure gradually stabilized, forming a wonderful balance.

The balance is broken instantly when there is a strong external energy disturbance. Once the pressure that has been continuously applied is released, the energy is also enormous.

As for why he dared to just put it in his pocket, it's because apart from powerful energies like magic or his magnetic field, an ordinary impact would require at least the level of a hundred-ton king's head-on collision to activate this bomb.

Materials science is a minor issue; asking it seems to come from some mysterious force.

"Hehe, I know, I definitely won't let Bai Yujun down!"

Homura Akemi excitedly held the two bombs that Shiraha had given her, and looked at the remaining oil drum in the distance, seemingly also planning to fire one herself.

“Alright, now that we understand the abilities fairly well, let’s go test them in a real battle,” Mami Tomoe suggested.

Bai Yu shrugged. "I have no objection."

His original intention was to escape and immediately go home to be tortured by Aunt Yadai; coming out to find the witch was just an excuse.

Of course, it would be even better if we could find it, as it would also be a good thing to save up one more Seed of Lamentation.

Homura Akemi nodded obediently, eager to test the power of her new toy.

The opportunity came quickly. The three of them had just left the bridge archway, which served as a temporary training ground, when they sensed the aura of the witch's barrier.

Mami Tomoe's transformation was swift and elegant, with golden ribbons fluttering in the air, supporting white feathers as she floated in the sky.

"Little White Feather, the usual rules."

Bai Yu nodded, and a faint blue energy fluctuation emanated from his body, emanating an invisible aura.

Seeing that the two had entered battle mode, Homura Akemi hurriedly activated her transformation, the purple Soul Gem flashing on the back of her hand.

......

The barrier was filled with bizarre and fantastical lights, and the two of them were already tired of the familiar abstract graffiti style.

Mami Tomoe and Shiraha worked in perfect harmony. While one of them used ribbons to bind the witch, she also cleared away the familiars that were entangled around her. The other activated his magnetic field power and, in conjunction with Mami Tomoe's ribbons, stepped onto them to reach the witch and began to bombard her fragile body with punch after punch.

Before long, the witch was beaten to the point of near death, only able to let out weak roars.

Homura Akemi stood at the back with the bomb, unable to get involved at all. She watched the two working together so smoothly, her eyes wide with envy.

"This is the final blow," Mami Tomoe suddenly turned to her and said, "Try out your new weapon."

Homura Akemi's hand trembled, almost dropping the bomb. "Now? Now?"

"Hurry up, she's about to run away," Bai Yu urged.

"Okay, I'm going now."

Homura Akemi took a deep breath and activated Time Stop.

The world instantly turned gray and white, and apart from her and the other two people connected by the ribbon, no living being could perform any activities.

She stepped onto the swaying ribbons, trembling as she approached the witch. In her nervousness, the magic in her hands inadvertently triggered a bomb, but she was still some distance away from the witch.

With no other option, she could only throw the bomb with all her might towards the witch.

The moment the time stop ended, there was a loud 'boom'. Because she was too close to the source of the explosion, Homura Akemi was blasted away before she could run away.

"Homura!" Bai Yu rushed over and caught her, landing safely with Homura's ribbon wrapped around her.

The girl's face was blackened by the smoke, and her glasses had cracked.

"I'm so sorry..." Homura Akemi buried her face in Shiraha's chest in shame. "I'm so useless..."

Mami Tomoe walked over, took out a handkerchief, and wiped her face with a helpless expression. "Idiot, relax next time. At least run earlier, or you'll get blown up."

Although the tone was accusatory, it was gentle in its words.

"Hmm...I understand..."

"This time, the Seed of Lamentation will be placed with you, Xiaoyan, as a trophy for your first battle. After all, you contributed to the victory."

Mami Tomoe picked up the Grief Seed that had fallen to the ground and placed it in Homura Akemi's hand.

"Huh? But I..."

"No buts. I don't need that one Seed of Sorrow, and Bai Yujun doesn't need it either. If you refuse again, I won't take you with me when hunting witches in the future."

“Alright…” Homura Akemi reluctantly accepted the Grief Seed, putting it in her pocket as if it were some kind of treasure.

Mami clapped her hands. "Now that you've tested your abilities and had a real-world demonstration, let's call it a day. When we get back, I'll give you some specific training to practice. I'm sure you'll be able to stand on your own very soon."

"Yes, thank you, Mami-senpai!"

Homura Akemi bowed deeply to her.

Mami Tomoe waved her hand, "No need to be polite. We're all magical girls, it's only right that we help each other."

"I've made up my mind!" Homura Akemi, who had been feeling a bit down, suddenly raised her head, her purple eyes behind her broken glasses flashing with determination.

"Decid what?" Shiraha and Tomoe asked in unison.

"I'm going to become as strong as Mami-senpai!" Homura Akemi clenched her fist. "Next time, I definitely won't hold everyone back!"

Mami Tomoe paused for a moment, then smiled with satisfaction. She reached out and ruffled Akemi's hair. "That's more like it."

“But now—” She suddenly turned to Bai Yu, her smile turning dangerous.

"Shouldn't we address someone's problem?"

Chapter 80 Idiot, I won't let anyone down.

Fortunately, Mami never mentioned this to Aunt Masaya in the end. She only told her that one of her new classmates was coming to visit.

Although it was a girl as expected, Bayadai was already used to it.

After all, Madoka Kaname, Miki, Sayaka, and Hitomi Shizuki had visited before, so she didn't suspect Homura Akemi for the time being.

Seeing more and more cute girls surrounding Bai Yu, she couldn't help but nag Mami Tomoe, telling her to hurry up and grab Bai Yu, otherwise she would cry when other girls snatched him away.

However, when Mami was pulled into the kitchen for a talk, she could only stare at her mother with dead fish eyes.

It wasn't that she didn't want to catch it, but this time her opponent was a supermodel.

She crossed time and space to save him; a person who appeared out of nowhere caught her completely off guard.

But this guy has absolutely no intention of giving up on either of them. Even though he knows her feelings for him, he still goes his own way and keeps in touch with Homura Akemi.