She wasn't the type to think deeply about these things. But since the club was full of magical girls trained by Hachiman, and she also enjoyed watching magical girl tokusatsu shows, seeing so many villains opposing magical girls tonight made her want to fight evil like them.
Unfortunately Hachiman said magical girls were a power that belonged to humans. She could only be like Iris and the others, having awakening magic essence poured into her by Hachiman to awaken the bloodline of the Cham people.
If she wanted to become a magical girl, the only way was to make a magical girl outfit herself and role-play.
Just in time, this week Marin and Lumilia were going to visit a convention and then hold a private cosplay convention for the club. She could go along with Hachiman and everyone else, and see how ordinary people cosplay magical girls.
Mm, Momo and Nana had come too. She could cosplay some pink-haired characters with them. Even if they weren't pink-haired, it was fine, but Marin and the others said it was better to cosplay characters that suited your own image.
"Stop chatting already! That angel up ahead has been running for so long without giving up. She might be planning something bad!"
Seeing Iris and Lala acting like they were sightseeing, leisurely tailing Raphiel without any urgency to capture her, Ursula couldn't help but urge them.
If it were before, with her personality, she would have kept playing too. But after messing up at Hachiman's place, she now had a bit of a shadow over it.
With so many of them chasing one angel and still failing to catch her, it would be ridiculous if things went wrong.
This world didn't just have Gabriel and the others as angels. Who knew if Raphiel might contact other powerful angels to ambush them.
"Hehe! Alright. Let's finish this quickly. We can't let Raphiel keep running."
Iris smiled. After Kaede and Suzu returned to the group, she and Gabriel and Vignette moved to flank Raphiel together, aiming to take her down in one move.
Once they captured Raphiel, would Gabriel and Vignette be far behind? And after taking them down, the other angels and demons they hadn't met yet would also be easy to deal with.
Everyone could see that once Raphiel was truly captured, she would definitely retaliate, dragging Gabriel and Vignette, who had already "gotten wet", completely into the mess.
But what could they do even if they saw it coming? Raphiel wouldn't let Gabriel and Vignette off, and Gabriel and Vignette couldn't stand Raphiel staying out of it alone.
"Help me draw their fire so I can get away from Gabriel and the others. Later, I'll help you rack up some achievements. Helping you return to Heaven isn't impos—"
"Hey? Why did you hang up?"
"Poporon!"
Ahead of Iris and the others, Raphiel was constantly contacting nearby angels. When the connection suddenly cut off, she couldn't help but feel annoyed.
She wasn't a rigid, rule-following angel. She had no qualms about using connections to ask other angels for small favors.
But something like being captured and dragged back for punishment… she couldn't ask angels in Heaven for help. She could only rely on angels staying in the human world.
However, the angels nearby were completely unreliable. As soon as they heard they had to deal with Gabriel, the top graduate of this year's angel academy, they backed out before she could even say much.
'Damn it! Once I escape Gabriel and the others, I'll report those trainee angels for coming down to the human world without permission!'
With no other choice, realizing she couldn't rely on other angels, Raphiel gave up seeking outside help and unleashed all her power, doing everything she could to delay being captured.
Although she couldn't fight against so many people alone, if she could hold out until school time, she might be able to get through this safely.
Thrum!
As Raphiel made up her mind, the pitch-black night sky instantly lit up like day.
Sacred feathers manifested from her power, and streaks of white light shot across the sky, scattering them as they fell.
Like holy light raining down from an angel, wherever it passed, all the evil hidden in the darkness dissipated.
Seeing this, Gabriel and Vignette, who were chasing closely behind, immediately understood that Raphiel had no intention of surrendering and planned to resist to the end, relying on their reluctance to go all out.
However, even if they couldn't engage in a dangerous life-and-death battle with Raphiel, with so many of them, it wasn't hard to pin her down together.
They had their concerns, but Raphiel had hers too.
Under Gabriel and Vignette's lead, the various lights representing Iris, Ursula, Kaede, Lala, and the others surrounded Raphiel's white radiance.
Gradually shrinking her range of movement.
And finally, capture.
———
That night, many humans, demi-humans, and evil forces capable of sensing supernatural energy fluctuations were alarmed by the large-scale operation to capture Raphiel. They were secretly shocked by the strength displayed by the service club.
Although the actual commotion of capturing Raphiel wasn't large and didn't cause any casualties or property damage, and didn't initially affect the weather, the powerful energy fluctuations emitted during the chase weren't deliberately concealed.
It was the first time Kaede and Suzu had transformed into magical girls outside, and Lala's identity as an alien princess was only known within a small circle at Sobu High and the service club.
As for Gabriel, Raphiel, Vignette, and the others who came to the human world for training, even fewer people knew their true identities.
To many factions, they were all suddenly appearing, extremely powerful and dangerous figures.
However, Iris had already considered this. She and Ursula didn't hide their auras at all, and the group moved through the night in a very conspicuous manner.
Instead, this made the various factions who detected the abnormal energy fluctuations secretly feel relieved.
Because Iris hadn't deliberately hidden the existence of the service club, several families within it were already recruiting beautiful girls. Many well-connected families and financial groups had gathered some information and knew about the service club.
However, the test data of Inoue Takina, Nishikigi Chisato, and the others at the Lycoris headquarters wasn't something every faction had access to. Let alone the specifics of magical girl talent development training, even fewer knew about awakening magic essence.
Most factions still believed that the magical girls produced quickly by the service club were just mass-produced ordinary superhumans.
Although still impressive and attractive, ordinary superhumans weren't enough to replace technological weapons. Only abilities like extending lifespan or restoring youth had greater appeal.
But after tonight, things would be different.
The service club had only been established for a short time, yet it had already trained such powerful magical girls.
Not understanding the internal small groups within the club, the major factions directly assumed that, aside from the Kaede and Suzu sisters, Raphiel, Gabriel, Vignette, Lala, and the others were all magical girls trained by the service club.
Though this misunderstanding wasn't entirely wrong. They were also small groups within the club, and even if they weren't magical girls, Hachiman could still develop and enhance their strength.
———
[Yukinoshita Family Residence, Head's Room]
Bzzzz! Bzzzz!
["Mrs. Yukinoshita, you're still awake too, right?"]
"Mmm!"
["Sorry to disturb you so late. I've thought about the alliance you mentioned for a long time and feel that forming one with the Yukinoshita family is a good choice."]
"Mmm…"
["Tomorrow I'll arrange for a transfer. While studying at Sobu High, I hope Mrs. Yukinoshita can look after our underachieving junior."]
"Mmm, alright… ah? Ah?"
With a tired expression, her entire body curled under the blanket, Yukinoshita Kiyuki heard her phone vibrating continuously. She instinctively reached out her smooth, pale arm, grabbed the phone from the bedside table, and answered it.
Hearing the other party agree to the alliance, her still-groggy mind accepted it directly.
But when she heard the part about arranging a transfer and staying at their house, Yukinoshita Kiyuki instantly woke up.
'What is going on?'
The other party had rejected her before. Why were they suddenly calling in the middle of the night to talk about forming an alliance?
Yesterday, after a full day of effort, she had only managed to contact a few close friends to form alliances. Some of them weren't inferior to the Yukinoshita family, even wealthier, but they had almost no connection to supernatural forces.
As for forces that actually had supernatural users, they were hard to approach. Even those declining exorcist families looked down on ordinary families like the Yukinoshita family.
What had happened that she didn't know about? She wondered if Haruno knew.
Yukinoshita Kiyuki stared blankly at the phone in her hand after the call ended. As the head of the Yukinoshita family, even though she had no supernatural power and was just an ordinary person, she wouldn't believe the other party agreed to an alliance for no reason.
Just as she was about to get up and ask her eldest daughter Yukinoshita Haruno whether something had changed in the service club, another call came in.
["Sister Kiyuki, is the alliance you mentioned still valid…"]
["Mrs. Yukinoshita, about the alliance we discussed yesterday…"]
One after another, late-night calls requesting alliances left Yukinoshita Kiyuki completely stunned.
'What on earth is happening?'
'Has the Yukinoshita family suddenly become a highly sought-after major family overnight, one that everyone wanted to ally with?'
'Am I dreaming?'
After fully waking up, Yukinoshita Kiyuki didn't immediately agree to all the alliance requests. Instead, she first steadied these people who suddenly called her "sister," planning to find out the reason in the morning before continuing discussions.
"What exactly… happened in the service club?"
After hanging up again and setting her phone to silent, Yukinoshita Kiyuki lowered her head to look at the pink wristband on her slender wrist, took a deep breath, lifted the blanket, got out of bed, and walked barefoot into the bathroom.
She rinsed off her somewhat sticky, sweat-covered, full body.
After a quick wash, she changed into clean, comfortable clothes and left the bedroom.
"Haruno?"
"Yukino?"
"Are you both asleep?"
She knocked on Yukinoshita Haruno's door. When no one responded, she went to knock on Yukino's door.
However, Yukino's room was also silent.
After knocking for a while with no response, Yukinoshita Kiyuki frowned slightly and looked down again at the pink wristband on her wrist, the exclusive item for service club members.
Were Haruno and Yukino both asleep?
Or were they not in their rooms at all.
———
As the mother of Yukinoshita Yukino, vice president of the service club, and Yukinoshita Haruno, also vice president, Yukinoshita Kiyuki naturally had permission to enter the service club.
Even the small landlord Asou Miyuri had brought a bunch of wives with beautiful daughters into the club to bathe and chat. As someone also trying to gather allies, Yukinoshita Kiyuki couldn't possibly be unable to enter.
However, the Yukinoshita family's two daughters weren't very competitive. Yukinoshita Yukino had stayed at Sobu High's service club with only Yuigahama Yui by her side, and Yukinoshita Haruno was even worse, just a figurehead with the title of vice president, recruiting no one except her good friend Tohsaka Touka.
Most members in the service club were still students. Moreover, whether in terms of background, financial scale, or supernatural strength, the Yukinoshita family didn't have an advantage among family factions.
Under these circumstances, if Yukinoshita Kiyuki entered the service club, not only would it be of little help, it might even make Yukino and Haruno feel awkward.
Considering all this, she had kept her composure and never entered the service club, instead helping Haruno build alliances and connections outside, only stepping in personally when necessary.
But now… even if it wasn't the best timing, it seemed she had no other choice.
Unless she wanted to sit here clueless until dawn and wait for Haruno and Yukino to return from the club before replying to those families seeking alliances.
Yukinoshita Kiyuki pondered for a moment, about to call the night-duty maid to help her change into a kimono.
For her first time entering the service club, or rather, her first formal meeting with the club leader Hachiman, wearing a more formal and elegant kimono to show sincerity might be better.
However, after recalling some general information about the service club, she abandoned the idea.
Haruno had told her that the club was located at the original site of the apartment next to Hachiman's home. But it seemed there was magic that affected perception. To outsiders, it looked like an ordinary old apartment, and they couldn't even enter it directly.
Only members with permission could teleport in, or be led through the front door by someone who had access.
And when entering via teleportation, unless under special circumstances, every newcomer would be transported above the large bath.
Clothes and personal belongings would be automatically transferred elsewhere for storage at the same time.
This measure was probably to prevent people with ulterior motives from bringing in dangerous items.
Although the service club appeared to have little defense and any member could bring someone in, there were not only magical girls and demi-humans inside, but also newcomers who hadn't yet become magical girls.
Given the club's strength, she wouldn't believe there were no safeguards.
Of course, the fact that first-time entrants appeared in the bath, a place where people could be open with each other, might also be intended to help new members integrate quickly.
While thinking about whether there were other undisclosed security measures, Yukinoshita Kiyuki gently touched the pink wristband on her wrist.
[Enter the Service Club?]
[Enter.]
As she touched the "permission key" in her mind, her figure disappeared from the room.
———
[Service Club, Large Bath]
Splash!
A soft, full-bodied figure suddenly appeared above the steamy bath, then fell straight down, breaking the water's surface.
"This late and there's still a new member joining?"
Kita Ikuyo was lying by the edge of the large bath, filled with mist, her forehead covered in sweat as she endured the tingling sensation of soaking in hot water. Noticing the water surging behind her, she turned her head and saw a figure with long black hair emerge from the surface, immediately exclaiming in surprise.
Those young ladies who hadn't yet become magical girls couldn't withstand the intense stimulation and had all withdrawn. Some others had gone to a family restaurant to hang out. Now, only Kitagawa Marin, Miura Yumiko, and the few of them from the band remained in the bath.
[🎉 Shoutout to Jesus, Gavin, Jage and Pierre for joining p@treon. Thank you very much.🤗]
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