Chapter 24: Come date me!

An invisible force field rippled outward from Ashura.

Dan’s face paled. He could feel the tight mental link binding him to the hundreds of girls in the audience being brutally, bit by bit, torn apart and severed!

“What are you doing?!” His voice sharpened with panicked disbelief. “You… you neutralized [Till Death Do Us Part]? Lord Ashura! What are you planning?!”

“None of your business.” The voice from the armor was flat, emotionless, as if he’d just poured out a glass of leftover water, not erased a colleague’s trump card.

Zero’s eyes narrowed. She couldn’t read the true intentions of this armored interloper or make sense of Ouroboros’s internal drama, but one thing was clear: Dan’s disgusting ability was temporarily disabled. That was enough.

“Without that ability as your shield, I’ll crush you in less than a second!”

Zero roared, her figure streaking like an arrow to Dan’s side. A powerful uppercut smashed through his hasty block, followed by a relentless storm of punches, each fueled by her towering rage, slamming into him!

The crisp sound of flesh and bone breaking mingled with Dan’s agonized, twisted screams, like a frenzied drumbeat echoing across the empty stage.

A brutal knee strike to his gut doubled him over like a cooked shrimp, and a swift spinning whip kick, with devastating precision, smashed into his core vitals.

“Gwaaaahhh!!!”

Dan let out an inhuman wail, flying like a tattered sack, his bones nearly shattered. He collapsed in a heap, barely breathing.

As Zero stepped forward to deliver the final blow to end this creep—

“Enough.”

A cold, armored hand firmly blocked her killing-intent-laden fist.

Zero’s eyes darkened. “What are you doing?”

“His ability? I broke it.” The voice from the armor was calm. “So, I’ll deal with him.”

“Mind your own business!” Zero’s gaze turned icy. Without another word, she spun, her knee-high boot sweeping a sharp kick at Ashura’s waist.

Ashura shifted slightly, dodging with minimal movement, aiming to grab her ankle and throw her off balance. But Zero, like a black cat landing gracefully from a height, twisted mid-air, her other foot slicing through with fierce wind pressure toward his face.

With no way to dodge, Ashura released her ankle, stepping back to create distance.

In the next instant, their figures blurred into black and purple afterimages, fists and feet clashing in a whirlwind, their rapid exchanges too fast for the naked eye. Each seemingly light collision carried enough force to shatter concrete!

The stage became a tempest of wind, the solid wooden floor splintering under their onslaught, overhead lights swaying wildly from the shockwaves, threatening to crash down.

After thirty seconds of furious combat, Zero and Ashura, as if in sync, leapt back, creating dozens of meters between them, facing off.

“Not bad. A bit tougher than your useless colleague, but this farce ends now,” Zero said, adopting a boxing stance.

Lin Feng, under the armor, chuckled lightly. “Guess I’ll… get a bit serious then.”

[Claw Core, Activate]

Click.

A pair of silver short claws slid out from the armor’s forearms, glinting coldly.

“Yo,” Zero smirked, seizing the chance to taunt. “Those things are pretty short, huh?”

“Oh?” Ashura paused, his voice tinged with amusement. “Does Miss Zero prefer them long?”

Zero froze, then flushed red as his meaning sank in, stumbling over her words. “You—You—!”

“Just lightening the tense mood, Miss Zero. Don’t get so worked up.”

“Go to hell, perv!”

Her face burned to her ears as she threw a punch. The glinting claws met her lace-gloved fist, sparks flying, the clash of metal ringing out.

After minutes of intense fighting, with Zero gaining the upper hand, the dumb cat’s voice screeched in her mind: “Transformation time’s almost up, meow! You’re burning energy too fast, meow!”

“Shut up!” Zero snapped back mentally, landing another heavy punch. “This guy’s too punchable. If I don’t vent, I won’t sleep tonight!”

“What, so you’ll sleep fine if everyone here and all of Ouroboros finds out the great magical girl Zero is a male student named Dongfang Cheng, meow?!”

“…”

Zero clenched her teeth, silent, her breathing ragged. The strain and pain racking her body were far worse than she let on.

The dumb cat kept yammering: “Stop going crazy, meow! Your transformation’s flawed! Keep overdoing it, and—”

She cut the mental link, her eyes still locked on the armored man.

Ashura didn’t attack. He stood calmly, his red visor seeming to see through her weakened state. “You’re getting unstable, and I’m low on energy. How about we both step back and make a deal?”

He paused, adding, “Your teammates—Meteor Yellow and Sakura Pink—are still out, badly hurt. If you don’t want them in danger, I can provide emergency treatment. Or want to bet if that pink one holds out until Evergreen Green arrives?”

“What are they to me… tch, what’s your deal?” Zero’s eyes narrowed, skeptical of his goodwill.

Ashura’s helmet tilted, as if sizing her up.

“Simple. Go on a date with me.”

“…Huh??”

Zero’s brows shot up, nearly choking. Was this guy serious? Stopping a fight to ask for a date? With her, who just beat his “colleague” half to death?

“Don’t rush to say no, Miss Zero,” Ashura’s voice remained steady. “I’m just trading the lives of everyone in this school, plus your teammates, for this request.”

“You wouldn’t want their deaths on your conscience, right?”

Zero’s gaze swept the stage’s corner. Sakura Pink lay pale, unconscious; Meteor Yellow was curled up in broken scenery, blood at her lips, unmoving. Below, the girls felled by [Till Death Do Us Part]’s backlash littered the floor.

“It’s a good deal for you, isn’t it?”

Zero’s lips tightened, her black eyes flickering with conflict.

She saw it now—this armored pervert was exploiting her inability to ignore the lives at stake.

Damn it, his armor was kinda cool, but his tactics were more infuriating and absurd than the trash-talking small-fry monsters! A date? Who comes up with that? Was his kink taking enemy magical girls to amusement parks or cafés? What a weird fetish!

But… she glanced at Sakura Pink and Meteor Yellow. They weren’t the most reliable, but they were still Duhuang City’s magical girls. And the students below were innocent. If a meal and a stroll could secure their safety, it… wasn’t entirely unacceptable. She could always find a chance to beat this pervert later.

After a moment’s silence, weighing the pros and cons, she reluctantly said, “Fine, I agree.”

She added firmly, “But! You save them first. Once everyone’s safe, I’ll consider your request.”

“Oh?” Ashura’s helmet tilted, surprised. “Bargaining like that, Miss Zero, doesn’t seem very sincere. What if I save everyone and you back out with an excuse? I’d hate to end up empty-handed—er, empty-hearted.”

“A man’s promise! I won’t back out!” Zero blurted in Dongfang Cheng’s tone.

The moment it left her mouth, she regretted it.

“—Pfft, cough,” a stifled choke came from the armor, followed by a barely contained laugh.

“‘A man’s promise’… first time I’ve heard a girl say that. Or is Zero actually a boy? Talk about looks deceiving.”

“Shut up!” Zero’s face burned red, wishing she could dig a hole and disappear. Her clenched fist nearly flew at his smug armored face again.

“My apologies, no mockery intended.” Ashura quickly stifled his laugh, his tone returning to calm. He extended his armored fist. “So, for our ‘man’s promise’… and our upcoming, highly anticipated first date.”

Zero, with a huff, extended her lace-gloved fist, lightly bumping his cold metal gauntlet.

“Deal.”

“Pervert,” she muttered.

“Villains being perverts is only natural,” Ashura replied, sounding rather pleased.

Zero said nothing, watching as he approached Sakura Pink and Meteor Yellow. He fiddled with his palm, and tiny nozzles emerged from his fingertips, spraying a colorless, faintly fragrant liquid over their wounds. The gruesome injuries began healing visibly, their pale faces regaining a healthy flush.

As Ashura started treating the students downed by [Till Death Do Us Part], Zero suddenly felt a wave of dizziness, her vision blackening, her body swaying, nearly collapsing.

Crap… was this the side effect the dumb cat warned about, triggered early by her forced transformation?! She had to get out of here!

Forcing back the growing vertigo and the tearing weakness in her body, she shouted at Ashura’s back with her last strength:

“Hey! Armored pervert!”

Ashura paused, turning.

“This weekend,” Zero steadied herself, “Harold Shopping Center, noon, don’t be late!”

She named the upscale mall where she and Lin Feng had eaten barbecue last time. Without waiting, she stumbled, vanishing through the auditorium’s ceiling hole in a black blur.

Beneath Ashura’s faceplate, Lin Feng was thoughtful.

Why did this magical girl remind him of an old friend?

That personality—brash, hot-tempered, quick to fight, and sharp-tongued, not very magical girl-like.

That tone—whether threatening to “smash Dan’s face” or yelling “stupid dog, catch” at the werewolf days ago, a model of tact.

That straightforward, brutal, yet overwhelmingly powerful and fast hand-to-hand combat style…

Plus, back at the villa ruins, how did she know his address and name so precisely?

And Dongfang Cheng—shrinking visibly! From nearly 1.9 meters at enrollment, making Lin Feng feel like a twig, to now almost his height.

And that time at the barbecue place, when he mentioned “Zero,” Dongfang Cheng’s reaction was so intense he bent a stainless steel tong!

These seemingly unrelated fragments rapidly connected in Lin Feng’s mind, forming a hypothesis so absurd yet the only one that perfectly explained everything.

Could it be…?