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

"What did you hear?" Tian Lan asked in confusion, but she could also faintly hear a cry for help.

[Help...help...a ​​monster! Magical girl...save my employee!]

That wasn't a cry for help from ordinary people, because it was a telepathic communication method used only by people with magical abilities.

At this moment, a strange person is sending a distress signal to the magical girl.

—A strange person? Was it a distress signal sent by a strange person?

Tianlan was completely confused, but she knew it was urgent: "[Please tell me the address! I'm coming right now, please hold on!]"

[A big fish swam in with the current... My magic can't handle it... It won't last long...! There are two human employees here, you can come and take them away, I'm fine... Waaaaaaah?!]

As they drew closer, the previously weak and intermittent communication became smooth. Tian Lan was initially relieved to hear that the other person could still speak, but then the strange stranger let out a scream, and the telepathic communication was severed.

We must get there quickly...

Even if it's a strange person asking for help, the magical girl will accept it.

When Mayumi Haga heard the word "big fish," she had a bad feeling. She didn't care that she didn't have a driver's license and immediately took out the Master Motorcycle.

"You go first!"

The magical girl's flying speed far surpasses that of Mayumi Haga. If they were to take Mayumi Haga along, it would only slow down the rescue operation.

Without hesitation, Tianlan vanished from her sight.

The black and gold ancient technological beast roared at full power, bursting through the rain, making the rider almost invisible. It's unclear what Mayumi Haga casually loaded, but it roared, its exhaust pipe emitting a deafening roar, even the rainwater flowing over the vehicle evaporated into a mist, creating a swirling vapor.

.................................................. .................................................. .

When Mayumi Haga arrived, the scene was a complete mess.

Although Tianlan moved fast enough and arrived within half a minute, she was still a step too slow.

The production workshop was a complete mess. According to the strange man, most of the water that had rushed in had flowed out through the drains. The two human employees were covered in orange jelly and didn't appear to be injured, but...

The strange man who asked for help has disappeared.

Unlike previous incidents involving strange characters, this time the enemy attacking the production line came with overwhelming force and retreated with unusual speed. In just thirty seconds, it took down the orange juice monster, giving the magical girl no chance to come to its rescue.

"...They took away the Orange Juice Monster Jeffrey?" Tianlan was surprised by the scene described by the two employees in front of her. "They attacked a monster instead of a human?"

But actually, the monster in the water wanted to take everyone present away. However, when the orange juice monster Jeffrey was knocked down, he temporarily used orange jelly magic to create a protective shield, wrapped the two employees inside and pushed them away, and then entangled the monster himself.

The Orange Juice Monster doesn't have a human body structure. Strictly speaking, it's a concentrated orange juice that's similar to a slime, but it usually needs to move in a human shape.

Therefore, no matter what kind of attack it is, it will have no effect on him.

The screams during the telepathic communication were simply because she was suddenly dragged into the water and her clothes were torn through by sharp teeth, which gave her a huge fright.

After its clothes were torn apart, orange juice slime gushed out from the hole, wrapped around the monster's head, and tried to restrict its movements.

But because of this, he was taken away by the retreating monsters.

The monster retreated immediately after its attack, knowing the dangers of this world and that she would not linger on the shore for long.

In this rain, a lightning-fast hunt can be launched at any moment.

Even if she hadn't eaten for an unknown period of time, she wouldn't launch indiscriminate attacks in a state of hunger.

Let's prepare the bait for a few more days.

All we have to do is wait for the real prey to take the bait.

Main text: Chapter 81 Megrana

Mayumi Haga picked up a wet piece of parchment from the water.

The kraft paper had three relatively flat edges, but the fourth edge had a frayed, torn edge. It looked like it had been torn from a bound book. There were a few lines of writing on the paper.

The yellowish-brown paper becomes darker after being soaked in water.

Fortunately, the text was written with charcoal pencils instead of ink; otherwise, it would have become blurry and illegible after being soaked in water.

Mayumi Haga could tell that the script did not belong to this world.

Because this is her handwriting.

[235 Alamo, waning moon, 5th day.]

Arrived in the territory of the aquatic tribe.

He met with the chieftain of the water tribe, Mograne, and had a private meeting with him. He was surprisingly talkative and kind.

When you can control your appetite, aquatic creatures can be great friends.

"..." Mayumi Haga held the paper in her hand, her expression somber.

She remembered.

This page of the travel journal was torn out by Megragne. At the time, I thought it was because the aquatic creatures didn't use paper much and I hadn't controlled my strength, but upon closer inspection of the edges, it was clearly torn very neatly.

Mayumi Haga thought the travel journal, which only had a few sentences written on it, had been thrown away by the other party, and she never expected to see it here.

So the ferocious fish that brought it here was...

Mayumi Haga frowned deeply.

If it's Megrana this time... then it won't be that simple.

Although aquatic creatures possess high intelligence, with IQs similar to humans, this does not mean that their thoughts and beliefs are the same as those of humans.

Living in the jungle far from other civilizations, the Shui people have developed their own traditions and have their own way of life.

Their moral standards naturally differ from those of humans.

After such aquatic creatures become the kin of calamity and come into this world, they bring down torrential rain, infusing "water" into every corner of the city... What will happen next is unimaginable to Mayumi Haga.

When she met Megranie, he was already able to use water to transform half of the jungle into a natural hunting ground for the aquatic tribe.

The one who can manipulate rainwater, is a "fish," and deliberately left this piece of paper behind must be Megrana.

Now that the opponent may have been empowered by the calamity, Mayumi Haga doesn't think she can easily subdue them.

With the help of the Shrike's ability, and combined with the conditions after confirming that the other party was Megarane, Mayumi Haga could only vaguely sense that the rain contained something that even Rania's knowledge base was completely unaware of.

She couldn't confirm whether the water was poisonous, how the toxins entered the body, or how potent they were.

Despite the urgency of the situation, Mayumi Haga did not show any anxiety. It was precisely in moments like these that composure was crucial; the priority was to find the other party as quickly as possible.

The white-haired, golden-eyed guardian turned to look at Tianlan. Her gaze was intense yet remarkably calm, like a still flame.

A dull blue scale, about a quarter the size of her palm, appeared in her hand.

“Use tracking magic on it,” Mayumi Haga said. “I know who the enemy is.”

.................................. .................................. ................

Tick, tick.

The orange juice freak Jeffrey was awakened by the sound of dripping water.

Other water droplets seeped into his body, making thumping sounds. Jeffrey realized that his outer shell had been peeled away, leaving only his limp, orange-jelly-like body, carelessly placed on the ground.

The sound was coming from the leaking water pipe above his head. He had unconsciously absorbed a lot of tap water into his body, and with his body in direct contact with the ground and air, he would probably have to disinfect himself thoroughly again when he got back.

As Jeffrey was thinking this, suddenly, a curious hand slipped inside him and stirred it around a couple of times.

“…!?” Jeffrey was shocked, his color even paled a little. He felt strange being treated like slime and immediately wanted to escape from the clutches of the evil.

But suddenly, the core of the monster at the very center of its body was grabbed.

"I advise you not to even think about running away." A playful voice came from above. "After all, your monster core doesn't seem as hard as your glass dome."

Jeffrey saw a delicate yet wild face; the blue-haired aquatic smiled, revealing a set of sharp teeth.

"Y-you are..." Jeffrey initially thought the other person was a monster-like creature, but after face-to-face interaction, he discovered that the other person possessed intelligence and could communicate. "You're a mermaid monster...?"

No sooner had he finished speaking than the blue-haired aquatic creature, instead of answering him, smiled and swiftly and skillfully pulled out the monster's core.

After the monster's core was removed, Jeffrey's body lost its center of control, immediately collapsed to the ground, and gradually turned into a real puddle of orange juice.

The orange juice seeped into the drain and quickly disappeared.

Megrana casually tossed the core aside—she had no interest in the thing.

Although I now need the aid of calamity to revive and stand here, I have no choice but to obey the orders of that mindless insect, to create some chaos in this world in order to lure out the holder of the spark—

—But that suited her just the way it was.

The calamity had amplified her darkest desires and eroded her reason. Even standing here, Megaranie still felt a strange excitement and pleasure.

Come quickly, come quickly... the holder of the fire, the last guardian of the world.

Poor Mayumi, how long has it been since we last met?

I really want to eat Mayumi.

Megaran guarded the core of the monster deep within the abandoned aquarium, awaiting the arrival of Mayumi Haga.

Main text: Chapter 82 Going Downstream

Mayumi Haga learned about the so-called "tracking magic" from her guardian, Rika Sugiyama.

By using items left behind by the person being tracked, the magical spirit can guide the user of the tracking spell to the target based on the residual scent on them. The magical spirit will construct a guiding cursor within the user's field of vision; simply following it will allow them to track the target, making it a very practical spell.

Previously, the guardian wanted to use this magic on her in order to find out the true identity of the guardian.

Fortunately, Mayumi Haga intercepted the shipment halfway and destroyed the entire bottle of tracking material.

But this also illustrates a problem from another perspective.

“…Tracking magic…?!” Tianlan suddenly straightened up like a student caught doing a test, her indigo eyes widening as she frantically searched her memory for relevant information. “That kind of magic is very difficult,” she said nervously. “I only recently started practicing it…”

This brings us to the process of learning magic in this world.

Magical girls typically unleash their innate magic through a contract when they form a contract with a Jewel Beast.

Just like the innate skills inherent to each game character, the original magic of magical girls is roughly the same concept.

Skills like Sky Blue's [Endurance], Crimson's [Enhancement], and Iris's [Shooting] are all magical skills they naturally acquired after forming a contract with the Gem Beasts, skills deep within their souls.

Generally, most magical girls delve deeply into their own innate magic, which is sufficient to deal with everyday oddities or monsters. If they encounter enemies beyond their capabilities, they will use mysterious mental powers to create or improve new magical skills based on their original innate magic.

In other words, most magical girls learn new magic naturally or by improving upon it themselves, which is quite random.

Magic blossoms in the colorful imaginations of young girls, and even magic with the same purpose can take different forms in the hands of different people.

That is precisely why, lacking magical aptitude, Tianlan would find it very difficult to learn new magic in this way.

Her imagination was like a clogged faucet, and she had practiced flying for a long time before she learned it. Learning new magic usually took more than half a month, but she would practice diligently every day according to the notes that Sugiyama Rika had left for her.

She memorized the principles of tracking magic and tried hard to figure out how to use it, but she still couldn't use it with a 100% success rate.

Let alone 100%, she'd be lucky to succeed once out of ten times using tracking magic.

What should we do...?

"You don't know how?" Yuga Mayumi asked as Tianlan hesitated.

"...I don't know how." A one-in-ten success rate hardly qualifies as "mastery," so Tianlan had no choice but to honestly admit it to avoid wasting the medium. "But, what can I say, magic is just so abstract..."

“Holding the item and focusing on the intense feeling of wanting to find it… how could such a tutorial be mastered immediately?” Tianlan retorted stubbornly.

Magic is the power of the heart, but Tianlan lacks the corresponding imagination and the ability to transform abstract concepts into reality, so her magical aptitude is very poor.

—A strong desire to find one's goal.

Mayumi Haga took out the magic potion given to her by the doctor from her backpack, pried open the bottle with her teeth, and gulped down the whole bottle in one go.

The uncontrolled magic surged wildly within her body like headless flies, causing a vague tearing and swelling pain. Then she activated the blessing [Shrike].

She must find Megarane's location as soon as possible and then save him from calamity before he makes a grave mistake.

She must find it.

Mayumi Haga doesn't actually believe in the power of the mind.

In her view, these miracles are the privilege of those who believe in miracles, and she had long since abandoned unrealistic fantasies, so she could not use magic like a magical girl.

But she had another way.

Listen.

Mayumi Haga does not believe in gods, but she has made a pact with the world consciousness of the Alamo, offering sacrifices to and protecting the River of Life.

The guardian only needs to pray to the earth beneath his feet and to the long river deeper within the earth to hear its voice.