Hibiscus froze, carefully organizing her thoughts.
We were always discussing magical girl-related intelligence, right? How did we inexplicably veer toward creating a new world? This child was indeed well-read and serious, but encountering magic triggered a chuunibyou outbreak—talking about conquering the world at every turn. Given Nan Zhiyi's personality, her established goals would at minimum involve grasping great power to protect her new identity that differed from ordinary people.
Had she really never thought about it before? As if. It's just that one person's calculations were called delusions—completely meaningless.
With the second magical awakener's appearance and renewed discussion of grand blueprints, Hibiscus suddenly felt a strong sense of resonance. She had to admit being stirred up with heroic spirit.
Snap!
The girl flicked Nan Zhiyi's forehead, making her cover it while grimacing.
"This hurts? If you want to embark on the path of power struggles, it'll hurt more—and guaranteed to exhaust both body and mind. Do you think I went through nothing to regenerate without changing expression? Go study obediently first. The time hasn't come."
"What do you mean the time hasn't come?" Nan Zhiyi immediately caught the key phrase. "You seem to have known about the Vanguard Disaster Beast early, so the next event node..."
"Great Catastrophe Disaster Beast."
Hibiscus hesitated only a moment before revealing everything. On one hand, she needed someone to discuss with. On the other hand, disasters couldn't be avoided—magical girls would attract those monsters.
Hearing this, Nan Zhiyi's exquisite heart first showed serious fear, but she quickly adjusted her mindset, propping her chin in thought. In a flash of insight, she understood escape was impossible. Using the Vanguard Disaster Beast battle as example, it was quite interested in magical girls. Since enemies would eventually come to their door, they had to take initiative. Speaking grandly, fighting to protect the world. Speaking personally, standing together with Hibiscus.
Though the girl didn't say it explicitly, Nan Zhiyi sensed she knew far more than she revealed—the latter wasn't even one percent of the total.
Weren't you tired? At least she should share the burden.
"...Hibiscus, I won't interrogate your secrets, but don't hide things and bear everything alone." She grasped the girl's right hand, fingers interlocking. "I have power now too—we can rely on each other, right?"
"Of course."
"Speaking of which, I haven't asked what your magic is?"
"Time stop."
Hibiscus snapped her fingers and the next moment the world lost color, freezing Nan Zhiyi along with everything else. Lightly touching the girl to release the pause, she witnessed this strange scene.
Nan Zhiyi stared in shock—everything around was gray-white, birds outside the window motionless, the bustling street locked in place. Truly pressing the pause button. The extremely cold and silent world conveyed a sense of vast loneliness, but when she saw Hibiscus extend her hand, she immediately felt at ease.
"Anything I touch loses its frozen state. Released objects can't transfer this state to others, and without maintaining contact with me, they return to being frozen."
"Too strong—time magic! More like a miracle itself than my Small Universe."
"As you can see, the limitations are actually very large."
Before she finished speaking, time stop automatically released. The duration felt quite short, making Hibiscus somewhat unconfident. Compared to Small Universe which could directly cause damage, her magic's power was inadequate. Though netizens had provided future enhancement routes for Sands of Time, theory and practice were two different things—currently she had no clue.
"It's fine—even short ones are powerful."
"Anyway, you must absolutely keep magic secrets. The mechanisms, costs, and power behind it must be figured out by yourself. Use more imagination to develop subsequent abilities."
"...Your magic isn't called time stop, right? That's just one manifestation, because I just saw some white sand flowing in the air."
"It's called Sands of Time."
"Since your magic is called Sands of Time rather than time stop, why assume from the start it can only pause? There must be hidden rules. For example, time stop's essence is probably using yourself as coordinate anchor to prevent time from flowing. What happens with a different reference frame? A bullet shoots toward you—use your stationary self as reference to pause only specific targets. Or at the moment of impact, make the enemy's body pause to take a solid hit..."
Nan Zhiyi's big eyes rolled around, her words coinciding perfectly with netizens' spoilers.
But importantly, as a fellow magic user, she provided a key term: reference frame.
So extending pause duration wasn't entirely correct all along. This new thinking made Hibiscus's eyes light up—indeed, more people meant broader thinking. Using reference frames to interpret time magic gave her tremendous inspiration, making future development directions clearer.
"Right, but magical development can't be separated from the three magical girl elements I just told you about. Not one can lag behind."
"I remember everything."
"Though I appreciate your strategizing, pay more attention to developing your own magic. Be more careful...future opponents won't be as simple as big kitties."
"Don't worry, I have ideas for my magic too." Nan Zhiyi propped her chin thoughtfully. "I saw a manga where strong people used planets as bricks to hit each other. Using smaller planets in my domain should work. Should be quite effective."
Hibiscus felt this lacked imagination, but magical development often had strong personal characteristics. Interfering rashly could easily lead down wrong paths—let her be.
The strongest domain magic had limitless potential; she didn't need to worry.
"Figure it out yourself."
"I think the domain's best use is just this—"
Starry space extended beneath Nan Zhiyi's feet. Though Hibiscus noticed, she didn't resist. Sure enough, the weightless environment returned, then the girl embraced her waist. "It can prevent people who don't want to let go from leaving."
"You're the one who should let go."
She hadn't expected the normally quiet, gentle model student to become so playful once unleashed—perhaps because magical girl power awakening swept away physical ailments, causing rebellious hyperactivity. Now things were good—netizens' familiar gentle, refined wheelchair girl would never return, replaced by an enthusiastic, fiery young girl. At this moment, Nan Zhiyi's gradually tightening arms made Hibiscus understand the other party was at least somewhat serious.
"Since we've both awakened, why not have a contest between magical girls?" The girl put on a cute face. "Senior, please guide me."
Beep!
[System Alert: Received suggestion "Guide Nan Zhiyi" Reward: Origin Advancement Stone Fragment ×1, Affection System Activated]
So suggestions could be extracted from non-Q&A pages too—this new mechanism discovery made Hibiscus's eyes brighten. But she couldn't understand why unquantifiable rewards appeared. Just saying "Affection System Activated" was too strange. Given their childhood bond already like sisters, this didn't matter.
Nan Zhiyi was worried about being refused when she saw the girl in her arms transform into another bearing—she'd seen it during the Vanguard Disaster Beast battle, a unique beauty in the world.
Hibiscus's lace-gloved slender jade fingers lifted her chin.
"Since you said you wanted a contest, don't blame me later. Practice makes perfect—use your body to properly experience Origin, magic, and Regalia. You'll understand how far behind you are."