He pulled up a complex mana waveform chart and zoomed in for Shizuru to see. “Look here—the integrity of Star-trail's core magic circuit is extremely high, indicating that it is in perfect health. For an unregistered Contract Spirit to have this level of stability is quite rare.”
Shizuru let out a soft sigh of relief, her tense shoulders slowly relaxing.
Nuomi poked its head out from her shoulder, staring at Star-trail's mana waveform chart on the screen for a few seconds. It whispered, “Its magic wave looks like a blinking star,” before Shizuru gently pressed it back down with her finger.
Nuomi was overly sensitive to Star-trail's mana spectrum; this little furball's perception might be even stronger than she had estimated. However, its tone held only pure wonder, without a hint of suspicion.
Sorry, Nuomi-chan, but your fellow kind is just an evil human in disguise.
Seven minutes into the exam, the technician suddenly stopped what he was doing. He stared at an inconspicuous line of analytical data in the corner of the screen, pushed his goggles up onto his forehead, and looked at it again.
“Interesting. Its mana conversion method is bidirectional.”
“Bidirectional?” Yuki Kurokawa asked.
“For the vast majority of Contract Spirits and contractors, the flow of mana is unidirectional. The Contract Spirit provides the medium for mana conversion, and the contractor uses the converted mana to fight. But Star-trail's magic circuit design is different. It's not just a medium.”
The technician drew a line on the screen with his finger. “Under specific conditions, its mana can be opened to non-contractors. In other words, it has the ability to lend its mana to Magical Girls other than its own contractor. This kind of structure is virtually nonexistent among known Contract Spirits.”
Of course he wouldn't find a similar structure in the database, because that structure wasn't a standard Contract Spirit design at all.
When she was constructing her Star-trail clone's magic circuit, she had referenced the group-buffing spell formulas of the Temple Magical Beasts from her original world. Those formulas were originally designed to provide mana reinforcement to multiple temple knights simultaneously.
Shizuru fell silent for a few seconds. She turned away from the console, walked over to the detection capsule, and knelt down. Through the translucent capsule wall, she could see Star-trail sitting quietly on the base. The blue light of the induction rings swept over its body again and again, but it didn't even twitch the tip of its tail.
“How many things about it do we still not know?” Shizuru stared at Star-trail for a moment, then suddenly remembered something and turned to ask the technician, “If its mana can be opened to non-contractors, then in theory, can it affect the transformation forms of other Magical Girls?”
The technician froze for a second, then quickly tapped a few keys on the keyboard. A simulation interface popped up on the screen. After inputting several sets of parameters, he turned the simulation results toward Shizuru. “Theoretically, yes. It should be able to provide a temporary form shift. The specific form would depend on the target's own spectrum and combat style.”
“Want to try?” Star-trail's voice came from inside the detection capsule, sounding muffled.
Since it's already been exposed, I might as well give it a try.
Shizuru made a decision. Instead of answering Star-trail directly, she looked down at Nuomi on her shoulder. “Nuomi, what do you think?”
Nuomi slid down from her shoulder and crouched on her knees, its eyes looking seriously at Star-trail in the detection capsule, then at its own contractor. “If it can make Mingyue stronger, then it's a good thing. I trust Star-trail.”
“Then let's try it once.” Shizuru stood up and nodded to the technician.
Shizuru walked into the extension area of the detection capsule and stood opposite Star-trail's base. The capsule door slid shut again, and the internal mana induction rings began to rotate. Two columns of comparison data popped up simultaneously on the console screen—Shizuru's magic circuit on the left, and Star-trail's on the right.
“I will connect my mana to your circuit. It might feel a bit cold,” Star-trail said. It closed its eyes, and the star-shaped mark on its forehead began to emit a soft, silvery-white glow.
At the same moment she began pushing mana into Shizuru's circuit, an unexpected resistance came from the end of the circuit. There was a structure in Shizuru's magic circuit that she hadn't anticipated: at the end of the deep blue main circuit, there was an extremely tiny, withered branch that looked like an old scar.
That was the trace left behind in Shizuru's circuit after Nuomi's mana core was damaged. The branch itself did not carry mana, but it compressed the circuit's capacity by a chunk.
Shizuru had always fought using the remaining capacity, never complaining to anyone.
Qiluo didn't say anything. She adjusted the curve of the mana delivery, carefully bypassing the withered branch and filling all the remaining space with her own mana.
Guided by her, the starlight particles flowed through every node that was still functioning normally, like water flowing around reefs.
Miss Mingyue, isn't my mana incredibly rich? This is mana that Nuomi could never give you, right!
...
Oh no! Weird things I saw online when I couldn't sleep because of Kurokawa-san's torment are flooding into my head.
Nuomi-chan! I am so sorry!
Shizuru felt a chill spread up from the soles of her feet as the silvery-white mana flowing from Star-trail intertwined with her own deep blue mana. After the chill passed, she closed her eyes. Then, light rose from beneath her feet.
A new skirt began to unfurl from her waist, a textured skirt with a gradient transitioning from deep blue to silvery-white replacing her original deep blue miniskirt. Shoulder guards extended outward from her existing emblem, forming a pair of thin, wing-like armor plates condensed from starlight. The edges of the armor glowed with a faint silvery-white light, resembling a soft glow that felt closer to the orbital path of celestial bodies.
When she opened her eyes, a silvery-white star-trail pattern flashed deep within her left pupil, slowly rotating within her iris. The scythe in her hand, which was larger than a person, was also changing. The blade grew narrower and longer, and the deep blue ribbon wrapped around the shaft was replaced by a swirling flow of starlight particles. The stream of particles spiraled up the shaft, converging on the blade to form a star-trail pattern.
Once the form shift was complete, Shizuru looked down at her hands.
She tried clenching her fingers; the speed at which mana flowed through her circuits was significantly faster than usual. She raised her left hand, and a miniature celestial body floated above her palm—a complete, rotating projection of a planet with cratered patterns on its surface.
The gravitational lens of the celestial body cast extremely faint, curved rays of light onto her knuckles, a physical characteristic unique to celestial-type mana.
The technician stared at the data popping up on the screen, his electronic pen suspended in mid-air. It took him several seconds to remember to keep typing on the keyboard. “Additional attribute analysis... uh, reading attribute characteristics...” He frowned and watched for a moment, then zoomed in on a set of waveform charts to compare them with the standard attribute templates in the database. Attribute tags like Fire, Water, and so on flashed across the screen in turn, each showing a match failure. The system automatically displayed a prompt:
“No known attributes detected. Classification: Unknown.”
“...An unknown attribute.” The technician pushed his goggles up to his forehead, the excitement in his voice dampened by a touch of confusion. “This additional power Star-trail gave you isn't in the existing attribute classification table. The waveform it read doesn't match any other attribute.”
He reviewed the complete data again and zoomed in on the compatibility column. “But the form shift was indeed successful. Total mana capacity is up by about twenty percent, mobility is enhanced, and original skills are retained and boosted. This additional unknown attribute cannot be classified for now. The system suggests temporarily labeling it as the celestial type, sharing the same name as Star-trail's own spectrum. The compatibility is ninety-three percent, which is higher than most original pairings.”
He finally signed off on the physical exam report and turned to look at Shizuru. “The type of additional damage this unknown attribute inflicts, its elemental advantages against various Erosion Bodies, and whether there are any special trigger conditions—all of these will require combat testing to verify.”
Shizuru looked down at the miniature celestial body rotating quietly in her palm. She slowly closed her fist to retract it, and the celestial body dissipated into points of light, leaving a few wisps of silvery-white afterglow between her fingers.
“Leave the combat testing to me.” She looked at the back of her hand, then raised her head and turned to the technician. “Please encrypt the section of the report regarding the celestial attribute.”
Logically speaking, something that could boost everyone's strength like this should be shared.
But Shizuru didn't know why she wanted to do this. It's probably because Star-trail is Kurokawa-san's Contract Spirit, and I'm doing this for Kurokawa-san's sake.
“It's already encrypted. Physical exam reports for unconfirmed attributes default to Level 3 clearance; only you and Snowrealm herself can view the full version. The Observation Department will only see a summary labeled as 'Unknown'.”
The technician pushed up his goggles and added, “This method of handling is standard procedure, so don't worry. There have been a few instances in the past where Magical Girls awakened attributes not in the database, and they all followed this process.”
Yuki Kurokawa let out a sigh of relief. Yes, she was selfish. It would be best if Star-trail belonged to her alone.
A healing-type Magical Girl was highly sought after; once word got out, it would spark fierce competition between different districts.
What's more, this was a Contract Spirit.
This Contract Spirit could strengthen all Magical Girls and elevate them all.
If this news were to get out, it would be disastrous. This place would probably be packed to the bursting point.
After confirming, Shizuru walked toward Snowrealm. Star-trail also hopped out of the detection capsule, and Yuki Kurokawa bent down to scoop it up into her arms.
“How does it feel?” Yuki Kurokawa asked.
“Very light.” Shizuru squeezed her own wrist. “It's more agile than my original form, and the mana consumption is lower.”
Rate on N.U.
