Now the question was, what should I do?

A few options flashed in my mind, but I didn’t spring into action first because I was curious about the man’s words.

He said something about a job. Is this the idol business's dark side?

I heard there was something like this in the past. A few idols got caught up in a scandal because their rivals spread false information to the paparazzi. For now, it was safe to assume that the man was a paparazzi that followed Diva after her concert.

Titan jumped off my shoulder and peeked into the alleyway.

“Oh, that’s rather troublesome, alright. You might want to show yourself right now if you have any desire to save her.”

I glanced into the back alley after hearing Titan’s words and found out the man was one of the audiences that had watched the concert earlier. As expected, he was following Diva, no?

For Diva herself, she was cornered against the wall and put her arms up her chest in defense. She cowered in front of the man with a hoodie and trembled in fear, like a small animal.

Ah, she is so cute… No! Asa, what are you thinking? You should save her now!

My desire and my rational thinking clashed, and I finally decided to show myself. I lowered my hat to hide my face with the shadow and shouted.

“Police! There is a pervert here! Yes, right here! Please come right now!”

“Kyaa!!” Diva immediately crouched down and hugged her body. It seemed like even though she was in fear, she was still able to think clearly.

For the man, he turned to me, scared. “Ha?!”

When he saw me, he gritted his teeth, ran toward me, and yelled. “You bitch! Move!”

There was only one entrance to this back alley, and I stood right in the middle. So if he wanted to run away, he needed to get past me.

Normally, a girl would be terrified by something like this, even more so when the man took out a folded knife from his pocket when he ran toward them, directing the tip against their face. As I thought, he had a knife. He said something about scarring Diva’s face after all. I couldn’t let him do that.

“I said move, you fucking bitch!” He swung his knife widely with unskilled movement.

“W-Watch out!”

Diva screamed hysterically, but I only raised my hat and smirked.

“That’s just a toy.”

Due to my superhuman strength and reaction from becoming Arsy, his movement looked slow to me. I stepped to the left and dodged his attack before tackling him to the ground with my feet. He fell head first, and it made a thud sound.

“Ouch! Bitch!”

Immediately, the thug turned around and was about to get up, but I moved first and stepped on his hand that held the knife. I didn’t use my full strength, but it was enough for him to let go of the knife and scream in pain.

“Arrghh! Release me! It hurts!”

I must’ve looked like a bad girl now, but this man was the one who made the first move. I wouldn’t forgive someone who attacked people in a back alley. Never.

Should I kill this scum?

Maybe I was a bit angry too, as it reminded me of the past, but I somehow wanted to kill this man. He reminded me of someone unpleasant. Someone who would always hit my kind big brother in a back alley like this one just because my big brother looked a bit different.

“That’s enough, Asa.” Titan tapped its paw against my sneaker that was still on top of the man’s hand. “You will crush his arm if you put any more strength. You don’t want that, no? At least not in front of her.”

Titan’s words brought me back, and I turned around to see Diva standing up, a bit terrified. I let out a sigh to calm myself before looking closer at the man.

He was also terrified and muttered, “Monster… Y-You’re a monster.”

“A monster, huh? I don’t really think so. You’re the monster here, and I am just someone who saved a girl in danger. I will let you go this time, but… I will have you tell me about your employer first.”

I moved my feet away, picked up the knife on the side, and threw it close to the man’s face. All with a dangerous smirk on my face to intimidate him. It seemed like my intimidation worked as the man answered almost instantly.

“H-Hiie! U-Utahime! I-It’s Utahime! Forgive me!”

“I see. Thank you for your cooperation. You can go away now.”

“…!”

The man picked himself up and ran away with his tail between his legs. I must say, he was running away pretty fast. His knife was still on the ground. Would he be okay?

“So it’s indeed that girl. No surprise here.” Titan commented as it climbed on my shoulder as it gazed at the man running away from me. “So, you won’t chase after him?”

“Yeah. I can’t ruin my image in front of Diva. I am a forgiving Magical Girl after all!” I put my hands on my hips, satisfied with how things proceeded.

“Forgiving what? After scaring an entire city with your Manifestation of Mana, you called yourself a forgiving Magical Girl?”

Oh, shut up, Titan. That was my first appearance, so I made it flashy!

I knew that retorting to him wouldn’t work, so I kept it to myself.

“U-umm… thank you for saving me.”

At that moment, a weak voice called out from behind, making me turn around. Diva was already close to me, and she bowed her head. She didn’t ask about the police; maybe she knew I was lying then to get the thug’s attention.

“It’s not a problem,” I said with my most reassuring voice. “Do you need me to accompany you back to your home too? It is quite dangerous around here.”

“Ah, no. It’s not a problem. My house is just around there.” She raised her head and answered with a smile before freezing when she saw my face. “Huh?”

Did she recognize me? I meant, did she remember our first meeting on that street?

“You’re… Please correct me if I am wrong, but… Did you see the Magical Diva Girls concert this afternoon? I remember seeing someone like you standing against the wall at our concert. Ah, I am sorry. I am one of the Magical Diva Girls members, and I go by the name Diva.”

Oh, so that was where she recognized me. I meant I was the only girl attending the concert, so I was quite standing out. More so with my current outfit.

I smiled at her and nodded. “Yes, that was quite a good concert. I am rooting for you, Diva. You have a beautiful voice.”

“…Yes, thank you.”

Huh?

I noticed something strange from her answer. What is it?

“Once again, thank you for saving me. If you don’t mind, I need to go home right now. It’s… quite shocking, so I want to calm myself down in my home.”

“Be careful on your way.”

“Thank you. Please excuse me.”

Our conversation was short, and it was quite a strange conversation if I said so myself. But, my mind lingered on her strange tone when I praised her voice.

Waving my hand, I saw her walk out of the dangerous shortcut and enter the luminous main street, disappearing into a crowd. Only then I lowered my hand and tilted my head a little.

“Was it loneliness that I felt from her tone earlier?”

“Might be so. She had a strange pause before answering your praise. Her smile was also a bit strained.” Titan confirmed.

“I see… So that’s why I am drawn to her.”

I understood now why I couldn’t take my eyes away from her. From our first meeting, maybe this first love that I felt was that feeling all along.

“It’s not love at all, Titan. I now understand why I want to meet her again.”

“Is that so? Good for you.”

“Yes, it is good for me. But… Well, I won’t try to offer help or anything. It will only hurt her.”

Loneliness. That was what Diva felt. She was just a lonely girl. Maybe the reason why she became an idol was the same as why I didn’t really care about people finding my identity as a Magical Girl.

“Only she can help herself. I think I will only be myself, a fangirl who supported her from afar. I think she also wanted that as she introduced herself with her stage name, not her real name.”

“Ah, I understand now. Well, Asa. What will you do?”

“Nothing.” I stretched my arms above my head. At this moment, I felt a surge of Mana appear from somewhere in the Shibuya ward. It felt like beastly Mana but smaller than the one I felt from Garmr.

Titan and I looked at each other almost simultaneously.

“You will go?”

I grinned at him and took off my necklace, transforming myself back into Arsy.

“You don’t need to ask.”

It seemed like this night would last a bit longer. I arrived at the Beast’s location in just a few seconds.

No Magical Girls appeared that night, and the Beast was a small one, looking like a crazed dog. I took care of it easily with a weak Mana Bullet before I returned to my home by foot after transforming myself back to Asa.

Only then did I realize that I was still wearing a mask. I felt stupid for smirking and smiling when confronting the thug earlier.