A Guide to Humanity’s Extinction

The corridor fell dead silent.

In that thick, deathlike absolute silence, the magical girl Ember slowly raised her head and locked eyes with Ke Mingwei, neither of them moving.

Ke Mingqing, however, cut a much more pitiful figure. He squatted on the floor like an awkward third wheel, sweeping up the scattered cigarette ash with his left hand while his right wrist dangled over his knee.

Tilting his head back, he watched the father and daughter in silence, looking exactly like a Japanese street delinquent.

This is exhausting, he sighed inwardly. Could these two be any more stubborn?

A moment passed, but the corridor remained utterly silent. Finally, Ke Mingqing couldn’t hold it in any longer. ”Look, the old man tossing cigarette butts everywhere is bad enough, but could you magical girls stop transforming in public? It shows a serious lack of manners, you know?”

He paused, then muttered, ”How do you think that makes a superhero like me feel? I have to run all the way to the train station to grab my gear just to transform, and I actually have to pay out of pocket to maintain my suit.”

Even after his complaint, Ember and Ke Mingwei said nothing. They just stared at each other in silence, like two stubborn grade-schoolers locked in a staring contest, neither willing to blink.

Just as Ke Mingqing opened the timer on his phone to see how long this glaring match would last, Ke Mingwei finally spoke. ”Witch,” he said, his face dark. ”Why are you pretending to be my daughter?”

Ke Mingqing stared at him, dumbfounded.Ember also froze, her eyes widening slightly beneath her bangs.

The corridor fell dead silent.

”You’ve got to be kidding me...” Ke Mingqing muttered, staring at Ke Mingwei with his jaw hanging open.

Are you still holding a grudge over the time your daughter shot you at the train station, old man? he thought.

It wasn’t strange for Ke Mingwei to hold a grudge over that incident. After all, the person who had taken the bullet for him was his own son.

Because of that, he couldn’t possibly imagine that the magical girl who had pulled the trigger was actually his own daughter, Xia Zili.

In his eyes, the magical girl Ember was just a murderous, reckless, and highly volatile invisible super-human species criminal. Naturally, his instinct was to completely deny the reality standing right in front of him.

After a long moment, Ke Mingqing lowered his head, pressed his palms together, and closed his eyes as if in prayer.

He let out a long sigh and murmured, ”Old man, you’re on your own now...”

Ember stood frozen for a long time. Then, after a heavy silence, she finally looked away from Ke Mingwei’s face.

The corners of her mouth twitched stiffly as she tried to force a smile, but she couldn’t. Instead, she pursed her lips and took two steps backward. Pressing her back against the wall, she lowered her head and took a deep breath. A ripple of magic flared beneath her feet, and she flew off the rooftop.

At that moment, Ke Mingwei suddenly froze.

He watched the girl’s silhouette disappear into the distance, then lowered his head. He replayed the look on her face in that final moment—the sorrow, the burning anger, and that undeniably childish stubbornness.

For years, he had seen that exact same look on a certain young girl’s face. That was when reality finally hit him.

”...Xiao Li?”

Ke Mingwei muttered in shock, finally putting the pieces together.

”Yeah, no kidding, old man!” Ke Mingqing groaned. ”Did your thick skull finally crack open? Could you really not tell that my little sister was the magical girl I’ve been talking about?”

Ke Mingqing sighed in exasperation and finally unclasped his hands, abandoning his prayers for the old man. Honestly, the fact that Ember hadn’t simply blown two holes in Ke Mingwei’s head right then and there was probably a miracle born of those very prayers.

”How is that possible...”

Ke Mingwei backed away, his hoarse voice breaking as a knot of complicated emotions washed over his face.

It was hard to tell if it was shock, fear, or anger—anger at himself for not realizing his daughter’s true identity sooner. In the end, the old man just squeezed his eyes shut and hunched his shoulders, leaning back against the wall.

He pressed his calloused, vein-bulging hands tightly against his forehead and closed his eyes.

As his world went dark, his chaotic thoughts suddenly sharpened. Memories flooded his mind: the harsh words he had spoken at the dinner table all that time ago, and Xia Zili’s explosive reactions.

He remembered how his daughter had completely changed after hitting puberty, always locking herself in her room and refusing to talk much to the rest of the family.

It explained why the magical girl Ember, who always treated everyone with a cold ”keep away” attitude, had gone out of her way to look after the superhero Blue Pigeon. It was the reason she had rushed all the way across the city by herself to save him when Blue Pigeon was kidnapped by a Clock Maker copycat.

In that instant, every bizarre, inexplicable mystery from the past finally slotted into place.

But the truth pierced straight into Ke Mingwei’s heart. Those clues felt like a sledgehammer, slamming into his chest over and over again until a violent ringing echoed in his ears.

After a long time, Ke Mingwei opened his bloodshot eyes and shook his head, throwing off the tangled mess of thoughts.

He took a deep breath, looked up at Ke Mingqing, and enunciated every word. ”A’Qing—since you knew, why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

Ke Mingwei’s tone was heavy, laced with blame, yet even that blame was overshadowed by the hollow, lost look on his face.

”Because I didn’t know before either!”

Ke Mingqing said, as if it were obvious. ”And honestly, if she hadn’t transformed right in front of your face, would you have believed me if I just told you?”

Ke Mingwei was speechless.

He hung his head in silence for a long moment before frowning. ”What about Xiao Li... Where did she go? I need to go find her right now.”

”No, no, no!” Ke Mingqing quickly stopped him. ”Whatever you do, do not go after her right now. I’m genuinely worried she might put two bullets in you. Let me go calm her down first, and then we can talk about the two of you meeting.”

”But—”

”No buts. She hates your guts right now.” Ke Mingqing paused, then added quietly, ”She used to hate me just as much.”

With that, he dusted the cigarette ash from his palms, stood up from the floor, and hurried out onto the rooftop.

The teenager stepped onto the railing and leaped off, his body transforming into a streak of dark blue lightning that plummeted straight down.

Listening to the roar of lightning fade into the distance, Ke Mingwei bowed his head, standing all alone in the empty corridor.

He leaned against the wall, staring down at the last traces of ash on the floor. After a long silence, he slowly slid down the wall and slumped onto the floor.

There was only one place Ke Mingqing could think of where his little sister might go after being hurt like that. He sprinted through the long streets like a violent bolt of lightning, the surroundings growing more dilapidated and filthy with every step, the ground gradually turning to dusty earth.

A few moments later, he came to a halt outside the abandoned train station.

Slowing his pace, Ke Mingqing let the arcs of lightning fade from his body as he stepped into the familiar train station tunnel. He followed the edge of the tunnel deeper inside, but a moment later, he abruptly stopped in his tracks.

He heard someone crying from the depths of the darkness. It was a bizarre sound—intermittent, hitching sobs, like a deeply wronged child weeping.

”Little Grey...?”

Ke Mingqing froze for a second, the name slipping out of his mouth on instinct.

He snapped his head up. In that very instant, all the lights in the tunnel flickered on, the dim yellow glow washing over his thin frame like a rising tide.