The official organization reacted quickly.
Or rather, their thinking was quick.
Upon learning that another Demon had appeared—and had done so openly—they did not bother first figuring out what exactly this Demon was. Instead, they swiftly reached the conclusion that the mysterious Magical Girl would also show up.
So, while notifying Xiao Qiu and the others, they also assembled their personnel. The moment they spotted the fourth Magical Girl, they would move in and surround her, preventing her from escaping.
Perhaps they did not know who was behind the Toy Bear, or perhaps they had guessed that Xiao Bai was most likely just taking the blame for some unknown entity.
But either way, it was entirely possible that Magical Girl Xiao Bai would appear at the scene.
And what they needed to do was find a way to keep this fourth Magical Girl there, uncover her identity, and then either protect or control her.
But whether it would ultimately be protection or control depended on the choice this fourth Magical Girl made.
"Nice to meet you. I am He Xuan, deputy director of the Supernatural Incident Investigation Department."
After meeting the fourth Magical Girl, a young woman in a suit and gold-rimmed glasses appeared among the SWAT officers holding tranquilizer guns.
The woman wore little makeup, her hair was tied up, and she had no gold or silver jewelry on her. At a glance, she looked exactly like a government official.
With a solemn expression and a serious look in her eyes, she bowed slightly to Xiao Bai before saying,
"I apologize for meeting you in this manner, but please understand. We truly had no way of finding any information about you, so we could only seize every possible opportunity to meet you."
He Xuan maintained proper etiquette, addressing her respectfully and doing her best not to provoke the fourth Magical Girl.
Magical Girls were, after all, a group who possessed supernatural powers.
Take that Toy Bear from earlier, for instance. He Xuan had tried shooting it, but the gun in her hand had seemed more like a toy before the Toy Bear.
The bullets she fired had actually bounced back from the Toy Bear. If they had not veered off course on the way back, He Xuan might already have been injured.
This proved that ordinary firearms were completely ineffective against Magical Creatures.
And after learning that this was merely a Toy Bear formed from magic rather than a Demon, He Xuan and those above her became even more serious and cautious when dealing with Magical Girls.
Magical Girls were just children, yet they possessed power capable of turning the world upside down.
They could not ignore that fact.
That was why they had to find the fourth Magical Girl, no matter what.
They were worried that this fourth Magical Girl might be exploited by bad people, which was why today's situation had happened.
Of course, they knew this would very likely make the fourth Magical Girl unhappy, but they had no other choice.
After appearing on the Sky Screen, Magical Girl Xiao Bai had completely vanished without a trace. No one knew where she was or what she was doing.
Today was their best chance to see Xiao Bai, perhaps even their only chance. They could not let this opportunity slip away.
Xiao Bai stared coldly at the SWAT officers and He Xuan. Her gaze shifted toward the helicopter in the distance before finally returning to He Xuan.
"You really went all out just to meet me."
"I apologize to you once again, but... we had no choice... I hope you can understand."
"Mm, I understand, but I will not accept it. I understand what you are worried about, and I understand why you surrounded me, but that does not mean I will go with you."
Xiao Bai spoke coldly as her Magical Armament, a scythe, appeared in her hand.
Her movement made the surrounding SWAT officers tense up. They gripped their guns more tightly, waiting only for an order from He Xuan before opening fire together.
But He Xuan gave no such command. She merely took a deep breath and asked,
"...May I ask how I should address you?"
"Hmph. Just use the name you people gave me."
"Then... for now, we will call you Miss Bai. Miss Bai, I know that you may not trust the authorities, but we are truly sincere in wishing to invite you to join us..."
"Sorry, I have no intention of joining you."
Before He Xuan could finish, Xiao Bai interrupted her. She did not look at He Xuan, instead turning her gaze to one side.
At some point, three Magical Girls had arrived. Like the others, they surrounded Xiao Bai at the very center.
Xiao Bai's gaze fell on Yu Muqiu in the middle as she asked,
"And you? Are you planning to force me to stay too, just like them?"
"I... We only... only wanted to invite you..."
For some reason, Yu Muqiu seemed much less imposing in front of Xiao Bai. She did not dare raise her voice at Xiao Bai, and from an outsider's perspective, it looked as though she had been overpowered by her.
Chen Xiaoxia did not care about any of that. She asked bluntly,
"Forget about joining us or not. First tell us, what was up with that Toy Bear? Did you make it?"
"Wouldn't you find out later by watching the Sky Screen? Or have you already decided I am the culprit, so you want to fight me?"
Xiao Bai's voice was calm. The scythe in her hand rested at an angle against the ground, and the chains at its end made faint clinking sounds as she moved.
That motion made Yu Muqiu and the other two tense up as well. Yu Muqiu quickly said,
"No! Of course I know Xiao Bai definitely did not do this! But... Uncle Xu said that it would be dangerous for you to be out there alone, and that you need our..."
"Help? Sorry, I do not need it. I am doing just fine on my own."
As Xiao Bai spoke, she raised her scythe and planted it on the ground. "As long as you do not come disturb me, I will not come bother you either. Now... I will only ask you one thing. Are you moving aside or not?"
"..."
The atmosphere turned razor-sharp.
The three little Magical Girls each tightened their grips on their weapons. A fight was about to break out at any moment when, unexpectedly, He Xuan seemed to receive some sort of message and suddenly said,
"...Let her go."
"!?"
Chen Xiaoxia looked at He Xuan in disbelief. "Aunt He!? This..."
"Director Xu's order. Let her go."
Director Xu was the head director of the Supernatural Incident Investigation Department and the superior of all these Magical Girls, including He Xuan.
Hearing that Director Xu wanted to let her leave, Xiao Bai was instead quite surprised.
They had gone to such lengths to stop her, yet they were letting her go without even fighting?
What exactly was Director Xu planning?
But since Director Xu was willing to let her leave, Xiao Bai had no reason to remain.
She merely gave Yu Muqiu and the others one last look, recalled her scythe, then leaped into the air without a word and vanished into the distance.
Because Director Xu had spoken, no one tried to stop Xiao Bai. They could only watch helplessly as she left.
After circling through the air a few times and temporarily deploying a Magic Barrier to block the satellites overhead from detecting her,
Fang Ming silently emerged from the restroom at the branch office.
"I did not expect the authorities to move so quickly... Looks like I will have to be more careful when showing up from now on."
Washing his hands at the sink, Fang Ming stared at his reflection in the mirror and pondered.
Fang Ming knew that the authorities cared about him, the fourth Magical Girl.
But he had not expected them to care this much. They had noticed only the slightest sign that he might arrive at the scene, yet they had immediately dispatched people to seal off the entire surrounding area.
The authorities moved quickly, so those who harbored ill intentions toward Magical Girls might not be much slower.
Still, compared to the Toy Bear's appearance, those matters were minor.
What Fang Ming cared about more now was where the Toy Bear had come from.
If his guess was correct, the Toy Bear's appearance should be connected to the possible second season plot of Magical Girl Xiao Qiu.
But the problem was that the first season had only aired halfway through. At this pace, even if the second season began immediately after the first ended,
it would still be at least two months away.
They would have to wait two months to see the second season, yet the second season's plot had already begun unfolding in reality.
That meant they had no way to use the plot to identify the mastermind behind the Toy Bear Incident ahead of time.
Now that the Sky Screen had revealed the powers and abilities of several Magical Girls, that mastermind... most likely could not be found.
Who knew what that person might do over the next two months.
"Tch. Looks like I will have to put in some overtime these next few days and make a trip to Spring City to see if I can find the person behind this."
After washing his hands, Fang Ming made up his mind. He planned to go to Spring City and search for the mastermind.
But even Fang Ming himself had not expected this.
Whether because of the Toy Bear's appearance or for some other reason,
only a day had passed when, at ten in the morning the next day, the Sky Screen lit up again.
And this time, it was airing
the sixth episode of Magical Girl Xiao Qiu!
There was no week-long gap. Just one day later, episode six appeared on the Sky Screen!
The Demon at the Tourist Attraction
The appearance of episode six on the Sky Screen truly caught everyone off guard.
Even Fang Ming had not expected episode six to follow immediately after episode five.
This was clearly not a normal production schedule for an anime.
Of course, whether the "anime" airing on the Sky Screen had actually been made by someone remained uncertain.
But after getting used to only one episode airing each week, the sudden arrival of episode six sent a signal, more or less.
The plot... was about to speed up.
Thinking about the doll that had suddenly appeared yesterday, Fang Ming could not help but wonder whether the Toy Bear's appearance had broken the original fate, forcing the Sky Screen to accelerate the plot.
A guess was only a guess. There was no answer for now.
But no matter what, episode six had begun.
(I saw it! I saw it!) (Episode six! Wahahaha, no need to wait a week!!) (Why did episode six suddenly appear? Can any big shots explain?) (No idea, do not understand, do not know. Just watch it!)
The first few comments of episode six were like this, while its opening took place in the guest room of Fang Ming's home.
[Yu Muqiu was telling Chen Xiaoxia and the others about meeting Magical Girl Xiao Bai, which drew an unhappy response from Chen Xiaoxia.
"What is with that way of talking, like an adult lecturing a child..."
Compared to Chen Xiaoxia's dissatisfaction, Xiao Chun's attention was focused elsewhere.
"She said this is her territory?"
"Mm... Xiao Bai... did say that." Yu Muqiu nodded.
"...?" Chen Xiaoxia froze for a moment and looked up at Yu Muqiu. "Xiao Bai? Is her surname Bai?"
"No, it is... She did not tell me what her name was. I thought she should at least have something to be called... and she has silver hair, so..."
Yu Muqiu explained.
For some reason, those words seemed to touch a nerve in Chen Xiaoxia. She suddenly burst into laughter, patting Yu Muqiu on the shoulder as she said,
"Hahahaha, Xiao Qiu, I did not realize you were such a schemer!"
"?"
Yu Muqiu looked at Chen Xiaoxia blankly.
Chen Xiaoxia laughed so hard that she bent over. "Xiao Bai... Xiao Bai... Pfft, that sounds like the name of my aunt's pet dog..."
"Ah..." Only then did Yu Muqiu realize something. Blinking at her two companions, she asked, "...Was it impolite for me to call her that?"
"No! It is very polite! If she is not going to tell us her name, then we can call her whatever we want! It is her fault for not telling us what her name is first!"
Before you continue