Names

I saw it.

That same evening, when the magical girls of the Fangting City Squad finished their day's patrol and gathered in the living room of the Secret Base, Lin Xiaolu started a conversation rather than talking to herself, then looked around at her teammates' reactions, as if waiting for something.

Unfortunately, her cryptic statement left everyone completely baffled as to what she was trying to say, resulting in only bewildered looks from Xia Liang and Bai Jingxuan.

"What... did you see?"

"A strange girl, a new magical girl."

Lin Xiaolu said seriously, "Although I don't know where they came from, they've already mastered Magic Armament, so their abilities are definitely above the Bud Rank; they're not a novice."

She announced this fact so solemnly, expecting her teammates to react with the same astonishment as she did. Unfortunately, neither Xia Liang nor Bai Jingxuan changed their expressions after hearing this.

"What? What's your reaction?"

She couldn't help but say with disappointment, "This is a completely unfamiliar magical girl, you know? It should be quite a rare thing, right?"

"You say it's strange... well, it certainly is strange, isn't it?"

Reluctantly acknowledging Lin Xiaolu's statement, Xia Liang tentatively raised her hand, forcing a smile as she asked, "But is this something that needs to be said with such a serious expression?"

"You don't understand!"

Lin Xiaolu shook her head. "The appearance of an unfamiliar magical girl in the city is often the beginning of a new event in magical girl anime! It means something is about to happen!"

"Putting aside the fact that real-world events cannot be used as a reference in animation, I think your statement is fundamentally illogical enough to be incomprehensible..."

"Even putting aside the anime, this whole thing seems really strange! A strange magical girl has come to Fangting City, but we know absolutely nothing about it—that's against the rules!"

Lin Xiaolu said earnestly, "When a magical girl goes to an unfamiliar city on a mission, she should contact her local colleagues as soon as possible. This is something that Larkspur taught me!"

"What if they're not here in our city on a mission?"

Xia Liang countered, "Isn't it unnecessary to immediately notify the local garrison if we're just passing through Fangting City or visiting here?"

"Hmm, if you put it that way..." Lin Xiaolu was immediately stumped by the question.

"... Um, about what my sister mentioned, Moko and I also encountered that today."

Just as Lin Xiaolu was speechless for a moment, Bai Jingxuan suddenly spoke up, "This afternoon during patrol, Moko suddenly ran over to me and said that it had found a new child with magical girl potential."

"A new magical girl?"

Bai Jingxuan's words immediately attracted the attention of the other two, causing them to turn their heads. Lin Xiaolu also took the opportunity to drop the embarrassing question, looking at Bai Jingxuan and asking, "Did you meet her? Is she really qualified?"

"How could my feelings be false?"

Faced with Lin Xiaolu's questioning, Moko rolled its eyes at her somewhat displeased, then said in a pretentious tone, "If it's a new magical girl, then it's a new magical girl, absolutely true, no deception!"

"Have you contacted them yet? Are they willing to become a magical girl?"

Xia Liang's considerations were clearly more far-reaching. "Or perhaps, the person you found was snatched away by the 'magical girl from another city' that Xiao Lu mentioned?"

"That's not entirely true."

At this point, Moko stammered, "We did find the talented child, and there were no guys trying to take him away, but..."

"But?" Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang asked in unison.

"However, when they found that child, she said she was already a magical girl."

Moko's voice trailed off. "She said she came from another city and had already partnered with other Seeder... and she even apologized to me very sincerely."

"That lady was really nice; Moko."

Bai Jingxuan added, "But she said she had other things to do, so she left quickly."

Now it was Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang's turn to look at each other in bewilderment.

"In other words, she's not actually a newcomer with magical girl potential, but rather another real magical girl..."

After a long pause, Lin Xiaolu finally spoke, summarizing her points, and then asked Xia Liang with some doubt, "Under normal circumstances, would the Seeder make a mistake like this?"

"Probably not?"

The two men's slightly scrutinizing gazes fell on Moko.

"Why did you jump to conclusions without even asking me? They're all similar magical energy fluctuations; it's normal to get them confused!"

Moko immediately objected. "Besides, normally, if you sense the magical energy fluctuations of an unfamiliar magical girl in the city, you'd assume she's a promising newcomer, right? Who knows, a magical girl from another city might suddenly show up here!"

"A true magical girl, not to mention the nature of her magical energy fluctuations, must possess a power level hundreds or thousands of times greater than that of an ordinary person, right?"

Lin Xiaolu looked at Moko as if he were an idiot. "How careless do you have to be to make a mistake like this?"

"What if he's a peerless genius with extraordinary magical power and aptitude unlike anyone else?" Moko argued forcefully.

"If there really are such people, and you've overlooked them until now, isn't that a dereliction of duty on the Seeder?"

"Hmm..."

"Alright, let's just leave it at that. You two, stop for now."

Seeing that the two were about to start arguing again over trivial matters, Xia Liang quickly stopped them, saying, "In short, according to Xiao Lu and Xiao Xuan's eyewitness accounts, it's true that magical girls from other cities came to Fang Ting today. That should be correct. Xiao Lu probably encountered them while patrolling after school, and Xiao Xuan encountered them in the afternoon. They should be the same person, right?"

"Perhaps?"

Reminded by Xia Liang's words, Lin Xiaolu said uncertainly, "Surely not several magical girls would come to a small place like ours all at once? Wouldn't their arrival be like a declaration of war... Ah, could it be that 'Claw Mark' thing?"

Her words immediately silenced everyone in the living room, as no one could deny the possibility.

Just two weeks ago, an uninvited guest claiming to be a "Fairy Immortal" broke into their Secret Base and told them about the signs of Claw Mark. In other words, the intrusion of "Claw Mark" into Fangting City was a real event. Even though the magical girl they encountered today was relatively friendly, they couldn't rule out the possibility that this was just a disguise.

Just as the conversation stalled, the sound of a door closing suddenly came from the entryway.

The Larkspur, her steps unsteady and her face weary, returned to the Secret Base.

It was already 9 p. m. The reason she returned so late was not only because she had accepted Yuan's challenge in the evening, but also because she still had unfinished work to do after the challenge.

She had previously received a notice from the municipal government that because Fangting City had repeatedly experienced major safety incidents since the Full Moon Festival, and the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau had almost been breached in the process, Lin Yun, as the newly appointed director, needed to go to the municipal government to make some promises to the higher-ups in order to appease the officials' concerns.

As time went on, the day to submit the report was fast approaching. Even though it was well past the normal closing time, Lin Yun had no choice but to stay at the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau to continue refining his report.

In addition, the cleanup operation against the Black Ash Dawn is nearing its end, with a barrage of documents and reports coming in, and meetings of all sizes every day. After returning to the Secret Base, Lin Yun also needs to provide tutoring and instruction to magical girls. Lin Yun is currently as busy as a spinning top, with no rest from morning till night.

With droopy eyelids, Larkspur packed her shoes, sighed listlessly, glanced at the living room not far away, and, considering her image in front of the younger generation, forced herself to cheer up.

She patted her cheeks to make herself look more relaxed, straightened her back, and tried to maintain an indifferent expression as if nothing had happened, then walked into the living room.

Then she noticed that three girls and a Fairy were gathered together, silently staring at her.

Did they notice anything unusual about my behavior?

Such a thought couldn't help but cross her mind, but Larkspur maintained her composure and basic demeanor as she asked, "Why are you all looking at me like that? What's wrong?"

She didn't realize that although she maintained a calm facade, her physical and mental exhaustion, coupled with the anger from the fight she had just had, was impossible to hide.

To the girls, this looked like a sign of being in a bad mood.

The appearance of an unidentified magical girl in the city, while not exactly a terrible thing, was hard to believe could be anything good, especially considering the recent Claw Mark. Informing the already upset Larkspur about this was clearly an act of bad luck. For a moment, no one was willing to offer an explanation.

The girls and the Fairy in the living room looked at each other, and finally all looked at Lin Xiaolu. Lin Xiaolu first pointed to herself in disbelief, then quickly shook her head and pointed to Xia Liang, but Xia Liang just smiled and waved her hand, saying nothing.

In the end, Lin Xiaolu was pushed to the forefront.

"Um... we were just discussing this, because we encountered a strange magical girl today."

She clasped her hands together in front of her, unconsciously clenching her fingers. "Well, because I don't know the other person's background, I'm just guessing."

"An unfamiliar magical girl?"

Upon hearing this, the first person that came to Larkspur's mind was Yuan. Considering that Yuan did indeed wander around Fangting City every day, it wasn't impossible for her to bump into the girls, so she asked, "Did you see her? What did she look like?"

"It was a girl in a yellow dress, who didn't look very old? The Magic Armament seemed to be the shoes." Lin Xiaolu tried hard to recall the image she had seen, but all she could remember was a flash of light and a black dress soaked through by the slime from the Aberrant Beast's body. She said with some uncertainty.

"She's a girl who wears glasses and looks about the same height as Xia Liang," Bai Jingxuan gave a completely different answer, "She seems a bit serious, but she's actually a very nice person."

Without a doubt, these two descriptions have absolutely no overlap with Yuan. As for whether they refer to the same person, no one can make a judgment.

Listening to the girls' descriptions, Larkspur felt a sense of relief, both because the girls hadn't directly encountered the people with Claw Mark, and because Kitty was sure of keeping her promise and hadn't actively caused trouble for the children.

However, she immediately had to be on guard again. After all, if what Lin Xiaolu and Bai Jingxuan said was true, then Fangting City might really have another strange magical girl.

It's no wonder her first reaction was to be wary, since Fangting City has only seen three foreign magical girls enter since her return: one of them was the Cat-Tail Squad from the Investigation Institute, and the other two were Sparrow and Kite from Claw Mark. Undoubtedly, the latter two were enemies.

With this in mind, she pulled the girls down to sit and carefully inquired about the details of the incident, repeatedly confirming the magical girls' behavior and possible motives. However, after hearing that these unfamiliar magical girls had not only helped Lin Xiaolu defeat the Aberrant Beast but also bought gifts for Bai Jingxuan, her judgment began to waver.

This level of friendliness doesn't seem like Claw Mark?

And for some reason, even though it was just a few words, the magical girl described by Lin Xiaolu gave Larkspur a strong sense of familiarity, as if she had seen this person somewhere before.

Is it an old friend I know?

She couldn't help but ponder, trying hard to recall a Magic Armament girl in yellow clothes using roller skates, but she couldn't seem to find anyone who matched the description.

Ultimately, having reached a dead end, she could only put those thoughts aside for the time being and decided to go to the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau tomorrow to investigate the matter with the help of the bureau in order to find out the identities of the two magical girls.

Having made this decision, she put the matter aside, had a simple dinner, and then took three girls to the underground training ground for today's lesson.

Just then, as if suddenly remembering something, Lin Xiaolu clapped her hands sharply:

"Oh, right, I might not have time to patrol on Saturday afternoon and evening. Could you cover for me for a day, Larkspur?"

"To help you patrol?"

After considering her Saturday schedule, Larkspur realized she could indeed squeeze in some time, so she nodded. "That's fine, but is there something you need?"

"I want to go out and have fun with my friends."

"Male or female?" A slight sense of unease rose in Larkspur's heart, but she pretended to be casual as she asked.

"A girl, my classmate."

Unaware of the hidden meaning in Larkspur's words, and not noticing the barely suppressed amusement on Xia Liang's face, Lin Xiaolu spoke the truth, "They said a very famous singer is coming to our area on Saturday for a concert, so they asked me to come along."

"... Oh, okay, then go ahead, I'll patrol for you."

As the alarm bells in her heart subsided, Larkspur's expression softened slightly. "Patrols are usually quite busy, so it's important that you have fun while you're out with your friends."

"Okay! Thank you!"

After receiving Larkspur's promise, Lin Xiaolu nodded cheerfully. "Although I don't pay much attention to popular celebrities, since she's quite famous... and she said she's some kind of singer, her concert won't disappoint, right?"

"A diva..."

A name flashed through her mind for a moment, Larkspur was momentarily distracted, but quickly shook her head and banished the name from her thoughts.

That's all in the past, and that person only liked singing as a hobby.

Thinking this to herself, and to fill the silence, she casually asked, "What's it called? Does it have any famous works?"

"What was it called again, Ma... Ma Li... Ma Xiang..."

Trying hard to recall the name she'd heard from Jiang Yuan that afternoon, Lin Xiaolu racked her brains for a long time, oblivious to Larkspur's widening eyes beside her. Finally, a flash of inspiration struck her. She raised a finger, showing her fangs, and called out the name that was particularly difficult for her to remember:

"Ah, right, her name is Asō Madoka?"