"I saw her."
That same evening, after the magical girls of the Fangting City Squad finished a day of patrols and gathered in the Secret Base's living room, Lin Xiaolu started a conversation in a rather self-directed manner. She looked around at her teammates' reactions, as though waiting for something.
Unfortunately, that abrupt statement gave no indication of what she meant, so all she received were Xia Liang and Bai Jingxuan's bewildered stares.
"Saw... what?"
"A strange girl. A new magical girl."
Lin Xiaolu said seriously, "I don't know where she came from, but she's already mastered a Magic Armament. Her abilities are definitely above Bud Rank. She's no novice."
She announced this fact with such gravity, expecting her teammates to be just as astonished as she was. Unfortunately, neither Xia Liang nor Bai Jingxuan showed much change in expression after hearing it.
"What? Where's your reaction?"
She could not help sounding disappointed. "This is a strange magical girl, you know? Isn't that supposed to be pretty unusual?"
"You say unusual... well, I suppose it is unusual?"
Reluctantly conceding Lin Xiaolu's point, Xia Liang tentatively raised a hand and asked with a dry laugh, "But is this really something you need to say with such a serious expression?"
"You don't understand!"
Lin Xiaolu shook her head. "A strange magical girl appearing in a city is often the beginning of a new arc in magical girl anime! It means something is about to happen!"
"Putting aside the fact that reality can't be judged by anime, I think the logic behind what you just said is fundamentally hard to understand..."
"Even without mentioning anime, this is still strange! A strange magical girl came to Fangting City, but we know nothing about it. That's against the rules!"
Lin Xiaolu said earnestly, "When magical