By the time the Fangting City and Bai'an City Squads returned to the magical girl base, it was already past one in the morning.
The dining room still looked exactly as it had when they had rushed out. Half-eaten dishes lay scattered across the table, along with the hot pot that was supposed to have been the centerpiece of the meal, now cold and deserted. Congealed grease floated on the surface of the broth, mixed with ingredients that had gone into the pot and never come back out, telling the sorry ending of this dinner.
"Damn Claw Mark... damn evil magical girls, I swear I'll never forgive you..."
Asō Madoka leaned painfully against the table, every word sounding like it had been wrung from her blood, as though she bore some tremendous grudge. White Thistle stood awkwardly beside her, looking as if she wanted to say something but had no idea how to comfort her.
As for the other two from Bai'an City, Wood Lily was yawning as she headed into the washroom, while Mimosa had somehow already returned to her room alone.
Xia Liang and Lin Xiaolu were in the kitchen putting away the ingredients and miscellaneous items that had originally been prepared for New Year's Eve. Larkspur urged Bai Jingxuan to wash up and go to sleep, then found a quiet corner, changed back into Lin Yun, and continued issuing instructions for the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau's next steps over the phone.
Fortunately, this incident had not occurred inside the city. Whether Yuan had intended it or not, choosing the remote Silver Screen Mountain as the battlefield was a good thing for the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau. At least, they would not need to spend vast amounts of manpower and resources repairing the site.
Still, the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau needed