Chapter Summaries

Larkspur abandoned the rain-ruined amusement park outing and decided to take Xia Liang to Central Electronics Street instead. She planned to show Xia Liang the route the Fangting City Magical Girl Squad had taken there on their days off twenty years earlier.

• Larkspur told Lin Xiaolu that she and Xia Liang would go shopping on Xia Liang's birthday while Lin Xiaolu prepared a surprise party at home.
• A heavy rainstorm ruined Larkspur and Xia Liang's planned trip to the amusement park, leaving Xia Liang disappointed.
• Larkspur considered canceling the outing to reassert her authority, but chose instead to guide Xia Liang as her senior.
• Larkspur led Xia Liang to the garage and drove them away in the customized silver-white SUV.
• Larkspur told Xia Liang they were heading to Central Electronics Street to follow the old Fangting City Magical Girl Squad route.

Larkspur took Xia Liang around Electronics Street, revisiting places tied to her memories of the old Fangting City Squad. After they visited an archery hall and a renovated bookstore, Larkspur returned from buying arcade tokens to find Xia Liang surrounded by a group of girls who seemed to know her.

• Larkspur remembered how Su Shengzi had first persuaded the squad to visit Electronics Street and how the four girls used to spend time there.
• Larkspur taught Xia Liang archery, and Xia Liang quickly improved enough to hit the bullseye.
• Larkspur and Xia Liang toured the bookstore, where Xia Liang asked Larkspur to focus on her during their outing and held her hand.
• Larkspur went to buy arcade tokens while Xia Liang waited near the claw machines.
• Larkspur returned and found several girls mocking Xia Liang, who stood silently with her head lowered.

Xia Liang and Larkspur faced Xia Liang’s former delinquent friends at the arcade, where Larkspur defeated them in games and forced them to apologize. Xia Liang left without seeking revenge, while Li Yaqing was left to consider whether she could change.

• Xia Liang’s former friends, led by Li Yaqing, mocked her and demanded money, but Larkspur arrived and challenged them to an arcade-game contest.
• Li Yaqing chose a difficult dance-machine song, but Larkspur earned an All Perfect score while Li Yaqing received an SS rating.
• Larkspur beat the other delinquent girls at their chosen games, then slapped Li Yaqing and used her Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau identification to pressure her to apologize.
• Li Yaqing led the group in apologizing to Xia Liang and admitted that jealousy had made her hurt the person she had wanted to befriend.
• Xia Liang said she considered the girls strangers and left with Larkspur, who gave Li Yaqing the unused tokens as a reward for competing honestly.
• Li Yaqing watched them disappear, holding the tokens and wondering whether it was really not too late to change.

After Larkspur and Xia Liang left the arcade, Xia Liang explained why she had asked Larkspur to give her former friends a chance: Li Yaqing had once shown her kindness when she was isolated. As the rain stopped, Xia Liang steered their outing back toward lunch and insisted their date was not over.

• Walking through the rain, Larkspur asked Xia Liang why she had pleaded for the delinquents, and Xia Liang clarified that she had only been winking in anticipation of Larkspur showing off.
• Xia Liang explained that she saw the group as people who had been abandoned like her and feared becoming cruel to them because they reminded her of who she might have been without Xiao Lu, Larkspur, and Moko.
• Xia Liang said Li Yaqing had once befriended her when she was isolated and that the kindness had helped keep her alive, so she hoped Li Yaqing could change rather than face only punishment.
• Larkspur agreed that the group deserved one chance but warned that they would be responsible for their choices if they continued doing wrong after learning the consequences.
• At the intersection, Xia Liang called their outing a date, and when the rain stopped, she put away her umbrella and suggested they go to lunch.

Larkspur and Xia Liang spent the afternoon shopping, and Xia Liang persuaded Larkspur to try on and buy several outfits. Larkspur then brought Xia Liang to the former meeting place of the Fangting City Squad, only to find that the old coffee shop had become a maid café.

• Larkspur reassured White Rose that things were going smoothly and told her she would return around evening.
• Xia Liang persuaded Larkspur to visit a clothing shop, where she photographed Larkspur trying on different outfits.
• Larkspur recalled how Anya and the Old Fangting City Squad had regularly dressed her up as Cornflower.
• Larkspur and Xia Liang bought several outfits, and Larkspur asked Xia Liang not to share the photos with the other members.
• Larkspur led Xia Liang to the coffee shop where the Fangting City Squad used to meet, and they discovered it had become a maid café.

Larkspur and Xia Liang visited a magical-girl-themed café during their date, where Xia Liang eagerly tried on the uniforms while Larkspur recognized outfits from her own past. After Xia Liang changed back, she asked Larkspur if she wanted to try one too.

• Xia Liang persuaded Larkspur to enter a café hosting a Magical Girl Day event.
• Larkspur recognized the employees’ uniforms as outfits worn by magical girls, including her own former outfit, which the staff identified as Cornflower’s.
• Xia Liang chose to try on the Cornflower uniform and posed for a commemorative photo with an employee.
• The café staff and customers praised Xia Liang, and she tried on more than half of the shop’s magical-girl uniforms.
• Xia Liang returned to the table and asked Larkspur if she wanted to try on a uniform.

At the maid café, Xia Liang and the maid persuaded Larkspur to try on a pale blue dress modeled after White Rose’s outfit, and Xia Liang took photos. While paying, Larkspur learned where the old café owner had moved and followed the address to the Pavilion Café, recognizing it from her memories.

• Xia Liang and the maid suggested that Larkspur wear a café uniform, but Larkspur refused because she did not want to draw attention.
• The maid brought out a pale blue dress modeled after White Rose’s outfit, and Xia Liang and the maid eventually persuaded Larkspur to try it on.
• Larkspur emerged in the dress and twin ponytails, let Xia Liang take photos, and stopped the maid from taking more or involving the staff.
• At the counter, Larkspur learned that the maid’s aunt ran the café and that the former café owner had moved elsewhere in the district.
• The maid gave Larkspur the former café’s address, and Larkspur and Xia Liang found the second-floor Pavilion Café, whose name matched Larkspur’s memories.

Larkspur brought Xia Liang to the café where her old Fangting City Squad used to gather and recalled the members and their shared youth. Xia Liang then asked how Larkspur had made herself look like a man.

• Larkspur and Xia Liang visited the café, where its elderly owner mistook Larkspur for the daughter of a former regular with blue hair.
• Larkspur recognized an old photograph of her squad and described Anya, Asō Madoka, Su Shengzi, and Hong Siyu to Xia Liang.
• Larkspur recalled how the squad gathered at the café until she announced that she was leaving.
• Xia Liang asked Larkspur whether magic could change someone's gender and how Larkspur had made herself look like a man.

After Xia Liang’s questions about Larkspur’s past crossed a boundary, Larkspur reassured her and helped her understand her hunger for affection. They returned home, where Lin Xiaolu and Bai Jingxuan surprised Xia Liang with a birthday celebration.

• Xia Liang questioned whether Larkspur had once been male, and Larkspur told her it was time to stop asking.
• Larkspur explained that she had enjoyed their outing and did not blame Xia Liang for her curiosity.
• Xia Liang admitted she feared she had not changed and had let her desire for closeness go too far.
• Larkspur helped Xia Liang recognize that her craving for love came from past neglect and was not her fault.
• Larkspur brought Xia Liang home, where Lin Xiaolu and Bai Jingxuan surprised her with a birthday celebration.

Bai Jingxuan, Lin Xiaolu, and Moko prepared a surprise birthday party for Xia Liang, whose gifts and heartfelt reunion with Lin Xiaolu made the celebration a success. After the party, Larkspur received an urgent call from the Investigation Institute: the Cat Tail Squad had gone missing in southern Eastern Hua Prefecture.

• Bai Jingxuan and Lin Xiaolu decorated the villa while discussing their teammates, and Moko returned without finding any new magical girls.
• Lin Xiaolu and Moko argued after Moko revealed that Lin Xiaolu had secretly bought Xia Liang a birthday gift.
• Larkspur, Bai Jingxuan, and Lin Xiaolu celebrated Xia Liang’s birthday, and Lin Xiaolu gave her earrings that reminded them of an earlier hurtful incident.
• After the party, Bai Jingxuan trained late with Larkspur watching over her, while Xia Liang and Lin Xiaolu went to bed.
• Larkspur answered the Investigation Institute’s call and learned that the Cat Tail Squad had gone missing in southern Eastern Hua Prefecture.

Lin Yun traveled to Bai'an City as Larkspur to investigate the disappearance of the Investigation Institute’s Cat-Tail Squad and look into its possible connection to a missing Seeder in Fangting City. After arriving, he headed straight to Bai'an City’s Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau.

• Lin Yun told Lin Xiaolu he was leaving on a business trip and arranged for Hong Siyu to guide the newcomers while Larkspur checked their progress remotely.
• Larkspur accepted the Investigation Institute’s request to investigate Bai'an City, where the Cat-Tail Squad had vanished after following a lead on Claw Mark.
• Larkspur suspected the Cat-Tail Squad’s disappearance might be connected to Nini, a Seeder who had gone missing while traveling to take up her post in Fangting City.
• Lin Yun traveled by Landship to Bai'an City and saw that ordinary life there appeared peaceful despite the danger surrounding the investigation.
• After arriving in the evening, Lin Yun skipped resting at his hotel and prepared to visit Bai'an City’s Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau.

Lin Yun reached Bai'an City and encountered an Aberrant Beast attack while heading to the city's Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau. When he tried to transform in an alley, a blonde magical girl confronted him, but their standoff ended when she tripped and fell headfirst into a garbage can.

• Lin Yun traveled through Bai'an City toward the hidden Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau beneath Music Park.
• A roar erupted in traffic, and Lin Yun ran toward it after realizing an Aberrant Beast was likely attacking nearby.
• Lin Yun found the Aberrant Beast rampaging through the street and entered a convenience store before slipping into a back alley to transform.
• A pale-yellow magical girl sensed Lin Yun's magic power and accused him of being a suspicious Mage, while Lin Yun pretended to be an ordinary passerby.
• The magical girl charged at Lin Yun, but she tripped over a garbage can and fell headfirst inside it.

Lin Yun, transformed as Larkspur, clashed with a blonde magical girl who had mistaken him for an enemy, but she accidentally knocked herself unconscious before he revealed his identity. After her teammates defeated the Aberrant Beast and collected her, Lin Yun returned to the crowd, watching them leave.

• The blonde girl refused to retreat despite being covered in trash and attacked Lin Yun, who dodged her Mana Beams and exposed that he was not an ordinary person.
• As the blonde girl prepared a powerful attack, Lin Yun began transforming, but she slipped, misfired her Mana Beam into the sky, and was knocked unconscious by a falling metal pipe.
• Larkspur checked that the girl was breathing, saw her transformation dispel into that of a young schoolgirl, and left her near the alley entrance before going to check on the Aberrant Beast.
• Larkspur saw the blonde girl's two teammates defeat the Aberrant Beast with red and cyan mana, and noticed that the cyan-haired girl wielded a Magic Armament.
• Larkspur carried the blonde girl to the alley entrance, returned to the convenience store, and changed back into Lin Yun.
• Lin Yun saw the cyan-haired and pale-red-haired magical girls collect the blonde girl and fly away, then watched them from the crowd.

Larkspur met White Thistle and her teammates while investigating the disappearance of the Cat-Tail Squad, then learned that Lantern had also vanished after following a suspicious man. The squad pointed her toward their Seeder, Polly, as someone who might know why the Cat-Tail Squad came to Bai'an City.

• Larkspur intercepted White Thistle and Mimosa, introduced herself as an Investigation Institute Inspector, and showed her Certification Card.
• Wood Lily woke while being carried, claimed a suspicious old man had attacked her, and said Larkspur had saved her.
• White Thistle told Larkspur that Lantern disappeared the previous day after leaving a message that she was following a suspicious man.
• Larkspur dismissed Wood Lily's accusations against the mage she had encountered and confirmed that Lantern's disappearance resembled the Cat-Tail Squad's.
• Mimosa revealed that the team's Seeder, the Fairy Polly, might know more about the Cat-Tail Squad's visit.

Larkspur learned how the Cat-Tail Squad and Lantern disappeared, then went to Bai'an City's Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau to investigate. She found the bureau abandoned and discovered an Aberrant Beast feeding on an employee.

• White Thistle introduced Larkspur to Polly, Bai'an City's Seeder, at Lantern's instrument store.
• Polly told Larkspur that the Cat-Tail Squad had vanished after investigating unusual events in Bai'an City, and that Lantern had disappeared while pursuing a suspect.
• Larkspur promised to find the missing magical girls, then returned to her hotel and resumed the investigation the next morning.
• Larkspur entered the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau through a concealed passage beneath Music Park and found its lobby and offices deserted.
• Larkspur followed a strange sound into an office and found it drenched in blood, where an Aberrant Beast was eating a bureau employee.

Larkspur killed an Aberrant Beast in the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau and discovered that it left no Echo. As she searched the deserted headquarters for survivors, she found herself trapped in a looping space where every route led back to the lobby.

• Larkspur killed the Aberrant Beast with her wand and Mana Beams, then found that its corpse vanished without leaving an Echo.
• Larkspur discovered that her phone had no signal and concluded that the underground bureau had become a sealed trap.
• Larkspur searched the first floor, found no other people, and noticed the building showed too little destruction and too few bodies for an Aberrant Beast attack.
• Larkspur rode the elevator toward [-2F] but emerged back in the first-floor lobby, where every elevator button displayed [-1F].
• Larkspur ran down the stairwell and through the main entrance, but each route brought her back to the bureau lobby.

Larkspur realized the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau she had entered was a Pupa Stage Aberrant Beast’s Nest, then found and revived the missing Magical Girl Lantern. After identifying herself and reassuring Lantern that her companions were safe, she asked what had happened and whether Lantern had found the Cat-Tail Squad.

• Larkspur returned to the office where she had found the Aberrant Beast and confirmed that the Nest copied and extended the Bureau’s first floor.
• Larkspur searched the Nest for its owner and sensed a faint magical fluctuation nearby.
• Larkspur found an injured, unconscious Magical Girl and replenished the magic in her Heart Gem, awakening her.
• The girl identified herself as Lantern, a local Magical Girl from Bai'an City, and Larkspur explained that she was an Inspector searching for a missing Investigation Institute team.
• Larkspur told Lantern that White Thistle and Polly were safe, then asked what had happened to her and whether she had found the Cat-Tail Squad.

Lantern told Larkspur that she had tracked down a suspicious former mage inside a Pupa Stage Aberrant Beast’s Nest, but could not defeat him. She explained that the Investigation Institute’s missing squad had been probing Black Ash Dawn’s activities and the disappearance of more than twenty magical girls, and revealed that the man she followed was feeding the Aberrant Beast.

• Lantern told Larkspur she had found the culprit but nearly been captured after failing to defeat him.
• Lantern explained that Cat Tail had warned her the investigation squad’s work had shifted from tracking Claw Mark to investigating Black Ash Dawn’s plans in southern Eastern Hua Prefecture.
• Lantern told Larkspur that at least eleven registered magical girls had disappeared in two years, with the total likely exceeding twenty when unregistered girls were included.
• Lantern recounted how Cat Tail’s squad investigated strange locations she had identified, then vanished, leading Lantern to investigate suspicious people with the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau.
• Lantern tracked a former mage through an underground passage into a Pupa Stage Aberrant Beast’s Nest, where she found him feeding the beast.

Larkspur learned that a man from Black Ash Dawn had been feeding people to a Pupa Stage Aberrant Beast and joined the injured Lantern in tracking him to the Nest’s core. They launched a joint attack, and Larkspur’s Kopis of Cleaving pierced the man’s defenses and struck through his chest.

• Lantern told Larkspur that a man had fed people to an Aberrant Beast and that she had failed to save them.
• Larkspur helped Lantern up and asked her to lead the way back to the Nest’s center.
• Lantern used her Magic Armament to guide them to the lair, where they saw the wounded Spider-like Aberrant Beast and people trapped in flesh cocoons.
• Larkspur and Lantern agreed to attack the man, with Lantern drawing his attention while Larkspur ambushed him.
• The man blocked Lantern’s initial attacks, but Larkspur’s Kopis of Cleaving broke through his defenses and pierced his back and chest.

Larkspur interrogated Spider about Black Ash Dawn, the missing magical girls, and the meaning of his work collecting nourishment. Spider revealed that a high-ranked Aberrant Beast controlled the Pupa and that he had used its Nest as a hunting ground, then began absorbing flesh from the beast as Larkspur remained trapped.

• Larkspur captured Spider, bound him with mana threads, and used an Anti-Magic Technique while Lantern attacked the Pupa overhead.
• Spider identified himself as an Ash Guard called Spider and explained the ranks of Ash Soldiers, Ash Guards, and Ash Attendants, as well as how beasts were fed living things with mana.
• Spider admitted that he was likely responsible for the disappearances in Bai'an City and recognized Larkspur as Cornflower, then warned that she had never been his prey.
• A white Spider Aberrant Beast descended, trapped Larkspur in a flesh web, and rescued Spider as the Pupa fell limp after Spider declared its mission complete.
• Larkspur realized the Pupa had been controlled and used as a tool, while Spider gouged flesh from the white Spider Aberrant Beast and pressed it against his chest.