On Becoming a Magical Girl

"Stay safe, you two."

Muttering to herself, Efnir pressed her lips together as her breathing gradually became rapid.

Supporting herself with one hand on her spear, she slid down and sank to her knees amid the half-collapsed ruins.

Though she did not want her juniors to see her looking so disheveled, there was a limit to suppressing pain with "pills." They were unreliable; taking too much or too little could both cause troublesome side effects.

After enduring prolonged, high-intensity combat, the wound at Efnir's waist had torn open again, blood dripping from the hem of her clothes.

There were no medical support personnel nearby. Nor were there any emergency supplies. The agony from her wound wrapped tightly around her, pounding against her mind like a stone pendulum.

Cold sweat covered her forehead.

"It really hurts..."

Efnir complained softly as she pressed down on the wound and tightly bound the gauze.

The battle had already lasted two hours.

Qinglan, who had joined the battle at the start, and the other seniors had all vanished without a trace. Efnir was now leading the remaining agents as they held the line.

It really was exhausting. Fighting without reinforcements was like a lone boat crashing into the sea, surrounded on all sides by endless depths and waves watching hungrily for a chance to swallow her whole.

Her field of vision was a complete mess, filled with thick smoke and red light.

Efnir clutched her waist tightly with her other hand. Her body trembled slightly, on the verge of collapse, as she struggled to take deep breaths and ease the sharp pain spilling out from her injury.

But she did not have much room to rest. Her presence was crucial to the course of this battle. Efnir was called the "Chief" for more than just show; with her combat strength alone, she could turn the entire situation around. Without her, headquarters would have fallen long ago.

She was not only the most experienced agent currently on the battlefield, but also the pillar of victory. Right now, she had to look like the dependable senior she was supposed to be.

If it were my younger sister... would she have hoped for a brother like this?

Efnir lowered her gaze as Yukina's figure surfaced in her mind amid tangled memories.

"Master... Master, are you all right...?"

Fifina's anxious yet weak voice came through the earpiece, interrupting Efnir's thoughts.

She tightened her grip on the spear, paused, then replied.

"It's nothing. Are you worried about me, Fifina...?"

"O-of course I am... Master, you should start paying more attention to your own condition too. If you push yourself too hard and lose Synchronization during battle because you're mentally exhausted, that would be terrible..."

"Mm..."

Efnir lowered her eyes and blankly stared at the cracks in the ground without answering.

If prolonged combat caused one's mental and physical strength to fall behind the intense drain, the final result would be the severing of one's "resonance" with the Order Force. One would lose Synchronization and return to one's original body.

Of course Efnir knew that.

She had seen it with her own eyes.

Efnir's former senior had been a cheerful girl, thoughtful and understanding in everyday life... During a major disaster mission a year ago, she had fought day and night until she finally collapsed from exhaustion. Losing Synchronization, she was forced out of Exile Form and could no longer use the Order Force. Naturally, she could no longer resist the "infection" of the Erosion Entities. In the end, that agent had been defeated in battle, turned into Dregs, and attacked the people she was meant to protect.

Efnir had witnessed that ending with her own eyes, and then "exiled" her with her own hands.

Things like that happened from time to time. It was simply far too ironic for an agent to die that way.

But it made sense.

"Um... Master... The cleanup is nearly finished now. Why don't you rest for a little while? We juniors can handle what comes next..."

"Fifina."

Fifina continued trying to persuade her, but Efnir quickly cut her off.

Thinking of her excellent junior, Efnir curved her lips into a smile, though her voice remained stern.

"The closer we get to the end of a battle, the less we can afford to let our guard down... I taught you that, didn't I...?"

"But Master..."

Efnir drew in a deep breath, forcing down her ragged breathing.

"I'm really fine. I am tired, but my Synchronization is still stable so far, so don't worry. More importantly, tell me the current situation... We can't delay for too long. There are still many injured people waiting to be rescued, and everyone's stamina is starting to run low too, isn't it?"

Fifina seemed to want to say more, but she appeared to understand Efnir's intentions and ultimately did not continue.

"Just tell me the situation now."

"Yes... Master."

The voice on the other end of the earpiece paused before continuing.

"Thanks to you... defeating the whale-type Erosion Entity in the sky, no more Erosion Entities are pouring out now..."

"The area within the defense perimeter has basically been cleared..."

"But outside the perimeter, Erosion Entities and Dregs have suddenly appeared at the East D District intersection, East A District, and West Ring Road. They are rapidly advancing toward the civilian evacuation points..."

"I've contacted Senior Katrina, Vivian, and Cheris, who were nearby. They have each headed to East D District and West Ring Road to intercept and support..."

"Besides that, Furan was injured as well. I had her retreat to the headquarters building with Lily, where they have joined Elincia..."

"..."

Fifina's voice was somewhat faint, becoming almost inaudible by the end. Efnir remained silent and listened carefully.

After a long while, she spoke.

"Follow your arrangements. Also, notify the Special Disaster Action Force personnel to watch out for Erosion attacks, speed up the evacuation, and complete the withdrawal as soon as possible."

"I'll relay that immediately..."

"On my end, I'll continue moving after resting for a bit. Help me keep an eye on the situation here... If any Erosion Entities that slipped through appear, inform me immediately."

"Yes, Master..."

Efnir raised her head and leaned back, letting her body relax a little.

With Qinglan missing, Efnir naturally took over command, as her seniority, combat strength, and field experience far surpassed everyone else's.

But too few agents had participated in this operation, and most of them were inexperienced juniors. Their combat strength was severely inadequate, while the Erosion Entities vastly outnumbered them. As the strongest fighter among the agents, Efnir had to repel the Erosion Entities while commanding the operation, all as her physical condition worsened. Even she was struggling to keep up. The battle situation was extremely tense. The agents had already given everything they had just to deal with the Erosion Entities, and at one point they had nearly collapsed across the entire line. Yet they had endured in the end.

Fortunately, the Special Disaster Action Force's support had arrived in time, relieving much of the pressure on them.

At the very least, they could free up some manpower from covering the civilian evacuation and send them into battle.

The situation had improved, but it was still far from optimistic.

She had shot down and purified one of the three Floating Islands. The other two Floating Islands had fled east and west, and Efnir had only managed to catch up with and kill the one heading east, where the crowds were denser.

Her severe waist injury had left Efnir unable to give chase.

In other words, one had escaped.

Besides that, Erosion Entities had infiltrated the headquarters building. The central command had suffered heavy casualties, and many wounded urgently needed treatment. The commander remained unconscious. Elincia alone was currently resisting the Dregs and Erosion Entities while protecting the injured. Meanwhile, several agent advance personnel, including Qinglan, were still missing. People urgently needed to be sent to find them and confirm their status.

The only good news was that the whale-type Erosion Entity Efnir had shot down appeared to have been the source of this disaster. After it disappeared, no further Erosion Entities emerged. Thanks to that, the "cleanup" had smoothly entered its final stage.

Wish

"Um... Master..."

"Mm?"

Fifina's voice suddenly came through the earpiece.

For some reason, Efnir felt that Fifina's tone today was unusually listless.

"The story you told me before, about your hometown... could you continue telling it to me...?"

"Huh? Why bring that up all of a sudden...?"

"It's just... I suddenly wanted to talk with you, Master. You've been so busy lately... Other than missions, it's been a long time since we had a proper chat... Would that... be okay?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

Efnir chuckled and gently closed her eyes.

Had she been busy lately? Though Fifina said so, Efnir herself had not really noticed.

As an agent, Efnir had always been quick to act. She handled more than half of her usual missions alone, and calling her a workaholic would not have been an exaggeration. But to her, these were simply things that had to be done sooner or later, things she could not escape. Rather than passively accept them, she preferred being the one to take the initiative.

And besides... as long as she could eliminate the danger, fewer people would be hurt because of it. That had always been the force that kept her moving forward.

"Is that so..."

She lowered her head, propped herself on her spear, and rested her forehead against the back of her hand.

"Well, anyway, my hometown is a very boring place. There isn't much to say about it... What about you, Fifina? I heard you placed well in a competition. Is that true?"

"Eek... So Master knew about that?"

"So, now that you finally won a trophy, did you tell your father and mother?"

Fifina's parents worked in a neighboring city. She lived in Xijing City with her grandmother, and after her grandmother passed away, she did not choose to cross the dangerous regions beyond the city to return to her parents. Instead, she planned to stay here and finish her first year of high school.

Fifina had told Efnir all of that.

"That kind of thing is hard to bring up..."

"What does it matter? It's the violin you love, and it has earned everyone's recognition. It's fine to be a little more confident."

"That's true... but... if it's something you truly love, then when you finally get to hold it in your hands one day, after wishing for it for so long, you would feel at a loss too, wouldn't you... It feels like it might slip away. It just doesn't feel quite real..."

"What's wrong with that?"

Efnir smiled.

"Joy and happiness aren't anything special. You should simply enjoy them as a matter of course."

"Mm..."

Fifina suddenly fell silent.

She probably did not know what to say next. Fifina had always been somewhat incapable of being straightforward, and Efnir had long understood that.

After an unknown amount of time, Fifina's soft voice came through.

"Master... have you ever had that...?"

"What?"

"A gift you dreamed of receiving, someone you wanted to get close to... suddenly appearing before you one day... like a wish finally coming true..."

"That... I don't really remember."

Leaving gifts aside, the first person Efnir thought of when she heard "someone you wanted to get close to" was her younger sister. But unfortunately, after a series of events, the relationship between her and her younger sister was no longer what it had been. Thinking carefully, their memories were all of ordinary days together. Perhaps that time could no longer be called something she had "dreamed" of.

Though they were siblings and lived under the same roof, the distance between them had gradually grown ever wider.

"I see. That does sound like something you would say, Master..."

Fifina's voice drifted near and far, then she stopped speaking. The air returned to silence.

"By the way, Fifina."

Efnir paused, then suddenly asked.

"I've been wondering this for a while, so let me confirm it. Are you... really okay?"

"Huh?"

The other end of the earpiece seemed startled. After a brief silence, an unclear laugh came through.

"I'm fine, Master. What do you mean?"

"I don't know... Your voice sounds a little off..."

"Maybe... it's signal interference? Master, are you feeling a little tense?"

"Are you starting to feel tired?"

If the fatigue continued building and she could not focus her energy, she might eventually sever her resonance with Order. The result would be being forced out of Exile Form and losing the Order Force's enhancement.

"A little, I suppose... Keeping up Synchronization, it's unavoidable... But! This much is completely fine!"

Fifina replied. She truly did not sound as if she were lying, and Efnir quietly breathed a sigh of relief.