Officially Recognized Magical Girl

Liang Bing stared at the magazine without saying a word.

She had overseen the stamping of that red seal. She had proofread the article at three in the morning. Now it had been slapped down in front of her, leaving her with nothing to say.

Her expression shifted several times.

Su Bai folded his arms and leaned against the edge of the old sofa, looking thoroughly fed up.

"Officer, is there anything else? My boxed meal's getting cold."

"Bro! I'm hungry too!" Su Xiaoxiao wailed from behind the door.

"Then stay hungry!"

Liang Bing ignored that. She exchanged a glance with Han Dong, and he nodded.

An on-site commander had the authority to decide how much to disclose.

She raised a hand and switched the Holographic Terminal back on. Light spread across the center of the living room.

A mass of violet-gold light crashed into the Monsters. The Great Scythe swept through them, and the thunderstorm died out.

The person swinging that scythe in the footage now stood three meters from the projection, arms folded, yawning.

"Master, you look like a completely different person when you yawn," Kabi muttered against his spine.

Shut up.

"Mr. Su Bai, I'll tell you the truth."

Liang Bing pointed at the blurred afterimage.

"That was a cover story the bureau came up with to contain public panic. The new exoskeleton armor in the magazine was made up. The Seventh Research Institute never even approved such a project."

"But that violet-gold Magical Girl..."

She paused.

"Is a Savior who truly appeared."

The living room fell silent for two seconds.

"Everyone online says the Magical Girl is an idol your Monster Hunting Bureau put forward to stage performances for the public." Su Bai raised an eyebrow. "Now you're telling me the armor's fake, but she's real?"

"Yes," Liang Bing said flatly. "She isn't a puppet the bureau created. We still haven't even met her."

"Officially recognized!!!"

The bedroom door rattled under a barrage of pounding.

"Did you hear that, Hajige? Officially recognized! A Savior! Lady Ziwei really exists!!"

Su Bai slapped the doorframe with the back of his hand, making it hum.

"Do your homework! One more word and you lose all of next month's allowance!"

The noise behind the door stopped at once.

Su Bai turned back and gave Liang Bing a look usually reserved for a patient.

"Officer, can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"Has everyone at your bureau been working so much overtime that you've lost your minds?"

Han Dong coughed beside her.

"Or did you watch some over-the-top anime and never snap out of it?" Su Bai warmed to his subject. "Magical Girls? Saviors? Officer, I'm eighteen. I stopped believing in that stuff when I was eight. I only believe in Demon Hunters who prove themselves with strength!"

"Mr. Su Bai," Liang Bing said evenly, "there were over two hundred witnesses in the West District that night. You were at the supermarket yourself."

"I was there. I saw a ball of light with a figure inside it." Su Bai spread his hands. "Even my sister's cardboard standees light up these days. What's so hard about projecting a figure?"

"Then how do you explain your sister drawing a talisman, chanting a spell, and 'summoning' her?"

"Coincidence," Su Bai replied without a flicker of embarrassment. "Last year, she said she was a demon princess and conned me out of two hundred yuan for a black cloak."

A stifled whimper came from behind the door. Someone clearly wanted to argue but didn't dare.

Liang Bing studied him, then suddenly asked, "Aren't you curious? If Magical Girls are real, where do they come from?"

That was exactly what Su Bai had been waiting for.

He sank into the sofa and put on a calculating expression.

"Fine. I'll cooperate with the authorities. So let me ask—"

He started counting on his fingers.

"Can you train to become one?"

"Say you locked a grown man away for three months of intensive training. Could he become a Magical Girl?"

Han Dong's mouth twitched.

"Or," Su Bai went on, jerking his chin toward the bedroom, "do you have a crash course for high school girls like my sister? How much is tuition? Is employment guaranteed?"

"Master," Kabi whispered, "you're fishing for information."

Obviously.

Kabi had only given him a vague answer about "resonance" when he'd asked why this body of his could transform. The authorities had been investigating for months. Surely they had something concrete by now.

Liang Bing and Han Dong exchanged a look.

There was a lot behind that look. They had investigated for three months, interviewed over a hundred witnesses, and analyzed every recording frame by frame. In the end, what they knew about how Magical Girls awakened was on the same level as this kid's wild guesses—

Nothing.

"To be honest," Liang Bing said, looking back at him, "the authorities still don't know how Magical Girls awaken."

"No crash course?"

"No."

"Nowhere I can even pay tuition?"

"No."

"Then what's the point of recognizing them?" Su Bai looked disappointed. "I was hoping to send my sister off for training so she could become a Magical Girl and have an easier time finding a job."

Another whimper came from behind the door.

"Hajige, you jerk! I don't need you finding me a job!"

"Su Xiaoxiao!"

Liang Bing raised a hand, putting a stop to the sibling war.

Her expression turned grave.

"Mr. Su Bai, I've already told you more than I should have tonight."

"Sensitive matters concerning Magical Girls currently fall under Federation secrecy regulations. Once you leave this room, you are not to mention any of this to anyone. No posts, no group chats, no bragging to your classmates."

"Violation counts as leaking Federation secrets. The minimum penalty is seven days' detention."

Su Bai nodded rapidly.

"Got it, got it. Don't worry, officer. I can keep a secret."

"All I want is to get my diploma in peace and find a job after graduation. Whoever those Magical Girls are, they've got nothing to do with me."

Liang Bing watched him for two seconds.

Then she gave the living room one last look.

On the shoe rack sat a pair of rubber shoes with a split in them, bound together with wire. An old delivery helmet lay on the dining table, a large patch of paint chipped away to reveal the white plastic underneath. Half an old magazine still propped up one leg of the coffee table. After he'd pulled a copy out earlier, he'd wedged the remaining one at a different angle.

Everywhere she looked, she saw signs of a life spent scraping by.

And nothing that seemed the least bit unusual.

A college student burdened with loans, living with a sister obsessed with fantasy in a forty-square-meter old apartment, hunting down half-price boxed meals and making late-night deliveries.

There were hundreds of thousands of families like theirs across Xinghai City.

Liang Bing looked away and pulled a card from an inner pocket of her trench coat.

The card was thin, with a silver chip embedded in it and the Monster Hunting Bureau's insignia stamped in one corner.

"Take it."

Su Bai accepted it and turned it over a few times.

"A meal card?"

"A dedicated contact card for the Action Team," Liang Bing said. "The chip connects directly to my terminal. Someone will answer around the clock."

"Why give it to me?"

"Your sister runs a fan club with over three hundred members. They may hear things before we do. You travel all over the city making deliveries, and you live in the Affected Zone."

"People like you are the most likely to stumble across a lead."

Su Bai's heart skipped a beat.

Outwardly, he curled his lip. "Officer, I'm busy. I don't have time to be your informant."