Limp climbed up from the ground, the trace of bewilderment in his eyes slowly turning fiercer.
No need to be scared, no need to fear. I'm different now.
As long as I'm angry, as long as I hate, the seed will bring me power!
"Aaaaaah!"
Limp roared. The seed on his forehead expanded again, sprouting buds that even covered his forehead!
He charged again!
"Jiang Si!"
His roar had changed too, becoming like a beast's howl.
He threw a savage punch!
Even Jiang Si chose not to take that terrifying force head-on, instead turning slightly to dodge the punch.
It slammed into the brick wall behind him, smashing a large hole through the fairly sturdy wall, yet his fist felt no pain whatsoever.
Pulling his fist out, Limp turned to look at the figure who had given him countless nightmares, feeling utterly exhilarated. "You dodged. You dodged, didn't you? Jiang Si, are you scared? I've caught up to you! This is what makes me different!"
Jiang Si looked at the seed, a little disappointed. "Looks like I can't count on you turning into a Calamity Beast."
Limp heard him, but power surged throughout his body, and he no longer cared about any of that.
He was going to smash the boy before him to pieces, smash him into a bloody pulp!
Power kept pouring out as though it had no limit. When Limp threw another punch, even he was stunned by its force.
The way I am now, I might be able to take down the whole world!
The surging power sent his thoughts drifting too. He would knock those lofty magical girls to the ground as well...
His soaring emotions set the blood throughout his body boiling, until the opponent before him threw a punch of his own, neither dodging nor retreating.
Their fists collided, and the terrifying force whipped up a blast of wind that spread outward, carrying dust!
Both their sleeves were torn apart by that dreadful force at the same time. Scraps flew everywhere, and Limp staggered back several steps.
His entire right arm trembled. The fist that had felt no pain even after punching through a wall now spasmed uncontrollably, its searing pain brutally crushing his earlier elation.
That cold, terrifying feeling rose again alongside the pain in his right fist.
"Fuck..."
He raised his head to look at the boy slowly approaching him. His eyes were bloodshot, and the buds sprouting from the seed on his forehead had burrowed into his cheek, covering almost half his face and making him look hideous and terrifying. "Die!"
He lashed out with a vicious high roundhouse kick, aiming straight for his opponent's neck!
This time, however, Jiang Si neither dodged nor raised a hand to block, allowing that terrifying kick to strike his neck.
His body did not budge. Having taken the kick head-on, Jiang Si looked expressionlessly at Limp. "And then?"
That contemptuous tone reignited Limp's fury. The seed on his face grew wildly, tearing straight through part of his skin. Blood splattered, leaving a large patch of his face mangled!
He pushed harder, trying to force Jiang Si's raised head down, but his opponent merely gave his left shin a light kick.
A crisp crack of breaking bone reached his ears. The leg pressed against Jiang Si's neck immediately withdrew. Limp stumbled, trying to retreat, but Jiang Si followed with another kick, breaking his right leg too.
He dropped to his knees before Jiang Si.
Jiang Si was a little shorter than him. Because he had started training as a child, his physical development had not been ideal.
Yet now, kneeling on the ground and looking up at him, Limp felt that he was so tall he could not make out his face.
Monster...
His thoughts had only just reached that word when Jiang Si grabbed his hair and hauled him up. Looking at Limp's seed-ravaged face, he reached out and pressed his hand against the seed on his forehead.
"You got a little outside power and thought that made you different. You weren't familiar with that power, but you thought anger and viciousness alone would let you beat me. Yet you couldn't even become a Calamity Beast. You really are utterly worthless."
He abruptly gouged out the seed, tearing away the skin from half of Limp's face with it. Limp let out a piercing scream and collapsed to the ground, clutching his face.
Jiang Si looked at the Grief Seed, which held almost no magic power and was now completely useless, and casually squeezed it.
It crumbled into fragments, which scattered on the wind when he opened his hand.
"How could a mere Grief Seed possibly compare to my decades of effort and sweat?"
Relying on flimsy outside power and that fragile anger and brutality, he had hoped to overcome the strength and experience Jiang Si had painstakingly accumulated day and night.
Dream on.
Controlled by outside power and emotion, he had no idea that in this world, effort alone would never deceive him.
Thinking he could beat Jiang Si through anger and outside power was like thinking he could solve an advanced calculus problem with no foundation simply by getting extremely angry.
He lacked a basic, accurate understanding of the world.
Still, a Grief Seed. Cursed magic power.
Was the Witch Association behind this?
Jiang Si looked at Limp, who had already passed out from the pain. After losing the Grief Seed, he would not only lose his power, but also his memories of this period. Even whether he could survive was in question.
But that had nothing to do with him.
Why would the Witch Association come after me? Have they discovered I'm Shion?
Or have they simply targeted Keke and want to use me to threaten her?
The Witch Association did that sort of thing often: attacking magical girls' relatives, then using them to threaten the magical girls.
If that was the case, it would actually benefit Jiang Si.
The Witch Association had kept its movements hidden all these years and had always been difficult to find. If they came looking for him themselves, he could not ask for anything better...
It was not just because they had stolen the Miracle Seed. Their power to create Calamity Beasts and their use of Grief Seeds both made Jiang Si's mouth water.
As someone determined to set foot on the Great Dao, Jiang Si naturally did not limit his goals to a magical girl's Full Bloom.
That was a magical girl's limit, not his ultimate goal. After all, even Full Bloom could not make a single attainment eternal or invert effect into cause.
To go further, he still needed the power of Calamity Beasts.
Only through the union of yin and yang could he reach the Great Dao.
Sirens sounded outside. Jiang Si picked up his schoolbag and slipped away.
He had no time to waste at the police station. He had not finished today's training, and right after actual combat was the perfect time to train.
He grabbed his schoolbag and took out his phone, intending to contact Bingtang and discuss the Witch Association.
The possibility that his identity had been exposed still existed. He had to tell Bingtang to be careful.
When school ended, Li Yi was called to the office to help her teacher, causing her to miss the commotion at the school gates.
She had thought she would still make it even if she was a little late, but by the time the teacher finished rambling and she came out, the students watching the spectacle at the gates had dispersed, and Jiang Si and Limp had left too.
Maybe I should have ignored the teacher.
Thinking this with some regret, she asked around before learning that the two had gone to the alley where delinquents often arranged fights.
Along the way, she also heard the embarrassing story of Mr. Zhang Song getting slapped by a delinquent, who had even knocked his glasses off.
She gloated inwardly, feeling that he deserved it. Who told him to be so harsh with his students? Outside the school gates, nobody would indulge him.
Yet when she reached the scene and saw the wreckage, the brick walls kicked apart everywhere, and Limp lying unconscious on the ground, still clutching his face with half its skin torn away, she was still startled.
Traces of polluted magic power lingered in the hole in his forehead.
As captain of the Magical Girl Combat Team, Li Yi immediately realized that a Grief Seed must have been implanted in his forehead...
Inserting Grief Seeds into human bodies to enhance their strength was an ability unique to the Witch Association.
Before she had time to think further, the police arrived, and she naturally went along with them to the station in a police car.
Her thoughts remained rather jumbled throughout the journey.
Was Jiang Si really the one who beat Limp up like that?
She knew Keke's older brother was formidable and physically very strong, probably having surpassed human limits under the influence of magic power.
But being able to outright defeat a human using a Grief Seed was far too outrageous, wasn't it?
There were no other traces of magic power at the scene either, indicating that no magical girl or Calamity Beast had intervened. Jiang Si had no magic power himself, so he had defeated a monster enhanced by polluted magic power with nothing but his own flesh and blood...
No, Jiang Si must be the real monster.
After arriving at the police station, she was taken to a reception room.
The reception room was very clean, with only one table and two chairs. However, the window was open, and she could still see police officers moving about outside, so it did not feel too oppressive.
Before long, a girl in a police uniform walked in.
She wore a police cap and cut a dashing figure. She looked to be just in her early twenties and had an attractive face. Her most distinctive feature was her eyes, which were a pale golden yellow.
As soon as they met, she saluted. "Hello, Captain."
Feeling rather helpless, Li Yi waved a hand. "You don't need to salute when we're out, Rose."
She was actually much older than Li Yi. After Rose graduated from university, the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau had assigned her to the Beihai police station. By now, through her own efforts and a little help from the Bureau, she had climbed to the position of deputy chief.
After all, the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau had to deal with large numbers of Calamity Beasts, as well as illegal organizations like the Witch Association and the Azure Cloud Sect. Connections with the police and their resources were indispensable.
The Disaster Countermeasures Bureau was nominally an official organization, but in reality, both its funding and the support and cooperation it received from other departments were quite limited.
There were many matters the Bureau still had to handle itself.
The police were always slow to respond to Calamity Beasts and illegal organizations. After getting Rose into the force, many things had become much easier.
Just like now: without Rose, merely dealing with the police and explaining that she was a member of the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau without exposing her identity as a magical girl would have been an enormous headache.
With Rose around, many things became simpler. Li Yi only needed to deal with her.
"In terms of seniority, I'm miles behind you."
Hearing Li Yi's muttering, Rose smiled gently, took off her cap, and sat down across from her. "Don't sell yourself short, Captain. Seniority is useless. What matters is ability and talent. You're the magical girl Hyacinth has the highest hopes for. Sooner or later, you'll surpass her."
"Ah, I hope so."
Remembering the purple magical girl from before, Li Yi felt a little down, but she soon rallied and asked, "How's Limp doing?"
"Both his legs were broken by kicks. We've confirmed that the wound on his forehead was left by an implanted Grief Seed. The residual polluted magic power is extremely dense, and his face was almost entirely permeated by it. Forcibly removing the Grief Seed actually prevented the magic power from spreading further, so you could say he's clawed back half a life. But whether he survives will still depend on how tough he is."
Li Yi nodded. "Just as I thought. With that method, it should be the Witch Association's work."
"Yes. I wonder what the Witch Association is suddenly planning. After lying low for so long, are they finally making a move again?" Picking up the teapot from the table, Rose poured them each a cup of hot water, disgust entering her eyes. "Who knows what their objective is this time? Fortunately, you discovered it early, Captain, and kept the danger from spreading further."
"No, I wasn't the one who dealt with it."
Li Yi hesitated, but still spoke honestly. "It was Keke's older brother, Jiang Si. They'd had a conflict before and arranged a fight. By the time I arrived, I found Limp beaten up like that."
Rose listened in a daze, then immediately shook her head. "Impossible."
"There were no other traces of magic power at the scene, and someone was watching the area at the time too. There were only the two of them in the alley."
Slapping the table, the magical girl serving as a policewoman wore a serious expression. "How is that possible? Captain, you should know how dangerous someone polluted by magic power to that extent is. He was practically half a Calamity Beast! Even a Bud-stage magical girl might struggle without experience."
"I know." Li Yi was rather helpless too. "Of course I know it's a little unbelievable, but because Jiang Si was influenced by his younger sister's magic power, his physical abilities far surpass an ordinary person's. Back at the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau, he could jump six meters high... Maybe he only beat Limp by giving it everything he had. He might be badly injured. I'll have to visit him later."
"Keke's older brother."
Rose quickly seized on the key point. "Keke is that new magical girl you found, right, Captain?"
"That's her. I took her to the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau to register."
"Then it's not surprising. Maybe Keke placed some sort of magic on him."
Uh, that seems unlikely, considering their relationship.
Li Yi muttered inwardly as Rose continued, "Speaking of which, when she went to register at the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau, she happened to be there when the Miracle Seed was stolen. Then the Witch Association released the Calamity Beast they'd hidden there."
Taking a sip of water, Rose looked grave. "Quite a coincidence."
"Are you saying Keke has ties to the Witch Association? I was right beside her when she transformed for the first time."
"That's not what I mean." The girl shook her head. "I mean the Witch Association may have set their sights on her. They just happened to cause trouble when she went to the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau, and then, by another coincidence, someone under their control went after her older brother."
Li Yi caught on too. "They want to capture Keke?"
"As a magical girl who finally appeared in BH City without being taken away by the Azure Cloud Sect," Rose said quietly, "the Witch Association may be even more anxious than we are. They're probably determined to get Keke. You'll have to be careful, Captain."
After a moment of silence, Li Yi took a deep breath.
Actually, she had not dared mention that Keke seemed to know Shion, the leader of the Azure Cloud Sect, too.
After Li Yi had fought Shion and fallen unconscious that day, Keke had confessed once she returned and woke up. Shion was the one who had originally taught Keke how to transform and use magic power, so Keke regarded Shion as her teacher.
Keke had also joined the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau in the hope of growing stronger, meeting Shion again, and becoming friends with her.
Though a new magical girl wanting to befriend the leader of an organization hostile to the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau was rather unorthodox, Li Yi did not think it was a bad thing.
If they really became friends, perhaps they could dismantle the Azure Cloud Sect from within.
So she had helped Keke keep this matter hidden. In any case, as long as she kept an eye on Keke, there should not be any danger.
Besides, she kept feeling that, since Shion was willing to help a new magical girl, perhaps she was not such a terrible villain.
Of course, she absolutely could not tell Rose about this. Rose would definitely be furious if she found out.
After all, Hyacinth, the former captain whom Rose respected most, had practically been beaten into retirement by Shion...
Li Yi set down her cup and said gravely, "Keep a very close eye on the Witch Association's movements at the police station. Report anything you discover immediately. We need to deal with them at the earliest opportunity. After all, they still have the Miracle Seed. We have to get it back."
At Li Yi's command, Rose immediately responded solemnly, "Understood."
"As for Keke and her older brother, I'll handle that myself. You don't need to worry about them."
With that, Li Yi rose. "Help me take care of the paperwork. I'll go warn Keke so she doesn't get caught unprepared and suffer at the Witch Association's hands. My phone, my phone... Forget it. I'll go straight to her place and check on Jiang Si while I'm there."