A heavy rain fell over BH City.
Beihai's weather was not fond of rain. Even when it did rain occasionally, it was a light drizzle on a spring breeze, pattering for a while before stopping. In less than half a day, people would forget that it even rained in Beihai.
Today, however, the rain came down in buckets and showed little sign of stopping.
Susan watched Beihai's rain grow heavier and heavier from a light patter until it was almost a torrential downpour. Before long, a considerable amount of rainwater had collected in the deep crater left by Shion and Yinluo's battle.
Li Yi knelt inside, holding her older sister. Half her body was submerged in the rainwater, as though she might be swallowed up at any moment.
Even when Shion left, Li Yi showed no reaction to her. She simply held her older sister in a death grip, calling her name until she could barely make a sound, then kneeling there in silence.
Had she given up because she knew she was no match for Shion? Or had the grief and pain of her sister's passing filled her heart so completely that there was no room left for anger?
Susan did not know. She merely watched her captain sitting motionless in the rain, holding her older sister Yinluo, and a trace of sorrow welled up in her own heart.
Even at the very end, Li Yi did not cry.
Susan tried to bring Yinlian and Yinluo back, but aside from still needing to hide the fact that she had regained her ability to transform from Yinlian, she no longer had the strength to transform even if she wanted to.
Only when rainwater had nearly filled the crater did Li Yi stand up on her own with her sister in her arms and climb out little by little.
Susan helped from the side, pulling her and Yinluo's body up.
Then, at last, assistance arrived from the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau.
With such a huge commotion, even the usually slow-to-react Disaster Countermeasures Bureau dared not delay for too long. After all, this place was far too close to the bureau.
Helicopters, armored vehicles, and soldiers all converged on the scene.
Only at Susan's request did an ambulance come.
In truth, there was not much need for one.
In the end, she saw Li Yi onto the ambulance. At first, the paramedics wanted Li Yi and Yinluo to travel in separate vehicles, but after Susan pleaded with them at length, they finally allowed Li Yi to ride in the ambulance carrying Yinluo's body.
Susan did not dare get in.
She crouched in the rain for a while longer, her mind full of Jiang Si and Shion. Before she had even digested that shocking revelation, Yinluo's fate had dealt her another considerable blow.
The medical staff gave her injuries some basic dressings. Although the police came to question her about the state of the scene, they ultimately said little else.
She was the head of the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau's Security Department. Ordinary police officers had no authority to arrest her.
Not to mention that Rose was at the police station.
Crouching by the roadside, she watched the passing vehicles and people, letting the rain pour over her. No one paid her any attention, and Susan was in no mood to talk to anyone. She simply stared blankly into the rain.
She sorted through her somewhat tangled thoughts. Far, far too much had happened today-
An umbrella opened above her head. Susan turned to look. With a lollipop in her mouth, Peony crouched down beside her, holding the umbrella, then offered her another lollipop. "Want one?"
"No."
"Going by movies and TV shows, we ought to be having a smoke here. But what can we do? We're magical girls,
"so we'll have to substitute candy for cigarettes."
Her friend's words almost made the gloomy Susan laugh, but in the end, she only sighed. "You're still in the mood to joke."
"Things have already turned out this way. What else can we do?"
Peony said helplessly, "The bureau was just about to set up a special task force to investigate Yinluo. Your instincts were right."
"Mm."
Susan was not surprised. Yinluo had made far too big a move this time to keep it hidden.
Even if the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau refused to investigate, she would have made the evidence she had gathered public.
"Li Yi, she-"
Peony looked pained. "She's only in her first year of high school, and she's already had to go through something like this."
"She's a first-year high school student, but she's also the captain of the Magical Girl Combat Team."
Susan finally accepted her friend's lollipop. "Have faith in her."
"Yeah. Today really has been awful-"
She rambled on beside Susan about the undeserved disaster that had struck H City that day. Susan simply listened quietly, occasionally nodding to give her friend a response and let her know she was listening.
The large number of Calamity Beasts in BH City had all been dealt with by noon. Although there had been many of them, with the Azure Cloud Sect prepared in advance, they had still been eliminated quickly and methodically.
Only two inner disciples had been deployed.
Although Calamity Beasts had attacked the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau, the captain of the Magical Girl Combat Team had returned in time, arriving and killing the Calamity Beasts before the magic barrier was destroyed. As such, they had not actually caused any damage.
Only the Inspection Section had been breached by an unidentified individual, with four of its employees meeting untimely deaths.
It caused quite a stir within the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau.
At noon, the rain finally eased a little.
It was not until the afternoon that Keke learned something had happened to Yiyi.
Although she had called several times in between, wanting to ask Yiyi what exactly was going on, none of her calls had gone through.
She had been unable to reach Yiyi since the day before, so she had not found it surprising.
After school, she received a message from Rose.
Yinluo had passed away-
Death always felt unreal and absurd.
It was just like back then, after her parents passed away. She had never been able to understand why living people who had been laughing and talking with her and playing with her just the day before had suddenly become lifeless things.
They would never respond to her again, and before long, she would never even see them again.
In truth, more than grief and pain, what she felt was despair and helplessness.
The despair and helplessness of knowing that nothing she did would help, that she could change nothing.
She could only cry and cry. Aside from crying, she could do nothing and wanted to do nothing.
And that gentle older girl with glasses had so suddenly become one of the dead.
Naturally, Keke found it hard to believe. Only after Rose explained the circumstances in detail did she slowly accept that fact.
She remembered when Yiyi first brought her to the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau, and Yinluo helped clear Jiang Si of suspicion.
Then she remembered how, just yesterday, they had gone out shopping together. Yinluo had bought her a cold drink, and they had eaten some desserts too.
That mature, gentle face and soft voice still seemed to linger by her ears. It was hard to feel that Yinluo had really passed away.
More importantly, there was Yiyi. Keke specifically spent money on a taxi to reach the hospital where Yiyi was.
By the time she arrived, Yiyi's older sister, Yinluo, had already been wheeled into the morgue.
She had not managed to see that older girl one last time.
There were quite a few other people near the hospital morgue.
Because of the Calamity Beasts' rampage that day, even though the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau and the Azure Cloud Sect had dealt with them promptly enough, they could not achieve absolutely zero casualties.
There would always be some unlucky people who accidentally lost their lives during Calamity Beast attacks. Sometimes, they were not killed directly by the Calamity Beasts, but by the chaos they caused or other indirect factors.
But here, almost everyone had already vented what they needed to vent. There was no loud wailing, only quiet, stifled sobbing.
Fortunately, Beihai's rain had eased. Had it been the morning's downpour, those faint sobs would only have been drowned out by the torrential rain.
Keke suddenly remembered that it had also rained on the day her parents were buried.
Back then, she had been the only one crying.
The adults were always busy discussing other important matters, and the guests chatted and laughed over the funeral meal.
They called it a ceremony to commemorate the dead, but aside from her, no one seemed truly sad.
By the time her parents were finally buried, when even Jiang Si was no longer there, Keke had felt a loneliness unlike anything she had ever experienced. It was as though the whole world had abandoned her, as though she belonged nowhere among all those people.
If a ceremony was merely a ceremony, then where exactly was the meaning in that so-called commemoration?
When she found Yiyi, Yiyi was standing quietly outside the morgue, her expression blank and her eyes utterly empty. In front of her stood a couple well on in years.
The man wore glasses, and the woman wore a hearing aid, presumably because she had trouble hearing. Traces of Yiyi and Yinluo could be seen in the contours of their faces.
At that moment, the two were roaring at Yiyi.
"I said we shouldn't have let her go to the bureau!"
"And you said you'd protect your sister!"
"When have you ever actually helped your sister, from childhood until now? Every single time, she's the one cleaning up your mess-"
"Why weren't you the one who died-"
Their piercing voices reached Keke, making even her feel suffocated and pained.
Yet Yiyi only stood there in a daze, her head quietly lowered, silently enduring all their abuse. Even when she was slapped, she showed no reaction.
Keke had initially intended to wait until they finished speaking. After all, it was another family's business, and as an outsider, it was not her place to interfere.
But when she saw Yiyi get slapped, Keke finally could not stand it anymore. She ran over, spread both arms in front of Yiyi, and glared furiously at the two fierce-looking adults.
"You two, don't go too far! Yiyi's hurting too! Why do you have to bully her?"
"Yiyi is my daughter. Who are you, a little brat, to stand here passing judgment while I discipline my own daughter?" The middle-aged man's expression grew fierce. "Get lost!"
"She's hurting? She couldn't wait for her sister to die! We told her over and over that the bureau was dangerous, but she insisted on having her sister go there to keep her company!"
With both of them yelling at once, Keke naturally could not shout them down. Their insults even made her eyes redden, but she still gritted her teeth and took out her Miracle Seed. "I'm a magical girl, a member of Captain Yinlian's team! If you dare bully our captain again, I'll transform into a magical girl and hit you!"
Although her words were somewhat childish, there was no faking a Miracle Seed.
Especially with Keke looking as though their insults had driven her to the end of her rope, the couple could tell at a glance that if they pushed her any further, she might lose her head and actually attack.
Students like her were the most likely to go wild. Because they knew little about society's rules, once they got ruthless, they could easily lose all sense of restraint.
Especially when she also wielded a magical girl's power. Naturally, the couple knew what that power was and how frightening it could be.
For a moment, their faces and necks flushed with anger, but they no longer dared hurl any more abuse.
Then Li Yi reached from behind Keke, took her hand, and tugged it. "I'm fine, Keke. You don't need to worry about me."
"You're not fine at all!"
Keke turned her hand over and clasped Yiyi's. It was extraordinarily cold, so cold that Keke even felt a slight sting. "Yiyi is my friend. I'm not leaving my friend alone!"
"So this is the sort of team member you've raised." The man sneered. "What a fine captain you are. You couldn't protect your sister, and your team members are each more unruly than the last. Do you have the slightest regard for rules and regulations? The bureau must be blind-"
Keke finally could not take it anymore.
She imitated Jiang Si's demeanor-in her mind, when Jiang Si turned ruthless, he was the most terrifying person in the world.
Her expression, her bearing, her movements-she habitually imitated him, and then even her tone was exactly the same.
"Do you have to make me use force? Get lost!"
Even those fierce words were learned from Jiang Si.
To make sure she had an imposing presence, she even transformed on the spot.
After all, however she imitated him, she could not quite capture Jiang Si's manner. Only after transforming and gaining the oppressive presence of that power could she come closer to the terrifying feeling Jiang Si gave off.
As it turned out, she had been right.
This time, the couple finally quieted down. Although they soon began muttering curses again, they did not dare say them loudly. In the end, both of them left the hospital without causing further trouble.
Only then did Keke finally breathe a sigh of relief. She really was not good at this sort of thing-
After undoing her transformation, she turned to look at Li Yi, who was still staring blankly, seemingly not having taken any of what had just happened to heart. Keke took her hand, pulled her over to a nearby bench, and sat down with her.
Yiyi's petite body had been trembling faintly all along. Keke felt it clearly as she helped her sit down. Her whole body was also soaked through with rain, and like her hand, held little warmth.
But Keke could not tell whether she was trembling from the cold or for some other reason.
The captain who was always so mature and maintained a soldier's bearing before others now looked like an abandoned little girl, lost, helpless, and a little frightened.
Yet she still had not cried. Not a single tear fell, and looking at her eyes, Keke could tell she had not cried earlier either.
She was simply soaked through with rain, and now and then, raindrops like tears slipped from the corners of her eyes.
Keke gave her captain a tug, and the girl, like an empty shell, toppled lightly onto her lap. Her wet hair left Keke's thighs icy cold, but Keke did not react. She simply stroked her captain's head gently.
"Get some proper rest, Captain."
"Mm."
Yiyi's cheek rested snugly against her thigh, and gradually, at last, it gained a little warmth.
Keke took out some tissues, drying the droplets from Yiyi's hair while smoothing her disheveled strands.
She could not say a single word of comfort.
Even a simple expression of condolence seemed as though it would hurt Yiyi in her current state, leaving Keke completely unable to say it.
She could only stay silent.
Given enough time, you'll get better on your own.
She suddenly remembered something Jiang Si used to say all the time, then shook her head, unwilling to agree.
I have to do something.
"Keke."
A weak voice brought Keke back to her senses, and she instinctively answered, "Mm, I'm here,
"Captain."
What Li Yi said next made her hands stop, and her expression stiffened a little.
"I don't want to be a magical girl anymore."