"Nobody's arguing. It's so lonely~"
In the twilight, Shuangsheng sat on a swing, rocking her body hard.
The already somewhat dilapidated swing groaned and creaked. "Captain, Captain, don't you think we're like the villains in cartoons who go in one at a time, get defeated individually by magical girls, and then get wiped out?"
"Stop jinxing us."
"Captain, Captain, are you the final boss? Can you turn giant? How many magical girls can you fight?"
"Do you have nothing better to do?"
"I really don't." Shuangsheng sighed somewhat wistfully, slowing her swinging as well. "Actually, it doesn't matter who dies here, but Yinluo couldn't die. She was so much fun. Now that she's dead, everything's suddenly so quiet."
"Her death brought us a Miracle Seed."
Inside the crystal ball, the captain's tone was solemn. "That deserves a full half day of mourning from us. Unfortunately, because we're so busy, we can only mourn her in our hearts."
"And we only managed to send out one Full Blossom Seed. Can it really deal with our invincible Miss Shion?"
"Dealing with her isn't important. We only need to keep her occupied."
"Right, right, right. Keep Shion occupied, then we'll flatten the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau and the Azure Cloud Sect! Unite Beihai!"
But the captain offered no response, so Shuangsheng kicked her feet in boredom.
She had gone out in slippers again today, but her toes gripped their edges so tightly that no amount of kicking could shake them off.
The sunset and the wind licked across the tops of her feet. Feeling a faint tickle, Shuangsheng relaxed her grip and sent a slipper flying.
But she immediately gave the swing a forceful pump, catching up with the flying slipper. With a "heave-ho," she slipped her foot back inside.
Only then did Shuangsheng leisurely say:
"Captain, have you ever watched those cartoons and comics where magical girls or superheroes fight teams of villains?"
"I don't have time."
"No taste." After that jab, Shuangsheng continued, "I grew up in the Witch Association, so back then, when I read comics or watched cartoons, I loved watching those villain teams squabble and mess around. Even though they lost to the magical girls and superheroes every time, they always came rolling back. Whenever they occasionally won once or twice, it made me so happy I couldn't help eating two extra bowls of rice."
"If you could eat two extra bowls of rice every day, you wouldn't be this skinny."
"Hehe, Captain, when did you learn to make snarky comments too? You learned just for me, didn't you? Shuangsheng's so touched."
"Get lost."
Shuangsheng saw a little girl start swinging beside her, going especially high and far, looking very much as though she intended to outdo her. Turning toward the little girl, she immediately huffed.
She pumped hard, sending herself and the swing almost soaring into the air. This time, she went so high that even she felt a little frightened.
Shuangsheng was a little afraid of heights.
But the little girl beside her swung up to almost the same height. Naturally, she refused to admit defeat, and the two swung higher and higher.
In the end, the little girl grew scared first and gradually slowed down. When she tried to get off the swing, she carelessly took a tumble.
Fortunately, because she had slowed down, the fall wasn't serious, but a wound still opened on her forehead and began bleeding.
Crying loudly from the pain, the little girl ran home.
"Hmph, you little brat. You dare compete with me on the swings? You're a hundred years too early."
Speaking smugly, she jumped off the swing as well, dropping at tremendous speed. Her feet carved two furrows into the ground, and after coming to a steady stop, she hopped around to shake the dirt out of her slippers and off her feet.
Holding the crystal ball, she said:
"Captain, Captain, did you see? I won."
The captain merely sighed and ignored her.
Watching the dying sun being dragged below the horizon, Shuangsheng opened her arms to welcome the less-than-grand twilight, feeling a little wistful. "It's just like a cartoon finale. Captain, as the boss, you're about to be all alone. How pitiful. Every time I see a final boss who used to have a whole crowd of underlings around them get killed all alone in the finale, I feel so sorry for them."
"Why do you sound like you're about to die?"
"What, can I survive going against the Azure Cloud Sect? That freakish murderous maniac Shion will definitely butcher me without mercy. Tsk, how can there be a magical girl like that? She's terrifying."
"You're a magical girl too. Can't you show a little backbone? How embarrassing!"
"Hey, Captain, don't take it out on me just because you can't beat Shion. Go yourself if you're so capable."
"I'm only asking you to stall and draw attention for a while." The captain sounded furious. "You wasted so many of BH City's Calamity Eggs, and now you're making a life-or-death fuss over stalling for a while. Did I ask you to kill Shion?"
"Hehe, I'm just giving you a preview. We can't avoid the Azure Cloud Sect no matter what we do in Beihai, so let's pray I don't run into Shion. Let me meet Lord Winter Lord instead. Ah, would Lord Winter Lord still remember me?"
The captain's voice from the crystal ball turned unfriendly. "You're not planning to defect to the Azure Cloud Sect, are you?"
"Captain, listen to what you're saying." Shuangsheng glared at him unhappily. "I don't remember ever leaving the Azure Cloud Sect. In the Witch Association, I'm a witch. In the Azure Cloud Sect, I'm a magical girl. That's what makes me Shuangsheng."
"What exactly happened to you in the Azure Cloud Sect?"
"Just a bug that crawled out of a pile of stinking mud, accidentally caught sight of the sun, and was burned until it wished it were dead. The rest of its life was ruined."
Bathed in twilight, Shuangsheng walked along, reaching toward the dying sun that was about to sink completely into the abyss, never to be seen again.
She gradually walked into the shadows. "There's nothing I can do about the Azure Cloud Sect, but lately, the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau has practically rotted through. Yinluo's biggest contribution was taking her little sister out of the picture. I'll start with the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau and capture all their magical girls. How's that plan, Captain?"
"Do whatever you want."
"Then can you tell me how to control Calamity Beasts?" Shuangsheng suddenly asked. "Look, I'm all alone, without much power or anyone to help me. Unlike Yinluo-she at least had me to help her back then. I'm completely alone now, and you're busy making your trump card, Captain. I really need helpers. Just letting Calamity Beasts cause trouble is completely useless, so let me control them a little?"
The other end stayed silent for a long while, so Shuangsheng waved her hand. "Forget it if you don't want to, you stingy thing."
"You'd better not give it to the Azure Cloud Sect."
Shuangsheng smiled. "Don't worry, don't worry."
"I'll definitely use it to bully the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau good and hard!"
Beihai, the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau.
Ever since the last attack, the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau had been undergoing reconstruction.
Little sprites flew up and down, repairing the magical barrier around the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau.
The normally quiet Disaster Countermeasures Bureau had received quite a few visitors today. Near the station in particular, a large bridge had been erected, leading straight to the bureau's headquarters.
Every guard had been mobilized, forming ranks at the station exit and the entrance.
They looked more like a welcoming party than guards.
Susan stood at the entrance, watching the welcoming ceremony at the station exit in utter boredom.
"Why do you look so impatient?"
Hearing Peony's question beside her, Susan snorted. "Headquarters is just transferring some personnel here, yet they're making such a big production of it. They even specifically demanded that we prepare a welcoming ceremony. This new director is putting on airs before even arriving, trying to put us in our place."
"We performed terribly this time. Not only did we lose the Miracle Seeds, but we had a Witch Association mole inside, and the Magical Girl Combat Team captain's seed was contaminated."
Peony counted them off on her fingers one by one. "I think headquarters has already shown us plenty of consideration by only removing the director here. Our bureau is a complete mess. Of course, before, the Azure Cloud Sect covered for us, so it didn't matter if we just coasted along collecting our paychecks. This time, they couldn't cover for us..."
An old-fashioned train sounded its whistle at the station.
The new director was nostalgic, so after discussing it, the bureau's staff had rebuilt an old train route overnight, even bringing out a long-retired train specifically to welcome the new director.
It could be called flattery taken to the extreme.
Watching the few Incubators flying desperately ahead of the train, towing brooms, Peony couldn't help laughing.
The train here couldn't fly after all. Even with tracks, it still needed Incubators and brooms to pull it.
"Speaking of which, should we tell Captain Li Yi that Yinluo was the reason you couldn't transform?"
"She's already dead."
Susan said expressionlessly, "There's no need to make things harder for Li Yi."
"I thought so. You're still as gentle as ever, Susan." Peony seemed to have expected it. "Captain Li Yi should be just like you now. Her Miracle Seed is contaminated, and she can't transform anymore. Yinluo must have done it, right? How cruel. She could even do that to her own little sister."
"Although she never intended to kill Li Yi."
Susan's tone was icy. "From the very beginning, she didn't want Li Yi to remain a magical girl. Yinluo always believed her little sister wasn't worthy of being a magical girl."
Peony sighed. "What do you think, Susan?"
Meeting her friend's gaze, Susan merely looked up at the speeding train. "Yinlian is a competent captain. She always has been..."
When the train stopped, several guards nearby immediately fired confetti into the sky. Some were even setting off fireworks.
Peony stared, dumbfounded, before saying somewhat awkwardly, "Our new director is a little extravagant."
Susan rubbed her forehead with a headache.
With such a love of pomp, the Beihai Disaster Countermeasures Bureau hardly had much money for them to squander...
As the train stopped on the hilltop, its doors opened, and a brightly dressed girl stepped out, pulling a small suitcase.
Dressed in pale cyan casual clothes, a baseball cap, and sunglasses, she naturally took off her sunglasses as she stepped down, revealing a pair of beautiful cyan eyes.
Tossing her hair, she radiated a celebrity's confidence, and her looks certainly justified it.
Of course, more than her looks, her strength gave her even greater grounds for confidence.
"Hello, magical girls of the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau! I'm Iris, a magical girl from headquarters, and I'll also be your Magical Girl Combat Team captain from now on."
After something like a handshake with her, Peony smiled apologetically. "Sorry, but we're not planning to change captains yet."
"But Yinlian, the captain of Beihai's Magical Girl Combat Team, has already lost her ability to transform." Iris pulled a jumble of documents from her little bag.
It was obvious that she had never organized that bag. It was a complete mess.
Only after quite a while did she find the document she wanted. "Here, this one. Miracle Seed contaminated, magical girl Yinlian lost her ability to transform. That's right, isn't it?"
"Yes, that's right." Peony continued, "But we believe Captain Yinlian will return."
"Normally, there's no coming back from that." Putting her sunglasses back on, Iris smiled breezily. "Oh, well. I don't mind if you prefer your original captain. As long as you cooperate with my work."
"..."
After waiting a long time without anyone else getting off the train, Peony looked behind her and found it empty. "Huh? Where's the director?"
"The director went to the city government first. She needs to discuss funding with them, so I came ahead on my own."
Susan pressed her forehead. "The one who told us to prepare a welcoming ceremony this morning..."
"That was me, me, me!" Taking off her baseball cap, Iris smiled brightly. "I'm a Full Blossom magical girl, you know. Naturally, my welcoming ceremony couldn't be too shabby. Of course, I know your Beihai Disaster Countermeasures Bureau is strapped for cash, so I didn't ask for things like an honor guard or a choir. Very considerate of me, right?"
Peony and Susan exchanged a glance, each seeing the other's speechlessness.
Pulling her suitcase, Iris strode into the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau. "Before I came, I heard that Beihai's Disaster Countermeasures Bureau was weak. Of course, that's understandable. You've only been established in Beihai for three years, and then you fell a step behind that Azure-something Sect, so you couldn't recruit magical girls. But headquarters never imagined you'd be this pathetic."
Although it was infuriating to hear, they couldn't find any reason to argue.
"You even managed to lose the three Full Blossom Seeds meant to serve as your safety net. This is the first Miracle Seed theft in the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau's entire history. If I were you, I'd probably be too ashamed to do anything but resign."
Iris criticized them the entire way.
Peony and Susan followed behind her without taking it to heart.
Only after entering the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau did the two realize that this Full Blossom magical girl had a rather poor sense of direction.
There was nothing complicated about the route, yet she somehow managed to walk into dead ends repeatedly.
Both thought she was going to inspect something-after all, who could imagine someone taking a wrong turn in just these few corridors?
They hadn't expected her to actually manage it.
She strutted around like she owned the place, yet couldn't even find her way...
In the end, Peony had to go ahead and lead.
"Actually, I could find the way myself."
Seemingly a little embarrassed, Iris offered a defense.
But Susan and Peony naturally couldn't be bothered to respond.
Iris merely looked at the many moving portraits of magical girls in the corridor, finally stopping before Larkspur's, a hint of nostalgia seemingly on her face.
Only once there were fewer people around did Iris casually say:
"Beihai's Witch Association isn't much either. They've been making trouble for so long, yet barely any B-rank Calamity Beasts have appeared. Should I call this the region's excellent matchmaking system? The Witch Associations elsewhere are seriously troublesome. I almost feel embarrassed dealing with a Witch Association at this level. Isn't it a little too much like bullying them?"
Noticing the two girls' strangely eerie silence, Iris tilted her head and looked at them. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Susan maintained her expressionless face. "Sorry you've had to lower yourself to come here."
"It's nothing. I'll just treat it as a vacation. In North China, it was the Witch Association one moment and A-rank Calamity Beasts the next. Every day was exhausting."
Iris stretched. "I've finally come somewhere safe. Beihai's perfect for a vacation. Once I hurry up and deal with the Witch Association and the Azure Cloud Sect and recover the Miracle Seeds, take me to the fun places in Beihai."
"You're going to deal with the Azure Cloud Sect?" Peony asked cautiously. "I'm afraid it won't be that simple."
"I don't have that much time either. Their leader, that purple magical girl-what was her name again?"
"Shion."
"Right, right. I'll just arrest Shion."
"With all due respect," Susan said impassively from beside her, "both the number and the strength of the Azure Cloud Sect's magical girls will probably far exceed your imagination. Capturing Shion on your own will be very difficult."
"Are you worried about me? Thank you, cool young lady."
Susan's eyelid twitched. "My name is Susan."
"Oh, right. Thank you for your concern, Miss Susan, but it's fine. Please don't worry."
The Full Blossom magical girl gave a brilliant, confident smile.
"I'm the strongest!"