Chapter 113: The Pursuit

A sapphire trail of magic suddenly slashed through the pitch-black night sky, vanishing into the thick clouds and silently crossing more than half the city district.

Glancing at the phone screen between her fingers, the large "Call Failed" characters made Senior Cuique increasingly uneasy. Her face darkened, teeth gritted, she constantly increased her flight speed, advancing toward Hong Siyu's apartment in her memory.

She still could not remain at home.

Because when she tried to contact Hong Siyu by phone, no matter how she tried, the call would not connect.

She knew clearly that separating from the new recruits at this moment might play into the enemy's hands; the mysterious call revealing information could also be the enemy's trap. But her intuition told her: what was said on the phone was true.

The other party had shouted the name "Cornflower," and also shouted "Morning Glory," the magical girl codename belonging to Hong Siyu, which had already raised the credibility of their words. Moreover, this matched Senior Cuique's own deductions perfectly.

Retired magical girls are almost impossible to regain magic again; this is an iron law of the Magical Realm; and to see fairies, one must possess magic power exceeding that of ordinary people.

Therefore, for Hong Siyu, a retired magical girl, to be able to see Moko is an absolutely impossible thing.

With this premise known, rethinking the words Hong Siyu said when she left, Senior Cuique immediately tasted a very strange meaning.

Did she already know something?

"I leave it to you, senior," what did that want to express?

Furthermore, did she suddenly send all three children to her home tonight to guard against something?

The emergence of one truth prompted the birth of more new questions; Senior Cuique felt her mind was already filled with doubts, and even trying to sort out a thread felt extremely difficult.

And to get answers to all this, the one thing she should do now is find Hong Siyu.

This was also the reason she went to the apartment where the other party lived immediately.

Following the path in her memory, she flew to Hong Siyu's apartment balcony, casually used magic threads to pull open the latch, and Senior Cuique almost threw herself into the apartment before her, calling out into the apartment:

"Hong Siyu!"

However, there was no response in the empty apartment.

Senior Cuique understood that the worst-case scenario had truly appeared.

Hong Siyu had left her home for nearly an hour; without unexpected events, she would definitely have already returned to her own home; if she was not in her own home now, she must have gone somewhere else midway.

Where would she go? Where could she go? And no matter where she went, was the current situation truly of her own will?

Turning on the lights in Hong Siyu's home with these questions, Senior Cuique looked around, trying to find clues within this space.

Hong Siyu's apartment could not be called tidy, nor could it be called particularly messy—except for the quilt carelessly thrown on the bed and the trash can completely overflowing with garbage, it could be considered relatively organized.

Senior Cuique squatted by the bedside, opened the nightstand and searched for a while, but found nothing except some private clothes and small items.

She turned direction again, pulled open the wardrobe, but found the clothes inside completely exceeded the proper capacity, pouring out directly from the open wardrobe. If she had not been quick-eyed and fast-handed, she would have been instantly buried beneath the clothes rushing out from within.

Using magic threads to secure these clothes, Senior Cuique searched inside the wardrobe, but still found nothing.

So she walked to the island counter of the open kitchen, picked up a beer can on the countertop, but found these aluminum cans were all empty; the dried-out inner walls indicated they had been placed here long ago.

This seemed to indirectly indicate that Hong Siyu had not returned to this apartment for many days.

Was it because she had been taking the new recruits to the secret base after work these days? Or was it for other reasons?

The problems did not resolve with the investigation; instead, they continued to increase. Senior Cuique tried to find clues regarding Hong Siyu's whereabouts within this apartment, but still found nothing.

The investigation reached a deadlock here.

Helplessly, she could only take out her phone again, open the contacts list, feeling she should perhaps seek help from that unknown number, to see if the other party could still provide any clues.

Raising her hand to press the call button, she held the phone to her ear, her gaze continuing to scan the room, but suddenly stopped when sweeping past the balcony floor-to-ceiling window, unable to move her eyes away.

—She saw a moth.

Not an insect in the ordinary sense, but a moth far larger than common sense, almost as big as a washbasin.

This moth was now quietly perched outside the floor-to-ceiling window of the apartment balcony, naturally hanging down its wings, raising its body, as if observing the scene inside the room.

The reason for using the word "observing" was that Senior Cuique felt a strong sense of being watched.

She felt she was being stared at by an insect.

The phone call at her ear remained unanswered; Senior Cuique stood in place maintaining the posture of making a call, staring fixedly at that moth outside the balcony.

"... Hiss... hiss."

Then, right in the midst of this process, the familiar static suddenly rang out from the phone at her ear.

The strange moth before her was certainly eerie, but for Senior Cuique now, finding Hong Siyu was the top priority, so she decisively shifted her attention to this phone call and immediately spoke to ask:

"Hello? Where is Hong Siyu?"

Every unclear call would disconnect when discussing key information; she also did not know how long this one could last, so without any hesitation, she asked the most core question.

"Hiss... hiss..."

As if hearing her inquiry, the voice on the other end of the phone began to fluctuate even more violently.

After a long string of static whose content was difficult to distinguish, a voice even weaker than before finally rang out once more: "At... very high..."

"Very high?" Senior Cuique immediately frowned and repeated.

"... Places she usually goes..." The weak voice kept stuttering, continuously transmitting broken words into Senior Cuique's ears.

She struggled to distinguish the words the other party spoke, trying to remember them all, but that voice continued to become smaller and smaller, until finally becoming inaudible.

"Hello? Can't hear anymore, are you still there?" Senior Cuique couldn't help but speak to confirm.

Only static remained on the other side of the call.

"Hello?"

The static still had not changed in the slightest.

"Are you still there?"

—"Boom!"

Just as Senior Cuique was constantly increasing the phone volume to hear the other party's voice, a deafening boom suddenly came from the other end of the call; the strong impact made Senior Cuique feel her whole body shake, almost throwing the phone away.

Fortunately, her reaction was fast enough; she immediately used magic threads to grab the phone that had slipped from her hand, but when she looked at the phone screen again, what was displayed was the interface showing the call had been disconnected.

Unconvinced, Senior Cuique dialed this number again, but after a brief wait, the prompt she received was that the other party was "powered off," leaving no room for anything else.

This call with the unknown number had now come to nothing.

Senior Cuique stared blankly at the phone screen for a while, then suddenly looked toward the floor-to-ceiling window on the nearby balcony. She saw that giant moth still clinging to the glass, spreading its wings. Though it made no sound at all, its trembling antennae seemed to carry an emotion, as if mocking her.

This sight made her feel utterly terrible. She had no intention of leaving that strange insect any chance of survival, so she raised her hand and fired a beam of magic.

The azure magic pierced the security glass of the floor-to-ceiling window almost instantly, enveloping the giant moth within it. Yet when the magic dissipated, she found that her magic beam had hit nothing but the window glass; the moth clinging to the window had vanished without a trace, like a phantom.

Senior Cuique hurried forward, crouched down to examine the shattered floor-to-ceiling window, and confirmed there were no insect remains inside. This only made her feel even more puzzled.

Could she have seen a hallucination?

To confirm this, Senior Cuique looked up toward the distance, trying to find traces of the moth's departure. But the dark night sky was deathly silent, with no flying objects in sight.

Leaning on the balcony, Senior Cuique stood on tiptoe, squinting and looking around: It was nearly dawn in Fang Ting City, and aside from a few lights, there was nothing. There were no extra vehicles or pedestrians on the roads, and most of the decorative lights on the shops and high-rises along the streets had been turned off. In such a desolate city, there was nothing else worth noticing.

However, as Senior Cuique continued to gaze farther into the distance, the silhouette of a building that seemed somewhat familiar suddenly came into her view.

At first, Senior Cuique did not realize what that silhouette was. But the moment she thought of it, her gaze suddenly froze in that direction—because she remembered, that was the Bureau of Anomalous Affairs.

Hong Siyu's residence was not far from the Fang Ting City Bureau of Anomalous Affairs, only a little over a kilometer away. Probably to make her daily commute more convenient, she had chosen this place when renting.

Perhaps I could go to the Bureau of Anomalous Affairs to ask about the situation? Senior Cuique pondered, but at this hour, the true management of the Bureau of Anomalous Affairs had already clocked off. Even if she went, what could she ask?

Moreover, from her current vantage point, the distant Bureau of Anomalous Affairs was plunged into boundless darkness. Every window was pitch black, with not a single ray of light shining through. Reading book la

If not even a single light can be seen, would such a Bureau of Anomalous Affairs really have anyone inside?

This lead still seemed to lead nowhere, so Senior Cuique sighed slightly, negated her own thought, and wanted to turn and leave. But the moment she twisted her body, her feet froze in place, and then her eyes slowly widened.

The Bureau of Anomalous Affairs, how could there be no one?

You see, the Bureau of Anomalous Affairs, as the final magical-side management organization for a city besides the magical girls, would absolutely have someone on duty at any time.

Even if it was nearly dawn and the Bureau of Anomalous Affairs might only have a few administrative departments and duty squads remaining, it still should not be pitch black like this, looking as if not a single person was present.

Something was wrong.

Senior Cuique felt her previous experiences in Bai'an City activate instantly. Every detail of the memories, which had not yet faded long ago, was so clear; she was far from forgetting what she had encountered there.

The incident in Bai'an City ultimately fell to the Bureau of Anomalous Affairs, so what about Fang Ting City?

It was not that she did not trust the capabilities of the Fang Ting City Bureau of Anomalous Affairs, but in several previous attack incidents, the Fang Ting City Bureau of Anomalous Affairs had indeed failed to demonstrate corresponding sensitivity.

And even without any evidence, an idea had inexplicably arisen in her heart:

—She might have to go to the Bureau of Anomalous Affairs now.

(End of this chapter)