Chapter 120

Thirty-five years old.

Hong Siyu spent two years in a daze.

——"What's wrong with you today?"

One day, in a restaurant at night, the man sitting across from her asked strangely: "You're speaking incoherently—did you drink before you came?"

Incoherently… that's only natural.

She smiled bitterly to herself.

Because whenever she tried to tell the truth to the other person, all her vocal organs would become useless, unable to produce a single sound.

Her body felt no longer her own; her consciousness alternated between clarity and sleep. Even when awake and acting, every movement of hers was like a machine with hidden traps, filled with constraints everywhere.

Information she was forbidden to mention could not be spoken; forbidden thoughts were unconsciously forgotten; many times, she didn't even know what she was doing herself.

Whether she still counted as human—she had completely lost the ability to understand.

But she had to exist this way, had to persist this way. Because she still had many pieces of information, many words she needed to tell the man before her.

So she forced a smile, picked up her glass, and extended it toward the man:

"The kingdom released a new list of Magic Girl flower cards last month—two new rookies were added all at once."

What she really wanted to say was: Senior Margaret has become a flower card—can you really be content to completely abandon your Magic Girl power?

"What's the point of talking about this now?" The man clearly didn't want to answer this topic.

"Is it meaningless to care about juniors?"

What she really wanted to ask was: Look at me more—can't you sense more abnormalities in me?

"It has nothing to do with me anymore—why should I care?" But the other still avoided it.

"Lying like this won't fool your own people—you can't possibly be completely uninvolved, can you? After all, you're the one who was…"

After all, you're the one who was granted the honor of "Lifetime Magic Girl," the one who can become a Magic Girl again.

Hong Siyu lowered her eyes and silently thought in her heart.

There were too many things she wanted to tell him, but she couldn't speak them; too many things she wanted to ask of him, but she couldn't voice them.

In these two years, she had hinted too many times in roundabout ways, but his attitude was clear: he didn't want to get involved with Magic Girls anymore.

He never stated a reason, but Hong Siyu could see from his expression that this wasn't an emotional decision—it was based on some deeper consideration.

Probably, given her position, her identity, she could no longer say anything that would move this man. After all, to him she was only a junior she'd known in school, a teammate she'd worked with for half a year. Her words meant nothing to him.

But there was no time left.

Black Ash Dawn's operations were growing more frequent; more cities in Donghua Province were being infiltrated. If things continued like this, there would be no more chances.

Then, clearly, only one final option remained.

She closed her eyes and silently whispered an apology in her heart.

Perhaps this would be somewhat despicable—but if it could bring back the Magic Girl in her memory, let her become even more despicable.

——"The Newcomer Magic Girl from Fang Ting City has already made contact with us. How about it—does this have anything to do with you?"

……

……

Black Ash Dawn plans to continue hunting the Magic Girl of Fang Ting City, crushing the new one, codenamed Bai Mei, in the cradle.

Hong Siyu had already known this news.

She could not inform Lin Yun of this, nor could she hint at it in any way, because she could never defy Mos's will. Subordinate Beasts cannot disobey a superior Beast's orders—that is iron law.

But she never intended to directly tell Lin Yun about it either.

She waited, dazed, until one day when Black Ash Dawn had planned to stage a fake Beast attack that night and strike down the Magic Girl named Bai Mei.

Hong Siyu briefly regained clarity from her haze.

The Magic Girl Bai Mei—that was Lin Yun's daughter, Lin Xiaolu's codename.

This was the opportunity she had found.

She could not speak out what she knew, but that didn't mean there were no other methods; Mos always believed she was fully under control, but there were still ways to bypass control and transmit information.

That noon, she asked an acquaintance to obtain a brand-new SIM card, then took the card to a secret room in the Special Strategy Bureau, sneaked in, and found a purple cage inside a device.

It was a cage made of purple-black magical barriers and incantation runes, inside which caged a listless little dog. The dog's back should have had a pair of wings, but all its feathers had been plucked, leaving only bare, fleshy stumps.

——It was a fairy, the sower of Fang Ting City, or rather, the one who should have been Fang Ting City's sower, named Senior Nini.

Two years ago, Mos assassinated Fang Ting City's newborn Magic Girl and captured this fairy named Senior Nini, imprisoning it here.

Its feathers were valuable magical material, so Mos plucked them; its magic was fairy magic, rare in the material world, so Mos drained it; two years passed, this once lively sower was now barely alive, with almost no vitality left.

It lay in the cage, watching Hong Siyu walk in from the door; its lifeless eyes reflected the figure at the entrance, but gave no reaction.

"You're the sower, right?"

Hong Siyu said this without further explanation, and handed the phone to the fairy, whose appearance resembled a little dog: "Then you should still retain the ability to sense Beasts and Magic Girls in this city."

Senior Nini silently stared at Hong Siyu inside the cage, saying nothing.

It could sense that the woman before it was also a Beast wearing human skin—it had no reason to heed her words.

Hong Siyu didn't mind its lack of cooperation; she simply pushed the phone a little further forward: "I have no demands—I only hope you sense whatever you can sense, and when the time comes, tell the person on the other end of the phone what you know."

Senior Nini still made no move—it would not submit to an enemy.

Hong Siyu stared at it for a moment, rummaged in her pocket, then pulled out several biscuits and candies, slowly sliding them through the cage's gaps.

"…What exactly do you want to do?" Senior Nini spoke, but remained wary.

"Beasts cannot defy their superior's will—there are things I cannot do myself."

Hong Siyu explained: "But my superior hasn't forbidden me from meeting sowers, nor from giving sowers a hint."

"…Do you intend to betray your superior?"

Senior Nini slightly shifted its gaze: "Or is this just a performance for me?"

"Whatever it is, you have no other choice left, and neither do I."

Hong Siyu gripped her phone tightly, her voice low: "If this continues, within a year your magic will be drained dry, and you will become that woman's experimental material. Might as well bet your hope on this call. After all, it's just a call; I'm not asking you to betray anyone."

"Who is on the other end of the line?"

"The Inspector," Hong Siyu said softly.

The fairy was slightly stunned for a moment, then, as if realizing something, swallowed hard:

"What do you want me to tell him?"

"Just tell him..."

Hong Siyu bit her lip, then slowly spat out two words from her mouth: "Be careful."

What happened after that needs no further elaboration.

Hong Siyu had done everything she could; she had indeed made the magical girl from her memories stand up again. The moment she saw Senior Cuique again, she understood her mission was over.

As for the plans of Black Ash Dawn, she had no way to stop them.

From the moment she walked into the director's office of the Fang Ting City Anomaly Bureau, she had been a broken beast; under the constraint of not disobeying superiors, some covert small actions were already the limit.

She chose to meet the one she loved for the last time on the night of the Full Moon Festival, then leave, quietly waiting for her final transformation in this place that had become a nest of broken beasts.

It's just that she didn't expect to see that person again at the very last moment of her life.

She saw the magical girl in the navy-blue dress walk through the main gate of the Anomaly Bureau, her expression solemn, her steps hurried, so resolute and without looking back.

Was this a dying hallucination? Or was it fate's final compensation for her misfortune?

Hong Siyu didn't know the truth, but that didn't stop her from walking out of the crowded pack of broken beasts, then quietly landing behind that magical girl and making her final request to the other:

—Do it.

Then, her consciousness plunged into boundless darkness.

She was not a qualified magical girl. Hong Siyu understood this.

Because, when she first became a magical girl, compared to the other children, her original intention was selfish and weak.

If most girls who became magical girls fought with full courage and determination for the common future of humanity, then she had always been that selfish person, only greedy for her own happiness.

She had walked this path to pray for her own happiness, striving to move forward to chase the light of her companions, but when she lost that original intention and could no longer see the light ahead in her heart, her path ended there. Precisely because of this, her resolve could only lead her this far; that shining light was destined never to favor her forever.

Having lost the light and the future, she could no longer go on.

So, the period for everything ends here, right?

Hong Siyu thought silently, letting her consciousness be drowned by the tide-like darkness.

An unqualified magical girl, who still messed everything up even after retirement; perhaps what is happening now is her retribution.

If human consciousness still has another destination after death, what should she say when she meets Anya? Will she feel regret and disappointment at her actions?

But, isn't she not human anymore now? Having turned into something like a broken beast, can she go to the same world as magical girls after death?

Hong Siyu felt her thoughts becoming increasingly blurred.

The viscous darkness was sticking to her thinking, sinking toward a bottomless abyss; her drowsy consciousness became solid as thinking stagnated, and the last clarity flickered like a candle in the wind, struggling to emit a final sliver of light.

She could feel, in some vague way, that above the boundless darkness, in that distant place, the azure light was becoming ever more brilliant.

That was Senior Cuique's magic, the magic of a magical girl. Undoubtedly, the moment it erupted, it would take her life.

"—"

But, she seemed to hear someone shouting something.

Was it a senior?

Hong Siyu felt that if she still had a body now, she should be able to smile sincerely.

Even if she died as a broken beast, at least dying in the hands of a magical girl before committing evil, at least dying in the hands of the person she loved, that would be the best outcome, right? —"Hong Siyu!"

The voice was becoming clearer and clearer; this time, it entered Hong Siyu's ears with unparalleled clarity.

This made her, who was about to lose consciousness, regain a bit of clarity once more.

Why could she still hear?

She couldn't help but generate such a doubt.

Was death such a long and painful thing? Even after completely losing perception of the outside world, would delusions and hallucinations continue to arise endlessly?

It was enough; she didn't want to live like this anymore. Let this all end quickly.

She complained in a self-abandoning manner. But immediately after, she felt her hand being grabbed.

Her two hands, which should no longer exist, now felt the power of a tight grip with unparalleled clarity.

Who was it?

She couldn't help but want to open her eyes, but she was firmly stuck in place by some inexplicable force, still unable to move.

—"Hong Siyu!"

The voice came from the distance again, but this time, it had become much closer.

And when this cry reached Hong Siyu's consciousness, that originally distant and dazzling blue light finally arrived before Hong Siyu.

She felt herself beginning to rise.

From the boundless darkness, dragged by a powerful force, rising toward the sky which had already been out of reach.

—"Hong Siyu!"

She heard it with unparalleled clarity, a cry from right beside her ear.

Hong Siyu suddenly opened her eyes.

Sight, hearing, touch, taste; the senses that should have been cut off once again fed back to her brain with unparalleled clarity, and the world became clear and real once more.

She saw the familiar building, the familiar hall, the familiar moonlight.

This was the Fang Ting City Anomaly Bureau she knew so well, the place where she had worked for two years against her will, and now it had become a wasteland. Crumbling walls, cracked ground, shattered glass—she lay amidst the chaotic ruins, with an impossibly bright moonlight above her.

And her hand was being tightly gripped by another hand.

Amidst the azure magic light, the petite girl was soaked in blood and grime of unknown origin; her gem-like, vivid hair was stained with dust and haze, looking so wretched.

Her eyes and fingernails shimmered with blue light, the Heart Gem beneath her neck also radiated a piercing blue glow, and even her hair sparkled from the surging magic.

Like an angel fallen to earth, she looked at Hong Siyu with an inexplicable smile.

Hong Siyu had never seen Senior Cuique smile like this before.

"It's all right now."

She spoke in a cool yet gentle voice, and for some reason, though she was smiling, tears glistened in the corners of her eyes: "Because the Magical Girl has arrived."

In her hand, she held a small pair of tailor's scissors.

On those scissors, countless blue threads were currently hooked and connected, their surfaces covered in intricate patterns that trembled with the breath of magic.

No, those were not patterns.

Hong Siyu realized this.

The things on the scissors were cracks.

She instinctively raised her hand; what met her eyes was not the ugly limbs of a mutated beast as she had imagined, but her own familiar hand, only somewhat pale from blood loss.

She looked to the side and saw a towering mutated beast, shaped like a moth, lying beside her, its belly ripped open, yet its interior was completely hollow.

As if something had been dug out from inside.

She couldn't help but make that association.

"Senior."

She couldn't help but ask aloud: "What... what did you do?"

"I just killed the mutated beast in a very ordinary way."

Senior Cuique gently set down the scissors in her hand and pressed Hong Siyu's hand down, saying: "Wasn't this your own request?"

This answer left Hong Siyu stunned.

She stared steadily at Senior Cuique for a moment, wanting to say, "Why are you still joking at a time like this?" but the words that reached her lips turned into a sob, and then she burst into tears.

First, tears slid silently from the corners of her eyes; she sniffled, and soon, she couldn't help but choke up, finally crying out loudly:

"It's so scary! Senior! It's so dark, so painful, so terrifying, I was really terrified to death!"

"Mm, I know."

"I actually didn't want to just die like this, but thinking there was truly no hope, I thought at least when I died, I wouldn't put too much psychological burden on you, so you could finish things here quickly. But actually, I don't want to die at all!"

"Mm, I know."

"But I also don't want to truly become a mutated beast; I don't want to eat people, I don't want to hurt others, and I even more don't want to hurt those children. I feel that if we really have to go that far, it would be better for you to just kill me..."

Hong Siyu cried out loudly like a child, constantly complaining. Until her tears were almost exhausted and her voice became hoarse, she paused, gradually softening her voice, and murmured:

"Senior, I like you."

"Mm, I know."

"Not the kind of liking for a friend, but the kind of liking for the opposite sex."

"Mm, I know that too."

"Then, do you know? Actually, since I was in the second year of middle school, I have been secretly in love with you."

"... I'm sorry."

"But, the me now is already thirty-five; I am no longer that young and beautiful girl from back then. I've grown old like this, and even turned into such a disgusting monster. You won't like me anymore anyway, right?"

Sniffing slightly, Hong Siyu forced a somewhat ugly smile: "I can only muster the courage to confess in this atmosphere, and it's just such a troublesome confession. Just pretend you didn't hear it, and don't reply."

"... Hong Siyu."

"What is it?"

"You don't need to be Anya anymore; you are not her." Senior Cuique said softly.

Hong Siyu was slightly stunned, looking at Senior Cuique's face, and remained silent for a while.

"So you could feel it all along." She closed her eyes somewhat weakly, "I thought you were truly as dull as a piece of wood."

"Hong Siyu."

"What is it now?"

"Thank you, for making me clarify some things." Senior Cuique gently released the hand holding Hong Siyu's.

"What's wrong? Realizing you can actually find a new partner?"

"No."

"Well, after all, an old woman like me..."

"Not that either." Senior Cuique's somewhat wavering voice interrupted Hong Siyu's words.

This made Hong Siyu seem to realize something, and she opened her eyes once more. She looked seriously at Senior Cuique, carefully observing every detail on the other person, feeling that this Magical Girl who should have been familiar seemed to have changed in some way.

"Senior..."

She panted slightly, her voice trembling a bit: "What exactly did you do?"

Senior Cuique offered no explanation, simply silently sheathing the scissors and standing up from the ground.

Then, Hong Siyu saw the scene behind Senior Cuique.

Countless blue magic threads extended from Senior Cuique's back; every single thread was connected to the mutated beasts on the ceiling. The fluorescent blue threads wove into a massive net, surging magic shuttling back and forth along the threads, forming a sea of light, and like a pair of wings, spreading out from behind the girl.

The tips of these wings connected to those mutated beasts that were originally human, actually causing the originally restless mutated beasts to become calm and peaceful again, as if they had fallen into a beautiful dream, sleeping in a silence.

Hong Siyu could hardly describe this brilliant and magnificent scene with words.

But she began to feel a strange sorrow.

Because she knew this was not something the current Senior Cuique should be able to do.

"Don't be so tense; I haven't even used that move yet."

As if seeing through Hong Siyu's thoughts, Senior Cuique spoke calmly: "I simply came to my senses."

"I once acted on wishful thinking, even arrogantly believing I was the hero who saved everything. In the storybooks, heroes, after saving the world, could lay down their arms and return home, spending a stable and happy life with their loved ones."

"But the real world is not a storybook, and I am not a hero. I am merely an ordinary person who was lucky enough to gain power, and who happened to save some people during a battle."

"I am a negligent husband and a negligent father. I failed to protect my lover and my wife. If this continues, I will not be able to protect my daughter either. If it truly comes to that, then everything I have done will be meaningless."

"Then, at least, while I am still able to fight, can I be a competent magical girl, right?"

She looked at Hong Siyu, her smile on her face so dazzling: "A magical girl should be an existence that brings hope, brings miracles, and brings redemption. As long as the magical girl arrives, darkness, despair, and pain should be driven away and eliminated."

"Let me become that existence. As long as I can still fight, I will ensure that all evil within my sight has nowhere to hide. I will bring hope to all of you."

"So, I'm sorry. Although I don't dislike you, I cannot let go of the past. Having chosen the future, I am likely destined to never be the one for you."

Hong Siyu knew that Senior Cuique had made a certain choice.

It was not merely a choice regarding herself or her emotions, but something far more significant, with infinitely profound consequences. And once such a choice is made, it is like a machine that has roared to life; its operation can no longer be reversed or stopped.

"Don't do this."

She spoke somewhat weakly, wanting to rise and dissuade her, but only then realized she did not have enough strength. For she was too weak now; she could not even stand up.

"Sleep well and rest for a while."

Senior Cuique spoke to her gently, and then, the threads behind her surged, stirring up gusts of air in the autumn night, like a kingfisher flapping its wings.

Amidst the shattered ruins of the Yice Bureau, the remaining steel skeleton resembled a massive cage, yet this cage had already lost its lock. The Senior Cuique within the cage now spread her wings, raised her head to look at the sky, and let out a loud cry, ready to fly toward the distance once more.

— "When you wake up, the sky will be bright."

(End of this chapter)

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