Chapter 147: The Moment of Awakening

"I... don't believe a word you say."

After a brief moment of shock, Bai Jingxuan instinctively refuted aloud: "You are enemies, you are bad people. Bad people's words are all lies. My father and mother were ordinary people; it's impossible they had any connection with you."

But even she did not realize that, although she was refuting with her mouth, the strength of her struggle had clearly diminished.

"You seem quite concerned about this matter? Very well. If knowing your origins allows you to give up this futile resistance, I can spare a little time."

Soldier Bee Seven looked at Bai Jingxuan, his expression calm as he lowered his voice: "After all, I don't wish to bring a half-dead Beast Child to see the Leader. He would blame me for harming his important experimental subject."

"Your 'father' was a man of short stature and slightly chubby build, with a habit of smoking; your 'mother' was a woman with a scar on the corner of her eyebrow, claiming to be a medical practitioner."

"Seven years ago, they brought you to Fang Ting City, settled there, and never took you away from this place. They told you your illness was a congenital disease that hospitals could not cure. So they only took you to the hospital for so-called checkups once every two years, even though they both knew it was meaningless."

"They gave you your current name, but in reality, neither of your 'parents' bore the surname Bai. They used 'Bai' as your surname because the faction that assisted their escape was named 'Claw Mark'. And the first character of the Claw Mark Leader's codename is 'Bai'."

"Your surname was established to express gratitude for the Claw Mark's assistance."

"From the very beginning, the so-called 'kinship' in your memories did not exist. You were merely an insurance policy to avoid fatal pursuit during their escape. After they escaped the organization, they took on the duty of raising you only because they did not want to expose their deception."

Soldier Bee Seven's expression was cold: "Of course, they did not know this, and precisely because of that, they died."

Bai Jingxuan panted slightly, her eyes slowly widening: "That attack was ordered by you? You killed them?"

"No. Even the Leader could not precisely control a Remnant Beast across half a province. Moreover, at that time, we had no idea you were in Fang Ting City."

Soldier Bee Seven shook his head: "Their death actually had nothing to do with us; it was simply a case of bringing it upon themselves."

"Then who was it? Who was controlling that Remnant Beast at the time?" Bai Jingxuan stammered.

Soldier Bee Seven looked at Bai Jingxuan calmly.

"It was you." Those two words came from his mouth.

"You're talking nonsense! How could I possibly do such a thing!" Bai Jingxuan immediately struggled again, glaring fiercely at the man before her: "How could I possibly do such a thing!"

"You don't need any will of your own, because for ordinary Remnant Beasts, a Beast Child is a superior, a born king."

Soldier Bee Seven grabbed her hair and forcefully pressed the back of Bai Jingxuan's head against the wall: "I don't know exactly what happened at that time, but if a Remnant Beast could precisely infiltrate indoors and even accurately kill the humans around you, then there is only one possibility."

— "It wanted to see you. After seeing you, it intended to eat you and replace you."

"Unfortunately, your so-called 'parents' were merely ordinary researchers. They did not know this hidden information, believing your magic was concealed within your body and invisible to outsiders. This already sealed their fate."

"As long as they were by your side, encountering a Remnant Beast and dying as collateral damage was only a matter of time."

"Monsters cannot be accepted by this society; they cannot live like ordinary people. From the moment you were chosen as a Beast Child, accompanying beasts was your only choice for life. So, stop playing boring make-believe with meat-pigs here and come with me."

He loosened his grip slightly and threw the girl to the ground: "This is my last chance for you to choose. Next time, I will not force myself to bring back a complete Beast Child."

After saying this, he looked down at Bai Jingxuan, who was lying on the ground, and waited silently for her choice.

Bai Jingxuan lay there motionless for a long time. Only when Soldier Bee Seven began to feel impatient did she finally move.

She reached out her hand, supported her body, and slowly sat up on the ground.

"... I am a Magical Girl."

She said this in a somewhat hoarse voice: "A Magical Girl should protect and save everyone. I will fight you, and then... kill you."

Her words left Soldier Bee Seven speechless for a long time.

It was not shock at her stubbornness, but simply a feeling of pity.

"How pitiful."

After a while, he finally spoke again: "I finally see clearly. You are nothing but an empty shell."

"Just as a wild beast cannot understand human behavior, yet wants to become human, so it clumsily and futilely imitates human actions. You don't know what a normal human is like, so you can only futilely imitate, imitating the appearance of humans in your cognition."

"You don't know what a Magical Girl truly is; you are merely constantly imitating your 'ideal Magical Girl'. This imitation even involves multiple targets, even though these behaviors contradict each other."

"Perhaps from one Magical Girl, you saw 'saving and protecting'; from another Magical Girl, you saw 'justice and severity'. Like a wild beast with no self-awareness or intelligence, you haphazardly pieced them together."

"You are not a Magical Girl, you are not human, you have no ideals, you have no past, you don't even have a 'self'. Before me stands only an empty shell acting out the concept of 'Magical Girl'. And inside this empty shell, there is actually nothing."

"There isn't even a reason for the imitation; you are just a pitiful, empty monster."

Soldier Bee Seven, believing he had completely understood the behavioral logic of the girl before him, finally gave up trying to persuade her.

Since she was a monster without human nature, he had no reason to hold any mercy for her; he would simply use violent means to take her back.

Thinking this, he reached inside his black robe and took out his Beast Viscera, then gently pressed it against his heart. He began to chant:

"This is the eradication of traitors..."

— "I will kill you."

But before he could finish speaking, the girl's voice came through once again.

Glancing sideways, he saw that Bai Jingxuan had somehow stood up. Her head hung low, long bangs covering her eyes, revealing only her chin and mouth, which opened and closed, uttering the words just spoken.

"I will kill you."

Then, she repeated that sentence once more.

"Boring." Soldier Bee Seven evaluated coldly. He did not care about the girl's boring words before him and prepared once again to undergo beast transformation.

"I will kill you." Bai Jingxuan seemed completely unable to hear any external sounds, merely repeating that sentence over and over.

She kept chanting like this, kept chanting. Whether to escape, to emphasize, or for self-hypnosis, no one knew. But from beginning to end, she never stopped, while simultaneously taking step by step closer toward Soldier Bee Seven.

When she finally reached Soldier Bee Seven, she looked up again, revealing a pair of eyes that were completely inhuman—eyes where the sclera had turned entirely pitch black, and the eye sockets contained a pair of vertical pupils.

The vertical pupils, filled with icy and violent emotions, stared straight at Soldier Bee Seven, trembling slightly within the sockets, brewing some unsettling emotion that made even Soldier Bee Seven feel a chill down his spine.

Finally, the girl spoke again.

Utterly determined, utterly certain, utterly cold.

"I will kill you."

This was also the last sentence she said to Soldier Bee Seven.

Senior Cuique departed from the Bureau of Hetero-Strategy at top speed, continuously using magic to accelerate, and finally arrived at the location of Lakeside Spring at the fastest possible speed.

The violent consumption of magic triggered her already precarious injuries, so that mere moments after landing from flight, Senior Cuique felt a sharp headache once more. Leaning against a nearby wall to steady herself, she waited until the pain subsided slightly, then took another step and rushed into the residential complex.

The main gate of the complex stood wide open, yet no staff or pedestrians were at the entrance; they had clearly fled to a shelter long ago. Inside, ordinary people were also nowhere to be seen, which somewhat reassured Senior Cuique. However, as she ventured deeper, the surrounding roads gradually became shattered, littered with traces of battle.

Clearly, a fierce battle had occurred here. If her guess was correct, the two sides must have been the Special Operations Department's Third Squad and the remnants of the Black Ember Dawn they had originally intended to investigate and capture.

Considering she had received no calls from the Third Squad on her way here, Senior Cuique's expectations regarding the battle's outcome were rather pessimistic. And this guess was confirmed not long after—she discovered a staff member's body slumped by the roadside.

Judging by their attire, the deceased was undoubtedly a member of the Third Squad; they still gripped a weapon in hand, their face twisted with a grimace of rage. Yet a massive gash had been torn across their neck, and they were now completely lifeless.

Seeing the gruesome state of this staff member, Senior Cuique stood in silent mourning for a moment, then cast a spell to encase the body, protecting it from further damage.

The situation was urgent; at present, this was all she could do. After securing the staff member's body, she still had to press onward.

As she ventured deeper, the number of bodies she encountered along the way increased. Not only were there bodies of Bureau staff, but also a few clad in black robes, unmistakably members of the Black Ember Dawn.

She cast barrier spells over every staff member's body she saw, while silently counting the total number of corpses. Only when that count approached one-third of the entire Third Squad did she finally reach the plaza at the complex's center.

It was here that Senior Cuique sensed an immensely powerful and frigid flow of magic. If her senses were not mistaken, the source of this magical fluctuation must be a Remnant Beast.

Although she had already lost a significant portion of her strength, the power she retained remained considerable. The fact that it made her feel danger meant it was undoubtedly a being at the Pupa Stage or above.

Carrying such complex thoughts, Senior Cuique cautiously stepped into the plaza at the complex's center. But upon drawing near, the sight before her froze her in place.

For she needed only to look up to see the source of that immense magic.

It was a massive Pupa Stage Remnant Beast. One could see it had once possessed a complete pupal shell; the reason for saying "once" was that these shells had inexplicably shattered in many places, unable to fully encase the Remnant Beast's body anymore.

Of course, even in this state, the Remnant Beast's magic was still not to be underestimated.

This Pupa Stage Remnant Beast was not in its own nest but had inexplicably appeared within this residential complex. Yet this still did not mean it was an enemy a typical Magical Girl could handle: for most Magical Girls, it remained a quite dangerous foe.

And yet, at this moment, this supposedly extremely dangerous enemy lay limp and powerless on the ground.

Aside from the shattered pupal shell, this Remnant Beast seemed to have suffered little other damage—its limbs were intact, its form still clearly defined, as if it had not encountered any fatal attack.

Yet at this moment, even its most basic vital signs appeared incredibly weak. Though it still possessed immense and abundant magic, it simply lay there quietly and powerless.

Beside it stood a figure that felt familiar to Senior Cuique, yet strangely foreign.

A girl wearing a black-green stage gown.

The girl's dress was entirely black, its length nearly dragging on the ground, yet it maintained just enough distance; the surface of the skirt was embroidered with numerous green patterns made of some unknown material. These patterns seemed unremarkable from afar, but upon closer inspection appeared incredibly intricate and profound, simultaneously exuding an aura of evil.

Her long green hair cascaded down behind her, falling to her waist, while the tips curled slightly and were tinged with strands of purple, looking somewhat jarring.

The girl wore a pair of black long gloves on her hands, the cuffs extending all the way to her elbows. At the fingertips, her long green nails protruded like sharp claws, appearing incredibly gruesome and terrifying.

At this moment, those nails were deeply embedded in the Remnant Beast's body on the ground, slowly, slowly slicing the creature open until it was split in two.

What does it feel like to be split in half alive? Senior Cuique did not know, but judging by the Remnant Beast's constantly trembling body, the sensation was certainly unbearable.

Although the Remnant Beast's movements were already extremely faint, even under the girl's heart-stopping actions, it could only twitch slightly, indicating it still showed signs of life. Yet the girl seemed indifferent to this, mechanically continuing her act of cutting.

After splitting the Remnant Beast's body open like this, the girl suddenly stopped. Pale green magic sprang forth from nowhere and abruptly poured into the Remnant Beast's wound—then, the creature, which had been nearly cut in two, instantly restored itself to a whole, intact form.

Exactly as Senior Cuique had just seen, with no difference whatsoever.

Having finished all this, the girl turned her head slightly, a somewhat joyful smile appearing on her face. Then she reached out once more, deeply, deeply piercing the Remnant Beast's body, and began to cut again.

Clearly, she had repeated this act many times before.

The Remnant Beast lying on the ground appeared physically intact only because it was constantly being healed, its wounds being restored. In reality, it had already suffered countless fatal injuries.

The girl simply kept splitting the Remnant Beast open, reducing it to a dying state, then healing it to restore it, over and over again. Clearly, this was precisely why the Remnant Beast's resistance to pain was so weak.

Indeed, if the Remnant Beast possessed a soul, it had likely already died at the soul level, leaving behind only a flesh-and-blood body that remained alive solely because it was constantly being healed.

Gazing at the girl in the center of the plaza, Senior Cuique felt as though her throat had been blocked; for a moment, she could not utter a single word.

After a long while, she finally gathered her composure and spoke: "... Bai Xue?"

This call caused the girl not far away to turn her head.

Within the pitch-black sclera, a pair of sharp vertical pupils fixed upon Senior Cuique, yet the expression on the girl's face held no trace of grimace or brutality; it was nothing but the innocence of a child.

She looked at Senior Cuique, and after a brief pause, that innocence transformed into joy.

"Teacher! You've come!"

She immediately dropped the Remnant Beast in her hands, scampered over with tiny steps, and arrived before Senior Cuique, pointing at the limp Remnant Beast slumped on the ground behind her:

"Did you see? I did it! I defeated the bad guys just like you! And I punished them severely! Now they'll never dare to do bad things again in their lives!"

"Those bad guys just told me I have no father or mother, that I should be on their side; they said I'm not a real Magical Girl, just someone imitating others."

"But I'm going to tell them I am a Magical Girl! I will save everyone, and then punish them severely!"

She extended her hand, pointing toward the other side of the plaza as if seeking praise, and looked at Senior Cuique with full expectation: "And over there, Teacher, look!"

Senior Cuique followed her direction and saw that in the direction Bai Jingxuan indicated, a large group of Bureau staff had been gathered there. Green magic wrapped around their wounds, healing their injuries, returning them to calmness, as if they had fallen into a peaceful sleep.

But beside that group of Bureau staff, numerous members of the Black Ember Dawn were piled up, their bodies covered in fatal wounds. Blood had soaked into the ground beneath them, yet they were stacked there like garbage, completely ignored.

Heaven on one side, hell on the other; this was the scene Senior Cuique witnessed, and no description could fit it better.

"Hehe, I knew Teacher would come looking for me. Teacher does care about me after all."

After showing off everything she had done, Bai Jingxuan still seemed quite excited. As she spoke, she suddenly reached out and hugged Senior Cuique's arm, saying happily: "That bad guy just said I had no parents, that my father and mother were fake. I don't care about that at all; anyway, I have them now!"

"Right, Teacher? You can actually count as my mother now, right?"

She went on talking to herself, turning toward the Remnant Beast which now retained only faint vital signs, and said as if a cute little girl showing off: "See? This is my mother! My mother came to save me. Do you have one? Make you angry!"

However, upon drawing near, Senior Cuique could clearly feel that the Remnant Beast probably could not hear Bai Jingxuan's words.

It was already dead; only its body remained alive.

Perhaps Bai Jingxuan had killed it from the very beginning, and since then had merely been engaging in meaningless acts of venting her anger; or perhaps Bai Jingxuan's subsequent torture slowly stripped away its life. But regardless, this Remnant Beast was thoroughly dead.

Senior Cuique looked at Bai Jingxuan once more. The girl seemed to have endless words, still chattering away, showing off, explaining something, while constantly seeking her opinion, as if hoping for a response.

She was uneasy; she hoped for praise.

Senior Cuique realized this.

She silently surveyed the surroundings, gazing at the cruel yet merciful, bloody yet holy scene. After a long moment of observation, a sudden realization arose in her heart.

She suddenly understood why, at the very moment the Battle of the Full Moon Festival ended, Lin Xiaolu had said those words to her.

At that time, Lin Xiaolu was clearly somewhat afraid of herself for having killed Moses, yet she resolutely walked over then, took her hand, and told her, "Go back."

Senior Cuique did not know why Bai Jingxuan was doing all this now, nor whether there was an element of imitation involved, but the scene before her now was so similar to that of herself back then.

She realized this point, and thus understood what she should do now.

Without saying much, she simply approached Bai Jingxuan, slowly opened her arms, and suddenly pulled the girl, who still appeared to be in a state of excitement, into her embrace.

Then, she reached out and gently patted the back of the girl's head.

"Go back," she said softly.

"Go back? Where to?" The girl, suddenly embraced, was clearly somewhat confused, her questioning voice filled with emptiness.

Although she was now in Senior Cuique's arms, for some reason she seemed somewhat unreal; Senior Cuique felt she might turn into green smoke and drift away into the unknown distance at any moment.

This was not enough, she thought.

Merely this seemed insufficient to pull Bai Jingxuan, the girl she knew, back; she still needed to do something to lead her away from the edge of losing control.

Then, what exactly could she still do?

The answer also seemed obvious.

"... Go back with Mom."

Pressing her lips together, Senior Cuique tried to make her voice even softer. She patted the girl's back, gently, gently comforting her: "We'll go back to the secret base, we'll go home."

"... Mom?"

"Mm."

"Is it really Mom? Is Teacher willing to be my Mom?"

"Mm, I am willing."

"Does Mom want me to go back with her?"

"Mom wants you to go back with her."

Senior Cuique still held Bai Jingxuan tightly, as if fearing she would run away the next moment: "I'll take you, you follow me, we'll go back to find Big Sister, okay?"

After these words, there was endless silence.

In the silence, the girl in Senior Cuique's embrace raised her head slightly, and her heterochromatic beast eyes met Senior Cuique's gaze.

She looked at Senior Cuique strangely, quietly; after a short while, she suddenly laughed again, and the black in her sclera began to recede like a tide.

"Okay, Mom."

As she said this, her black dress scattered like withered flowers; the scattered black magic quickly dissipated into the air, becoming dark currents flowing to an unknown place.

The black dress turned white, the white dress changed into her usual everyday clothes, and then the girl collapsed into Senior Cuique's arms.

Senior Cuique looked down, feeling that everything that had just happened was like an Illusory Realm; only an ordinary-looking little girl remained, lying quietly in her arms. Reading books la

Her face bore a smile of relaxation and peace, leaning against Senior Cuique without any guard, sweet and beautiful, sinking into a deep sleep.

(End of this chapter)