After get off work, I become a magical girl

2023-06-03

"The test report is out."

In the suburbs of Fangting City, in Emerald's private research institute.

The chubby fairy doll jumped down from the treatment bed, holding a small mirror in its claws, with a series of runes on the mirror. It walked nonchalantly in front of Delphinium and said lazily:

"Well, how should I put it? The situation seems to be more complicated than I previously speculated."

"Is it more complicated than what you said before? Then what is her current condition?" Cuique asked in a deep voice, frowning and looking at the treatment bed not far away. The person lying on the bed was Bai Jingxuan who had just been sent over.

Several hours had passed since the sudden incident at Lakeside Spring. After the war, Lin Yun, as the director, notified the other combatants of the Strategy Bureau, arranged the wounded and the dead on the battlefield, and brought Bai Jingxuan to Emerald's research institute.

The purpose of the inspection, of course, is to find out what that strange black skirt looks like.

Cuiqiao had never seen Bai Jingxuan like that before. Not only had her clothes and appearance changed, but even her personality and magic power were different from her usual state.

If she had to guess where she had seen a similar image before, it would probably date back to a few months ago, when she fought against the rebellious magical girl "Sparrow" from "Claw Mark".

At that time, Sparrow used a fighting state she called "half-beast form", which covered half of her body with yellow and black stripes. At that time, the clothes she wore were indeed similar to those of Bai Jingxuan before.

This made Delphinium think of what Emerald had told her before: Bai Jingxuan might be born with "claw marks".

"You can remember what I told you. It was right to bring this child to me as soon as possible. In fact, the definition I told you before may not be accurate."

As if she had guessed what Delphinium was thinking, Emerald controlled the doll to lift up the mirror and passed it in front of Delphinium:

"This child is indeed a shifter, but it's not 'a magical girl shifted to a broken beast', but 'a broken beast shifted to a magical girl'. In other words, if we define her based on her magic power, she is not a magical girl who has mastered the power of a broken beast, but a broken beast whose appearance and power are similar to those of a magical girl."

"…Is there any difference between the two?" Delphinium frowned even more tightly.

"A big difference, epigenetic. It means the nature of life is different."

The doll shook its head. "A human who can imitate the howl of a wolf, and a wolf who can speak human language. Even if they can communicate with each other, do you think these two are similar lives?"

Delphinium opened its mouth, but remained silent.

"Yeah, it seems you understand it too."

Seeing Delphinium's reaction, Emerald also sighed: "There seems to be an old saying among humans, 'Those who are not of my kind must have different hearts.' The remnant beasts are the natural enemies of humans and magical girls. It can be said that they are sworn enemies. And if we define it based on the nature of magic power, that child is actually a remnant beast that stole the power of a magical girl by accident. It is an extremely dangerous enemy."

"...I don't agree with this statement. She is not an enemy and has not harmed any innocent people."

Delphinium looked at the doll in front of her seriously: "On the contrary, she has saved many civilians as a magical girl."

"Calm down, young man. I'm not saying that she has become our enemy."

The doll took back the mirror in its hand: "I am just telling you what an outsider who doesn't know the inside story will think when he finds out the identity of this child."

"You can think about it from a different perspective. If you don't know this child, you don't know her true nature. What would you think when you find out that a stranger is actually a beast using the power of a magical girl?"

"Believe me, most people will be distant and wary; a few will be directly hostile."

Delphinium couldn't refute what Emerald said. She knew it was most likely true.

"So, why is this happening?"

She could only lower her eyes and asked in confusion: "Why is this child's magic power like this?"

"To be honest, I don't know. But that doesn't stop me from making some guesses."

Emerald said slowly: "I have heard similar rumors before, so the most likely guess is that this is the work of Black Cinder Dawn."

"…Them again?"

"Of course it's them again. Apart from them and Claw Mark, who else in this world is just tinkering with the power of the remnant beast every day?"

The doll spread its paws in a funny way: "I should have told you that although the Black Dawn is an organization that has only grown in the past twenty years, it was not established in the past twenty years. Its predecessor existed in the world a long time ago."

"About a hundred years ago, I heard from a person in the interstellar world that the 'Apostles' - oh, that was the previous name of the Black Ember Dawn gang. Anyway, they were tinkering with some very new things. They seemed not satisfied with borrowing the power of the remaining beasts and using the power of the remaining beasts. They wanted to go one step further - to create humans who were born with the magical properties of the remaining beasts."

"And this desire gave rise to something called the 'Saint Creation Project'."

The doll pointed to a research table not far away and said, "I don't know the specific content and actual operation. After all, these guys used to be like cockroaches, hiding in dark corners and playing disgusting tricks. However, some of the terms in this plan inevitably spread to my data table."

“…’Inevitable’, oh, I see.”

Delphinium narrowed her eyes and nodded, mentally classifying this word into the same category as the "noble and beautiful" mentioned by Emerald: "So, what kind of noun is it?"

She did not question the authenticity of the information because she had heard the term "Saint Creation Plan" from others.

[Since the success of the Saint Creation Plan and the advent of the Son of God, we have no other choice. ]

These are the exact words Moss said in the early morning of the Full Moon Festival.

At that time, Jade Bird did not understand the meaning of this sentence. At that time, the two were still fighting for life and death, and she had no time to think about it. Unexpectedly, half a month later, she heard the same words again in Emerald.

——"'Holy Son', 'Beast Son', 'Sacrificial Son'."

Emerald recited in a flat voice: "There is no specific explanation, no relevant description, and not even any examples. It's just a few isolated words. However, just by looking at the correspondence between these words, you can probably associate something with it."

The words "holy" and "beast" seem to be highly bound and related in the cognition of Black Dawn. The "sacrifice" in the word "sacrifice" naturally reminds people of the sacrifices that those scum have been performing in secret, and then smells a strong smell of blood.

"You mean, Bo Xue... this child, is the one involved in this so-called plan?"

Delphinium was puzzled and asked, "But from the information I have learned, this child should have no connection with the Black Dawn. Before this, she was just an innocent orphan."

"Maybe you should ask her about this."

Emerald pointed at Bai Jingxuan who was sleeping on the treatment bed and said, "If what you said is true, she changed like this during the battle with Black Dawn. Then the biggest possibility is that she learned something from those people."

Emerald's words reminded Delphinium of the pupa-level remnant beast, or rather the remains of a remnant beast, that she had seen on the battlefield before coming to the institute. A normal pupa-level remnant beast would not be able to leave its nest and appear there alone, so the remnant beast was most likely a beast-transformer of the Black Cinder Dawn.

The other party did not hesitate to use the hidden pieces in the Strategy Bureau to find out some truths by contacting Bai Jingxuan at this time. Unfortunately, there was only a fresh corpse of a beast left, and it was highly likely that it would not be able to provide any useful information.

"Anyway, this is the result of the examination. The child's current condition is not 'abnormal'. Rather, this is how she should behave, so you don't need to worry about her body being overloaded or harmed."

Closing his paws and patting them gently, the doll turned around and returned to the side of the treatment bed: "Instead of worrying about the child's condition, you should think about what you should do next."

“What should I do…?”

Delphinium repeated thoughtfully, "So, what do you suggest?"

"Do you want advice from the Gem Scepter, or from Magical Girl Emerald herself?"

"What would the Gem Scepter suggest?"

"I would suggest that you nip the unstable factor in the bud. Kill the child or send her to the research institute as research material."

Emerald's voice sounded nonchalant: "No one can guarantee that this girl will not go astray in the future and embark on the same path as those traitors of Claw Scar. And if she is allowed to grow up, she will undoubtedly be more dangerous than those people."

"That is indeed a very jeweled scepter's suggestion." Delphinium nodded calmly, "What about a more humane suggestion?"

"It's not some humane advice. It's just the minimum empathy that an elder should have for the younger generations of magical girls."

The puppet stopped the treatment bed, and Emerald's lazy voice was rarely serious:

"If you really want this child to stay on the right path, then you may have to work harder and spend more energy to educate and guide her."

"This is destined to be a road full of difficulties. The magical properties of the remnant beast will continue to affect the child's thinking mode, making her accustomed to blood and killing. In addition, the outside world will inevitably look upon her with vigilance and suspicion, and there may even be misunderstandings."

"I don't think this suggestion is 'humane' because it would be very unfair to you. You need to think carefully about whether you really need to do this for the child."

"Or do you still have the energy to do this for her, young man?"

——Do you still have the energy to spare?

Delphinium thought silently. The answer to this question does not need to be carefully considered, because it must be negative.

Emerald's words sounded realistic, even a little cold, but every word was a practical question that forced Delphinium to reflect seriously.

Although she was still in the midst of misunderstanding, she already had a daughter to raise; besides that, as a magical girl, teaching three juniors was already very tiring; the Strategy Bureau was now in a state of disrepair, and if she wanted to make Fangting City a safer place, the director's work could not be slacked off; next year's certification assessment was imminent, and this was also a job that required advance preparation.

If he wanted to educate and guide Bai Jingxuan in depth, he would have to invest more time and energy in her, leaving less time for other matters.

However, the criterion for judging this issue is not actually one’s own “spare energy”.

As long as Cuiqiao recalled the look in Bai Jingxuan's eyes when she was wearing a black dress, the look that expected a response and recognition, such rational thinking became a trivial matter.

Only she could do this, she told herself.

It was not that she was being sentimental, but she could clearly sense that when Bai Jingxuan's magic showed its animal side, its connection with "human" had become extremely weak.

Having lost her parents and her ideals, the magical girl who saved her died in an accident, and her identity as a "magical girl" is in jeopardy. Bai Jingxuan has little connection with her "human" side, like a kite that has lost its string and could drift away to an unknown distance at any time.

At that time, the only thing that Cuique could do was to become the "kite string". She complied with Bai Jingxuan's expectations and acknowledged her identity as a "mother".

Doing so can certainly temporarily bring back Bai Jingxuan and barely maintain her connection with "people". But there are also side effects: as long as the jellyfish does not maintain the existence of this "kite string", this last connection will disappear.

In other words, before helping Bai Jingxuan establish a new connection, Cuique is the only one who can guide this child. Whether this child will take the right path or go astray will be closely related to her.

What she was thinking about was no longer "whether to do it" but "how to do it".

However, there is no standard answer to this question, and it is impossible to draw any meaningful conclusions just by imagining. Everything has to be put into practice first.

After saying goodbye to Emerald and leaving the research institute with Bai Jingxuan, Cuiqiao carried Bai Jingxuan on his back in the car and drove her home.

It was already evening, and dim sunlight streamed into the car through the front window. Bai Jingxuan, who had been sleeping, woke up in the back seat under the red sunset, looked around in confusion, and then saw Delphinium in the front seat through the rearview mirror.

"teacher?"

She first shouted in confusion, then as if she was recalling something, she asked in a strange tone: "What's wrong with me now?"

"You fell asleep, so I drove you back," Delphinium explained calmly.

"I am asleep?"

Bai Jingxuan subconsciously looked at her hands, her expression dazed: "I remember that my hands seemed to have grown claws? I seemed to have defeated the bad guys and saved everyone in the Yi Ce Bureau? Are these... all dreams?"

"It's not a dream, it's all real."

Delphinium's voice was cool and gentle. "It's just that you passed out at the end. You did a great job. I'm proud of you."

"Is it all true?"

Bai Jingxuan was slightly stunned, then blinked, and suddenly hesitated and said:

"Then I remember, didn't I call the teacher mom? And then teacher, you, you... admitted it?"

No one in the car responded for a moment.

There were constant sounds of horns honking on the road outside the car window, but they were all isolated outside this space, dividing the two worlds.

"…Well, it's not a dream."

Kuija held the steering wheel and looked at the traffic ahead. After a long silence, he finally showed a firm look and spoke seriously:

"You're right. I'll be your mother from now on. Bo Xue... no, Xiao Xuan."