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Cold water washed over Lin Yu’s cheeks, mixing with sweat as it flowed into her eyes, stinging painfully.
Even with the boost from her phased spirit body, dragging two severely injured people through the mud was still no easy task.
Thanks to Li Qing holding the rear, at the very last moment, Lin Yu managed to get both seniors out of the exhibition hall.
“Plop.”
She hadn’t gone far when her exhausted legs slipped.
“Ugh—”
There was no impact like she expected.
Lin Yu felt as if she had fallen onto a pile of something.
Soft.
And a little… warm?
“I’m sorry… Ice Sis? Senior Ying? Are you okay… eh?”
Panicking, she tried to scramble up, instinctively pressing her palm down.
What she felt under her hand wasn’t marble or mud.
It was wet, sticky, elastic—
The unmistakable texture of flesh.
The instant she saw what she had landed on, Lin Yu jumped in fright.
“Hey—!!!”
That wasn’t a cushion.
They were corpses.
A whole heap of them, piled carelessly by the roadside like a mound of trash.
They wore identical security uniforms, soaked through with dark red fluid.
Some had crushed chests, others had limbs bent at impossible angles…
No bullet wounds.
No knife marks.
“It was probably… that Luo Luo Tian… who did this…”
Chen Bing spoke weakly, her breath barely steady.
At this moment, she had been forced to解除 her transformation.
When returning in a severely injured state, the pain didn’t fade—it instead eroded the will as mental damage, relentlessly.
“Don’t be afraid… these people deserved it…”
Leaning against the pile of bodies, Chen Bing swept her cold gaze across those twisted faces.
“Look at the tattoos… all Red City Gang impostors…”
“Looks like that terrifying Divine Chosen already threw himself a slaughter party here before entering…”
“Cough— ack!”
On the other side, Yano Ying tried to push herself up, only to violently spit out a mouthful of blood.
“Senior Ying!”
“Don’t worry about me…”
Yano Ying shoved Lin Yu away as she tried to help her up.
Amid unstable flickers of psionic energy, her transformation also解除d.
Returning with grievous injuries, the agony in her mind was frantically gnawing at her will.
Trembling, she grabbed her wristband and furiously tapped the emergency comm button.
(No signal)
“Tch, damn it…”
She gritted her teeth and smashed the wristband into the muddy water.
“Chen Bing, stop wasting time… find a vehicle. This place is too far from the company. We have to get back to HQ and request support…”
“Urgh—”
Chen Bing took several deep breaths, forcibly suppressing the metallic taste rising in her throat.
Her sharp eyes scanned quickly through the rain curtain and soon locked onto a black business van parked by the roadside.
“That one ahead… looks like it can still run.”
She struggled to stand but staggered.
“Lin Yu, I don’t have the strength anymore… you’ll have to break the glass so I can get in and hotwire the system…”
“O-okay!”
Lin Yu didn’t dare delay, almost using every ounce of strength she had to support both of them to the vehicle.
She raised her fist, preparing to smash the window.
“Hah!”
“Thud.”
A dull sound.
The window didn’t budge.
Instead, Lin Yu’s hand hurt so badly it went numb.
From excessive tension and depleted psionic energy, even in her magical girl state, she was now as weak as an ordinary person.
“Idiot… use more force!”
“I—I want to! But…”
“Tch.”
Chen Bing shook her head helplessly, bent down, and fished out half a red brick from a roadside flowerbed, stuffing it into Lin Yu’s hands.
“Use this. This is physics.”
“O-oh!”
Lin Yu clenched her teeth, aimed at the corner of the window, and smashed down hard.
“Clang! Crash—”
The glass shattered instantly.
“Woooo— woooo— woooo—”
A piercing car alarm exploded into sound, especially terrifying in the deathly rain.
“Hurry! Get in!”
Ignoring whether it would attract monsters, the three of them clumsily opened the doors, reached through the glass-filled window to unlock it, then stumbled inside.
The cabin smelled faintly of leather.
It was still cold, but at least it shut out the despairing downpour.
The moment they got in, Chen Bing made a move that left Lin Yu dumbfounded.
She directly stripped off the soaked nun outfit she was wearing and tossed it casually into the back seat.
“Hah…”
Now, only a black sports bra remained on her upper body.
Large swathes of pale skin were exposed to the air.
Her full, upright figure was striking under the dim cabin light—
But no one had the mood to appreciate it.
“Wet clothes draw away body heat and accelerate hemorrhagic shock.”
Chen Bing explained coldly, as if she didn’t care at all about exposing herself in front of a junior.
Yano Ying wasn’t quite that bold, but she silently removed her soaked skirt as well, tossing aside the rain-swollen eyepatch.
Chen Bing rummaged through the storage compartment and finally found a data cable.
She skillfully pried open the car system panel, connected the cable to her wristband, and began typing rapidly on the virtual keyboard.
A few seconds later.
Beep.
The irritating alarm finally cut off.
The engine rumbled lowly, and the heater began to hum to life.
“Done.”
Chen Bing let out a long breath and leaned back in the driver’s seat.
“Give me a moment. Cracking the autonomous driving firewall will take a bit longer… civilian systems like this can’t stop me.”
The cabin fell into deathly silence.
Only the patter of rain hitting the roof and the soft whoosh of warm air from the vents remained.
The calm came too suddenly.
And it was far too heavy.
In the back seat, Lin Yu hugged her knees, her body still trembling uncontrollably.
Her mind replayed that final scene again and again.
“Th-that… that…”
Her throat felt stuffed with cotton; her voice came out terrifyingly hoarse.
“Qing… Qing Sis? What do we do?”
“Are we… just leaving like this?”
“Should we…”
The questions spilled out—
And sank without a trace.
The atmosphere inside the car froze instantly.
Chen Bing didn’t turn around.
Her hands kept working the screen, but her fingers clearly paused for a moment.
In the passenger seat, Yano Ying turned her head toward the window.
“……”
Silence.
Suffocating silence.
After a long while.
“Lin Yu.”
Yano Ying’s voice was light, but cold.
“Is this your first day as a magical girl?”
“……”
“Purification missions were never dinner parties.”
“You saw that level of contamination yourself. That was never something we could handle.”
“If we hadn’t left just now, we would’ve died there.”
Chen Bing spoke as well.
“Li Qing, that idiot… she always looks carefree, but when it really matters, she always insists on playing the hero.”
“She used her last bit of strength to create this one chance for us.”
“If we go back now just to die… that would be truly betraying her.”
“We should… cherish the opportunity she created.”
“As long as we make it back to the company alive, as long as we bring the intel back…”
“Even if there’s only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, we have to bring the main force back and kill our way in.”
“That’s the only thing… we can do right now.”
“……”
Lin Yu didn’t know what to say.
It felt like a massive stone was pressing on her chest.
Damn it…
Is this for real?
I… I just wanted to attend a convention.
I just wanted to make a little extra cash, maybe buy some limited-edition figures to resell…
How did it turn into this?
How did it turn into facing a contaminant we can’t possibly beat?
How did it turn into… watching a coworker go off to die?
Sure, everyone joked around in the break room, saying stuff like, “If I ever die on duty, remember to use my compensation money to buy the latest handbag and burn it for me.”
Dark humor.
Everyone laughed.
I laughed too.
But…
That was just joking!
Who the hell would take that seriously?!
“Ah…”
In her mind, Li Qing’s resolute final silhouette was branded into her retina like a red-hot iron.
That senior who was always smiling…
Who loved gossip…
Who was even a little sly…
The annoying senior whose teacher loved gossiping about her private life…
…
That fox-spirit senior who loved teasing her about transforming…
Was going to die?
Really… going to die?
Lin Yu felt her brain throbbing as if someone were drilling into it.
She clutched her head tightly, fingers digging into her soaked hair.
It’s over…
It’s over…
Is there really no way?
Is there really no escaping that horrible ending?
Is there really no one in this world who can save her?
Would Batman work?
No—he’s Gotham’s vigilante. A normal human. He can’t handle Lovecraftian contamination.
Spider-Man?
No. All he does is shoot webs.
Iron Man, maybe?
He even has a Hulkbuster.
But Iron Man is in the Marvel universe.
In America.
Even if he existed, he wouldn’t cross the Pacific in a rocket just to save a few Chinese magical girls…
What do I do?
What should I do?
Is running away really the only option?
Just fleeing like everyone else always does?
Like a pack of beaten dogs?
Just sitting here helplessly, unable to do anything?
Clinging to her last shred of hope, Lin Yu looked at the two silhouettes in the front seats.
Please…
Please come up with some brilliant turnaround plan!
Like in anime—suddenly awakening some ultimate skill, or pulling out a hidden divine artifact…
But there was nothing.
Chen Bing remained silent.
Yano Ying kept staring out the window.
Lin Yu knew they were suffering too—probably more than she was.
But at this moment, the cruel truth called “reality” finally tore apart her last illusion.
This wasn’t a magical girl anime.
No director would take pity on your crying and hand you a miracle.
This was Xinhai City.
This was the naked, real world.
Magical girls were, in the end, just paid human soldiers.
Just this city’s… high-end janitors.
When they encountered trash they couldn’t clean up—
They’d be swallowed by the trash instead.
But…
“No… please…”
Curled up in the corner of the back seat, Lin Yu hugged herself tightly, trembling violently from fear and nausea.
Please don’t let it be like this.
I’m begging you, God…
I already admitted I’m useless!
I already admitted I’m a cowardly, money-grubbing miser!
For money, for a dowry fund, for that paycheck—
I was even willing to throw away a man’s dignity, crossdress, debut, and become this thing people call a perverted magical girl!
I’ve already tried so hard to live in this screwed-up world…
So…
Can’t you let things be just a little easier for me?
I never wanted to be a savior!
I just wanted a sweet, ordinary life…
Even if it’s tiring, as long as I can clock out with these cute coworkers, buy oden at the convenience store, mooch air conditioning at a milk tea shop…
Even if they tease me, saying “Today’s skirt is cute too,” I’d still grin and tease them back…
Even if every payday I only dare use triple-discount coupons like a poor ghost, savoring that cheap joy of opening packages…
Is that really such an unreasonable wish?
Life-and-death farewells…
Heroic sacrifices…
What do those have to do with trash like me?!
Why force me to face this?
When I clearly can’t do anything…
When I have no power at all…
Why force me to sit here and watch a senior—
One I complain about with my mouth, but secretly really like—
Slowly…
All alone…
Die in this cold, rainy night?
Fine, fine, maybe I don’t actually like her that much.
After all, she loved prying into my privacy, always wanted to snoop on my phone, and even made disgusting jokes about me and Luo Shaotian…
But…
Just thinking about her dying—
I’m really scared.
My heart feels hollowed out.
And I still can’t do anything…
Trash is trash!
Even as a magical girl, even with a future rank evaluation—
At the core, I’m still that useless coward who only knows how to run away!
“Please don’t die…”
Lin Yu buried her face in her knees.
Her thin voice trembled in her throat, carrying a childish plea.
Tears slid unknowingly down her cheeks, soaking the actually quite cute dress she wore.
The car was quiet.
Lonely.
The two seniors didn’t respond.
They were right—any comfort at this moment would be hollow.
Veteran magical girls had long since cut away useless emotions like “cowardice.”
Crying wouldn’t save anyone.
It would only waste strength and water.
But…
They didn’t scold her.
They silently allowed this junior, in this cramped space, to indulge once in the luxury called “grief.”
“Splaaash…”
The rain seemed to grow heavier, like countless hands pounding the windows, making an irritating din.
Dazed, Lin Yu seemed to hear—within the chaos of rain—a faint yet stubborn knocking sound.
“Thump, thump, thump…”
What was that?
She slowly opened her swollen eyes and sluggishly turned her head toward the sound.
The next instant, her pupils shrank violently.
Outside the mud-splattered window, a small white figure was clinging to the door handle, tapping the glass again and again with its short little paws.
“Open the door!”
“Huh?”
Chen Bing heard it too and frowned, glancing at the rearview mirror.
Immediately, even this always-calm big sister showed shock.
“Xiao Bai?! This thing actually…”
Outside the window, the “Autonomous Phased Armament” that should have been forgotten in the exhibition hall ruins—
Had miraculously caught up.
Its snow-white fur was completely drenched by rain, yet its pitch-black eyes remained firm.
Its fluffy tail hung limply like a wet rag, its body smeared with black engine oil and mud.
It looked like an idol mascot abandoned by its owner—
Who had crossed countless miles just to catch up.
Lin Yu’s heart clenched painfully.
She had been so focused on escaping that she had completely forgotten this little guy.
Guilt surged like a tide.
“I’m sorry… Xiao Bai…”
Chen Bing pressed the central lock.
“Click.”
The moment the door unlocked, Lin Yu pushed it open impatiently, wanting to pull the drenched little creature into her arms and give it some belated warmth.
“Come on, get in! It’s cold outside—”
However—
“SLAP——!!!”
Before Lin Yu’s hand could touch it, a wet paw swung out mercilessly and smacked her square in the face!
The blow wasn’t light.
Her face stung, and she was completely stunned.
“You—”
Before she could react—
The rabbit that usually only acted cute, or showed her its butt—
Went completely berserk.
Instead of climbing into the warm cabin, it started hopping wildly in the mud.
Its once-dull ruby eyes were now flashing red at an insane frequency.
“Beep—— beep—— beep——”
Urgent electronic beeping echoed through the rainy night.
Lin Yu remembered it clearly.
That was—
[Weapon system preheating. Requesting immediate combat activation.]
What the hell?
Lin Yu froze, rainwater flowing into her mouth—bitter and astringent.
This thing…
Didn’t want to run?
It chased after her not to escape—
But to make her go back?!
“Lin Yu, don’t bother with that thing!”
Chen Bing urged impatiently from the driver’s seat.
“Dr. Mei’s crazy inventions… they always malfunction at the worst times!”
“She’s always talking nonsense about designing chips with more ‘soul,’ about how only then can they match the magical girls’ idealistic power source…”
“Breaking down at a time like this… it’s just causing trouble! Throw it away and let’s hurry—”
“…………”
Before Chen Bing could finish, Lin Yu’s eyes suddenly widened.
Only with more soul—
Can it match the power source?
A magical girl’s…
Power source?
“…………”
Suddenly, Lin Yu shoved the door open and stepped back into the cold rain.
“Bang!”
The door slammed shut.
“You go first! I’ll cover the rear!”
Her voice wasn’t loud, but it was terrifyingly clear in the rain.
Inside the car, Chen Bing and Yano Ying stared at her in disbelief, as if looking at a madwoman.
“Hey— are you out of your—”
“I’m not crazy! Trust me just once!”
Lin Yu wiped the rain from her face, then used all her strength to shout into the storm—shouting the line that once gave her secondhand embarrassment:
“—Pure Heart! Bond Link! Transform!! Xiao Bai————!!”
“BOOOOOOM——!!!”
Her answer was a pink explosion that shook the heavens!
At her feet, Xiao Bai instantly disintegrated, transforming into countless streams of silvery liquid metal that surged upward like a reversed waterfall, winding along Lin Yu’s legs!
“Clack-clack-clack— bzzzzz—”
The crisp sounds of metal recombining fell like a torrential rain.
A few seconds later.
The ridiculous mascot was gone.
In its place hovered behind her—
A heavy mechanized upper body over two meters tall, radiating cold killing intent—
【Da Bai】!
But this time, it didn’t merely float.
“Click!”
The massive right-arm particle cannon transformed and unfolded, becoming a gigantic steel hand.
That hand gently yet firmly cradled Lin Yu’s petite body, lifting her high—
Like a saintess being sent off to war.
“Go————!!!”
Lin Yu pointed toward the exhibition center shrouded in dark clouds.
“BOOOOOOM——!!!”
The twin vector thrusters behind Da Bai ignited instantly!
Azure-blue exhaust trails streaked brilliantly through the rainy night.
Toward that hellish battlefield—
They shot forward!
“…………”
Chen Bing and Yano Ying stared blankly at that retreating figure, their bodies stiff.
“Beep————”
A crisp electronic prompt sounded.
“Beep beep… Autonomous driving system cracked successfully.”
“Optimal evacuation route planned—destination: Fuxiao Company Headquarters.”
“Estimated time: 45 minutes.”
“Please fasten your seatbelts.”
“Xinhai City Traffic Bureau reminds you: Roads are many, safety comes first. Drive improperly, and loved ones will shed two lines of tears.”
You think this chapter was thrilling? Wait until you read The Moon Reflected In The Water! Click here to discover the next big twist!
Read : The Moon Reflected In The Water
If You Notice any translation issues or inconsistency in names, genders, or POV etc? Let us know here in the comments or on our Discord server, and we’ll fix it in current and future chapters. Thanks for helping us to improve! 🙂
The soul it matters