Chapter 4: Frequent Murder Cases

“Mmm, I’m late, the say.” 

A petite girl with white twin-tails walked over lazily. 

She wore light blue pajamas, a rabbit-ear headband, knee-high white stockings on her slender legs, and bunny slippers on her small feet.

“This is…?” 

Su Xiaocheng’s small eyes widened with huge shock. 

“Why is a grade-schooler in pajamas wandering around a witch disaster scene in the middle of the night?”

“A newbie, the say?” 

The little girl immediately confirmed Su Xiaocheng’s identity. 

“Youzi mentioned you, the say.” At the same time, she pulled out her ID. “You can call me Xiaobai, the say.”

Su Xiaocheng glanced at the card in her hand: Mu Bai, B-rank Magical Girl, Anning City Branch.

“Um, who is Youzi?” Su Xiaocheng asked, confused.

“She’s the branch chief, the say.” 

Xiaobai turned around on her own and started walking away. 

“Bye-bye. The witch is taken care of. I’m going home to play games, the say.”

Her seemingly delicate body moved at an unexpectedly fast speed. 

Before Su Xiaocheng could even process the fact that she now had a loli senior, Xiaobai had already vanished from sight.

“So fast, meow. Was she really just walking, meow?” 

Xiaotuan exclaimed in amazement.

“Senior Xiaobai really is a very…” 

Su Xiaocheng searched through everything she had learned. 

“…unique magical girl.”

Su Xiaocheng released her transformation. 

She picked up the Witch’s Heart the witch had dropped from the now spotless ground, stored it away, and left the scene with Xiaotuan. 

Thanks to her previous transformation experience, the small amount of magic power consumed today was nothing. 

She didn’t need to replenish it the instant she released her form like the first time.

That first time had been pure overexertion. 

Otherwise, if she had to pay the price every single time, there would be no point in handling witch disasters at all. 

Magical girls were not that weak.

***

The next day, Su Xiaocheng finally waited until work hours and eagerly submitted yesterday’s battle recording.

Since the lowest rank for witches was C-rank, advancing to C-rank magical girl only required submitting a battle recording. 

The review passed quickly.

Magical girls only needed to fight witches on the front lines. 

The logistics staff working nine-to-five had far more things to worry about. 

Not reviewing recordings outside office hours was just one of them.

Su Xiaocheng looked at the 32,000 yuan that had just landed in her account and said with satisfaction, “The payment speed during work hours is pretty fast. The combat subsidy difference came through so quickly.”

“Great, meow! Now we can buy more dried fish, meow!”

She transferred 5,000 yuan to Su Xiaowei right away. 

After reminding her sister over and over to take care of herself at school, Su Xiaocheng grabbed Xiaotuan by the scruff of the neck to stop it from sneaking more dried fish. 

Ignoring its protesting meows, she said, “Time to head out. We still need to report the two similar witches.”

At the entrance of the Anning City branch, Su Xiaocheng stepped out of the taxi with Xiaotuan, feeling refreshed. 

“So this is what rich people’s lives are like? A trip that normally takes an hour and a half only took thirty minutes.”

“Yes, meow. And it wasn’t even crowded, meow~” 

Xiaotuan popped the last spicy dried fish into its mouth in agreement.

The pair entered the lounge. 

Someone was already waiting. 

She had a neat brown high ponytail with straight bangs, a simple white short-sleeve top, a black pleated mini-skirt, black stockings on her long legs, and comfortable sneakers. In her hand was a lollipop she had just taken out of her mouth.

“You must be the Su Xiaocheng who registered yesterday. I’m Xu Youzi, chief of the Anning City Magical Girl Alliance branch. You can just call me Youzi. First, let me give you some news.”

Youzi saw Su Xiaocheng arrive and placed a small cake and two photos in front of her. She continued, “This morning we received a logistics notice. Two citizen deaths were discovered. Preliminary judgment is that they were caused by witch disasters.”

Su Xiaocheng looked at the photos. Both victims had binding marks on their limbs and fatal cuts on their necks.

Her expression turned serious. 

“This attack method is identical to the two witches I encountered. But I clearly killed them. The Witch’s Hearts are right here.” 

Su Xiaocheng placed the one she had obtained last night on the table. 

“And one was already eaten by Xiaotuan.”

Youzi rubbed her temples. 

“Looks like we’re in trouble. This isn’t an ordinary C-rank witch disaster. These repeatedly appearing witches of the same type… I’ll apply for a city-wide B-rank alert first, then we’ll hold a meeting. The others will be here soon.”

Youzi paused, then added, “Actually, we’re only missing Xiaobai. Xiaolu isn’t in Anning City right now, and one senior has been retired for a long time.”

“?” 

Su Xiaocheng suddenly felt like she had boarded a pirate ship. 

“Before I showed up, the entire city of Anning only had two magical girls who could actually work?”

***

Close to noon, Xiaobai finally arrived late and pushed open the lounge door. 

She stared at the table piled high with chocolate, small cakes, three-colored dumplings, sandwich cookies, hot cocoa, dried fish, and pine nuts.

“Is today a potluck, the say?” 

Recalling the notice on her terminal, Xiaobai wondered if staying up all night playing games had made her see things.

“Wow, does Xiaobai usually run around in pajamas like this?” 

Su Xiaocheng thought silently. “Whoa, whoa, her pajama top is slipping off her shoulder!”

Youzi swallowed the small cake in her mouth and said, “Everyone’s here, so let’s begin. You all basically know the situation. This witch disaster is quite special and could escalate further. The codename is temporarily ‘Shadow Group.’ The main purpose of today’s meeting is to figure out its exact danger level.”

No one responded.

Su Xiaocheng figured she was still just a newbie who had been on the job for two days. 

It was better to listen to the veterans’ opinions. Besides, she really had no ideas.

Xiaobai was thinking about how she could still optimize last night’s game clear route and shave another three seconds off the record.

Youzi ate another piece of chocolate and looked at the two silent girls, feeling as useless as a substitute teacher.

Staring at each other wasn’t going to solve anything. In the end, Youzi spoke first. 

“Xiaobai, do you have any investigation tools?”

In theory, magic had no limits, but magical girls’ magic power did.

Different magical girls also had their own specialties. 

In their preferred fields, magic power consumption was relatively lower.

Xiaobai, now called on, pulled out her handheld game console and mashed the buttons furiously—up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A. A flash of light appeared, and a magnifying glass materialized among the pile of snacks.

“You can use magic without transforming?” 

Su Xiaocheng was stunned by Xiaobai’s move. 

Then she realized there was another possibility. 

“Wait, is Xiaobai always in her transformed state? After all, who would go out wearing rabbit pajamas?”

“Use this. There will be clues, the say.”

“?” 

“Meow?” 

The two newbies looked completely lost.

“You mean we can use this magnifying glass to investigate the scene or the witch itself and learn information about the witch?” 

Veteran Youzi translated at the critical moment.

Xiaobai nodded, approving of Youzi’s translation skills.

“Good. Then let’s head out right now. First stop—the crime scenes!” 

Youzi picked up the magnifying glass. 

Before leaving, she didn’t forget to pack up all the snacks from the table.