Off Work, Then I Become a Magical Girl
Book 2: Chapter 35: Lin Xiaolu's Suspicion

Vol 2 Chapter 35 Lin Xiaolu's Suspicion

“Suspicious.”

Several days later, just after patrol, Lin Xiaolu sat alone on the couch at home, her expression serious and her voice low and grave. “This is way too suspicious.”

Lately, Fangting City had seen no Ravager activity at all. With the girls gradually gaining a good understanding of their designated patrol zones, their patrol routines had inevitably become a bit laxer. What used to be two hours of patrol after school had now shrunk to just one.

With their set tasks completed, and no mood for studying, the girls naturally gathered in the living room as usual, each settling into their favorite spots on the couch.

Beside her, Xia Liang was quietly watching TV. When she heard Lin Xiaolu mutter to herself, she turned her head slightly to glance at her, then turned right back to the screen, face expressionless.

“Too suspicious,” Lin Xiaolu repeated, this time for some reason raising her voice. “I feel like something's going on in the shadows—and I’m being kept in the dark.”

Xia Liang remained unbothered, eyes still fixed on the TV.

Lin Xiaolu glanced sideways. Seeing that Xia Liang had no intention of responding, she narrowed her eyes slightly, stood up from her seat, walked behind her, crouched down beside her ear, and pronounced each word clearly:

“…What are you trying to say?”

Finally pulling her gaze away from the screen, Xia Liang offered a slightly perfunctory smile. “Suspicious? Did you find someone acting shady recently?”

“A shady person? Hmm… yeah, maybe,” Lin Xiaolu straightened up, looking thoughtful.

“Who?”

“That woman.”

“Which woman? You gotta be more specific than that.” Xia Liang forced a laugh. “Can’t you give me something more recognizable?”

Lin Xiaolu paused, clearly annoyed, before finally spitting out a name reluctantly:

“That woman called Hong Siyu.”

“…Hah.” A sigh slipped from Xia Liang. A “knew it” look flashed across her face. “You mean Sister Hong? What about her?”

“Don’t you think it’s weird?”

Lin Xiaolu clutched the back of the couch with both hands, her face peeking out from behind it. “Why was she missing for so long? Why did she suddenly come back and become a Magical Girl again? She glossed over the details of how a Retired Magical Girl got her powers back. And also—how come her cooking suddenly got better?! That makes no sense!”

“Isn’t that a good thing though…?”

Xia Liang frowned, clearly troubled. “Look, Sister Hong’s back as a Magical Girl, and she overcame her cooking problems. Isn’t that a win for everyone?”

“I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. The point is, why? Too many strange things have been happening lately, and it all seems to go down without me knowing. Like that residential gas explosion two weeks ago—that level of destruction? Clearly a Ravager. And then just a few days ago, the newly rebuilt Countermeasure Bureau building collapsed, and Veronica gave us a heads-up about a powerful enemy. That’s gotta mean someone attacked the Bureau!”

She started counting off anomalies on her fingers. “And Hong Siyu? There’s no such thing as a free lunch. What happened during the days she was gone? I’m telling you, she’s hiding something. And it’s definitely related to all this weirdness!”

“Ha… ha…”

Xia Liang could only give a dry laugh. “So?”

“I need to know the truth!” Lin Xiaolu slammed the couch’s backrest with righteous conviction. “Even if I have to use some methods!”

Right then, Bai Jingxuan walked up from the basement training room, holding Moko in one hand and dabbing sweat from her face with a towel in the other. She looked at Lin Xiaolu in the living room with curiosity. “The truth? What are you talking about?”

“We’re talking about all the weird stuff happening in Fangting lately. The most suspicious person is that woman—Hong Siyu.”

Lin Xiaolu turned to face her. “There’s the gas explosion, the Bureau collapse—don’t you wanna know what really happened?”

“Gas explosion…?” Bai Jingxuan repeated the words slowly, mouthing them carefully. But then, as if something struck her, she suddenly covered her mouth.

“Why are you covering your mouth?” Lin Xiaolu narrowed her eyes. A beat later, her expression changed. “Wait a second—Lixing District is your patrol area, isn’t it?”

“Ah!” Bai Jingxuan gasped, then quickly waved her hands. “I don’t know anything! I didn’t see anything during patrol!”

“You saw nothing? Yeah, sure.” Lin Xiaolu marched toward her. “Spill it. Now.”

“Mom said—wait no—I mean, I can’t say!”

Bai Jingxuan grabbed the stair railing and stepped back.

“Mom? Veronica? Huh?” Lin Xiaolu’s eyes widened. “So even Veronica’s in on it? I’m seriously the only one who knows nothing?”

Even Xia Liang, who had been dodging the topic, lifted her head in surprise and looked in Bai Jingxuan’s direction.

“Bai Jingxuan, I’m your Senpai. Technically, I’m also your future Sister. So don’t lie to your big sis, okay?”

Lin Xiaolu placed her hands on Bai Jingxuan’s shoulders, her eyes dark with swirling intensity. “Come on. Tell me. What’s Veronica been secretly having you do?”

“Uuuh… I…” Bai Jingxuan twisted the hem of her shirt, clearly caught between loyalty and guilt. She looked helplessly to Xia Liang for backup.

Seeing her pleading eyes, Xia Liang sighed and stepped in. “Okay okay, Xiaolu, don’t pressure the kid. You’ll scare her and get nothing. Right?”

“Yeah, yeah!” Bai Jingxuan nodded frantically.

“…I’m scary?”

Lin Xiaolu blinked and let go of Bai Jingxuan’s shoulders. Then she turned to Xia Liang. “Alright, I’ll drop the grade schooler for now. Xia Liang, now that I think about it, you’re also acting shady.”

“You and Veronica were always sneaking off alone when school first started. Even the Parent Meeting felt weird. And you seem to know things I don’t—things Veronica may or may not have said. Can you explain yourself?”

Gulp.

Xia Liang swallowed hard.

“W-what? Whether it’s at school or our Secret Base, we’re always together, aren’t we?”

She looked away slightly, her voice cracking. “As for things our Junior might’ve said—I just have a good memory, that’s all! You probably forgot!”

“…Suspicious.”

Squinting, Lin Xiaolu glanced at Xia Liang, then at Bai Jingxuan again. For who knows how many times that day, she repeated the phrase: “Way too suspicious. Now it feels like all of you are hiding something from me—and I’m the only one left out.”

“C’mon, you’re overthinking it!”

“Yeah!”

Xia Liang and Bai Jingxuan chimed in quickly, cutting her off.

“Let’s not talk about that. You were talking about Sister Hong, right? We got off topic—so what’s your plan for getting the truth out of her?”

“Huh? Oh… right.”

Redirected back to her original train of thought, Lin Xiaolu quickly adjusted gears. “My first idea is to confront her directly. But I feel like that won’t work.”

“Confronting her head-on isn’t a great plan,” Xia Liang suddenly got serious, abandoning her usual half-hearted attitude. “You should try probing her subtly—get her to contradict herself.”

“Yeah!” Bai Jingxuan eagerly echoed.

“Subtle probing, huh? That’s your specialty, right?” Lin Xiaolu arched a brow. “Pretending to be sweet and asking sly little questions is totally your style.”

“I don’t appreciate baseless slander.”

Xia Liang maintained her cheerful smile. “Words like ‘pretending’ and ‘sly’ are unnecessarily negative and subjective.”

“So basically, you want to bait her. That only works on naive softies.”

“What do you mean ‘bait softies’? I’m helping you, you know!”

“Too slow. Too unstable. By the time we get results, her evil plan will already be finished.”

Lin Xiaolu shook her head. “Denied! Next idea!”

“I think we should try tailing her—see what she’s really up to.”

A new voice suddenly cut in.

“Tailing… hmm…”

Lin Xiaolu furrowed her brows. “Sounds easy, but it’s hard in practice. The last time we tried tailing someone, it was a total bust.”

“I don’t know what happened last time, but I bet it was because you weren’t prepared. No tools, no plan, bad execution.”

The mystery voice continued, “But if you fix those problems, tailing is actually very efficient. That’s how old-school private investigators used to work, after all.”

“…You’ve got a point.”

Lin Xiaolu looked slightly swayed but still hesitant. “But solving all that isn’t exactly easy. Tools, coordination…”

“No worries. If you’re really serious about it—I can help.”

“Seriously? I didn’t think anyone among us—wait a second, who even are you?!”

She finally noticed something was off. That voice didn’t belong to Xia Liang, Bai Jingxuan, or even Moko—it came from a very weird direction: the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room.

The girls all turned to look—and there, outside the window, stood a strange round creature with tiny flapping wings. Probably a Fairy.

Well, calling it a “creature” was generous. It had visible artificial joints and looked more like a plush toy than anything alive. The toy-Fairy was pressing its huge face against the glass, speaking in a muffled voice:

“…What is that?”

Lin Xiaolu stared blankly for a moment, then hesitantly made a guess: “A Ravager?”

“How rude! I’m nothing like those pitiful monsters! Just look at my appearance and refined speech—you should’ve figured it out by now: I’m a Fairy.”

The plush Fairy knocked on the glass with its stubby paw. “So, could you open the window first? It’s super windy and freezing out here.”

“Trying to get minors to open a window at night? Even if you’re not a Ravager, you’re definitely not a good guy.”

Lin Xiaolu pulled out her Heartstone. “Xia Liang, let’s transform and take it out.”

“‘Take it out’?! Why are kids today so violent?!”

The Fairy flinched in horror. “I showed up with nothing but goodwill for my juniors, and this is the treatment I get?!”

“You pop up out of nowhere, whispering creepy stuff at the window—you’re lucky I didn’t throw hands sooner. What exactly are you?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re some agent from Black Cinders Dawn sent to stir up trouble?”

“Cough cough—how dare you lump me in with those savages! If I weren’t so noble and pure-hearted, I’d be outraged. No, actually—I am a little mad.”

The Fairy cleared its throat dramatically and spoke in a pompous tone: “So, you want me to introduce myself while freezing in the cold?”

“Moko, this thing says it’s a Fairy. Have you seen it before?”

“Nope.”

Moko eyed it up and down. “And its Magic doesn’t feel like any normal Fairy’s. I’d say it’s a fake.”

“Got it. Xia Liang—let’s do it.”

“Violence is not the answer! Would you really harm a helpless, defenseless Fairy in cold blood?! Where’s your Magical Girl dignity?!”

It flailed its tiny paws. “I came all this way to help you, and this is how you treat me?!”

“I don’t have any round-ball-shaped relatives!”

Lin Xiaolu pointed at the plush and demanded, “So tell us—who the heck are you?!”

“Sigh… kids these days…”

The plush Fairy let out a theatrical sigh and puffed up its round belly.

“Well, if you’re that eager to know, listen up. I’m just a Fairy who happened to pass by and loves gossip. You can call me… Fairy Sage.”