Off Work, Then I Become a Magical Girl
Book 2: Chapter 75: Blockage

Vol 2 Chapter 75: Blockage

Lin Xiaolu sat up from the couch, clutching her head. The chaotic mess of memories in her mind made it hard to tell where she even was.

It wasn't until she saw her surroundings—and Lin Yun at the desk talking on the phone—that she remembered what had just happened: she’d tried to stop that woman who called herself “Claw Mark,” and then suddenly got knocked out.

“Mm, yes, the location is Silverveil Mountain, probably near the summit. The target doesn’t seem to be hiding, so it shouldn't be hard to locate her... You all get there as soon as you can. I’ll handle the rest.”

Right then, Lin Yun ended his call.

He put his phone away and stood up from his seat, feeling a massive headache coming on. He sighed instinctively, then looked up—and his eyes met Lin Xiaolu’s.

“You’re awake?”

Seeing his daughter was truly okay, he finally felt a bit of relief. He walked straight over to her.

“How are you feeling? Anywhere still hurt?”

Lin Xiaolu let go of her head and gave it a little shake, trying to sit up. “Where’s that woman?”

“She’s gone.”

Lin Yun pointed toward the window. “About ten minutes ago. After knocking you out, she just flew off.”

“Ten minutes...”

Hearing how long she'd been out, Lin Xiaolu froze, then collapsed back onto the couch. “Great. Guess I missed my chance to chase her.”

“Stop thinking about chasing people. You’re clearly no match for her.”

He ruffled her hair, sighing. “What you need to do now is rest. I’ve already informed the rest of your squad. Veronica and Hong Siyu are leading the response.”

“Veronica already left?”

Lin Xiaolu shot back up like a spring. “Where? Silverveil Mountain? Then I’m going too!”

“I told you, you can’t go.”

Lin Yun moved his hand off her head. “This opponent is extremely dangerous. From the intel I’ve received, she’s probably even more dangerous than that giant Ravager from the Moon Festival. This isn’t something you can handle right now.”

“But Veronica is going, right? If everyone else is fighting—”

She clung to the key point. “If Veronica’s going, then even if I can only help a little, I still have to go!”

Lin Yun was speechless. He really wanted to say, “You’ll only get in the way,” but that felt way too harsh.

“Be good, Lulu.”

After thinking for a moment, he decided to go with the emotional route. He crouched down and looked her in the eyes.

“Dad will take care of everything. So don’t do things that make me worry, okay?”

Lin Xiaolu fell silent.

“But I’m a Magical Girl of Fangting City. I can’t back down at a time like this.”

After a long pause, she finally said with a conflicted expression, “If I retreat just because the enemy is dangerous, then I’m not worthy of being called a Magical Girl...”

“When you’ve grown stronger, you’ll have plenty of chances to fight powerful enemies. And when that time comes, I won’t stop you.”

Lin Yun spoke seriously. “But this time—just this once—this enemy isn’t one you need to face.”

Lin Xiaolu looked up. She could see the seriousness in his eyes, and the worry behind it.

She opened her mouth again, but the words of refusal she wanted to say caught in her throat.

“...Okay.”

She didn’t even know when, but at some point, those were the words that came out.

And then she saw her father visibly relax.

“Good, then it’s settled. I still have emergency matters to handle, so I won’t be staying here in the office. Rest a bit, then head back to the base on your own.”

He reached out again, this time to smooth down her hair. His voice softened.

“Sorry. We said we’d spend the New Year together, but it ended up like this. If there’s anything else, let’s talk it out later, okay?”

“It’s fine.”

Lin Xiaolu shook her head, her expression a little awkward. “It can’t be helped if the enemy showed up. You go take care of your work.”

For some reason, she suddenly remembered her elementary school days. Her father used to work overtime or go out for drinks all the time, but he never once apologized like this.

Now, though—she didn’t know when it had started—but it felt like he had changed.

Not just his status, but his behavior too. Even parts of his personality.

If the former made him feel a little unfamiliar to her, then the latter brought a strange sense of comfort.

It was this comfort that made her instinctively choose to go along with him.

She watched as her father tugged the corners of his mouth upward—on his usually serious face, that probably counted as a smile—then put on his suit jacket and walked out of the office. Lin Xiaolu quietly sat on the couch, watching him leave until the door closed with a soft “click.”

She sat silently for a while, then looked toward the window.

That woman, the one who called herself “Claw Mark,” had left through that very window.

Thoughts swirled in her head. Lin Xiaolu stared blankly at the window for a while before her expression turned conflicted. After a long pause, she let out a breath as if making up her mind.

She stood up.

The moonless night was dark and still. Deep within the overgrown Silverveil Mountain, strange noises echoed faintly through the trees.

Far removed from Fangting City and sparsely developed, the mountain rarely saw tourists, especially not on New Year’s Eve when most citizens were spending time with family. Tonight, the mountain was completely deserted.

Somewhere in that isolation, a tower had been erected from rubble and soil.

Roughly ten meters tall and half a meter thick, the tower was scrawled with jagged runes. It just barely peeked above the treetops, visible against the night sky. If one looked closely, they might see a strange flickering of violet-black light at the top.

A black cat sat perched at the summit.

Or more precisely, a fairy shaped like a black cat.

The runes spiraled upward along the tower, twisting into one another until they converged at the top—where Semi’s paw now rested.

It was injecting magic into the runes, fueling a ritual. And the goal of that ritual was simple: blow up the mountain beneath its feet—along with part of Fangting City’s protective barrier network.

Such an insane act required a massive amount of magic. And for a fairy, who was never strong in magic reserves, this was an enormous challenge. That’s why Semi had to build the tower—to support the ritual.

It sat motionless atop the tower, time itself seemingly paused. After who knew how long, Semi suddenly opened its eyes.

It had sensed a sound from high above.

A streak of white light extended from the horizon, slicing toward Silverveil Mountain. A ripping, tearing noise echoed from its source, vanishing just overhead.

Moments later, a figure dropped from the sky and landed nimbly in front of it.

“Everything ready?”

Yuan smoothed her hair as she walked toward the tower. “Will it work?”

“The ritual the leader taught me won’t fail.”

Still perched on the tower, Semi looked weary. It lowered its head to gaze at Yuan.

“What I don’t get is, you made such a big show declaring war on Fangting’s Magical Girls—how did they let you come back so easily?”

“I didn’t exactly walk up to Veronica’s face. And I didn’t know where their Magical Girls were, so I just had the Countermeasure Bureau relay the message.”

As if she were talking about buying a bottle of water, Yuan shrugged. “Same effect either way. Now we just wait for them to come.”

Semi nodded. No objections.

The two fell quiet.

Yuan sat cross-legged at the base of the tower, leaning back and gazing at the pitch-black sky. With no New Year’s moon in sight and only a few lonely stars flickering behind thick clouds, the night felt especially bleak.

Semi remained focused on guiding the magic. Though repetitive and dull, it was fully engrossed, with no interest in small talk.

Eventually, Yuan broke the silence.

“Hey, Semi.”

“What?”

“These two months in the city—how did they feel to you? Were you happy?”

“...Why ask that all of a sudden?”

“Just bored. Making conversation,” Yuan replied casually. “If you don’t wanna talk about it, that’s fine.”

“Oh.” Semi believed her. Its tail swayed as it recalled recent memories.

“Not great. Pretty awful.”

“Awful?”

“Of course. Following you around, sleeping in the cold, fighting stray cats for garbage scraps... At one point some random tomcat even tried to court me. If I had to pick the most miserable time of my life, it’s probably these past two months.”

It looked down at Yuan, a little bitter.

“Now that we’re almost done here, I can’t wait to leave this nightmare behind.”

“Wow, that bad? I thought it wasn’t so bad,” Yuan chuckled.

“It was super bad! You should at least feel a little guilty!” Semi huffed. “All of this is your fault, so when we get back, you’d better compensate me!”

“Sure, sure.” Yuan played along. “What do you want?”

“I want three Echoes. At least Chrysalis-tier!”

“Three? You’d have to sell me to afford that.”

“Don’t act broke. You’ve been doing this for years—don’t tell me you’ve got no stash.”

“I’ve spent everything building this strength,” Yuan said proudly, pointing at her arm.

“...Fine. Two Echoes.”

“Still can’t. Not happening.”

“No, I want two!”

“Then I’ll just pretend I forgot the deal.”

“You—! One. One Echo. Final offer! If you don’t agree, I’m going to tattle to the leader and have the vice leader beat you up!”

They kept bickering like that for a while, shouting across the gap between them until their voices went hoarse. Then, finally, silence returned to the depths of Silverveil Mountain.

Yuan leaned back against the tower and closed her eyes again. Semi resumed its work.

Eventually, Yuan spoke again.

“...Semi.”

“...Now what?”

“You probably won’t believe me, but these past two months—I actually kind of enjoyed them.”

“Oh, really.” Still annoyed from earlier, Semi replied flatly.

“Not surprised?” Yuan asked.

“Why would I be? It was obvious.”

“I was that obvious?”

“You practically toured the entire city, blew through your money like water, and slept under bridges like a pig. Looked like you were having the time of your life.” Semi rolled its eyes. “Though to me, that just makes you dumb.”

“Dumb, huh...?”

Yuan looked dazed. “Yeah, maybe.”

“What does that mean?” Semi frowned.

“It means I don’t really get it either. Even though you were insulting me, I kind of agree.”

“Can you not?” Semi sighed. “I was trying to insult you, not give you an existential crisis. You’re making this awkward...”

“Hey, Semi.”

“What now?!”

“How about we call it off?”

The forest fell silent again.

In the depth of winter, with snow still blanketing the ground, even the faintest sounds were muffled. With no one speaking, it was eerily quiet.

“Yuan.”

This time, it was Semi who broke the silence.

“You still remember why we came here—for the leader’s mission.”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“These people in the city—they’re not our concern. We came here to do bad things.”

“I know.”

“This was your plan, remember? You said the leader’s original massacre plan was too loud, might attract trouble. So you proposed destroying the city’s barrier instead. Fewer civilian casualties, less heat on us, and the chaos would tie up the Kingdom’s forces.”

“I’m aware.”

“So what are you saying now?”

Semi’s voice turned cold. “‘Call it off’? After all we’ve done? I’ve been trying to accommodate your bleeding heart, even let you deliver that dumb challenge. And now you say quit? Are you stupid, or just done taking orders?”

“If I had a choice, I’d rather be stupid.”

Yuan looked down, voice low. “Disobeying the leader... that’s not something I can handle.”

“Yuan. You still remember the leader’s dream—no, our dream, right?”

“Of course.” She nodded.

“To build a home for all Magical Girls abandoned by the Kingdom. A free path forward for all who follow. No matter how much blood we spill, or how much sin we bear—if it’s for that dream, we’ll pay the price.”

“Beautiful dream,” Yuan murmured.

“It’s almost not a dream anymore.”

Semi’s voice turned fierce. “We’ve spent more than a decade fighting for this. Sacrificed friends. Drenched ourselves in blood. We’ve come too far to turn back.”

“We are villains. No question. But if we can’t even achieve our goal, then we’re just failed villains. We’ll have nothing.”

“I won’t let that happen. I’d rather be a ruthless bastard than a cowardly hypocrite.”

“In a few hours, it’ll be the Queen’s Year. We don’t have time. We have to finish this, or the leader’s dream—our dream—will vanish.”

“Stop being stupid, Yuan. We don’t have the luxury of sympathy. If we call it off now, we’ll be the ones who lose everything—”

Semi stopped mid-sentence.

Not because it was done—but because both it and Yuan saw them.

Magic trails streaked across the sky.

Dark blue, violet-red, orange—three in the lead.

Light blue, amethyst, green, teal, pink, pale yellow—six behind.

No matter the color, the number was unmistakable.

Nine Magical Girls were coming.

“Yuan... how exactly did you write that challenge letter? Did you blow up their base or something?” Semi muttered.

“That’s why I said we should call it off.”

Yuan stood up, shaking her numb legs. She raised a hand, and a black wand materialized—then melted into pitch-black liquid metal.

“...But you’re right. At this point, it’s already too late.”