Transform into a magical girl after getting off work

Emerald Sparrow looked rather indifferently at the sparrow on the ground, and as she stepped forward, Favo Runes flew out from her sleeve cuff. Soon, the runes landed on the unconscious sparrow's neck, encircling the Heart's Gem and forming a blue pattern resembling a collar.

That wasn't all. She then conjured a small Magical Barrier that enveloped the sparrow as if it was a dome of containment.

This was one of the Spell Techniques that every Magical Girl under the investigative institutes had to master and that only they could master: Magic-Sealing Arts.

The conditions for its deployment were quite stringent; it could only be used after neutralizing the enemy's resistance. True to its name, this technique could completely seal the opponent's ability to use magic and transform, with its duration fluctuating according to the caster's Magic Power strength.

Emerald Sparrow hadn't planned on killing the sparrow because, according to the information she had received earlier, this so-called "Claw Mark" organization was a prime target for the state's manhunt. Keeping a live captured member could possibly reveal substantial information.

Although there were indeed some issues between her and the state, the chaos that this group of sparrows had caused in Fangting City had reached her limit of tolerance.

If there had been any hesitation before, she had now made a firm decision: once this affair was over, she must call in the investigative institute.

After doing all this, she finally took two unsteady steps backward and dissipated the Magic Power emanating from her body.

Nobody noticed that she was now drenched in cold sweat.

To say the least, her condition was actually far worse than what she had let on; the severe pain in her head alone made her feel as if her skull was about to explode, a level of pain that would have made an ordinary person cry out in agony.

Emerald Sparrow wasn't surprised because she knew this was an old injury.

Her true form was damaged, her Heart's Gem shattered—everything the sparrow had said earlier was true. What she didn't know was that Emerald Sparrow's injuries were even more severe than she could imagine. So, another one of her conjectures was correct: as a Magical Girl who had once reached the rank of Rei, Emerald Sparrow could no longer open her own Wonderland.

Not only the Wonderland, even the most basic quality of a Magical Girl: the total amount of Magic Power, had also significantly diminished due to the injury, forcing Emerald Sparrow to adopt a conservative approach to using Magic Power in her usual tactics.

The outburst of intense Magic Power just now had not been without its source but was the result of Emerald Sparrow igniting her Magic Power source in disregard of her injuries, restoring her original total amount of Magic Power.

This would allow her Magic Power to temporarily return to its peak level, but the cost was a further triggering of her physical and spiritual injuries, accompanied by excruciating headaches. As the duration of peak-level Magic Power was extended, the pain would become more and more intense until she ultimately fell into unconsciousness.

Lin Yun's decision to retire in the past was in large part due to her injuries.

In her fight with the sparrow, she had not intended to employ such drastic measures but had planned to feign weakness to draw out a war of attrition, depleting the opponent's Magic Power through a defensive counter-attack strategy before looking for a chance to deliver a fatal blow.

This plan would not have required a surge of Magic Power or led to such intense consumption of it, and would have also allowed her to extract information from the opponent during the fight—a strategy with multiple benefits.

However, once the opponent revealed that Lin Xiaolu might be in danger, Emerald Sparrow realized that whether it was true or not, she could no longer afford to delay.

Even just as a precaution, she needed to resolve the battle quickly.

That was why she had ignited all her Magic Power and swiftly defeated and apprehended the sparrow.

Next, she would notify the Abnormal Strategy Bureau to first come and collect the captive, then rush to the last location she sensed Mokai, to find out what was really going on.

It was only when her thoughts reached this point that she suddenly remembered something: her cellphone had been knocked away during the fight.

And now, she was not in the place where the phone had fallen. Going back to get the phone would delay her far too much.

In such a predicament, she noticed a bystander not far away, looking in her direction.

So she walked straight up to the somewhat stunned bystander and extended her hand:

"Excuse me, may I borrow your cellphone for a moment?"

However, it was only after she casually uttered those words that she realized the person seemed familiar—no, all too familiar.

Wang Tengfei handed over his phone, dazed.

In his mind, there was only one thought: it was really Cornflower.

The girl standing in front of him, despite more than twenty years having passed, he could still recognize her face. Although he had changed a lot, the girl seemed exactly as she was back then, as if time had paused on her, unchanged at all.

"Is… is it Cornflower?"

As he watched the girl in front of him operate the phone with both hands, he couldn't help but ask.

Then he saw her hands pause.

The pause was just for an instant, and she quickly resumed her actions, typing in a string of numbers and bringing the phone to her ear, as if the previous pause had been nothing but Wang Tengfei's illusion.

While waiting for the call to connect, she looked at the man in front of her, her feelings slightly complicated, but her expression calmly stated, "You recognize me?"

Recognizing the man in front of her as her general manager and hearing her former codename from him, she found it hard to describe her feelings at the moment.

"Ah? I, well…"

Opening his mouth, Wang Tengfei vaguely remembered that he had many questions he wanted to ask; after all, he had indeed been a fan of the girl in his youth, and her disappearance had left him with many confusions and regrets.

But now, he suddenly realized that he couldn't recall any of those questions.

No matter how much he had liked her, no matter the regret and unwillingness he had felt, all that was left were a few words; he could no longer remember those emotions.

Like an old, faded photograph in a frame: its contours were still clear, but it had turned pale. The questions that once filled him, like the color in the photographs, had become distorted, and the emotions they contained had grown as indifferent as water, unable to stir any ripples in his heart.

"I… used to be your fan."

After thinking it over, that was all he could manage to say.

Emerald Sparrow, hearing his words and observing the man in front of her, pondered for a moment, and then responded just as indifferently, "Thank you."

She didn't know what else to say.

Then, as the call connected, she heard Hong Siyu's voice and stopped paying attention to Wang Tengfei. After having conveyed the situation on-site and the specific location to Hong Siyu, and after giving many instructions regarding the custody of the sparrow, she hung up the call and returned the phone back to Wang Tengfei.

"That…"

Receiving his phone back from Emerald Sparrow in a daze, Wang Tengfei hesitated and then asked, "Are you, perhaps, the old Lin?"

At that, it felt as if the temperature around them dropped a couple of degrees.

Emerald Sparrow's previously calm and cold expression froze on her face, and after a short while, she sighed inwardly.

It seemed she had still been found out, she thought somewhat helplessly.

Previously, in the general manager's office, because the sparrow had tried to attack the office building in an attempt to force her to reveal herself, she had had no choice but to transform on the spot.

Although she had tried her best to divert Wang Tengfei's gaze during the process, and only changed into Emerald Sparrow before bursting out of the office building, it seemed the process wasn't meticulous enough, and he had still noticed something was amiss.

At times like this, any attempt to explain would only make things worse, so she just withdrew her hand somewhat coldly and stated indifferently, "Working in the real world, after all, requires a bit of disguise."

She only said that much, leaving the rest for Wang Tengfei to think about for himself.