Transform into a magical girl after getting off work

Before this, what she should have done was to find a way to delay time and prevent the battlefield from shifting, ensuring that reinforcements could arrive at the scene as quickly as possible.

Implementing this decision translated into a stalemate.

With an attitude intertwining half-doubt and half-trust, hostility and confidence, she kept the other party in a dilemma between taking action or not.

Every time Emerald Sparrow refused the other party's proposal, she would not completely shut down the conversation, but deliberately leave some talking points to ensure that there would be something for the other party to discuss. At the same time, she conveyed an attitude of "an apparent refusal but actually somewhat wavering," making it seem as if there was hope for a peaceful evolution.

When the other party mentioned her injuries, she hinted that she valued her reputation more; when they suggested that she could secretly defect, she intentionally omitted the few advantages of defecting in her refusal; then when the other party listed these benefits, she would respond with a weak rebuttal full of loopholes.

Back and forth, she inadvertently piqued Yuan's interest in the negotiation, turning a confrontation inexplicably into a seminar on "the benefits of joining Claw Mark." As the conversation progressed, Emerald Sparrow spoke less and less, while Yuan spoke more and more. In the end, it almost seemed as if they were as close as the relationship Yuan had boasted about, which was "like sisters."

Time slipped by in this oddly derailed conversation, and Emerald Sparrow even nonchalantly pressed her cell phone a couple of times, signaling to three juniors that a powerful enemy was coming and not to act rashly.

However, this delay was not without cost.

It was unclear whether it was because the other party had been drinking, or perhaps such a scene, filled with persuasion and pressure, naturally led to strange implications. After Emerald Sparrow deliberately showed weakness to prolong the conversation several times, she felt that the nature of the dialogue between them was gradually becoming distasteful.

Presumably because Yuan was relatively older, Emerald Sparrow always felt that Yuan treated her a bit like a child. The conversation between them had shifted from recruiting someone into the group to something reminiscent of a street hustler cajoling an unsuspecting child.

If the conversation continued like this, it was feared that they could talk until afternoon and still achieve no results, but not everyone would fall for Emerald Sparrow's rhetoric.

"Wait, Yuan, did you just say that Cornflower is in very bad shape?"

Just as the conversation between the two was going off on a tangent, Semi suddenly intervened: "Does that mean she actually can't display much power right now?"

"Hmm? Ah, that's certain."

Having become familiar with the conversation, Yuan reached out to touch Emerald Sparrow's head and nodded: "Even from this distance I can feel the rush of Magic Power; her control over her own Magic Power is very weak now, I'm afraid she can hardly exert one tenth of her ability."

"Then what are you wasting time talking to her for!"

Semi pointed at Emerald Sparrow and said, "The Source of Beasts is in her hands, and she's right here now. Why are you still negotiating with her? We can just capture her alive and take her away, securing both the person and the object. Wouldn't our mission be halfway completed? Can't we just go back and report?"

"That's true in principle."

Yuan thoughtfully nodded, yet seemed somewhat reluctant: "But I don't really want to take advantage of someone's weakness, fighting an injured person. As the saying goes, a tiger is bullied by dogs when it falls onto the plain, and such a humiliating contest against a mighty warrior is meaningless."

"I've already told you, stop fussing over your so-called sense of fairness at times like this!"

Semi said helplessly: "We take her back, the leader modifies her source of Magic Power, and she can regain her former strength! Then you can have a fair fight with her, right?"

"...Ah, so there's that method."

Yuan blinked, turned to look at Emerald Sparrow: "You see, that's what it's saying."

Emerald Sparrow looked at Yuan and then at Semi. For some reason, she felt a chill for the first time.

If before, like herself, the other party had a half-doubt, half-hesitation attitude, after Semi brought up this plan, the way the other party looked at her was filled with nothing but full-fledged aggression.

Just like a wolf eyes a rabbit.

Although their aim was certainly not to devour her like the wolf, being taken to the leader of Claw Mark was unlikely to bring anything good.

Should she run away now?

For the first time, such a thought arose in her heart; however, before Emerald Sparrow could take any action, she realized that Yuan had somehow already wrapped an arm around her shoulders and said with a smile:

——"So, shall we go?"

"...I don't think I fully agree with your principles yet."

Emerald Sparrow suddenly felt her hair stand on end and a chill down her spine, but still, she managed to suppress that feeling and said calmly and coolly, "We might need to talk some more."

"No worries, no worries, we have a long way to go back, and there's plenty of time to chat slowly."

Yuan said casually, then pulled out a pair of handcuffs from somewhere: "But you might be somewhat inconvenienced by the time we're there. To prevent any troublemaking in the Wilderness, it's better to be safe than sorry."

Emerald Sparrow recognized at a glance that these were the handcuffs Yuan had worn in the interrogation room previously. How she had managed to pilfer them unnoticed by any of the Abnormal Strategy Bureau staff present was anyone's guess.

Looking at the handcuffs, Emerald Sparrow once again fell silent.

She was well aware that the handcuffs were of little restraint to a Magical Girl, but the spell techniques on them designed to suppress Magic Power were no fake. If the other party truly had some expertise in related spell techniques, even knowing some binding spells, a little modification would mean that once she put them on, she would really have no chance of turning the tables.

Yet, if she refused here and thereby entered into battle, she would stand no chance of winning using only ordinary methods. More likely than not, losing would result in being captured.

So what should she do?

In the silence, Emerald Sparrow's thoughts raced, constantly generating plans and then debunking and filtering them herself. But when faced with an absolute disadvantage in strength, any plan seemed feeble.

"Returning to the Magic Kingdom should restore much of my strength," initially, this plan proposed by the Molu had seemed flawless, but no one could have predicted that less than a month after the Full Moon Festival, an enemy of equal if not greater magnitude to a moth would appear in Fangting City.

Against such an adversary, even Emerald Sparrow, who had not yet destroyed her scissors, could not guarantee victory, let alone now with her worsened injuries.

Gazing up slightly, her eyes met those dichromatic pupils resembling Yin and Yang, Emerald Sparrow's heart grew colder. Her hand, which had been clenched tight, gradually loosened and even began to rise slowly.

Crash!

Just when she was about to choose conserving her strength, clinging to a last sliver of hope, a thunderous noise of shattering glass came from the reception room's window.

——"That's not necessarily the case, is it?"

The strong winds from the upper floors gushed wildly through the window, and along with the strong airflow, a figure darted into the room at high speed.

Several purple-red Magic Power Beams shot out from the figure's hands toward Yuan. Yuan lifted her hand calmly to block them, but found the simple spells completely ineffective against the purple-red Magic Power; the barrier was pierced in an instant.

Her eyes narrowed, and the Magic Power around her suddenly grew stagnant. The otherwise invisible Magic Power silently transformed into a strange liquid metal, barely stopping the surging Magic Power attack.

In that flash of light, the figure who burst in through the window had already scooped up Emerald Sparrow by the bend of her legs and back of her neck, retreating to the other side of the room.

Amidst the scattered purple-red glow of Magic Power, Emerald Sparrow lifted her head slightly and saw a face that was somewhat familiar yet also a bit strange.

It was a face she had seen not long ago but now seemed much more youthful.

Fair cheeks, a fragile yet somewhat resolute expression, submissive low twin ponytails resting on both sides of her neck, beneath her bangs were the girl's purple-red eyes. The corners of her eyes were slightly drooped, making her seem a bit meek, but when she held Emerald Sparrow, she stood unwaveringly tall, her intense fighting spirit seeming to spill out and making her slender figure appear incredibly upright.

"It's all right now."

She lowered her gaze, revealing a somewhat radiant smile to Emerald Sparrow, and then uttered a phrase that only the two of them could understand: "Because, the Magical Girl is here!"

——"Magical Girl, ID Card Certification Number 41422, Chaoyan, defense mission commence!"