Vol 2 Chapter 59: Reunion is like a dream
"So you're telling me all this fuss is just because of that?"
Ten minutes later, in the Director's Office, Lin Yun stood off to the side, looking at the two people facing off on the sofa. He sighed inexplicably. "I was only gone visiting another department for a bit. How did you two end up ?"
"Clearly it's Senior's fault!"
Hong Siyu leaned forward, pointing at Asou Madoka, who sat opposite her with an unbothered expression. "Why didn't you tell me sooner that Madoka had returned? You didn’t even mention it!"
"...That's not on me. This guy didn't inform me either."
Lin Yun crossed his arms and instinctively avoided Hong Siyu’s gaze. "Look, even if I knew a singer with the same name was coming to Fangting City for a concert, there was no way to confirm it was really her until seeing her in person. If I'd told you, and it turned out to be someone else, wouldn't that have been even more embarrassing?"
"So the end result is just leaving me out?"
Hong Siyu jabbed her finger at herself. "You're telling me that everyone in the Fangting and Bo'an squads went to the concert, everyone snuck out to have fun, and meanwhile, I had to stay on duty even during the weekend? What about me? Where’s my share?"
"The Chief already said I'm cured! Cured, okay?! Look at me—do I look like I still have any traces of a Ravager left?"
Hong Siyu stood in front of Lin Yun with her arms outstretched. "Look closely! Don’t I look like a perfectly normal, gorgeous girl now? Is there anything wrong with me seeing people?"
Lin Yun lowered his head helplessly. "I didn't think it through."
"And why did you so easily decide to go see another woman's concert? What if it wasn’t Madoka herself? Wouldn’t that have been a total waste?"
Hong Siyu stood on tiptoe, forcing Lin Yun to meet her gaze. "You’d have been giving all your support to some random woman!"
"Calling it 'giving support' just because we went to a concert is kind of an exaggeration..." Lin Yun couldn't help but tug at the corner of his mouth. "Madoka’s ticket prices weren't even that high. It was just a performance; it's not like we lost anything."
"Ugh, that's not the point, Senior! It's not about the money!"
——"I have an objection too. Couldn't you just look me up online?"
Off to the side, Asou Madoka raised her hand. "I'm super famous. One quick search would have confirmed it was really me!"
"This is your first time holding a concert in Fangting City. How many detailed photos of you do you think there are on the intercity network?"
Lin Yun shook his head. "There weren’t many clear, unedited front-facing photos online. Besides, you look pretty different now compared to how I remember you from when you were little. How was I supposed to confirm it was you without seeing you in person?"
"What the hell are you even saying, girl?! My photobooks are all unedited originals!"
Asou Madoka widened her eyes. "And by the way, are you implying that if you could confirm it was me, you wouldn't have gone to the concert? Are you serious? That's so heartless! It’s my concert!"
"I have a lot of serious work to do. I can't just spend half a day listening to a few songs."
Lin Yun lowered his eyelids slightly. "You know I'm not really into pop culture. Good or bad, I can't tell the difference anyway."
"Geez, listen to yourself. Middle-aged crisis vibes much? Just because it's 'pop' you instantly shy away, and every other sentence is about 'serious work.' How did you get so boring after getting married?"
Asou Madoka stuck out her tongue, looking disgusted. "At least regular middle-aged guys have hobbies like fishing, playing cards, or collecting junk. What do you even do for fun?"
He thought back over his life — not just now, but back when Anya was still alive. Whether before or after, the focus of his life seemed to have always been "work."
After becoming a Magical Girl again, the only thing that had changed was adding "taking care of kids" to his responsibilities.
Even in his student days, when others balanced studying and fighting Ravagers, he was the one who spent all his time studying after battles, preparing for college.
"What even is a hobby?"
After thinking hard, that was the only thing he could come up with — only while driving could he completely empty his mind, free from thoughts of work.
"Wow. Using teenage girl slang here — that's peak greasy middle-aged man energy."
Asou Madoka exclaimed in horror. "Senior..."
Hong Siyu looked at him with a slightly pitying gaze too.
Under such odd, complicated looks from both girls, even Lin Yun felt it was a bit much. "Hold on a second. Even if I don't have many hobbies, weren't we supposed to be talking about something else? Is this the topic we should be discussing right now?"
"Girl, you actually kind of guy?"
But his protest was completely ignored.
Asou Madoka turned to Hong Siyu. "Don't let the past blind you!"
Hong Siyu showed a very conflicted expression. "I'll convince myself it's fine. A man dedicated to his work is still charming..."
"Alright, enough, you two."
Lin Yun drooped his eyelids and clapped his hands. "Hong Siyu, don't get caught up in Madoka's teasing. We've finally gotten everyone together — shouldn’t we be exchanging information first?"
"Oh wow, textbook official-speak."
Asou Madoka chuckled sneakily. "Fine, if you want to change the subject so badly. But you might miss some very interesting gossip, like what Hong Siyu told me before you came in. She said—"
Before Lin Yun could even register suspicion, Hong Siyu lunged forward and clamped her hands over Madoka’s mouth from behind. "Nothing happened! I just mistook her for you when she came in! I was just surprised!"
Madoka struggled, but Hong Siyu clung onto her like an octopus.
"Hah... so it was just an awkward mistake?"
Seeing the bizarre scene, Lin Yun could guess there was more to it.
After all, when he had come upstairs from the Special Operations Department, he'd witnessed a heavy cold war: the two girls sitting on opposite sofas, glaring at each other in dead silence.
"All that tension... just for this?"
"Tch. I just made a few suggestions for improvement. Hong Siyu couldn't handle it, that's all."
Madoka finally pried Hong Siyu’s hands off and laughed lightly. "But fine, if you really don’t want me to spill, I won't."
"The new tactics aren't finalized yet, of course I can't let everything slip here..."
Hong Siyu mumbled behind her. "Anyway, let's change the topic."
"Fine, fine, whatever you say, girl."
Madoka shrugged. "Let's get to it. Let's talk about the ‘serious business’ our Director Lin keeps going on about."
Lin Yun just raised his eyebrows, unfazed by Madoka’s constant sarcasm.
The noisy Director’s Office suddenly fell silent.
"Where should we start? You guys first, or me?"
Asou Madoka looked between Lin Yun and Hong Siyu. "Like, do you have any questions about the Kingdom? I’ve been there for the past ten years. Probably know a bit more than you. But heads up: a lot of it is hearsay, not firsthand info. If there’s any mistakes, don't blame me."
"What’s Su Shengzi doing these days?" Lin Yun asked bluntly.
Of the five members from the old Fangting City Squad, besides Anya and Su Shengzi, the other three had now gathered here.
Anya was... well, a separate case. But the fifth member's absence still stood out — especially because it was Su Shengzi.
There’s a saying among Magical Girls: a successful squad usually includes — a lively mascot, a cool and proud battle expert, a mature and responsible mediator, and a crazy troublemaker.
Applying that formula to the old Fangting Squad, the roles didn't fit perfectly, but Su Shengzi? She fit the "crazy troublemaker" to a T.
As long as Su Shengzi was around, every day was a fresh round of bickering over random nonsense, endless strange projects, and wasted energy chasing bizarre goals. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡⁂𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⁂𝙣𝙚𝙩
Lin Yun’s most vivid memory: Su Shengzi once developed an instant ritual to solidify Ravager corpses for a summer ghost hunt, crafting monster parts into "adventure materials" — and scared Hong Siyu into the hospital.
Oh, and she wasn't just a madwoman — she was smart.
Su Shengzi wasn’t outstanding in raw magic or equipment, but her understanding and creativity with rituals were unparalleled. She even invented original minor spells based on existing systems.
Naturally, such a genius attracted tons of attention from veteran Magical Girls in the Kingdom.
In fact, it wasn’t Lin Yun who first got noticed by Emerald — it was Su Shengzi.
Emerald had tested her with a few questions, then immediately offered her a spot at the Court of Research — promising to get her a Flower Card within ten years.
Su Shengzi? She rejected the offer without hesitation.
"I only research what interests me. I won't be ordered around by the Royal Court's big shots."
And sure enough, she stuck to it — after finishing her ten-year term, she retired without regrets and left Fangting City. After that, she vanished completely from Lin Yun's world.
Now, seeing the others return but not her — it really felt like something was missing.
"That girl... sigh, you didn’t hear?"
Asou Madoka let out a long sigh. "She went off to the In-Between."
It took several seconds for Lin Yun to process what she said.
Hong Siyu’s eyes widened too.
The In-Between — a world separate from both the Magic Kingdom and the Material World.
The spatial connections there were notoriously unstable, and the world itself was unstable too. It was considered the very definition of "wild lands."
Some even said Ravagers originally came from there.
The In-Between was home to all sorts of anti-Kingdom forces — Black Cinders Dawn, Claw Marks, the Rebellion — it was a criminal paradise, a hellhole for any Magical Girl.
And Su Shengzi, a retired Magical Girl who had lost all her powers, just ran off there alone?
Madoka continued with a dry laugh, "The last time I heard from her was twelve years ago — right when she left Fangting City. She told me she was going to the In-Between for a 'journey of self-discovery.' After that, total radio silence."
She didn’t finish the sentence — but it didn’t need to be said.
For a normal person, heading to the In-Between and disappearing for good basically meant one thing: death.
But this was Su Shengzi.
Just like Lin Yun found it hard to accept Anya’s death, it was equally hard to imagine Su Shengzi dying so easily.
No matter how insane or reckless her actions seemed, they always felt like they had a purpose behind them.
And thinking about it — her love for ritual research, her disdain for Royal Court politics, her eerie fascination with Ravagers — Lin Yun couldn’t help but form a strange idea.
"...Are you telling me she went to join Claw Marks?"