**Chapter 115: This Is Not a Person**
Luo Shuangyue, covered in dust from the explosion, brushed off her clothes and got up from the ground, mumbling in a rather plain tone.
The good news was that her sister wouldn’t be captured to become a humanoid arsenal.
The bad news was that this card’s versatility seemed a bit low.
But given the current situation, it was indeed a good thing that Luo Shuangxing could come up with this method. It made battles against those cosmic magical beasts much easier.
These weapon cards effectively stored Luo Shuangxing’s magical power and time that she usually had no place to use, allowing her to use them during battles. This significantly enhanced Luo Shuangxing’s fighting capability.
Not only did it shorten the time required to release spells, but it also indirectly extended her mana bar, making it a win-win situation.
Luo Shuangyue felt a desire to learn her sister’s spell… how about having Luo Shuangxing make her a couple of cards as snacks later?
Luo Shuangyue’s talent allowed her to gain a part of the abilities of the magic power owner after consuming their magic. Bai Ye’s magic enabled her to mimic sealing cards, so Luo Shuangxing’s magic should also allow her to mimic weapon cards.
However, that was merely a thought for now. Everyone should return to their homes and find their moms.
…Hmm, speaking of which, among the four girls present, it seemed they couldn’t even gather one mother.
“Everyone hasn’t had dinner yet, right? How about we go eat something at my café?” Xiaomimi suggested, raising her hand.
Originally, these few people wouldn’t have trained so late, but today, due to Luo Shuangxing’s epiphany, the training time had been extended by several hours.
Now, it wasn’t just late for dinner; even for a midnight snack, it was getting a bit late.
At this time, the restaurants still open were basically fast food places, so Xiaomimi thought it would be better to take everyone to her café to eat a late-night snack while petting cats.
Luo Shuangyue wasn’t too bothered, and naturally, Luo Shuangxing and Xia Mo wouldn’t refuse Xiaomimi’s invitation.
So, a few minutes later, the four of them landed outside Xiaomimi’s café and transformed back.
One good thing about being a magical girl was the incredible convenience in travel. As long as it was within a city, it only took a few minutes to get anywhere.
It was just like going out for a stroll.
The café had its lights on, with faint silhouettes of people flickering inside. The four of them pushed the door open, and the few cleaning girl staff looked up in surprise at the leading Xiaomimi.
“Don’t mind me; I just brought my three friends to have a midnight snack. You girls finish cleaning and go rest; I will handle the rest,” Xiaomimi said with a smile.
“Then we’ll leave it to you, Mimi.” The girls smiled a bit shyly, quickly finished cleaning up, and scurried off to the second floor of the café.
“They all live here,” Xiaomimi explained quietly.
In terms of staff treatment, Xiaomimi’s café was absolutely top-notch. Not only were their meals and accommodation covered, but she also had no airs about her and interacted with everyone like friends.
Everyone here adored Xiaomimi, and several girls had even declared that they wanted to work here for a lifetime.
“Are they all children who lost their families due to the magical beast disaster?” Luo Shuangyue sensed something deeper.
Free food and housing weren’t the main issue, but the behavior of treating this place like home truly made Luo Shuangyue pay attention.
If she guessed correctly, these girls should all be unfortunate beings who, like her, had lost their families, right?
Xiaomimi fell silent for a long time and then nodded slowly.
“Yeah, everyone has endured that nightmare. I thought I couldn’t let everyone remain trapped in the dark past, so I opened this café.”
Xiaomimi’s cat café didn’t actually make any money, but since staff expenses were basically zero, it could barely sustain itself.
After she became a magical girl, she had much more financial freedom and significantly improved the conditions for her friends living with her.
She really enjoyed the time spent with her friends and sincerely wanted to keep them as lifelong friends.
While recounting the café’s origins, Xiaomimi began to prepare simple meals for the group.
Xia Mo, seeing Xiaomimi busily working alone, also entered the kitchen to help her out.
Only Luo Shuangyue, disguised as Dark Butterfly, and Luo Shuangxing, who couldn’t cook, sat outside, looking at each other blankly.
Leaning on her chin and staring at Dark Butterfly’s face, Luo Shuangxing increasingly found her sister in this form more pleasing to the eye.
Being stared at by Luo Shuangxing with such intense eyes made Luo Shuangyue feel a bit uncomfortable.
“What are you staring at?” she asked irritably.
Luo Shuangxing’s eyes rolled around, filled with curiosity as she asked, “Dark Butterfly, what do you think of our senior?”
Huh? What kind of question is that?
“A troublesome character, naively a bit stupid; you magical girls are all like that.” She gave a very standard answer.
Dark Butterfly had always maintained this attitude toward magical girls; while she could yield to Xia Mo privately, she certainly could not at this moment.
Luo Shuangxing let out an “Oh~,” her intentionally prolonged tone filled with doubt regarding Luo Shuangyue’s contradictory words.
“You’re a magical girl too; aren’t you insulting yourself?”
“I’m not like you guys. You magical girls are short-sighted and unambitious. How can you defeat magical beasts together with fools like you?”
“So, you think your Polar Night’s path is the right one?” A flash of curiosity appeared in Luo Shuangxing’s eyes.
She was quite interested in knowing why her sister chose to join Polar Night instead of the better-reputed Magic Department.
Normally, after a magical girl awakens, the first choice is definitely to find the Magic Department and request to join, right? Even if not the Magic Department, they would seek out the local magical girl organization.
However, Luo Shuangyue directly sought Polar Night after awakening, which was quite strange.
She couldn’t possibly truly identify with Polar Night’s ideology, right? But looking at her behavior, she didn’t seem to have that strong a sense of belonging to Polar Night either.
It felt more like a temporary refuge for her, and one day she would leave for a broader world outside.
“I don’t know, and I don’t care which path is right. I just want to find what matters to me,” Luo Shuangyue paused, a hint of sadness flickering in her eyes, “some… things that mean a lot to me.”
Luo Shuangxing fell silent. Even without Luo Shuangyue explicitly saying so, she understood her sister’s thoughts at this moment.
What were those things that meant so much to Luo Shuangyue that had now disappeared and cannot be found?
As Luo Shuangyue’s younger sister, Luo Shuangxing certainly knew what kind of person her sister was.
Despite often complaining about her younger sister, in essence, Luo Shuangyue was a family-oriented person; Luo Shuangxing and Xia Mo were her family.
But a few years ago, their home didn’t only consist of these few people.
“Do you think… you would be able to find the person you’re looking for?” Luo Shuangxing clutched her chest, feeling her heart pounding.
She recalled the wonderful times spent with her parents, the warmth of a home filled with laughter.
She also recalled the bewilderment she felt when her parents suddenly disappeared, the gradual despair she experienced during the long wait, and her self-destructive tendencies when she wanted to search for them alone.
Had Luo Shuangyue not forcefully stopped her, she would have surely disappeared silently from this world.
After a year-long recovery, Luo Shuangxing had barely managed to step out of her grief and start a new life, but the atmosphere at home, no longer lively and warm, continued to leave scars in her heart.
Slowly, Luo Shuangxing became numb, as if she had already adapted to this kind of life.
Yet today, she received an answer from Luo Shuangyue—an answer that made her heart ache once more.
“I don’t know, but I will strive to find them. If they can’t be found here, I will go to another city, and if they can’t be found in other cities, I will search through the entire land. If I can’t find any trace of them on this planet, then I’ll look in the sky!”
“In the sky? Can they fly?”
“I have no choice; what if I can’t find them on the ground?” Luo Shuangyue smiled and said, as if joking.
Some things needed to be slowly revealed to Luo Shuangxing. This was just the right opportunity for her to start accepting the truth.
Using the identity of Dark Butterfly to tell Luo Shuangxing a story provided a buffer of sorts. Hopefully, it would allow her to feel the least impact.
Luo Shuangyue wouldn’t directly tell Luo Shuangxing that their parents should still be alive; she wanted to tell her sister that she was doing her utmost to search for their parents. As for their parents’ state, she didn’t know either.
Joining Polar Night was merely a stepping stone in her quest to find them.
“You joined Polar Night to make use of them,” Luo Shuangxing stated with certainty.
“It’s a mutually beneficial relationship. I provide them with the combat power they need, and they give me what I want. How can that be called using them?” Luo Shuangyue corrected her younger sister’s erroneous phrasing.
She wasn’t taking advantage of Polar Night; she was being paid to help them fight—a perfectly normal transaction. What was there to discuss about using or not using?
“The Magic Department has too many rules, and those so-called ties are a nuisance. I don’t want to be bound by those constraints.” Luo Shuangyue said directly, having no reservations about her dislike for the Magic Department. She preferred to be a free-spirited “villain.”
“Emotions are the key to a magical girl’s strength,” Luo Shuangxing rebuffed.
“I’ve already packed my heart full; I don’t need extra emotions.”
Luo Shuangyue’s heart was small, filled to the brim with her family—leaving little room for others.
She didn’t need the connections other magical girls sought because she already had her family tightly bound to her.
Xia Mo, Luo Shuangxing, and their missing parents—having them meant Luo Shuangyue wouldn’t lose direction or motivation.
Luo Shuangxing restrained herself from asking, ‘Who do you have in your heart?’ The answer to that question was something she already knew without needing to ask.
“In this regard, you’re quite like a magical girl.” Luo Shuangxing quietly reached out and placed her hand on the back of Luo Shuangyue’s hand.
Luo Shuangyue’s eyelids twitched slightly, showing no reaction to Luo Shuangxing’s action.
Her gaze was somewhere else, seemingly unaware of her sister’s movement, which warmed Luo Shuangxing’s heart a little.
“Today, you’re quite pleasing to the eye.”
“Is that so? Then I truly am honored,” Luo Shuangyue said with a faint smirk, then felt her phone vibrating in her pocket.
Strange, who would send her a message at this time?
Pulling her hand away from Luo Shuangxing, Luo Shuangyue took out her phone to glance at it, her expression turning strange.
The message was from Jiuye, saying that Black Dragonfly had discovered a girl in poor mental condition during her routine activities. She had now found the girl and asked if Luo Shuangyue wanted her to bring her back to the Polar Night headquarters.
Polar Night was an organization that enjoyed picking up lost individuals, usually taking a salvaging attitude toward such girls.
What made Luo Shuangyue’s expression strange wasn’t Jiuye’s offer to bring someone back to the Polar Night headquarters, but the girl she had picked up.
Messy flaxen hair stuck to her forehead, her blue eyes filled with fear, and a pale face that looked as if her soul had been frightened out of her.
Looking at the photo Jiuye sent, Luo Shuangyue found herself at a loss for words.
Not long ago, she was pondering how to find Xiao Yi, and now this girl had been picked up by Jiuye; it was truly an unexpected twist of fate.
Tap, tap, tap, her fingers lightly drummed on the table three times, and Luo Shuangyue quickly made a decision.
“Bring her here; I’ll check on her condition.” Sending her location to Jiuye, Luo Shuangyue asked her to bring the girl over first.
Xiao Yi had some peculiar traits; it would be best not to take her directly to the Polar Night headquarters for now.
Plus, with Luo Shuangxing here, it was a good choice to have Jiuye bring her here.
As for whether there would be danger… Luo Shuangyue thought that if all four magical girls here could run into danger, then bringing Xiao Yi elsewhere would be even worse.
‘Here? Can Dark Butterfly not come?’
Jiuye’s reply came quickly, but her answer left Luo Shuangyue a bit speechless.
Perhaps she was afraid of seeing Xiaomimi after seeing the location of Mimi Café.
“Why can’t you come?”
‘This is where Mimi is…’
“She doesn’t even know what you look like; what’s there to be afraid of?” Luo Shuangyue replied helplessly.
Could Xiaomimi recognize Jiuye? No way!
Previously when Xiaomimi was beating Jiuye, she had a blast!
This thought snapped Jiuye back to reality, oh right, Mimi doesn’t know that I’m Jiuye; I’m really not afraid.
‘Okay okay, I’ll bring her over right away!’
“Alright, I’ll treat you to a midnight snack later.” Putting her phone back in her pocket, Luo Shuangyue shouted towards the kitchen, “Add two more servings; we have two more guests coming!”
As soon as Luo Shuangyue shouted, there was no movement from the kitchen, and beside her, Luo Shuangxing voiced a confused “Huh?”
“I have a friend who picked up a homeless child. I asked her to bring the child here for us to take a look.” As she spoke, Luo Shuangyue showed the photo that Jiuye sent to Luo Shuangxing.
She of course knew that the person in the photo was Xiao Yi, but as Dark Butterfly, she hadn’t seen Xiao Yi, so she couldn’t directly reveal her identity.
She needed to show the photo to Luo Shuangxing so that Luo Shuangxing would utter Xiao Yi’s name.
“Xiao Yi?! How did she end up like this?” A second later, Luo Shuangxing cried out in surprise.
See, this way Luo Shuangyue could naturally start the conversation about Xiao Yi.
However, there wasn’t much to talk about; they would have to wait for Jiuye to bring the person before any further discussion could be made.
What could they talk about now? Speculating about the reasons for Xiao Yi’s condition? It was better to wait for her to arrive in person.
After about ten minutes, Jiuye, draped in a black cloak, carefully brought Xiao Yi into Mimi Café.
“Dark Butterfly, I’ve placed her here.”
Jiuye intended to leave right after setting the girl down, but Luo Shuangyue wouldn’t let her go that easily.
“Having a coffee before you leave wouldn’t hurt; if I confirm she’s fine, you’ll need to take her back.” Luo Shuangyue gestured for Jiuye to sit down and not rush off.
After they confirmed there was nothing wrong with Xiao Yi, Jiuye would still need to take her home; would they make her go back to the Polar Night headquarters again?
Jiuye took a timid glance at the few girls by the bar; for some reason, she felt a chill run down her neck, as if those girls were something terrifying.
Placing the dazed Xiao Yi on a nearby chair, Jiuye, feeling awkward, accepted a steaming cup of coffee from Xiaomimi, softly uttering a thank you.
Xiaomimi replied with a gentle smile, but her eyes remained fixed on the cat ears atop Jiuye’s head.
She wanted to touch them… No, no, she couldn’t be so rude. And this person was a transformed individual from the Polar Night organization, our enemy; Xiaomimi quickly extinguished the idea in her mind.
Of course, she recognized Jiuye; they had fought before.
However, there was no animosity between them; after all, Jiuye didn’t know that Xiaomimi was the Siam who had beaten her, and as the victor, Xiaomimi naturally bore no hatred towards the loser.
Jiuye’s appearance undoubtedly appealed to Xiaomimi, given that her favorite thing was cats.
A catgirl like Jiuye was truly a gem; if she weren’t an enemy, Xiaomimi would have definitely tried to bring her home.
While Xiaomimi was having an internal conflict, the other three had already begun to attend to Xiao Yi.
“Xiao Yi, Xiao Yi!” Luo Shuangxing shouted beside Xiao Yi’s ear, but Xiao Yi showed no reaction to external stimuli.
She merely kept mumbling lines like, ‘She came to find me,’ and ‘Sister, I’m sorry for you.’
What terrifying events could make someone turn into this?
Luo Shuangyue’s gaze shifted from Xiao Yi’s fear-stricken face, slightly lowering to her neck.
A pendant entered Luo Shuangyue’s line of sight.
She remembered that Xiao Yi had previously handed this pendant to Luo Shuangxing, seemingly wanting to use it to trap Luo Shuangxing?
Reaching her hand out, she tried to take the pendant off Xiao Yi’s neck. However, as she lifted the pendant, she noticed the pointed ears hidden beneath her hair.
Pointed?
Immediately brushing back the hair near Xiao Yi’s ears, Luo Shuangyue confirmed her discovery; these were not mere accessories, but indeed real ears.
“Come here, you two! Look at her ears; something’s not right!” Luo Shuangyue hurriedly called Summer and Luo Shuangxing over.
The three of them encircled Xiao Yi’s ears and began a fierce discussion about whether they were innate or artificially modified.
Soon, even Xiaomimi and Jiuye crowded over.
As a transformed person, Jiuye solemnly stated that these ears were definitely not artificially modified; she sensed no traces of modification in Xiao Yi.
While saying this, she also revealed her own human ears; even she, someone who didn’t look too human, retained normal ears.
“Then they must be natural?” Luo Shuangyue muttered softly, then continued working with her hands and finally removed the pendant from Xiao Yi’s neck.
This was her primary target; the ears were merely an accidental discovery.
This pendant resembled a piece of transparent amber, within which was sealed a beautiful galaxy vortex, as if it could attract a person’s gaze entirely.
Luo Shuangyue concentrated and felt a subtle mental wave emanating from the pendant.
This might be Xiao Yi’s way of altering others’ perceptions.
After the pendant was removed, Xiao Yi’s emotions seemed to recover somewhat; her dazed pupils gradually regained focus. Upon seeing Luo Shuangxing, her mouth slightly opened, and then, as if she had seen something terrifying, she scrambled to escape.
Luo Shuangxing didn’t give her the chance to escape. The moment Xiao Yi showed signs of wanting to run, she had already pressed her hand on Xiao Yi’s shoulder, using undeniable strength to hold the weak girl firmly in place.
“Don’t think about running! Explain why you wanted to hypnotize me with your mental magic?”
Xiao Yi looked at the pendant Luo Shuangyue was toying with, then glanced at the few girls surrounding her, her eyes gradually dimming.
“And what’s the story with your ears?” Luo Shuangxing lifted Xiao Yi’s hair and pointed to the pair of pointed ears to continue questioning.
Clearly, Xiao Yi wasn’t cooperative; she tightly shut her mouth, displaying an expression that conveyed she wouldn’t utter even a word even if they killed her.
“Let me go; let me be killed by her; I deserve this…” she murmured softly.
“I think I understand roughly; it seems something is chasing her, which is why she’s so terrified,” Luo Shuangyue suddenly spoke up while observing the pendant. “Moreover, this pendant seems to have exacerbated her condition, allowing her to see and hear things.”
Recalling her several encounters with Xiao Yi, Luo Shuangyue concluded that this girl was highly sensitive and timid. She had the ability to hypnotize others but hadn’t used it to do anything excessively harmful.
According to Luo Shuangxing’s description, this child merely wanted to find someone she could rely on for safety.
Of course, using hypnosis to achieve her aims was certainly wrong, but compared to what a gang of bad guys would do with such power, Xiao Yi’s actions were quite harmless.
Luo Shuangyue even felt that this girl had a kind heart.
“Mimi, do you have a thermometer? I feel like she has a high temperature; we should measure it,” Luo Shuangyue asked.
“I have one! I’ll go get it right now!” Xiaomimi nodded eagerly and dashed upstairs.
She didn’t notice that when Luo Shuangyue called the name “Mimi,” the pupils of the black catgirl beside her narrowed into slits.
Half a minute later, she returned with an infrared thermometer.
Taking Xiao Yi’s forehead temperature, the readings shocked everyone—an astonishing forty-four degrees!
For a human, that temperature would be considered near-death, yet Xiao Yi seemed unfazed; she could speak and move, albeit a little dazed.
And that state of daze wasn’t even due to the high temperature.
“Ugh… I think we might have picked up something unusual,” Luo Shuangyue stated seriously, stuffing the pendant into her pocket. “I don’t think she’s a person.”
Indeed, in the literal sense, she was not human.
Xiao Yi was certainly not a human; she had pointed ears that humans did not possess, along with a high temperature that no human had. Right now, Luo Shuangyue was thinking of taking this girl to Polar Night for Monise to conduct a thorough check.
What if, just what if, she was actually an alien?
“Not a person? Well, that is certainly possible; then we should send her to the Magic Department…” Xia Mo considered that Luo Shuangyue had a point.
As for the suggestion to send Xiao Yi to the Magic Department, Luo Shuangyue quickly rejected it; how could such a valuable research subject be casually handed over to the Magic Department?
They had to finish their research in Polar Night first before sending her to the Magic Department!
“This girl was found by us in Polar Night, so we ought to manage her!” Luo Shuangyue asserted firmly about Polar Night’s claim over Xiao Yi, dismissing the Magic Department’s involvement for now and stating, “We’ll study her first.”
As she spoke, Luo Shuangyue hooked her arm under Xiao Yi’s and began to guide her towards the door.
“Jiuye, we’re leaving!”
Jiuye, who had been observing Xiaomimi with a complicated gaze, suddenly came to her senses and said, “Ah,” then quickly finished her cup of coffee, returned the cup to Xiaomimi with a quiet thank you, and hurried to follow Luo Shuangyue.
“There’s a share for everyone!” Xia Mo rushed forward to grab Xiao Yi’s hand, not allowing Luo Shuangyue to take her back to Polar Night directly.
“You think you get a share in this? Just wait until we’re done studying her in Polar Night; if you’re afraid we’ll dissect her, you can come along to watch.”
“Hmm… okay!”
Xia Mo didn’t take long to ponder and readily agreed to Luo Shuangyue’s suggestion.
She wasn’t particularly worried about getting hurt in Polar Night; after all, Dark Butterfly was Luo Shuangyue—having her around guaranteed her safety.
Seeing that Xia Mo agreed, Luo Shuangyue pulled out her phone and sent a message to Monise.
“Monise, I picked up an alien!”
A few seconds after sending the message, Monise replied with a question mark.
What? An alien?
“Pointed ears, temperature forty-four—she definitely can’t be an Earth person!”
A few more seconds passed, and Monise replied with a very brief message.
“Bring her here.”
“Rosemary is with me; she said there’s a share for everyone.”
“Dismember her and then bring her here.”
Look at how decisive that was; Luo Shuangyue genuinely admired Monise—truly the boss of a villain organization, flipping the script with ease.
Just a few days ago, they were still happily cooperating, now facing conflict, she directly asked her to dismember Summer.
“…… She said she would let us keep the girl, but she wants to come to Polar Night as well to monitor and prevent us from cutting the alien open.”
A few minutes later, Monise replied, “Okay, but she must have her eyes covered and can’t change into magical form along the way.”
“Understood.”
Finishing her conversation with Monise, Luo Shuangyue relayed Monise’s requirements to Xia Mo.
Xia Mo didn’t take too long to think and readily agreed.
Once they reached a consensus, the next steps became straightforward. Luo Shuangyue transformed, holding Xia Mo in one hand and Xiao Yi in the other, and with a whoosh, they took to the sky.
Covering their eyes was even simpler; Luo Shuangyue’s magical power was black-purple, which worked perfectly to blindfold Xia Mo.
With Xia Mo’s eyes covered, Luo Shuangyue also swiftly placed a magic eye mask over Xiao Yi, sending the girl back into a state of trembling.
No, it wasn’t quite accurate to say she was merely trembling. The moment Luo Shuangyue transformed, Xiao Yi seemed to see something terrifying and began sweating profusely and shaking uncontrollably.
Two and a half minutes later, Luo Shuangyue landed at the Polar Night headquarters, then removed the eye masks from both of them.
Upon entering the headquarters, Luo Shuangyue found herself immediately facing a group of lab-coated individuals pushing carts, the leader being a beaming Monise.
Without uttering a single word upon seeing Luo Shuangyue, Monise quickly snatched Xiao Yi from her hands, placed her on a cart, and dashed away like the wind.
From the direction they headed, it seemed to be the examination area.
“Is this what happens in Polar Night? It doesn’t seem like an evil organization; in fact, it resembles a research facility,” Xia Mo remarked curiously, examining the surroundings with quiet awe.
She had initially thought that Polar Night would be quite dark and exude a villainous aura; she didn’t expect it to feel so ordinary.
For a moment, she almost thought she had returned to the Magic Department’s research facility.
“That’s because our main business in Polar Night is research; everything else serves the research,” Luo Shuangyue shrugged.
Polar Night collaborates with other villain organizations to trade for items not obtainable in regular markets, all to further Monise’s research.
Every other evil organization has its purposes—some seek world domination, while others simply want money. In contrast, Polar Night’s ambition is slightly grander; they want to bring the power of magic to everyone.
The funds earned from their daily activities, aside from necessary operational expenses, are all invested into Monise’s endless research, and they have been doing it for decades.
Fortunately, Monise is her own boss; otherwise, given this input-output ratio, this project would have been cut long ago.
“Let’s go; aren’t you worried about that child getting cut into pieces? Let’s take a look over there,” Luo Shuangyue nudged Xia Mo with her shoulder. “Actually, you don’t need to be too worried; Monise wouldn’t do anything that shortsighted.”
Keeping this alien alive for continuous研究 was far better than slicing her into pieces!
