Chapter Twenty-One: Death Stranding

Xiao Han felt terribly awkward facing the leader's cold indifference. Just as she was about to retract her hand and follow, her fingers were captured by a soft, gentle grip.

Perhaps sensing her embarrassment, the woman in the long dress had taken the initiative to complete the handshake. It was a thoughtful gesture, yet it felt somehow strange…

"The Director is always like this, don't take it to heart," the woman said, both she and the man beside her offering Xiao Han a friendly smile.

Xiao Han managed a smile in return, telling herself that the experts sent down from the Ministry must be a bit eccentric.

They followed Director Long toward the task force office. Xiao Han noticed that although Director Long walked with a cane and seemed to have some difficulty with her left leg, she moved with surprising speed, forcing Xiao Han to almost jog to keep up. Was this the advantage of having long legs?

Long Yushu, Director Long—her reputation had long since reached Li Xiao Han's ears.

In her fifteen-year career, she had solved hundreds of cases, including many high-profile ones. Especially during the early years when magical beasts were rampant, she had set a terrifying record of solo-killing elite-level magical beasts four times!

One had to understand that a magical beast of that level could deploy a magic shield, rendering it completely immune to conventional weaponry. Even with standard-issue magical armaments, it usually required the collaboration of two magical police squads to take one down.

Later, having performed countless meritorious deeds, she was granted permanent rights to use a relic weapon, possessing a piece of exclusive gear that made her even more formidable. She was a role model admired by many magical police officers.

Many regarded Long Yushu as the magical user closest to a magical girl, so Li Xiao Han was not at all surprised that she had been appointed to lead this task force.

And that only added to the pressure on her shoulders.

As the four of them entered the office, all the officers stopped what they were doing, assuming the new leadership was going to hold a meeting as usual, and quickly gathered toward the door.

Long Yushu glanced at them, pulled over a nearby office chair, and sat down. "Go back to work. One person is enough to report the status."

Under her palpable pressure, the group immediately returned to their stations, not daring to make a sound.

Li Xiao Han handed over the latest information summarized that afternoon and gave an oral report on the side.

According to the adjustments made the previous night, they had identified several new suspects through surveillance screening today, but all were ruled out in subsequent follow-ups.

Because the incident occurred in a commercial district with high foot traffic, and the open roads could not be fully cordoned off for investigation after the fact, they could only continue screening while issuing public notices through various channels to collect leads.

Progress on the other front was equally stagnant. Although some retired magical girls had heard the name "String-Heart Stone" and a few had even met her once, they knew very little about her—even those who had been active during the same period.

In these limited, fragmented accounts, String-Heart Stone was always a loner, perhaps even hostile toward her peers. They also found her method of dealing with magical beasts—which bordered on torture—extremely difficult to accept.

They were enemies, yes, but String-Heart Stone’s combat style was alarming enough to make one worry about her mental state…

However, despite the poor reputation of this hot-tempered lone wolf, no one could deny her strength.

"...nowhere near her match."

"No record of failure; if she steps in, it's always resolved..."

"Some say she can solo a boss-level magical beast."

"...A siege? Heh, how many people do you plan to lose? Even if we deploy relic weapons, I'm afraid that..."

Such comments made the task force increasingly uneasy.

A magical girl with such immense combat power and such severe violent tendencies was essentially a mobile, unstable nuclear bomb.

No one wanted a repeat of the tragedy of the Three Major Incidents.

After finishing her report, Li Xiao Han felt her back was already drenched in sweat. This meager progress was simply not good enough... No matter how harshly Deputy Director Su scolded them, it didn't compare to a single look from Director Long.

It was terrifying. Long Yushu was still looking at the paper report in her hand, her expression calm, her eyes beneath her bangs as still as an ancient well. Yet, Xiao Han felt that if the Director so much as looked up at her, her own heart might stop.

After a brief pause, Li Xiao Han summoned her courage, bowed her head, and admitted that the task force's work had been ineffective, asking for Long Yushu's criticism and guidance.

However, Long Yushu did not respond to her, instead handing one page of the report to the refined man standing behind her. "Li Bin, you are to take full charge of the forensic analysis."

Li Bin adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and walked toward the forensic staff in the office, instructing them to take him to the underground laboratory to examine the remains of the magical beast.

Only then did Long Yushu turn to Li Xiao Han. Xiao Han’s heart was in her throat as she waited for her to speak.

"Open this." She flicked a USB drive from her fingers.

Xiao Han took the encrypted drive, performed dual-factor authentication on her computer, and saw two video files inside.

She opened the first one in order. It was surveillance footage from the scene, high-definition restored; it was clearer than the version their bureau had restored, and even the static surrounding String-Heart Stone had been removed.

As expected of the Ministry of Magical Affairs; the resources they could mobilize were the envy of the city bureau. They couldn't even dream of this level of restoration.

With the innate cognitive filtering magic removed, Xiao Han finally saw String-Heart Stone's face clearly.

How to put it? Although magical girls were high-priority targets, objectively speaking, they were all very beautiful and cute.

As for String-Heart Stone…

She was certainly good-looking, but why did she always wear such a sour expression, as if everyone owed her eight thousand dollars…

But seeing her face had limited utility; being able to link this face to the person's true identity was the key to capturing a magical girl.

Moreover, the focus of the video was not on that.

The video had been edited, specifically slowing down String-Heart Stone’s combat process, and Xiao Han soon noticed a detail that had previously been blurry.

After the video ended, Long Yushu signaled for her to play the second one.

The image quality of this video was much worse; the resolution and color tone had a clear sense of age, and even with high-definition restoration, it hadn't been salvaged much. But it was clear enough to see what was happening.

On the screen was the same silver-gray-haired magical girl, but the enemy she faced had been replaced by a massive humanoid magical beast.

Xiao Han recognized it as a Hammerhead Giant, a creature that hadn't appeared in over a dozen years.

It stood over four meters tall, and the camera could only capture its upper torso. String-Heart Stone was flying in the air, raining down heavy punches on its hammerhead-shark-like head.

Her petite fists seemed insignificant compared to the giant, yet every blow carried immense weight, smashing huge, bloody craters into its face.

Its eyeball, which occupied nearly half of its face, was easily shattered, erupting in a massive spray of blood mixed with thick, yellowish, viscous tissue fluid.

Xiao Han couldn't help but cover her mouth, not out of disgust, but in astonishment at the behavior of the fluids.

They were like the blood bursting from a cockroach or mosquito, all suspended in mid-air, automatically avoiding String-Heart Stone. Even under the downpour of gore, her pure white, ornate skirt remained unstained.

"This is the only other recorded activity of String-Heart Stone, and the last sighting from twenty years ago," Long Yushu said.

"So she isn't physically enhanced, but rather a psychokinetic type?" Xiao Han couldn't help but ask.

Long Yushu did not answer.

The short-haired woman standing behind her said softly, "These are the only two recordings. The data is insufficient, and we still cannot be certain. It could be blood manipulation, or perhaps an extremely high-level water magic."

"I assume, Deputy Team Leader, that you understand what this implies."

Li Xiao Han nodded slowly.

Whether it was psychokinesis or liquid manipulation, both were extremely dangerous abilities. Especially psychokinesis.

Once out of control, this type of attack—which required no medium and was highly tied to one's mental state—was almost impossible to block and could cause massive, wide-range damage in an instant.

Furthermore, a mentally unstable magical girl would automatically bypass the underlying rules that prevented harm to ordinary civilians.

The Florida "Blood Storm" incident, one of the Three Major Incidents, was triggered by a psychokinetic magical girl losing control.

A chill ran through Li Xiao Han, and her sweat-soaked back felt even colder. "Director Long, what should we do? Such a dangerous magical girl is still active, yet we can't find any useful leads..."

"Your work thus far has been a complete waste of time," Long Yushu said mercilessly. "Tactics like monitoring surveillance might work for dealing with a green girl, but to root out an old monster like her who has been hiding for decades? It's impossible."

"But even if she was in a surveillance blind spot, there were so many people in the square, and there was no cover in any direction; someone must have seen the moment she transformed. Of course, we guessed she might have flown down from a nearby building, but we only intended to consider that after confirming our current search was hopeless, to avoid complicating the investigation."

"How did you question the witnesses?"

"We just... asked if they saw a suspicious woman using a transformation device. We've been publicizing this for years, and the public is quite sensitive to special items like magic wands, music boxes, or mirrors. And magical girls usually have very obvious movements before they transform."

Long Yushu shook her head. "Useless."

Li Xiao Han was momentarily speechless, unsure if she meant the investigative direction was useless or if she was calling her useless.

She couldn't help but ask, "Magical girls must use those to transform... Could her transformation device be uniquely styled? Or perhaps very discreet?"

"Lily."

"Yes." The short-haired woman behind Long Yushu stepped forward.

She smiled at Li Xiao Han. "Deputy Team Leader, you must have heard that magical girls lose their magic at the latest by age twenty-four and can no longer transform, right?"

Xiao Han nodded. Regarding the anomaly of String-Heart Stone still being able to transform after so many years, they had never found an answer. She had originally intended to ask Long Yushu about it.

Lily continued, "Actually, we aren't entirely sure of the reason. For other magic users, age only affects their upper limits or learning efficiency; it rarely results in a total inability to use magic after a certain age."

"Magical girls are different... I suppose 'girl' is a crucial factor. At twenty-four, one can hardly be called a girl anymore."

"However, while we don't know why the magic disappears, we do know there is a way to forcibly retain the ability to transform."

"Wait, you said 'we'?" Xiao Han gradually realized something was wrong. She looked at her colleagues, then lowered her voice and asked, "Are you a magical girl, too?"

"I suppose so."

"But you... you..." Xiao Han looked at Long Yushu in disbelief.

Was this the "professional expert" the Ministry of Magical Affairs had sent?

Long Yushu squinted slightly, and Xiao Han immediately lowered her head, saying no more.

Lily covered her mouth and chuckled softly. "I’m afraid that strictly speaking, I can no longer be called a magical 'girl,' as I passed twenty-four a long time ago. The same goes for String-Heart Stone."

"We once had a title, though in this pathetic era, almost no one mentions it anymore. Monsters like us... they call us..."

"The Stranded."