“Huh? What are you going to do? Deal with this bomb?”
Jiang Nan was stunned by Ye Xingling’s aura when she heard her words, at a loss for what to do, and even raised her voice significantly.
Ye Xingling ignored her question, instead grabbed the schoolbag containing the bomb from the ground, and resolutely left the restroom, leaving Jiang Nan with a cool high school girl silhouette.
Jiang Nan stared blankly at Ye Xingling’s retreating back, holding the phone the other had handed her, looking at the spot where the bomb in the schoolbag had been, not knowing what to say for a moment.
‘So her otaku desk mate was actually a pretty amazing person? A high school girl who could face something like that and say without flinching, “Won’t it still be over thirty minutes before it explodes?”… There was an inexplicable sense of contrast.’
However, at this moment, Jiang Nan would never have imagined—
Meanwhile, on the other side, the moment Ye Xingling walked out of the restroom holding the schoolbag with the bomb and stepped onto the stairs leading to the second floor, she already started to regret it.
‘Ah, is it really okay to leave carrying a bomb like this? Won’t it be dangerous? What if those people discover that I’ve used up the bomb’s magic power as Senior Yunque said, and then directly detonate the bomb?’
‘Also, her phone would be tracked by her brother and the magical girls, but she still hadn’t replied to her brother’s messages… Would her brother worry if he saw that…’
With a nervous heart, Ye Xingling stepped into the cafeteria’s second floor. After passing a short section of the kitchen, she was lucky enough to see a schoolbag placed on a dining table next to a load-bearing pillar. Without needing to think, that was definitely another timed bomb.
After confirming that Jiang Nan on the first floor hadn’t followed her and that there were no terrorist-like individuals around, Ye Xingling went to the load-bearing pillar, threw the schoolbag she had brought up next to the other one on the table, and activated the necklace in her hand—the Magical Girl Gem belonging to Magical Girl Shuanghua.
An icy-blue light flashed. Amidst the light formed by magic power, the soft murmur of a girl was heard:
“O ice and cold that fears no evil, answer my call and paint a flower of protection with solid ice!”
The first to be freed from the light was the girl’s ice-blue ponytail, soon followed by her fair face and neck. Dressed in a battle skirt predominantly ice-blue with dark blue fabric accents, the magical girl appeared in the cafeteria. Vaguely, an ice-blue butterfly fluttered around her wrist, and the pure white lace hem of her skirt dissipated into specks of starlight.
With a light tap of her blue-and-white little leather shoes on the floor, Magical Girl Shuanghua made her grand entrance!
Next, the future star of Satellite City’s magical girls, our Miss Shuanghua, ungracefully plopped down onto a chair directly facing the dining table, looking at the two schoolbags with a mix of laughter and tears.
She wondered how those guys managed to get such dangerous items into the school using schoolbags. Come to think of it, the two bags were different: one was azure blue and looked to be of good quality, while the other was a somewhat shabby brown schoolbag.
‘Could it be that students really carried them in one by one with their bags…’
Ye Xingling silently sighed in her heart. Carefully, she took out the two timed bombs from the schoolbags and gently placed them on the table.
Her small hand with a lace bracelet covered the dark tubular objects. The girl held her breath and concentrated, feeling the magic power from the Magic Stones contained within, recalling what her Senior Yunque had said.
“This explosive device has a very simple structure: explosive, timer, and a Magic Circuit for detonation. However, dismantling it has some difficulty. For Miss Shuanghua, the fastest way to deal with this kind of thing is to use a magical girl’s perception and control over magic power to consume the magic in the Magic Stone so it’s insufficient to support the Magic Circuit’s activation. That way, even if the terrorists eventually succeed in detonating it, the explosive power won’t be enough to shake most buildings that weren’t built with shortcuts.”
‘Magic Stone… Magic Stone… Oh, so it’s that thing inside that’s a bit hot to the touch… But why is it fire element? No, what am I thinking? Something used for blasting would definitely be fire element…’
‘How do I consume the magic of a fire Magic Stone…? I don’t know any fire magic either. All I can do is probably just detonate the magic inside?’
‘Then what’s the difference between that and just letting the bomb explode!’
‘It’s a bit hot… very high temperature…’
‘What if I use my ice magic to cool down the fire Magic Stone?’
A surprisingly amazing idea suddenly burst into Ye Xingling’s mind.
Act on it immediately—bold conjecture and careful verification had always been one of her principles in gaming. Only this time, if it blew up, she’d never be able to play games again.
With a solemn expression, Ye Xingling used her magic to condense ice, sealing the timed bomb tightly inside. Through her familiar ice magic, she could still feel the scalding temperature within.
To be safe, Ye Xingling also cast a Magical Girl’s special Magic Shield on herself. Even though she didn’t know how the Magic Shield compared to the school walls in strength, based on her meager experience, this was the highest level of protection she could achieve.
Ice magic slowly released from her hand, causing the surrounding air temperature to plummet. The frozen bomb emitted wisps of white vapor. Soon, Ye Xingling’s efforts bore fruit.
That part with extremely high temperature and magic concentration had indeed had a lot of its magic consumed by her magic. Unfortunately, based on her estimate, after dealing with this bomb, she wouldn’t be able to cast much more magic.
And as only a Light-Containing Level magical girl, she wasn’t yet qualified to have her own wand, which meant that without magic, she would most likely be unable to do anything.
After much hesitation, Ye Xingling still chose to pour all her magic into it. Before long, even though only a little over two minutes had passed on the timer, she had already turned one bomb into a dud.
The girl wiped the sweat from her forehead that didn’t actually exist, feeling a sense of accomplishment.
Just as she was about to give up on dealing with the other timed bomb, she realized that the magic concentration around her body was many times higher than usual, and she seemed able to collect the magic scattered in the air.
This was truly a surprising discovery!
These magic particles, after replenishing her ice magic, even had a considerable surplus…
This meant that as long as she could find the bombs, she could deal with them without any consumption or pressure!
Suddenly, Ye Xingling felt a heavy responsibility on her shoulders.
But contrary to her wishes, after she dealt with the other timed bomb, sounds of a fairly loud fight came from near the cafeteria.