Transform into a magical girl after getting off work

In the mirror, a girl with deep blue hair stared back expressionlessly, her symmetrical and slender frame looking as fragile as a doll\'s.

It seemed to be the first time she had bathed in this body since her comeback, Emerald Sparrow thought to herself.

When she first became a Magical Girl in her youth, there were times when it was necessary to clean this body; she would always wash hastily with her eyes closed, her cheeks burning red. Even making eye contact with the opposite-sex body in the mirror would make her tense from the nervous hormones, almost afraid to look too long.

Time had passed, and now, looking at this child-like body after being married for many years, she no longer harbored any impure thoughts.

Instead, as the situation had changed, in her eyes now, the state of a Magical Girl\'s transformation was no different from a weapon. This body was both a weapon and armor, to her it was like a soldier\'s armor, just appearing to be fragile and ornate on the outside.

However, with magic\'s ability to halt the passage of time on the body of a Magical Girl, occasionally seeing that unchanged face from decades ago in the mirror would give her a sense of temporal displacement, as if she was still living in the past.

Not wanting to indulge in these emotions, Emerald Sparrow closed her eyes, averting her gaze from her mirror image, refusing to dwell on it any further.

After putting on the clothes prepared by Xia Liang, rolling up the overly long sleeves and trouser legs, she walked out of the bathroom, seeing Xia Liang rummaging through the closet looking for pillows.

"Let me help," she suggested, and the two of them began to busily work together.

There was only a small single bed in Xia Liang\'s room, so for the sake of sleep quality, she decided to use her parents\' master bedroom.

As she put it, "It\'s just sitting empty anyway, and it\'s good to use it to accommodate guests."

It took about ten minutes to neatly arrange the bed and put away the extra items into the wardrobe. Looking at the bed in front of her, Emerald Sparrow\'s expression grew complicated.

Although she now appeared to be just a little girl, she was essentially still an adult male. Now, to lie in the same bed with a girl she had only known for a month, who was about the same age as her own daughter, the ethical pressures weighed heavily on her.

In the meantime, Xia Liang had returned to her own room, not knowing when, and was now back with a pillow from her bed, standing by the bed and looking at Emerald Sparrow expectantly.

The situation was like a bow drawn taut, needing only the final push; any refusal now would only hurt the child.

Torn inside, unable to utter any harsh words, all Emerald Sparrow could do was sigh, "Let\'s just turn off the lights and sleep then."

"Okay!"

The long-awaiting Xia Liang happily agreed.

Closing the master bedroom\'s door and turning off the ceiling light, Emerald Sparrow and Xia Liang slipped under the covers one after the other, lying on the bed.

With many reservations in mind, Emerald Sparrow deliberately maintained some distance from Xia Liang, ensuring there would be no casual physical contact between them.

It wasn\'t that she had any thoughts about Xia Liang; in fact, facing such a child, she couldn\'t muster a man\'s way of thinking about the opposite sex. She simply felt she needed to uphold an adult\'s responsibility and maintain basic decorum.

Unfortunately, though that was what she thought, Xia Liang didn\'t seem to agree.

After laying on her side, with her back to Xia Liang for a while, Emerald Sparrow\'s pillow had not even warmed up when she felt a pair of arms reach from behind and then wrap around her.

"Ah, as I thought, holding you feels soft and fragrant, even better than a plush pillow..." Xia Liang\'s voice came from behind her.

With her hands encircled around Emerald Sparrow, her expression became somewhat stiff, and although she pushed lightly with her hands to no avail, she could only ask somewhat helplessly, "Can you let go?"

"No," was Xia Liang\'s straightforward reply.

"Don\'t you think it\'s too cramped to sleep like this?"

"This is a rare opportunity to cuddle up with Little Senior while sleeping, I\'m going to hold on until my arms go numb."

"...That\'s just too willful."

"After all, it was you, Little Senior, who asked, and tonight I am just that willful kid," Xia Liang responded in her ear.

Hearing this unequivocal answer, Emerald Sparrow knew there was no room for negotiation and could only close her eyes and sigh, "I\'m starting to regret this now, it feels like I\'ve really gotten myself into trouble."

"Hehe, Little Senior, you seem quite similar to Xia Lu in this respect," Xia Liang behind her laughed softly without minding.

"In what way?" Emerald Sparrow simply asked back.

"Tough on the outside, soft on the heart," Xia Liang commented, "she speaks harshly, but her actions often contradict her words."

"I\'m really getting out of bed now."

"Don\'t," Xia Liang said, even though her words conveyed otherwise, her grip around Emerald Sparrow tightened a little more.

With a sigh that couldn\'t be held back, Emerald Sparrow let herself be held by Xia Liang for a while and, realizing that the girl behind her still hadn\'t fallen asleep, asked again:

"The things we talked about tonight, about your parents... do we need to tell Bai Mei?"

"There\'s no need."

"Why not?"

"If I just blurted it out, considering Xiaolu\'s personality, she might start feeling sorry for me."

Xia Liang whispered, "I don\'t want \'sympathy\' to make our relationship weird. I want to build a good relationship with Xiaolu and become true friends. If our feelings were mixed with \'sympathy,\' I\'d be very unhappy."

"It\'s fine to tell me, though?"

"Hehe, after all, little senior is a mature adult, right?"

Having said that, Xia Liang paused slightly, as if to confirm, she asked Emerald Sparrow, "Is it okay to think this way?"

"As long as you\'re happy, it\'s your family matter, and it\'s your freedom to speak about it or not," Emerald Sparrow said with her eyes closed, her tone gradually softening.

But as she uttered these words, she suddenly felt her shoulder become a bit moist.

In silence, turning her head slightly, she saw Xia Liang burying her face in her shoulder. In the darkness, her bangs covered her face so completely that her expression was invisible.

But Emerald Sparrow could guess—she was crying.

Why she was crying at a time like this was beyond Emerald Sparrow\'s understanding; all she could sense was that Xia Liang didn\'t want her to see through her feelings, so she pretended to know nothing and closed her eyes again, allowing Xia Liang to hold her.

"Thank you, little senior."

Soon after, Xia Liang\'s somewhat rough voice came from behind again.

She knew that crying at such a time was quite inappropriate, but it had been so long since someone needed her, so long since someone listened to her talk so much, and even took the initiative to tell her that it was okay to be "willful." With so many "long time no sees" coming together, she felt as if she were in the midst of a beautiful dream.

"It\'s nothing," Emerald Sparrow responded lightly. Because she knew that, at such a moment, a lukewarm acceptance was the appropriate attitude.

"Little senior."

"Hmm?"

"I\'m going to work hard for the qualification badge examination."

Lowering her voice, Xia Liang\'s words carried a hint of resolution, "I want to grow stronger too, and then, one day, I will be standing beside you."

Emerald Sparrow\'s breathing paused for a moment.

"...You will, you all surely can," she then encouraged Xia Liang in a cool yet gentle tone.

After saying this, as if something had occurred to her, she continued with a bit of hesitation, "But since you mentioned it, I\'ve just made a decision; I\'m just not sure what you think about it."

"What is it?"

"From next time on, we should have our study sessions at your place."

Emerald Sparrow said this with her back still turned to her, so in the darkness, Xia Liang couldn\'t see Emerald Sparrow\'s expression at that moment.

However, she knew what her own expression was like.

Burying her face in Emerald Sparrow\'s back, her heart leapt with joy, and she tried hard to restrain her upward-curving lips before softly replying:

"Mhm, I\'d be honored, really."