The first recruitnt attempt for Kyoko ended in failure.
"Teacher, did we fail this ti?"
After signaling Akemi Homura to send her back, the "performance" naturally paused for the ti being. At this mont, Nanoha ca over a bit uneasily to ask, but Fang Zheng appeared quite calm.
"It’s okay if we failed; it ans she has enough judgnt. If she agreed just like that, it would be abnormal."
To be honest, Fang Zheng originally didn’t pay much attention to Madoka Kana. Of course, in Akemi Homura’s eyes, Madoka Kana was definitely a particularly kind, passionate, and attractive girl. However, you could only take three-tenths of Akemi Homura’s words seriously, as Madoka Kana was once Akemi Homura’s savior, so she would definitely have a biased view of her.
But in Fang Zheng’s brief observations, his evaluation of Madoka Kana wasn’t very high, because she seed sowhat weak, often following the crowd, and not having much of her own opinion.
However, this refusal to be recruited by Kyoko this ti made Fang Zheng’s eyes light up.
He discovered that although Kyoko appeared to have no opinion on the surface, in reality, she had a strong sense of self.
If you were to describe her in terms of a web novel protagonist, then Kyoko had the characteristic of "I’ll do it if I like it, sacrificing everything is no problem; if I don’t like it, even if you bring out mountains of gold and silver, I won’t care."
It’s just that her outward appearance is too gentle and weak, so most people wouldn’t notice this point.
In fact, according to Akemi Homura, in nurous cycles, even when QB constantly tempted Madoka Kana to sign the contract to beco a Magical Girl, she was almost unmoved, unless she personally witnessed the situation develop to a very critical point before making a decision.
It’s important to know that, as a Japanese person, this is very difficult.
Fang Zheng, after traveling through so many worlds, had a general understanding of the personality of Japanese people. They are a group that finds it "very difficult to refuse soone face to face."
Of course, this doesn’t an the Japanese are puppets who follow whatever you say, but rather they won’t directly tell you things like "this won’t work," "I don’t want to do it," or "I refuse." Instead, they will respond in a very tactful "Japanese-style" manner.
For example, when they don’t want to do sothing, they might say "I will handle it appropriately," which is essentially synonymous with "there will be no further action."
Likewise, if they say "let think about it," it usually ans the sa.
And for soone like Kyoko, who had already co to the Magical Girl Headquarters, t the Magical Girls, and interacted with them, yet still managed to resist temptation and directly say she hadn’t considered becoming a Magical Girl, instead of using a perfunctory statent like "I’ll think about it," it was enough to make Fang Zheng a little surprised.
At least in front of Fang Zheng, Kyoko showed her ability to withstand pressure, which was quite comndable.
Of course, besides this, Kyoko has a similar characteristic to Little Sakura and Nanoha, and that is responsibility.
After all, according to Akemi Homura, upon learning the truth about Magical Girls, others either collapsed or darkened, but only Kyoko was able to grit her teeth and stick with Akemi Homura until the end. This already says a lot, in fact, Little Sakura and Nanoha were the sa. Initially, when they beca Magical Girls, they couldn’t have imagined what dangers they would face in the future.
Yet when encountering those dangers, they never thought things like "if only I hadn’t beco a Magical Girl back then," instead, they faced them bravely.
Of course, for Kyoko, she regretted it, but Fang Zheng could understand; after all, in this world, Magical Girls can transform into Witches, which is not just death but would cause suffering to others as well. Kyoko is a kind-hearted child, and she certainly wouldn’t want to bring disaster and pain to others.
"You can send her directly ho, but don’t forget to remind her about the issue with QB. Just follow what we agreed on before, no problem, right?"
"Of course."
Akemi Homura’s voice ca from the personal terminal, clearly indicating she already had an idea of what to do.
That’s right, Fang Zheng’s "movie" had both overt and covert lines. The overt line was the Magical Girls coming together to defeat the Witch’s Night, while the covert line was the resistance between the Heavenly Dao Palace and the alien civilization led by QB...
Fang Zheng had no intention of hiding this because these were indeed the facts!
From Fang Zheng’s perspective, the way Akemi Homura tried to hint at Madoka in the past was too elusive and not straightforward at all. So he directly gave Akemi Homura a line to tell Madoka that besides their Magical Girl Managent Office at the Heavenly Dao Palace, there’s another organization nad QB. They lure girls into signing contracts to beco Magical Girls by fulfilling their wishes, but — those Magical Girls eventually turn into Witches!
This also conveniently wrapped up the earlier scene where Akemi Homura chased QB in front of Madoka, as in Kyoko’s perspective, that scene looked like Akemi was bullying a small animal...
But under Fang Zheng’s direction, after elevating it to a conflict between two factions, the situation imdiately changed.
This difference also highlighted the distinction between Akemi Homura and Fang Zheng.
Despite Akemi Homura looping innurable tis, she made little progress in how she dealt with people and situations. In fact, because she almost always failed, she had already beco sowhat self-destructive.
In this sense, Akemi Homura’s emotional intelligence wasn’t high, she couldn’t even persuade others, let alone form any united front. She was finally forced to go to the battlefield alone, repeatedly getting battered and bruised. Thus, Fang Zheng had to personally intervene to script lines for Akemi.
It’s also fortunate she had Ti Stop; otherwise, seeing her reading the script every three minutes would be too awkward!
Fang Zheng didn’t aim to persuade Kyoko but just needed to leave an impression in her heart, letting her know that the white creature was not a good thing, which was enough.
As for the rest... we’ll talk about that later.
"Teacher!!"
However, just after Fang Zheng finished his conversation with Akemi Homura, Nanoha hurried over.
"That little sister woke up!"
"Oh?"
Upon hearing this, Fang Zheng raised an eyebrow and stood up.
"Let’s go, let’s take a look."
When Fang Zheng led the girls to the room behind the library, they saw the white-haired girl sitting uneasily on the bed, observing her surroundings with a look full of confusion, fear, and anxiety, much like a lost kitten.
Yes, this girl was the one Fang Zheng forcibly converted back into a Magical Girl from a Witch using "Space-Ti Reversal." However, after Fang Zheng reverted her to a Magical Girl form, she had been sleeping until now, when she finally woke up.
Upon seeing Fang Zheng and his group enter, the girl was visibly nervous.
"Where is this? Who are you?"
"Hello, my na is Fang Zheng."
Facing the girl before him, Fang Zheng showed a gentle smile.
"May I know your na?"
Perhaps it was Fang Zheng’s smile, or maybe his title played a role; upon seeing Fang Zheng, the girl gradually cald down. She hesitated for a bit, then nodded.
"My na is... Momoe Nagisa..."
"So, Little Nagi, do you rember what happened to you?"
"I..."
Upon hearing Fang Zheng’s inquiry, Momoe Nagisa thought hard, and then her expression turned pale and ashen.
"I rember... my mom died of illness, I know... Mom... I shouldn’t have made that wish then! I should’ve saved Mom, but I actually... right, my Soul Gem was tainted, I beca a Witch... then..."
As she spoke, Momoe Nagisa’s small body curled up, beginning to tremble. Seeing this, Fang Zheng hurriedly reached out to stroke Momoe Nagisa’s head.
"Alright, don’t get worked up, it’s all over now..."
Under Fang Zheng’s gentle reassurance, Momoe Nagisa finally cald down, tightly hugging Fang Zheng without saying a word.
"I... did I have a nightmare, big brother?"
"It wasn’t a nightmare..."
Facing Momoe Nagisa’s questioning, Fang Zheng pondered for a mont and decided to tell her the truth.
"In fact, you did beco a Witch, but we transford you back into a Magical Girl..."
"So, will I turn into a Witch again?"
Hearing this, Momoe Nagisa tensed up, while Fang Zheng, smiling, looked at her.
"Little Nagi, you don’t want to beco a Witch, right?"
"Of course, I don’t want to hurt anyone. I just want my mom to be happy... but..."
"Then..."
Hearing Little Nagi’s response, Fang Zheng stroked her head again.
"Would you like to join us?"
"......Huh?"
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