Starting as a Magical Girl, I Alone Shall Rule for Eternity

Jiang Si was calculating when would be the appropriate time to enter the gym.

They had already gone shopping, although it was just glancing at surrounding shops while looking for a fast food restaurant. But wasn't that essentially what shopping was all about?

They had eaten what needed to be eaten. The couple's set meal at the fast food restaurant cost twenty-six yuan, and he didn't understand where exactly this couple's set meal was supposed to be cheaper.

If it weren't for the Azure Cloud Sect disciples chattering incessantly about how the man on a date shouldn't be too stingy and couldn't actually have two people share one boxed meal, he originally planned to just buy a ten-yuan boxed meal to make do.

When it came down to it, sharing both joys and hardships better revealed the depth of a relationship. Two people sharing one boxed meal was more likely to be misinterpreted as a couple anyway.

Specifically buying a couple's set meal felt too deliberate.

Although after pocketing half of Susan's salary, he wasn't particularly short on money now, Jiang Si, who was accustomed to frugality, wasn't too willing to spend too much money on such things.

After eating the couple's set meal and buying drinks, if he normally bought ingredients to cook himself, it could last him a week.

Moreover, since Shion was a puppet, feeding her was purely wasteful—whatever entered her stomach would be destroyed by magical energy.

So basically, he couldn't feed Shion too much. He packed up the remaining dishes.

Even if Keke didn't eat it when he brought it back, he could save himself from cooking one meal tomorrow.

Dividing his attention wasn't difficult for him; the challenging part was manipulating the puppet Shion to display some softer expressions.

According to Bingtang and the others, if her expression was too icy and the same as usual, they might not be perceived as a couple.

Although Jiang Si felt that whether they were a couple or not didn't really matter, Bingtang and the others insisted that only by being a couple would Shion have the justification to take action if the Disaster Control Bureau dared cause trouble again.

As for taking action... both organizations had been in a tacit semi-cooperative state. Jiang Si didn't think the Disaster Control Bureau would be foolish enough to go that far.

After they had almost finished eating, the puppet softly said, "Next, let's go to the arcade first..."

The one speaking was probably Yumo.

Jiang Si picked up the packed food and drinks, stood up, and headed straight for the door. "After eating, we should exercise. Let's go to the gym first."

Jiang Si stretched his body and glanced sideways at the obedient puppet following behind him.

Under his precise magical control, the puppet Shion's face maintained a gentle smile. Holding the small bag Bingtang had matched for her, her relatively plain casual clothes instead accentuated her exquisite features, making her even more beautiful.

They certainly attracted quite a few turning heads along the way.

Actually, he hadn't really looked at his own appearance after transformation, since Jiang Si didn't particularly care about the transformation itself.

In the classic fantasy web novels he had read, protagonists often gained transformation-type abilities.

For example, in Coiling Dragon, Lin Lei's extremely classic Dragonblood Warrior transformation.

Cool and powerful—what young person hadn't fantasized about possessing a similar dragonblood transformation ability?

When necessary, transforming into a dragon to crush all beings, freely indulging, roaming the world.

Therefore, Jiang Si found it not at all bizarre that transforming into a Magical Girl made him stronger.

Those who would be amazed by the world's numerous strange tales and rare phenomena ultimately just hadn't read enough web novels.

Jiang Si only regretted that his transformed state was that of a young girl, rather than some cool dragon.

Now, looking at the puppet's face which held no authority or power whatsoever, he felt somewhat disdainful.

Wouldn't it be better if it turned into a dragon?

"Ah? Going to the gym now? Isn't it a bit too early? Wouldn't it be better if we went to the arcade first..."

Ignoring the Azure Cloud Sect disciple's question, he brought the puppet to the gym.

The gym on East Street wasn't newly opened; it had been there since his childhood, but Jiang Si had never entered it.

Because there was simply no need. If he wanted to exercise, there were plenty of methods. He could even make his own exercise equipment.

Jiang Si once believed that gyms served no necessary purpose at all.

But during this date, he suddenly thought: isn't this exactly the kind of situation gyms exist for?

If you genuinely wanted to focus on exercising, you could do it at home. But if the goal was to chat and date with someone, then the gym was quite suitable.

You could exercise while casually chatting, and even show off your workout results to your partner.

It was practically the perfect dating spot.

This was probably the reason gyms endured so long.

And when he entered the gym, Jiang Si found himself attracted to some of the exercise equipment inside.

He had to admit, although he hadn't held any expectations initially, the barbell that allowed you to add weight yourself was truly captivating.

He handed the packed food to the puppet Shion, who obediently carried it while following beside him. Many young men still working out couldn't help but glance over, inevitably casting envious looks.

When Jiang Si walked over to the barbell and started adding weight, some young men who considered themselves quite fit approached Shion, naturally striking up conversation and even flexing their muscles.

Shion wore a smile, but her gaze held no emotion whatsoever: "Get lost."

Although her attitude was sharp and cold, for energetic young men who enjoyed working out, such looks combined with a prickly personality only made her more attractive.

Many finished young men pretended to casually drift closer. Some impatient ones directly went up to chat her up, while the more patient ones planned a more natural "chance encounter" or quietly displayed their strength.

Some girls who came to work out also tried to approach, since this area had unwittingly become the gym's center, something perceptive people could sense.

However, the puppet Shion uniformly ignored them.

Her gaze remained fixed only on Jiang Si, so some people unconsciously also turned their attention to the young man still adding weights to the barbell.

"What is he doing?"

"Playing an assembly game?"

"How many weight plates is that now?"

When both sides of the barbell were fully stacked and no more could be added, Jiang Si finally stopped. He then tried lifting it and indeed felt it was somewhat heavy.

"What the hell is this? He doesn't actually think he can lift it, does he?"

"What a joke..."

The next second, without any standard weightlifting procedure, Jiang Si lifted the barbell—whose sides were even bending—as if casually picking up a wooden stick.

The gym fell silent for a moment.

Ignoring everyone else, Jiang Si pulled over another barbell and started adding weight plates again.

The men who had been planning to hit on the puppet Shion immediately widened their eyes. Except for one or two persistent youths, the rest left Shion's side and were drawn to Jiang Si's.

A group of muscular men surrounded Jiang Si, but unlike the subtlety used when approaching Shion, they fired questions at him chaotically:

"How did you train, brother? Can you teach me?"

"Why aren't your muscles obvious, man? You're way too strong."

"Holy crap, you broke records, right, big bro? Ever considered going pro?"

Jiang Si remained silent, just focusing on lifting weights.

...

Susan and Peony had followed them all the way.

Watching Shion and Jiang Si order the couple's set meal at the fast food restaurant, Susan's face darkened, her entire body trembling slightly. After a long time, she finally uttered in a sinister, low voice, "They even ordered the couple's set meal."

"It really looks like they're out on a date," Peony beside her said with concern. "We won't be disturbing Shion, will we? She finally gets to go on a date with her boyfriend, only to find us Disaster Control Bureau people watching..."

"As long as we don't show ourselves, it's fine," Susan said offhandedly. She wasn't in the mood to make excuses now. "Also, it's not confirmed that Jiang Si is her boyfriend."

"Isn't it obvious just by looking..."

"Ordinary friends can also hang out and eat meals together," Susan insisted stubbornly. "There's nothing strange about it."

"But the couple's meal..."

"That cheapskate Jiang Si is just too stingy to spend money, so he got a cheap one. His family has financial difficulties anyway; it makes perfect sense."

"But the arm-linking..."

"With such a large crowd, they could easily get separated. Linking arms isn't strange either. Didn't we link arms when we went shopping before?"

Peony was momentarily speechless.

They were both girls. Was arm-linking between female best friends the same as between a man and a woman?

Even if she wanted to deal with Jiang Si, did she have to go this far?

Peony knew Susan had a grudge against Jiang Si, always looking like she wanted to arrest him.

If it was confirmed that Jiang Si was Shion's boyfriend, they probably wouldn't be able to trouble Jiang Si anymore in the future. That's why she was so desperately trying to deny their couple relationship now.

It wasn't until Jiang Si and Shion started feeding each other that they saw Susan biting her thumbnail fiercely, actually biting the nail itself to pieces.

Now there was finally no way to deny it, right?

But Peony didn't ask aloud, because she felt that if she did, her former best friend would still find some excuse...

"This Jiang Si, he ate his fill from the couple's meal, but packed it up before Shion even had a few bites. Same with the drink—he put it away after Shion took just one sip. What kind of stingy man is he?"

Susan muttered with resentment, "Shion must be blind to find a boyfriend like this. Even when treating someone, he's so stingy, afraid Shion might eat a bit more of his stuff."

"I thought Shion would be the type to go Dutch when dining out," Peony remarked casually beside her. "I'm a bit surprised she's letting Jiang Si pay."

"With someone like Jiang Si, just being able to sit with Shion is his incredible luck. How dare he suggest going Dutch? Is it wronging him to make him pay?"

"That's not really fair," Peony said with a helpless smile. "No matter how beautiful or powerful she is, dating should be equal. Otherwise, how can they be together? Even if Jiang Si has his flaws, if Shion likes him, going Dutch is normal. There's no talk of who's losing out or being wronged."

"Hmph, you and your constant grand principles," Susan glanced at her. "And you've never even been in a relationship yourself."

"As if you have! Who has time with work so busy..."

While they were quietly bickering, Susan saw the two leaving the fast food restaurant and immediately cut Peony off. "They're leaving, let's follow."

"Seriously, maybe we really shouldn't. If Shion gets angry, we'll be in trouble..."

"Fine, don't come then. I'll go myself."

"You can't even transform anymore." Peony sighed and chased after Susan. "Wait for me."

They maintained their distance—though with Shion around, it was hard to say how effective this distance really was.

They followed them all the way to the gym, both staring in astonishment as Jiang Si brought Shion inside.

Exchanging a glance, they saw the same confusion in each other's eyes.

"What's going on?"

"A date at the gym?"

Peony thought for a moment. "Post-meal exercise?"

"Going to the gym right after eating? Aren't they afraid of throwing up?"

Just as they were about to go up, three more people came running from a nearby cold drink shop to the gym's entrance.

Susan glanced at them, and her face immediately darkened further.

Peony was also startled. The three people opposite naturally looked completely unexpected too, stopping at the entrance.

The five of them stared at each other.

"Yinluo, don't you think you need to explain?" Susan was the first to speak with a cold laugh. "Why are you here with Silver Lotus and Keke?"

"Yesterday's meeting clearly designated us as the executors for this mission," Peony's expression wasn't good either. "This is a violation, Miss Yinluo."

Before Yinluo could speak, Silver Lotus shielded her sister. "It's a coincidence! We just happened to run into them. Chief Susan, and Officer Peony, we don't mean to disturb your mission execution. We just came to the cold drink shop and coincidentally saw Jiang Si, and... Shion..."

As soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere among the five became inexplicably heavy.

Yinluo also pulled her sister behind her and stepped forward herself. "If you have any issues with me, you can submit a review document to the higher-ups when we return. Right now, we need to figure out the exact relationship between Shion and Jiang Si. Given our existing relationship with Jiang Si, I believe if we're exposed, it might help persuade Shion to go easier on us."

Peony looked at Keke, who kept her head down without saying a word, then glanced back at Susan. "What should we do?"

"Since it's already like this, what else can we do?" Susan stared at Yinluo for a long time before slowly saying, "Just this once. Stay hidden. We'll file a report about their issues when we get back."

The Yinluo and Silver Lotus sisters both breathed a sigh of relief. Then Silver Lotus took the hand of Keke, who seemed absent-minded. "Maybe they just happened to run into each other! Keke, cheer up!"

Keke forced a weak smile. She took a deep breath, trying to ease the lingering sour, aching feeling, then vigorously patted her own cheeks. "I'm fine, Captain. Let's go."

They followed the team up to the gym.

The gym was quite spacious, almost as large as two small school playgrounds, divided into male and female sections.

The female section didn't have many people, but it had many concealed spots and was relatively remote, making it easy to hide.

The five of them didn't separate too much, all finding seated positions. Only Keke got on a treadmill for a slow jog.

While jogging slowly, she watched the group of fitness enthusiasts gathered around Shion. Her breathing became somewhat rapid along with her running.

When you're feeling sad, exercising a bit can make you feel much better...

She glanced again at Jiang Si, who was adding weights to the barbell in the distance. Her gaze was complex, and she increased the treadmill's speed.

"So many people surrounding Shion..."

"Well, she is very beautiful."

"Did she just tell them to get lost?"

"Kind of cool..."

Since Yinluo and Peony were from the same department, they naturally chatted as they sat down.

Meanwhile, Susan watched Jiang Si leave Shion by herself and go add weights to the barbell. He kept adding until the barbell was at its maximum weight, then immersed himself in his workout. The corner of her mouth twitched.

"If in the future, your partner brought you to the gym, left you by yourself, and just focused on their own workout, could you accept it?"

The others instinctively shook their heads.

Only Silver Lotus hesitated before saying uncertainly, "Actually... it might be okay? After all, dating means going to places both people like. If the other person likes the gym, accompanying them there isn't so bad, right? Dates can't always be at places the girl likes; places the boy likes are important too..."

Peony nodded. "The Captain makes a fair point."

Yinluo adjusted her glasses. "I would clarify beforehand that I don't want to go to the gym."

Although Keke didn't speak, her disgust was evident. She was the one who could least accept going to the gym...

Watching Jiang Si suddenly lift the super-heavy barbell, drawing away all the men from around Shion, Peony said softly beside them, "It seems these two have confirmed their relationship."

Hearing this, the other four showed some hesitation. Peony looked around, puzzled by their reactions, until Yinluo spoke first:

"In that case, it's not very good news for our Disaster Control Bureau. The Azure Cloud Sect Master, Shion, being so close to a relative of a Magical Girl combat team member... it could easily cause problems. If outsiders start thinking the Disaster Control Bureau and the Azure Cloud Sect are secretly cooperating, that wouldn't be good."

"Why wouldn't it be good?" Keke asked. "The Azure Cloud Sect's reputation in Beihai isn't bad, is it?"

"It's not bad, but we are the official organization. If the public thinks the official organization is involved with an illegal group, many things could become troublesome. Things like legitimacy of law enforcement, evaluations from headquarters, funding, etc. Adult problems..."

Peony looked into the distance where Jiang Si was absorbed in his workout, with Shion standing motionless beside him like a delicate doll. "Even if you say that, they seem to have confirmed their relationship. What can we do?"

Silver Lotus smiled slightly. "It's not like relationships can't change once confirmed. We... can also sabotage their relationship."

The three girls' eyes lit up.

"I think," Peony immediately interjected, "maybe we could just keep it secret? No need to break up a couple, right?"

"No!"

The other three rejected the idea in unison.

Peony shrank her neck and said weakly, "Alright then... If Shion gets angry, you'll have to handle it yourselves. Don't drag the Disaster Control Bureau into it..."

The five fell quiet for a moment before Susan finally coughed. "Anyway, how do we sabotage it? Let's hear your ideas."

Yinluo thought for a moment, then said:

"Wouldn't it work if we just made Jiang Si... transfer his affections to someone else?"