A Tough Guy's Idea of Romance

A hail of bullets poured down.

Armor-piercing rounds trailed blue flames, while psychic explosive rounds glowed red. More than a dozen streams of gunfire wove a net through the vault lobby and swallowed the tall figure at its center.

"Hahaha! She's a sieve now!"

"Magic girl? Against my firepower, she's just a moving slab of meat!"

Smoke filled the air. Bits of stone pattered down.

The leader in the gold-trimmed mask grinned and was about to wave his men forward to check.

A gap opened in the smoke.

The woman with purple-gold hair stood where she had been, without even changing her pose. A thin, pale-gold film of light floated over her magical outfit, spotless. Not even a speck of dust had settled on it.

"Impossible!"

"Those bullets can punch through Star Mark-level protective energy!"

The flesh on the leader's face twitched.

Ziwei glanced down at her skirt. A stray shot had grazed its hem and scorched a small section of lace black.

"This skirt is bound to me," she said, raising her eyes. "But repairing it costs me mana."

"Can you afford to pay for that?"

Her stare made the leader's scalp prickle. He turned and shouted toward the corner.

"What are you standing around for? Drag the hostages over and form a ring in front of us!"

"Let's see if she dares to—"

Two thugs reached for the bank employee crouching at the outer edge of the group.

Ziwei gave a derisive laugh.

The massive dark-gold scythe swept level through the air.

No incantation. No flash of light. Just a casual swing.

A violent gust sprang up from nowhere. Spent casings, rubble, and even the ammunition left in those dozen-odd guns were swept up and sent hurtling back the other way.

Pfft pfft pfft pfft—

The storm of metal slammed back into them.

The dozen-odd thugs in black did not even have time to scream. The bullets they had fired riddled their bodies, spraying blood across the alloy walls.

A foul, bloody rain fell inside the vault.

Only the two men who had reached for the hostages were still alive. The gust had deliberately gone around them, sending only their weapons flying.

They collapsed at the edge of a pool of blood, their pants soaked at the crotch.

"M-Mom..."

"Stay back! Stay away!"

The leader in the gold-trimmed mask turned and ran.

All fifteen hundred units of mana in his body erupted at once, driving him forward fast enough to leave an afterimage.

Three meters.

Just three more meters and he would reach the maintenance hatch for the sewage pipe.

A purple-gold boot came down from above.

Crack.

His right leg bent at a grotesque angle below the knee.

"Aaah—!"

His scream had barely left his throat when a second stomp broke his left leg.

Then came both arms.

Four crisp cracks. Quick and clean.

The leader lay in the bloody water, all four limbs ruined. Only his neck still moved. He stared at the boot before him, teeth chattering.

"You... magic girl... the Brotherhood won't let you get away with this..."

"The Brotherhood?"

Ziwei crouched and lifted his chin with the back of her scythe blade.

"Go back and tell this Brotherhood of yours that Tianhai Savings Bank is under my protection."

"If it happens again, I'll visit your hideout, pull your bones out one by one, and sell them."

She straightened and gave the crippled man no further attention.

At the center of the lobby, six silver storage cases stood beside two laser cutters. Their lids were open, revealing vault holdings the thieves had only half finished cutting free.

Supreme Spirit-Breath Ore was stacked neatly inside, alongside several bags of bundled cash and bearer bonds.

"Well, that was thoughtful."

Ziwei walked over and placed a hand on the cases.

"You knew I was coming, so you packed everything up for me."

Purple-gold light flashed, and all six cases vanished into the Storage Magic Device at her waist.

Kabi floated down through the breach and rubbed his stubby hands together.

"Master, this ore is excellent quality. It's worth at least this much on the market."

The plump sprite made a gesture.

"Mm."

Ziwei acknowledged him and turned toward the corner.

Lin Guoguo was still huddled where she had been, a few drops of blood spattered across her hoodie. The girl looked up, her tears not yet dry, but her eyes were already sparkling.

"Big Sis! You were so cool!"

She spread her arms and started to throw herself at Ziwei.

Ziwei remained aloof. With a tap of her toe, she shot upward in a streak of purple-gold light, smashed through the damaged alloy dome overhead, and disappeared into the night.

Ten minutes later.

The shopping street.

Su Bai crouched at an oden stall on a street corner, holding his third paper bowl.

"Boss, two more pieces of daikon and another serving of konjac noodles."

"Coming right up!"

The stall owner was a man in his fifties. Watching the young man in the hoodie wolf down his food, he could not help giving him an extra fish tofu skewer.

"Slow down, young man. Don't choke."

"Thanks, sir."

Su Bai's mouth was stuffed full.

The moment he landed after dropping his transformation, he knew something was wrong. His stomach felt desperately empty, his legs were weak, and spots danced before his eyes.

The Golden Cemetery had drained most of his reserves, and then he had rushed off to the vault. He had burned through every last calorie.

Kabi hovered beside a lamppost, his stubby arms folded.

"Master, you eat like a scavenger beast that hasn't had a meal in three months."

"You don't get it." Su Bai swallowed a mouthful of broth. "This is strategic refueling. Besides, maintaining a transformation takes more than mana. Energy matters too. If I can't keep the transformation up and suddenly change back..."

Kabi pictured it and shuddered.

"Magic girl Ziwei is actually a boy! You'd never live that down, Master. You'd have to grab a train and flee the planet overnight. You really should eat more."

After five bowls of oden, Su Bai finally felt alive again.

He paid and wandered down the shopping street toward home. Happiness Lane was only two stops away, and the street was lively at this hour: students leaving cram school, office workers coming home late, and groups of high school girls heading home together.

Su Bai's gaze settled on several girls walking toward him.

Uniform skirts. White knee socks. A strip of leg showing between the tops of their socks and the hems of their skirts.

He looked openly, neither averting his eyes nor leering. He simply admired the view.

"Master," Kabi's voice sounded in his head, "you've been staring at those human females' lower limbs for seventeen seconds."

"Two corrections." Su Bai's expression did not change. "They're high school girls, not 'human females.' And I'm not looking at their lower limbs. I'm looking at the absolute territory."

"Absolute territory?"

"The space between knee socks and a skirt hem," Su Bai explained in an academic tone. "It's a whole field of study. The fabric of the socks, how snugly the tops fit, the proportions of leg and sock—if any of it is off, the whole thing falls apart."

"White cotton socks are the classic choice, and pairing them with a pleated skirt is orthodox. Switch to black stockings and you're looking at a different school altogether. Lace thigh bands are advanced equipment; most people can't pull them off."

Kabi listened, dumbfounded.

"Uh... is the mating ritual really that complicated?"

"It's not a mating ritual," Su Bai corrected him. "It's a tough guy's idea of romance. The pursuit of beauty is written into the male genome."