Starting as a Magical Girl, I Alone Shall Rule for Eternity
Chapter 334: The World After Jiang Si Is Gone
"How many pages are left in your Hundred Lives Book?"
Black Keke showed a somewhat complicated expression. "What do you mean?"
"There shouldn't be any need to explain, right?"
Jiang Si sounded a little impatient. "Reincarnation? Death rewind? Call it whatever you want. You've restarted many times. Don't hide it, I can tell."
"Why, can you really tell?"
"Intuition."
Black Keke sighed and scratched her head. "I don't get it. This is supposed to be my super secret."
Jiang Si pushed the door open. "Come in first."
When she stepped into the room, Black Keke looked at the layout and for a moment went blank.
Then she displayed a hint of nostalgia. "It's actually... exactly the same as when my parents were still here?"
"Would you expect otherwise?"
"Like you said, I've restarted many times. After my parents died, the room was soon emptied out; familiar things vanished, it was remodeled into something unrecognizable, strangers moved in..."
Black Keke glanced at Keke's bedroom, raised her voice slightly as if deliberately trying to let Keke hear, "People who haven't been through it will never understand: losing your parents, then having the last memories of them erased bit by bit, familiar places turning strange. Gradually, you can't find any proof that the past even existed."
Her voice trailed off, the tone finally dipping. "It feels like the world has abandoned you. You feel like there's no place in this huge world that feels safe or warm. No matter how big a house you have later, or how many friends, you'll always feel like you're still wandering."
"That's blood grief, huh? Dead kid pity, right?"
Smack! Smack!
"Still not enough." Jiang Si slapped her two more times to push Black Keke from sorrow into a blood-rage state, "If I hit you too much you'll spend every day shouting to escape your original family."
Black Keke stomped her feet, "Don't interrupt my emotional flow!"
Jiang Si raised his hand.
Black Keke reflexively squatted down immediately.
"Go sit over there."
She obediently did as Jiang Si said and sat on the sofa opposite the living room.
Then, as usual, she took off her shoes and curled up on the couch.
"Are you really treating this place like your home?" Jiang Si knocked on the table. "Wear your shoes properly!"
She immediately sat up and put her shoes on.
"Look at what you're wearing."
Jiang Si nearly thumped the table in frustration. "What is this outfit, what are those hair accessories, what is this...?"
"Teacher Shion already scolded me." Black Keke replied with an innocent face. "Can we skip that?"
"She's being patient now?"
Silver Lotus tapped her forehead, then turned toward the bedroom. "Keke, if he used to dress like that, you would have his legs broken!"
"I would never wear that! Besides, it's not like it's my fault, why are you dragging me into this?"
"This is just a heads-up for you."
"No need for you to give me a warning..."
Keke muttered a bit rebelliously from the bedroom. Jiang Si rubbed his temples.
None of them were easy to manage.
Black Keke awkwardly lifted a hand. "Actually, this outfit of mine is pretty conservative..."
"Conservative where?" Jiang Si casually grabbed Keke's usual jacket from the hanger and tossed it over. "Put it on first and then talk."
She obediently put on the clothes properly, then sat up straight and looked at Jiang Si. "Is this okay?"
"Fine."
The girl let out a small smile. "Being taken care of by someone else doesn't feel bad."
She accepted the cup of water Jiang Si handed her, then thought for a moment. "Talking slowly is too much effort. Want to see with your own eyes? The things I've been through?"
Jiang Si shook his head. "No, it's faster to just soul-search."
"What is soul-search?"
"It's you sharing a little memory with me," Jiang Si said as he reached out his hand. "The cost is some brain wear and a slight strain on personal reality."
"That sounds like you're going to lose your memory!"
"You won't lose memory."
"Well that's a relief..."
"You'll get dementia."
"Yeah right!"
Black Keke instantly curled up in the corner clutching her head, face pale. "No way, absolutely not!"
Jiang Si nodded and didn't force the issue.
After all, his soul-search technique wasn't perfected yet; it would be a disaster if he only pulled out scrambled brains.
Black Keke exhaled and glanced again at the bedroom behind her.
Keke, Little An, and Yiyi were all there; she covered her chest and smiled as if feeling warmth. "Everyone should see it together. Even if everyone knows, it doesn't matter."
"Ta-da, Keke's past is now public—may be a bit long, please be patient and finish reading."
Jiang Si felt that she had opened her Mental Landscape.
Then the whole room's scene changed.
A room that had been full of furniture, brimming with life and happiness,
instantly turned cold and empty.
Little Keke stood alone in the room, being pushed around by relatives.
"She's already stayed at my place for four extra days. It should be your turn to look after her!"
"Last month she stayed at our house for six extra days, oh come on, you complain now about four extra days this month?"
"When we divided the estate, I saw you acting like a mad dog, squealing more than anyone. You had to raise her so you started sulking?"
"Don't dodge the topic. You didn't get your share back then, right?"
Little Keke's body swayed, her expression numb and dazed, as if she didn't know where she was.
Which house to eat at, which house to sleep in—everything was strictly divided by days. No one was willing to take on an extra day, no one wanted to put in extra effort or have her stay a few more days.
You didn't need words—just the relatives' looks and attitudes conveyed their disdain.
When she was sick nobody cared or checked on her, they were afraid of spending money. She had to endure it alone; even getting medicine was a problem.
Her clothes were never new again, her shoes worn for a year, battered like trash—relatives only said they still worked.
No one bothered about birthdays; she would wait in vain, realizing no one cared, no more surprises or good things would happen.
Everyone thought she was a burden.
"Why didn't I just die with my parents back then..."
The words slipped out like a habit or a thoughtless confession, and the girl's tears suddenly streamed down.
She ran out of the house.
No one stopped her, no one called out.
From then on Little Keke never went to relatives' houses again; she wandered alone.
No one looked for her.
In the end Little Keke went to the grave where her parents were buried and clung to their tombstone, crying.
She refused to leave.
Keke watched Little Keke's experience; much of her earlier resentment and disgust faded.
While Little Keke leaned against the tombstone for days, a violent storm finally came.
The torrential rain soaked Little Keke through; she curled up like a stray cat, shivering in the wet, pressing herself against the stone to try to keep warm.
In truth, she only grew colder.
The graveyard was remote and no one would find a child there.
For Little Keke, dying in front of her parents' grave might even have seemed like a blessed relief...
Until someone held an umbrella for her.
"You can't sleep here, you'll catch a cold."
A girl slightly younger than Little Keke squatted beside her, holding an umbrella, wiping the rain from Little Keke's face and trying to lift her up. "Where's your home? Do you want me to take you back?"
Little Keke just shook her head.
"Then come to my house?"
That was how Little Keke first met the pink Magical Girl Silver Lotus.
Afterwards Little Keke followed Silver Lotus into the Disaster Control Bureau and befriended many other Magical Girls.
Captain Silver Lotus organized a surprise birthday party for her; she worried about Little Keke when she was ill; Silver Lotus dragged her shopping and bought new clothes...
Under the careful care of Silver Lotus and the other Magical Girls, Little Keke gradually emerged from the gloom. Inspired by Silver Lotus, she developed the same desire: to protect everyone.
Eventually Little Keke became a Magical Girl and fought with them to eliminate Disaster Beasts and protect the world...
Until the coming of The End.
The world was destroyed day by day. Disaster Beasts grew stronger and more rampant.
Beihai gradually fell, and before Beihai's fall, the Beihai Disaster Control Bureau was the first to suffer casualties.
Massive s-level Disaster Beasts besieged the bureau.
In the end it was An Shiyu and Mùjǐn's Full Bloom self-detonations that bought everyone a chance to retreat.
Not long after, Susan, Hyacinth, and Peony met the same fate.
The once warm place shattered again. Silver Lotus led Little Keke to protect the citizens of Beihai, doing everything she could, retreating to the Central Bureau.
Everyone thought the Central Bureau was the last safe place, humanity's final line of defense...
But the Central Bureau had already fallen, occupied by Disaster Beasts.
What follows in the memory turns blurry.
Only the image of Silver Lotus falling in battle, Black Keke clutching Silver Lotus's household body and crying endlessly in the rain, remained painfully clear.
Then they were consumed by the tidal wave of Disaster Beasts.
As Black Keke died, the scenes began to sink into darkness.
"She already stayed at my place for four extra days, it should've been your turn!"
"Last month our house took her for six extra days, oh you're quiet now, four extra days this month is unbearable?"
"When the estate was divided, you acted like a dog, squealing louder than anyone—then you balked at raising her?"
"Stop dodging, you didn't get your share back then, right?"
Before the picture appeared, the voices were already audible.
When the image returned, Black Keke found herself standing again in her empty home, watching two quarreling relatives.
After only a moment of daze she understood exactly what had happened.
She had gone back to the past—she could do it again...
She ran out the door, shouting as she sprinted:
"I will save everyone, this time—absolutely!"
In the next instant the entire scene vanished, leaving only four big characters.
To be continued.
The group returned to the room.
After a brief silence, Keke was the first to throw open the bedroom door, shouting anxiously, "And then? What happened next?"
Silver Lotus: "Exactly! You can't end it there! Just when it was about to reset and reverse the situation—how could it stop!"
Mùjǐn: "We've been suppressed for so long, it's time to feel good. You cut it off. If you don't show the rest, we're coming for you!"
Only Jiang Si rubbed his chin and pondered for a long time.
"This golden trilogy of yours doesn't work. In the previous life you wrote too much. Readers lose patience before the restart."
Black Keke, who had planned to play up her misery, suddenly felt limp all over.
"Don't you feel sorry for me? And Jiang Si, you started zoning out halfway through, didn't you?"
"I said it: the plot before death was too long. Normally people tune out..."
"Then you're invincible."
Black Keke collapsed on the sofa looking completely dispirited. "Do whatever you want. I'm doomed to countless loops now, keep looping to find a way to save everyone."
Keke instinctively asked, "Did it ever work?"
Silence fell in the room. Keke felt awkward—if it had worked, she wouldn't be here now...
Great, asked a pointless question, now she'll be treated like an idiot.
"But the more times I looped, the more I noticed one thing." Black Keke looked at Jiang Si, and the room darkened again.
Scenes of the world ending by different End-of-All-Things enemies flickered by.
Sometimes the whole Beihai was swallowed in white mist and transformed into a massive vine-monster that sowed sleeping seeds across the world;
other times the Disaster Control Bureau fell place after place until every Magical Girl became parasitic puppets for gu insects;
sometimes portals opened in the sea through Heart Image Remnants, and countless nearly Full Bloom green Magical Girls swarmed down with endless waves of Mirror Beasts...
They were things Jiang Si had once crushed without much memory, yet all of them had world-destroying potential.
"The future is unchangeable. No matter how I try, the final result is the same. The form of The End keeps changing—Disaster Beasts, World Ghosts, fallen Magical Girls, enemies from other worlds, curses, viruses, simple world collapse. My efforts only create more forms of The End."
"There's also an extra enormous corrupted magic power in every destruction." Jiang Si caught onto something sharply. "What is that?"
"Terror and despair, absolute human evil. You'll understand later."
Jiang Si didn't press it, just stood up. "You need Variability."
"Variability—that's a perfect word, yes, yes, Variability." Black Keke nodded emphatically. "After countless loops, only this time did someone like you appear—someone who never existed before. But it's hard to say: a new End-of-All-Things enemy can sometimes be born suddenly and not exist in the loops. So you might be the key to changing the future, or you might be a new End-of-All-Things."
Keke, Silver Lotus, and An Shiyu were nudged back into the room by Jiang Si, who shut the door. He then turned back to Black Keke. "Where's Shion?"
As he spoke he fixed his gaze on Black Keke's face, sensing fluctuations in her personal reality.
The girl smiled casually. "She's someone I never met in my previous loops. From all angles, Shion is far more likely to be a new End-of-All-Things enemy than you are."
"Then why are you asking me for help?"
"Of course I want to cooperate with you to completely deal with the End that the world is bound to face."
Black Keke grew serious and leaned toward Jiang Si. "Shion took the time branches we scraped from the World Tree—those are what we planned to use to change the future. If someone like you, who isn't recorded in the World Tree, uses the time branches, you can alter the future and pull us out of the predetermined destruction."
"So I hope you can persuade Shion, or by other means—steal or snatch—the time branches from Shion..."
"If she isn't recorded either? Let her change the conclusion of the End."
"The so-called hope of Magical Girls is actually just a little reflection of light escaping the swamp of despair." Black Keke smiled quietly. "She can't pull it off, as long as she remains a Magical Girl."
"Moreover," Black Keke's eyes flickered, "she might herself be the new End-of-All-Things."
Jiang Si relaxed completely.
This kid really didn't know what happened inside the Pseudo-History. She probably only gleaned that Shion got the Time Dao Fruit from the Pseudo-History...
Since the Pseudo-History was created by Lu Ya, being cautious about her collaborator made sense.
"In any case, if you can retrieve the time branches and cooperate with our witchification technology, we can definitely save the world!"
"Pay more."
"...Huh?"
After whatever conversation Jiang Si and Black Keke had, once the door closed, Keke couldn't hear them speaking from the bedroom.
Black Keke probably used magic to soundproof the room.
But Keke was much more forgiving now.
Having seen Black Keke's childhood firsthand, her revulsion eased.
If it weren't for her big brother, she likely would have ended up similarly...
Thinking back, even if her brother had been weaker and caved to the relatives, her outcome would not have been any better.
As long as her brother existed, she would never be a homeless stray like Black Keke. There would always be another blood-related person to watch over and care for her.
Having a brother was truly wonderful...
After the relief she looked at Silver Lotus.
The pink Magical Girl suddenly felt awkward. "What's wrong? Why are you staring like that?"
"Thank you, Yiyi Captain."
Keke hugged the small captain and rubbed her face against Silver Lotus's cheek. "I knew the captain was the best!"
"No, I'm not that other Silver Lotus over at Black Keke's place, it's not like that, stop it!"
"If I were that Silver Lotus, Captain Yiyi would still take care of me the same way..."
"You can't confirm things that didn't happen."
"I don't care, I don't care—Yiyi Captain's the best!"
Mùjǐn immediately grabbed Keke's hand. "What about me? What about me? I self-detonated twice for you!"
An Shiyu sighed. "Senior, that had nothing to do with us..."
"What are you talking about, Little An? That was our doing!"
Before An Shiyu could retort, Keke hugged her too. Holding both Silver Lotus and An Shiyu, Keke said happily and contentedly, "Of course, An Shiyu is great too. Keke likes her!"
"Wait Keke, you won't pick her over me, right?"
"No, no. I'll definitely support Yiyi first."
"Not just first—my support must be wholehearted, exclusive!"
"Okay okay, got it."
"Don't be perfunctory~"
They bickered and couldn't hear the conversation outside, so they entertained themselves.
They sprawled on the bed watching a drama for a while, and Keke shared manga.
They analyzed kiss scenes and debated what position would be best if Keke ever kissed her brother.
Keke happily pulled several romance mangas from under the bed and showed the most romantic kiss panels to Yiyi and An Shiyu.
Mùjǐn kept asking if there was anything more intimate, only to get gently thumped back by Little An.
In short, Mùjǐn seemed particularly repressed.
They played until evening; Jiang Si and Black Keke still seemed to be in discussion.
They talked about going back to school. Keke felt like a long time had passed—but in reality the holidays hadn't ended.
Time still passed slowly.
They talked about which university to attend and about Jiang Si's love life. Since he and Teacher Shion broke up, more girls had been around him lately, which made Keke nervous.
She hoped Silver Lotus would be more proactive and get her brother first.
When Silver Lotus blushed a bit, Keke encouraged An Shiyu to be more forward too.
An Shiyu replied that she had already dated him.
Jiang Si had even confessed to her.
Both Silver Lotus and Keke were stunned to hear that.
But those mutual confessions happened while Teacher Shion was still around. So there must be a reason.
Although An Shiyu insisted both confessions were voluntary, Silver Lotus and Keke suspected otherwise.
Still, they realized their brother was quite the flirt.
Perhaps he wasn't self-aware. He drew too many girls; Keke worried about him being torn apart by jealous fans in the future.
She'd seen similar scenes in mangas: everyone loves the same boy, refuses to share, and in the end they dismember him—each taking a piece.
Although it was just manga, it's a strange mirror of reality.
Given her brother's behavior, being "divided up" wasn't impossible.
And with Teacher Shion around, even someone as formidable as he is might not withstand it...
Worrying and imagining, Keke played until she fell asleep on the bed with An Shiyu and Silver Lotus.
She woke in the middle of the night from needing the bathroom. When she got up to drink water she met her brother coming down the stairs.
He was wearing a new suit.
She didn't know when he had bought it. Clean and neat, almost groom-like.
If Yiyi saw him she would be mesmerized.
"Aren't you asleep yet?"
"I went to the bathroom, I'm a little thirsty."
She remembered that before they became Magical Girls they barely spoke even when they met. Now he would start conversations.
Her mind flashed to Black Keke's lonely, empty, cold house, and many feelings welled up. She quietly asked, "Brother, what do you think of Black Keke?"
"What do I think?" Jiang Si thought a moment. "She's like you."
What does "like me" even mean?
"If you're like her, don't blame me for tidying you up like our parents would."
"You just said we're the same—brother, how are you contradicting yourself?"
"Anyway, let her live here for a while."
If this had been earlier Keke would have reacted strongly to that last line. Now she only nodded. "Okay, fine. She had a hard time without a brother. Let her enjoy it."
Jiang Si didn't say anything more.
Keke expected him to subconsciously add something about cherishing life now.
Happiness is all about contrast.
Instead Jiang Si just shook his head. "Doesn't matter either way."
She didn't understand what he meant but drank her water quietly.
As he opened the door to leave, she didn't say anything—she had probably already pestered him enough.
Yet as Jiang Si reached the doorway she called softly, "Brother."
"Hm? What now?"
"Nothing, I just like it when you respond when I call you—that makes me happy."
She couldn't say that out loud. After thinking for a while she asked another question that mattered to her.
"Brother, once you don't rely on me, does that mean you've grown up?"
Jiang Si paused at the door and turned his head, thinking a little. "I suppose so."
"Don't answer a question with a question!"
Jiang Si nodded. "I'd call it species evolution."
"...What does species evolution mean? Don't make it sound like I used to be a plankton!"
Keke protested petulantly. "Anyway, I've grown up too."
"Mm."
After saying that Jiang Si left.
Keke half-hooded her hand in her pajamas sleeve and waved a little. "Be careful on the road, brother."
"Go to bed early."
"Got it."
When the door closed she didn't feel like sleeping. She turned on the TV and curled up on the sofa as usual.
Bingtang from the Ice Color Group was about to hold a grand wedding for her uncle and had apparently rented the whole central square of Beihai. They were setting up and promoting the celebration, inviting everyone to join the revelry.
Being rich sure was nice.
Keke tilted her head watching the report, thinking if her brother ever married could she save enough money to rent somewhere big for a party where everyone she cared about could celebrate. Her potential sister-in-law changed in her imagination from Yiyi to An Shiyu multiple times.
In the half-asleep dream Keke stood with her brother and it was Teacher Shion by his side.
Teacher Shion said she was too rebellious and it would be a hassle to live together; she told him to go live outside with her.
He bought a big villa and left Keke in this cold, empty house with nothing in it.
Keke woke up with a start, sweating. Looking outside it was already dawn.
She went to wash up and eat, then noticed Silver Lotus emerging from the bedroom, half-asleep. When Silver Lotus saw her she suddenly snapped awake, gave a stiff smile, nodded awkwardly and kept her distance.
Keke paused. "What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing, it's just that when I talk to you, Keke, you might not be happy..."
"What do you mean I'd be unhappy when you talk to me? I'm Keke."
"Yes, right..."
Seeing Silver Lotus struggling, Keke felt a strange unease. "Yiyi, you didn't mistake me for someone else, did you?"
"Of course not," Silver Lotus said seriously. "You are the Witch Association president, Black Keke."
"Stop joking around, I'm Keke!"
Silver Lotus blinked, then zipped back to the bedroom.
Moments later Black Keke and An Shiyu rubbed their eyes and walked out. "Why did you shout so loudly? Is the Witch Association president so rude in the morning? Can't you be quiet?"
An Shiyu: "Everyone sympathizes with you, but you can't disturb others' rest, President Black Keke."
Mùjǐn: "I just had this dream where Jiang Si and I... why won't you share it with me..."
Keke fell silent for a while, took a deep breath.
Oh no...
I've become the stand-in!