Chapter 3

Part 1 【Adaptation】

Drip-drip-drip--drip-drip-drip--drip---click

Xin pressed stop on the alarm that woke them, then sat up.

First they lowered their head to look, then turned to look at the mirror. Afterwards they wryly smiled while putting on clothes.

"Mm, now I should be living as this little girl." Xin muttered a nonsensical sentence, then dressed according to memory.

Although Xin subjectively resisted due to the overly childish clothing style, their body had no reaction.

"Oh right, this body belongs to someone else. Why am I resisting?" Xin muttered to themselves.

After finishing up, Xin went through the day according to memory.

——————————

After carefully getting through the day, in the evening after eating, Xin greeted their 'dad and mom' then returned to their room.

"Huff~ huff~. The day went okay, at least the act was decent, thanks to 'my previous self' having few friends and being young, otherwise if a flaw showed I wouldn't know what would happen." Xin sat at their desk playing with their fingers, thinking.

"Besides, seeing how others in novels act after transmigrating, I, after transmigrating, even have to feel embarrassed for half a day just going to the bathroom. I even accidentally went into the men's restroom—this is... somewhat embarrassing. Moreover, I have to play such childish games with those kids; I'm having a hard time." For some reason, Xin recalled some embarrassing moments from the daytime and immediately covered their face.

A few minutes later, Xin, seeming to vent frustration, shook their head, gulped down the water in the cup on the desk, took the magic terminal, and walked to the mirror.

Looking at themselves in the mirror, Xin gently pinched their face. Then, as if thinking of something, they tapped their forehead.

"Refining copper is not good, not good. But I'm really cute, white silk, petite, shoulder-length hair. Can't I train myself? Uh no, I can't focus my attention on this strange place.

"Adaptation is about done; it's time to face this harsh reality!" After a brief daydream, Xin suddenly remembered they were still a magical girl, and the upcoming plot.

After taking a few deep breaths, Xin's eyes showed determination as they looked toward the mirror.

"Well then," Xin tapped the terminal a few times, calling up the transformation magic circle.

"Henshin!" Xin clicked the magic circle, gazed at their reflection in the mirror, and softly chanted "Transformation" with a sense of ritual.

A burst of light shot from the terminal, enveloping Xun, and Xun's originally petite body swiftly grew and transformed.

(Imagined music and interlude………………)

As the light gradually faded, Xun in her magical girl form appeared before the mirror.

「This height is not bad. The clothes are not bad either, but aside from knowing I'm wearing a skirt, I can't say anything else about them—if they look good, that's fine! These floating squares… sodium chloride? Table salt! 」 Xun examined her transformed self. Only, the refined outfit and figure after transformation, for Xun who doesn't really study girls' fashion and for the original child's soul in her body, really she could only say 'pretty' and nothing else. On the other hand, the magic she can use herself is well worth researching (playing).

「Your magic, huh~ it's really strong, bang! It's a growth-type magic—Crystal Control—sodium chloride, bang! As long as your soul grows stronger, your magic will grow stronger, bang! If you put in enough effort, everything defined as a crystal will become your most obedient minion, bang! 」 Xun recalled the words Fab said when she first became a magical girl.

With a thought, the few chunks of sodium chloride floating beside her flew to her face, and even more salt crystals flew out from under the bed.

「These are, the ones I left behind? But after transforming, I can actually directly conjure a few crystals I can control. I could sell salt and get rich in the future? Though each time it's only 500 grams, good thing I can transform repeatedly. But why sodium chloride? Isn't gold shiny? Doesn't diamond sparkle? Aren't lanthanide metals precious? Oh well, upon further thought sodium chloride is quite handy—it's stable and abundant. 」 Gazing at the salt crystals that appeared due to her transformation, Xun's imagination ran wild.

After playing with the salt crystals for a while and getting used to the original body's movements, Xun stretched, swayed her body, gently opened the window, glanced back a few times, then leapt out the window.

A few seconds later, a flushed Xun rushed back to her room.

「Ahhhh! Why doesn't the magical girl's outfit have safety shorts!! Just now there was someone down there!! And I was seen!! If I hadn't reacted quickly and knocked him out, my reputation in this life would be ruined!! 」 Xun, lying on her bed in an orz pose, clutched her head and muttered.

Her mind was filled with the cool, breezy feeling of leaping out into midair.

After blaming herself for a while, Xun began rummaging through the wardrobe.

「This won't work, that won't work either—I'm a girl, how come I can't find any clothes I can wear in the wardrobe? Hmm, no, my actual age is only nine!! It would be a problem if I could find clothes that fit a high schooler's build in my wardrobe! Does being small also mean I've been dumbed down? 」 After searching for a while, Xun belatedly realized.

「Ah~! Forget it! I'm not going out! Let's talk about it next week! I'll say it again after I buy safety pants I can wear after transforming! 」 Standing before the wardrobe with no idea what to do, Xun lay back on her bed and enacted the procrastination tactic (effectively superb!).

Thus, after hastily finishing the not-too-difficult homework that mainly involved recognizing characters (with double meanings), Xun went to the kitchen, took a cup of hot milk, drank it, then pulled the covers over herself and went to sleep.

…………………………………………

Over the next few days, Xun, on one hand, recalled the original body's life habits, and on the other hand occasionally mixed in some of her own habits. At the same time, each day he would also recall his memories before bed, not wanting to be assimilated by this world's self, even though this world's body is only nine years old.

On the other hand, Xun also occasionally chatted in her room with other magical girls who were easier to communicate with (to increase affinity), in order to change the original body's image of being a 'lone wolf' in the eyes of other magical girls.

Because Mom had warned her not to talk casually to strangers, the original body came across as quite 'arrogant' in the eyes of other magical girls. As a result, Xun basically didn't do any good deeds this week, and this abnormal behavior went unnoticed—even the meddlesome Top Speed only asked two questions on the terminal before being brushed off by Xun.

In the application of magic, Xun also did not fall behind, on one hand continually training her magic application skills, and on the other hand thinking of ways to develop new uses.

Over the course of about a week, Xun truly managed to abandon the original body's fighting style—either controlling a huge lump of salt to smash people or charging forward head‑on—though she hadn't actually found anyone to fight. Still, she was fairly satisfied with her training. After all, magical girls punish evil and promote good; fighting is also a form of retaliation. Moreover, if she doesn't strive now, when Mianmian eventually opens the curtain on the magical girl war, she herself will become a target of other magical girls.

Finally, the weekend arrived………………

After casually finding an excuse, Xun rode her bicycle out, all the way silently reciting the measurements she had secretly taken with her original mother's soft tape measure of her post‑transformation body size, and rode to the vicinity of the underwear store.

Just after locking her bike, Xun thought of a serious problem.

「I'm only nine—would I even be able to buy it even if I went? And my tenth birthday is still over six months away—no way! Even at ten I'm still really young. Oh dear, I've gone off track again! 」

After some thought, Xun decided to grit her teeth and give it a try first.

For Xun, who basically relied on online shopping in her previous life, going to a physical underwear store to buy clothes that are obviously not for 'herself' was a first-time experience. (What a wonderful experience: -D)

Based on the measurements she had taken, she found the safety pants she should buy.

Xun took three pairs and walked to the counter.

「Um, sister, I want to buy these. 」 A soft, clear voice came from Xun's mouth; after this week, she had long grown accustomed to the tone that was completely mismatched with her pre‑transmigration self.

「Oh my~, such a little kid—where are your parents? 」 The clerk first stared, then smiled and said to Xun while looking around her.

「No, it's just me. This is, I'm buying it for my sister! 」 Xun blurted out the excuse she had prepared in advance.

「In that case, please pay, little one. 」

After leaving the store, Xun was about to put the clothes in the bike basket, but then thought of something else, so she took the clothes and walked to a side alley.

Soon, from the passersby's perspective, a blurry figure leapt out of the alley and hopped forward across different rooftops.

Not long after, she returned home. Carefully folding the clothes and placing them at the bottom of the wardrobe, she then turned and leapt out the window, still remembering to close the wardrobe door as she went.

「Laundry and such can wait till tonight. First I'll go get my bike back. 」 Xun thought silently.

…………………………

After finishing lunch, Xun solved her elementary school homework at the fastest speed, then again used an excuse to go out.

The rooftop of a certain company building.

After returning home in the morning, Xun had arranged to meet the original body's mentor, Sister Nana. At that moment, the waiting her was calculating what to do next.

"Wang Quan is not bad, just his personality is annoying. Bai Xue can be won over easily. Sister Nana, as my mentor, should also be able to form a united front. Xiao Yu is a good person, that works too. Holy Maiden, we'll see the situation. Even Superspeed needs to be won over, Ripple is also a good person. Mianmian, Mianmian I want to save but can't. Tsk, looks like we still need to figure out a way; Kulan Bei Li must be resolved first. And Fabu!"

"The magic of magical girls, if used well, is truly strong; we must be careful. In anime, playing dumb with board loads, who knows how it will be in reality. Moreover, there are now a total of 18 magical girls, the variables are already too many, we must be careful." Xin thought in his heart.

And at that moment, a footstep sound came from behind Xin.