The Witch Trial Begins with the OO Buckethead Zombie

Nikaido Hiro waved his hand.

"Enough, stop arguing here. The person involved is right here." She turned to look at Hoshino Utsunomiya and said, "Just tell her you don't like her as soon as possible, so she can give up and accept her fate and end this farce obediently."

In fact, the debate should have ended long ago.

After all, when the four of them reached a consensus that Tachibana Sherry was a witch, and when evidence was presented one by one, Tachibana Sherry revealed her flaws.

We should now move on to the voting stage.

Everyone voted together, and then happily sent Tachibana Sherry off. Once the pressure of death dissipated, they could start thinking about how to escape from this prison.

The reason this debate continues is that the conflict seems to be escalating here.

The root cause lies in a remark the warden made yesterday, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Nikaido Hiro always kept it in mind.

'You can still pretend to play the game of finding the Great Witch.'

From the very beginning, the warden said that this was a game to play with the witch.

At the start of the trial, the warden also said, "There will be no trial at all, and there will be no executions."

The meaning conveyed in the words was very clear.

The decision to end a matter is not made by trial or vote.

Rather, it was a defeat as perceived by the witch herself.

That's why Nikaido Hiro seems to be going too far by constantly and repeatedly hunting down Tachibana Sherry.

It's precisely because she can't tell whether Tachibana Sherry's shameless, roused expression is just to maintain her persona, or whether she hasn't decided to end this farce yet.

Therefore, she needs to ask Hoshino Utsunomiya to deliver the final blow to Sherry Tachibana.

He was the man she cared about most, the man she fell in love with at first sight.

His own words of "I hate it" should be enough to make the witch accept her fate, right?

......

"..."

Hoshino Utsunomiya looked somewhat worried.

Although the more he heard, the clearer it became that this matter would inevitably involve him in the end, the fact that he was being forced to make a statement still made him somewhat worried.

How did it become that the witch fell in love with me at first sight? How did it become that the witch cared so much about me?

Is this reasonable?

However, being entangled with a witch might not be such a bad thing.

Since the witch fell in love with him at first sight, and since the other party is a witch...

Perhaps the tactic of 'lowering favorability!' that I initially thought of will actually work.

But we need to change the format.

This is wrong; this direction is incorrect.

We can't just go along with it, nor can we listen to what Nikaido Hiro says.

“…I don’t have any feelings for Tachibana Sherry.” He said softly, looking at the edge of the witness stand that had been reduced to rubble again, before Utsunomiya Hoshino changed the subject: “However, there is one thing I have to correct.”

"She definitely doesn't like me."

Hiro Nikaido.

Don't push the witch too hard.

Ultimately, this was just a pretentious voting game to play along with the witch.

Therefore, I will not follow your lead and put the final pressure on the witch.

Because the real goal is to attract hatred, reduce goodwill, and turn that inexplicable feeling into someone who wants to kill me.

it's me.

"She not only dislikes me, she hates me so much that she will stop me from achieving any goal I want to achieve, she will kill anyone I want to come into contact with, and she will beat me unconscious with her fists and feet."

Sometimes, the same process, viewed from a different perspective, can lead to completely different conclusions.

Hoshino Utsunomiya was speaking the absolute truth, and these truths seemed to indeed be able to guide the outcome in the direction he was currently stating.

Tachibana Sherry hates me so much.

“So I was thinking…” Hoshino Utsunomiya walked away from the witness stand and slowly approached Sherry Tachibana, who was standing to the side.

He gently took Tachibana Sherry's hand, just as he had done the last time he had taken Meru's hand.

The only difference was that this time he didn't find a kitchen knife, and the crossbow bolts he originally intended to use had disappeared after he fell into a coma yesterday.

But it's okay, Tachibana Sherry isn't Iceberg Meluru.

There is no need to use a murder weapon to kill someone.

What needs to be done...

"Since you hate me so much, you don't need to go to so much trouble to torment me, and there's no need to kill other people to put pressure on me."

Hoshino Utsunomiya took Tachibana Sherry's small hands and gently pried her fingers apart, placing all ten of them on his neck. He then gently closed her hands, making her feel as if he could strangle her with a mere movement of his hand.

"Just kill me, that's all. Nothing can make me feel more pain than death."

"Witch."

Without resistance, Tachibana Sherry let him take her hand and let him shape her hands.

She stared blankly, bewildered, at Utsunomiya Hoshino pulling her along like this, and listened to what Utsunomiya Hoshino was saying.

She was actually quite dazed.

Hoshino Utsunomiya approached, took her hand, and spoke to her with utmost gentleness...

It's really disorienting.

But she quickly regained her senses and began to withdraw her hand, not wanting to actually listen to him and choke him.

Until the word 'witch' came out of his mouth.

Just like the other four people, the word 'witch' was pointed out and lingered in her ears like noise.

It came out of his mouth.

So, Shirley Tachibana's hands unconsciously began to clench.

"By the way, now that things have come to this, please allow me to double-check." Feeling the increasing pressure on her neck and her breathing becoming increasingly difficult, Utsunomiya Hoshino smiled and said softly:

"Sherry Tachibana, are you... a witch?"

The cold little hands were warmed by the burning neck, and the gentle words pierced the chest and stung the heart.

This seemed to be the last question for Hoshino Utsunomiya.

Sherry Tachibana's face contorted in pain, little by little, bit by bit...

He revealed a 'cold smile'.

"Ah, I am a witch."

[Witch detected: 'Sherry Tachibana']

Along with the cold voice, the system's confirmation result, obtained from scanning the words, rang in my ears.

Without a doubt, Sherry Tachibana is a genuine witch.

There is no problem with his/her identity.

Then it's time for me to die.

The tightly bound hands compressed the blood vessels and suppressed breathing. The effects of insufficient blood supply and lack of oxygen gradually spread to the brain, blurring consciousness and making the sounds around him indistinct.

My vision... my vision seems to be blurring too...

Even so, it seems that what can be seen is...

Sherry Tachibana's expression quickly shifted from extremely ugly to what seemed like a smile, while Hiro Nikaido's expression soon became even uglier. Ryo Hasumi, equally unable to smile, trembled slightly. Noah Kinosaki, completely bewildered...

And then there was the iron bucket that had been discarded for timing the water pouring, which it then used to raise the sickle again, blocking the group's path and preventing them from moving...

'guard'

The girls' mouths were open, their lips moving up and down, as if they were saying something.

Questioning? Stopping? Scolding?

I couldn't hear it very clearly.

But as expected... he didn't seem to really like the feeling of dying in front of everyone.

Especially the girl's reaction that we can glimpse now, if it makes people realize that someone will feel sad because of their death...

"——Hoshino!!!"

Before he died, Hoshino Utsunomiya seemed to see a pink-clad girl, crying and covered in filth, frantically and panickedly getting up from the ground where she appeared out of nowhere, and staggering closer.

It seemed that she crawled around the guards blocking her way, and after being overlooked by the warden who could probably see her blind spot, she struggled to get up and forcefully, with all her might, hugged Tachibana Sherry around the waist, grabbing Tachibana Sherry's arm upwards, trying to make her let go.

But how could an ordinary, delicate girl possibly defeat a witch?

Everything Emma Sakura did didn't slow down Sherry Tachibana's movements even slightly.

"..."

On the tilted sundial, the markings seemed to be almost filled with water. Before the guard threw away the iron bucket and stopped the timekeeping, the time had almost run out.

If the timer is not interrupted.

Hoshino Utsunomiya will probably die precisely at the top of the hour.

Even now that the countdown has ended.

Hoshino Utsunomiya's heart stopped beating precisely on time.

Consciousness breaks down at this moment.

"..."