The Witch Trial Begins with the OO Buckethead Zombie

She adopted Meruru and watched her grow up little by little.

She was the first to spread the witch factor to Meruru, and she was the first to give Meruru magic.

Even she herself couldn't say whether she intended to teach the child magic for self-defense or simply used her as a test subject to spread witch genes to humans.

But objectively speaking, Meruru Ice Ride must have been very meaningful to her.

only......

Subjectively speaking, although it was very regrettable, she hadn't really thought about Meruru much over the years, and even just now she only remembered Meruru's existence through a chain of thoughts.

Her feelings for Meruru were surprisingly indifferent, perhaps influenced by the long years of separation, or perhaps by a sense of guilt and avoidance.

But subjectively speaking, she might have to ask, "Who is Ice Meruru?"

Alright alright.

Yukito Tsukishiro admitted that she felt somewhat apologetic towards Meruru.

They used her as a test subject, turned her into a witch, and abandoned her all by herself.

But since she is human, the very human she hates, despises, and curses the most.

It's not that you can call yourself a witch just because you've obtained the witch factor and transformed into a witch.

...It was precisely because she was always aware that Meruru on the ice was human that she kept avoiding Meruru's existence.

But now...

While hatred towards humans probably still exists, Yuki Tsukishiro cares more about Hoshino Utsunomiya than about humans.

Let's put aside hatred for now.

After letting go of her hatred, Yukishiro no longer felt so awkward looking at Meruru.

—Although it's quite annoying that this guy keeps pulling out photos from who-knows-where and triggering his telepathic abilities.

But since she is needed now, the Great Witch will choose to forgive this level of mistake.

......

A very nice island.

A very nice Western-style house.

Very good prison cell.

Although cooperating with evil humans to capture eligible girls in order to intensify their witch transformation and find themselves sounds very... like a guide, it has a subtle feeling of 'Human sir, this way, this way, the great witch is here~'.

But Yuki Tsukishiro decided to ignore the problem for now.

She raised her eyes and looked at Ice Meruru, who had so easily laid everything bare before her.

"This, this is my plan..."

"Hehehe, Great, Great Witch..."

In cooperation with the government, they collect magical girls of the right age who possess witch genes, catalyze and stimulate their negative emotions, and force them to transform into witches in order to find Yuki Tsukishiro, who said she wanted to infiltrate human society.

Although the plan lasted a long time and seemed to have little success, on the other hand, it was precisely because of her persistent search for the Great Witch that she was able to meet her again today.

Ah, the Great Witch's eyes, the Great Witch's nose, the Great Witch's mouth, the Great Witch's face, the Great Witch's hair, the Great Witch, the Great Witch, the Great Witch, the Great Witch—

On the ice, Meruru couldn't help but shed tears of happiness.

"No, but now that the Great Witch has returned, none of this is needed anymore. I... I'll find a way to get rid of all of this right away, and let's live here together forever!"

She wiped away her tears and said this to Tsukishiro Yuki.

"...?" Tsukishiro Yuki blinked and waved her hands repeatedly: "No, no, no, you have to keep it for me."

"I am useful."

She didn't respond to anything about living together forever, but instead specifically denied Meruru's suggestion of abandonment.

"Oh......"

Not hearing the answer she wanted, Meruru on Ice visibly showed some disappointment and regret.

But this is the Great Witch's order. Although she doesn't understand what the Great Witch is going to do, she will obey!

"Open it for me now, and while you're at it, bring someone back for me too."

As if nothing had happened, Tsukishiro Yuki casually gave the order.

"Eh? But the preparations..." Meruru hesitated for a moment, wanting to explain something: "Um, Great Witch... I, I can't start the ritual in advance. I'm only waiting for them to send over the reserve witch after informing them that this ritual has also failed..."

And ultimately, isn't this ritual just about finding the Great Witch? Now that the Great Witch has returned, what's the point of continuing the ritual?

"Then go and catch her yourself. He also needs your help to catch her. Anyway, don't you have a list of prospective witches that are scheduled to be sent this time? Just go and catch her using that list. Go on, go on."

Faced with the Great Witch's unreasonable request, Meru thought for a long time before gritting her teeth, straightening her back, and shouting loudly:

"Roger that!"

Corporal Meruru, obey!

……

Meruru left, taking her familiar owl with her and escaping from the prison island for the first time.

As for her partners, the human beings, the Japanese government...

They weren't blind, of course, nor could they truly trust any witch and completely entrust everything to her.

It's simply a matter of each getting what they need.

Meruru needs their help to complete logistical support, prepare for the capture of the witch, and handle all sorts of detailed and troublesome tasks.

They need to use Meruru to gain a deeper understanding of witches, study witches, and use Meruru to deal with those potential witches who, to some extent, will become witches and degenerate into wreckage, endangering social order.

Of course, there's also the containment of wreckage.

Therefore, there's no reason why they would happily become logistics personnel and wholeheartedly serve Meruru's plans just because they listen to her.

They will do everything they are supposed to do: informants, surveillance, and even security.

Considering the witch's influence, what can be allowed is to do whatever is allowed on the island, but what cannot be allowed is for the witch to leave the island without permission.

Therefore, Yuki Tsukishiro should not have instructed Meruru to go out.

It's unlikely that Meruru could capture the thirteen prospective witches on her own.

But it doesn't matter, she doesn't need thirteen people.

There are only three people who are most important and necessary: ​​Hoshino Utsunomiya, Emma Sakuraba, and Hiro Nikaido.

The rest are unnecessary; they were just randomly grabbed to make up the numbers.

She didn't care about Japan or anything like that; they wouldn't know that Meruru had been out there, and they wouldn't have any reason to bother them.

Magic, isn't it amazing?

Meruru was left to prepare the witches; for Tsukishiro Yuki, the remaining task was to construct the stage.

This prison mansion is the perfect stage, and there's really no need to modify or adjust it.

However, all that witch trials and executions are just little tricks designed to increase the witches' mental stress...

It's all pretty boring.

She wanted to use her authority as the Great Witch to change all of these to suit her own taste!

......

The first thing to anchor is time.

Death reversal is a powerful magic, but it also has limitations.

Although people often misunderstand and assert that Death Reversal is a parallel world-jumping magic that creates parallel worlds, as the Great Witch who knows the magic she casts best, Tsukishiro Yuki must clarify this rumor.

There are no parallel worlds in this world.

Otherwise, if Hero had been given the magic to rewind death, his expression would have been quite complicated as he saw Hero drowning in several parallel worlds.

Retrospection is retrospection, retrospection that goes against the current on a single timeline.

However, rewinding is not a panacea; it can change the present, but it cannot completely erase the traces of existence.

Time will continuously etch records on an infinitely extending single timeline. The activation of death rewind will not erase these records; it will simply jump back to the time that should have been returned to.

Then start out sketching the brushstrokes again below the original layer.

By the way, using drawing software as an analogy might make it clearer.

Time is the layer, behavior is the stroke of the brush, and death rewind is reducing the opacity of today's strokes and then redrawing them.

...Well, it might not be that clear either.

If you asked Yuki Tsukishiro herself, she probably wouldn't be able to fully explain the logic behind death rewind.

However, one thing is clear.

That is, death rewind does not create parallel worlds.

The present moment, as we look back, is the absolute reality.

Due to differences in the individual qualities of magic users and the strength of the magic itself, the activation time of death reversal will vary depending on the person wielding it.

Some people rewind time on the spot of their suicide, while others do so several days later. Occasionally, very occasionally, time may continue to flow for a very long time before they belatedly realize they need to rewind.

After all, magic is an all-powerful thing that is difficult to explain.

Of course, all of the above refers to death rewind.

For the now omnipotent Great Witch Tsukishiro Yuki, there are actually no particular restrictions on death rewinding.

The only limitation is that he must die.

But Yukishiro felt that this was not a limitation for her plan, but rather an advantage.

A trigger activated by death, a magic that allows one to rewind time simply by dying.

If the activation of the magic is anchored to both her and Hoshino, then the reversal would occur if either of them died...

Hohoho...

Die, die! Hoshino can die however he wants.