Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

After Sumimi finished her workday, Hatsuka and Mana returned to the break room.

After closing the door, Chu Hua immediately lay down on the recliner, looking completely deflated.

Mana sat in front of the vanity mirror, tidying up her appearance.

"I'm so happy~" Mana squinted her eyes, "The live performance was great, but the recording was also very good. Hatsumi, you sang really well today."

"Thank you, Mana." Hatsuka turned her head. "It's easier to sing because Mana is here."

"Hehehe~ I got a compliment." Mana stood up, patted her stomach, "I'm a little hungry, I'll go get some snacks."

She suddenly turned around and asked Chu Hua.

"We have cat-shaped donuts, do you want one?"

"I won't need it," Chu Hua said with a smile, politely declining.

"No, you'll get hungry later. I'll get them for you." Mana pushed open the door, holding up two fingers. "Take a little extra, two for each of you~"

Click.

Chu Hua breathed a sigh of relief.

Looking at myself in the mirror, I realized I had completely given up on managing my facial expressions; I looked like a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties who had just gotten off work.

"Your expression is terrible." She picked up her phone and opened her chat history with Xiangzi.

That message log, whenever I feel tired, just a glance at it seems to...

beep-

[Caller ID shows Shoko Toyokawa]

Eh? !

Chu Hua immediately pressed the answer button.

"Hello? Xiangzi?"

——“Chuhua…”

Xiangzi's voice sounded very strange.

"What's wrong Xiangzi?"

"Who else was at your house last night besides me?"

"Huh?" Chu Hua blinked. "You mean, Xiao Xiang?"

"So, who was the person you chatted with all night last night? Was it a short-haired girl named Gao Songdeng?"

"Xiangzi?"

"Answer me."

"What is this... a variety show?"

—"Answer me!"

"It was just you, Xiangzi, last night... I thought we'd run out of things to talk about, but you actually went to the planetarium! We talked about the stars for ages last night, don't you remember?"

beep------

The call was hung up.

"Xiangzi? Hello?"

Chu Hua jumped up from her seat with a thud.

......

Xiangzi knelt on the muddy ground in the pine forest, raindrops falling from the sky, landing on her and on the cracked screen of her mobile phone.

She opened her chat history with Takamatsu Teng with trembling hands.

That was the last piece of evidence that the lamp had been with him for six months.

But she opened the chat history.

I only found a bunch of nonsensical monologues in the file transfer assistant.

I am Xiao Xiang's heart-shaped box, containing Xiao Xiang's happiness and unhappiness.

=====

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The Tale of Nirvana: Chapter 20 Where Did You Sleep Last Night?

"File Transfer Assistant?"

Xiangzi's hand trembled, and the phone fell to the ground, screen facing down. It hit a protruding stone, rolled twice, and finally lay quietly with the screen facing the sky.

Rainwater flowed into the inner screen through the crack, and the phone screen flickered briefly before going completely black.

"Impossible... I clearly remember..."

She clearly remembered those being chat logs with Deng, how could it be...?

Xiangzi picked up the phone and shook and banged on it frantically, hoping that this would make the phone light up again.

Unfortunately, this phone was already beyond its limits, and that fall was its final release.

"Xiao Xiang, I warned you not to mention me to Chu Hua..."

The sound of the lamp suddenly came from behind Xiangzi.

Xiangzi didn't dare turn around, but her neck felt like a rusty gear, twisting uncontrollably, joint by joint. The person she had been searching for appeared silently behind her.

"......lamp?"

"Xiao Xiang." Gao Songdeng, wearing a hoodie, waved to Xiangzi with a wry smile. "Good evening."

"Shouldn't you be waiting for me at CiRCLE?"

Xiangzi's hair was soaked through in the rain, and his clothes were completely drenched, while Deng seemed completely unaffected by the rain, his clothes were spotless.

"Why didn't you wait for me there? Do you know how worried I was? You just disappeared without a word..."

"Xiaoxiang..."

"So you went to Yuqiu High School? I never knew that. I heard Yuqiu places a lot of emphasis on grades. Was it a lot of stress there?"

Xiangzi laughed, a laugh that was both gratified and bittersweet. She had never known where Deng was studying, and she thought she should transfer to Yuqiu School herself.

"That girl named Chihaya Aine, you have a new friend now, I should be happy for you... And you and Hatsuka, you two get along really well, but seeing you so close makes me feel so sad, Akari..."

"Xiao Xiang, stop talking..."

"Light, everything will be alright, right...? You said everything would be alright..."

"Xiao Xiang!"

"—!" Xiangzi bit his tongue.

"Stop deceiving yourself."

"..."

Xiangzi stood in the rain, head bowed.

"I do not have."

"You have."

"I didn't... I—"

A fleeting memory flashed through my mind.

That was the day Xiangzi left Crychic, standing at the entrance of RiNG, looking at the heavy rain outside.

Then, for no apparent reason, she turned around.

Looking in an empty direction.

"A lamp?" Xiangzi asked in shock.

Passersby turned their attention to Xiangzi, watching him put on a one-man show at the doorway.

Back to the present.

"Xiao Xiang, you know." Deng's eyes filled with tears, clutching her sleeve and biting her lip tightly. "You've always known."

"I......"

"There's no way to avoid it now."

Liu (一霓1 倭ba咝{私捌/?Q*un) Memories resurface once again.

Xiangzi picked up a tattered notebook in the old school building and carefully flipped through it.

"I am Asagiri's cheerful heart. Today, Asagiri ate her favorite matcha cake, so I am the color of the matcha cake..."

As Xiangzi read the notes, his expression turned to tears.

"How pitiful... why did it have to turn out like this..."

Then, things calmed down again.

"Who knows?" She sighed at the air. "Never mind, you just keep watch at the entrance of the barrier."

Fast forward to after Candy's death.

Xiangzi got up from the ground by himself, limped to the entrance of the old school building, pulled out a pair of scissors, cut the seal, and slipped out.

Fast forward.

Xiangzi, supporting himself against the wall, arrived at Chuhua's apartment building and rang Chuhua's doorbell before the security guard could stop her.

Two minutes later, Chu Hua came downstairs and carried Xiangzi upstairs.

Fast forward again.

Xiangzi left the bedroom and chatted with Chuhua about the stars, and they talked all night long.

"Xiao Xiang, you're too tired, too tired, too tired." Deng turned his head away, not daring to look at Xiangzi. "You can't go on alone, so you long for someone to be with you, someone to support you."

"Do not......"

"But no one followed. Everyone was immersed in their own sorrow, like a group of porcupines, yearning for warmth, but hurting each other with their quills."

"Stop talking..."

"So, with the intention of killing seven or eight and feeding seven without tumors, I appeared, a warmer, braver, and more proactive 'Gao Song Deng'."

The lamp bowed its head, and rainwater streamed through it, falling to the ground.

“I am Xiao Xiang’s heart-shaped box. I really am the ‘heart-shaped box’ that Xiao Xiang uses to hold his happiness and unhappiness.”

Xiangzi covered his head and kept trying to find reasons to refute Gao Songdeng.

"Impossible... Someone must have seen you. How could no one have? How could you possibly be...?"

She racked her brains and found someone who had definitely spoken with Takasatsu Teng.

Kyubey.

"Cupid!" Xiangzi roared towards the sky.

“I’m here.” Cupid jumped out of the bushes. “What’s up, Xiangzi?”

“You wouldn’t lie, would you?” Xiangzi said, pulling on Qubi’s ear with a ferocious expression. “Takamatsu lamps do exist.”

"Takamatsu lamps certainly exist."

"You spoke to her."

"Said."

"You want her to become a magical girl."

"Yes."

"She is not a personality I imagined."

"There are two Takamatsu lamps, one is a Takamatsu lamp you imagined, and the other is a real Takamatsu lamp. Which one are you talking about?"