Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Clack.

Xiangzi twisted Qubi's neck.

"I reminded you, you should take medicine as soon as you are sick."

boom----!

Xiangzi, holding a Remington M11, blew the head off the newly emerged Cupid.

"Xiao Xiang," Deng sighed, "I have to go."

"lamp?!"

"When I can no longer lie to you, you won't need me anymore..."

"No!"

Xiangzi waded through the muddy water soaked by the rain and climbed to the foot of Gaosongdeng.

"do not go!"

She grabbed Takasatsu's hand.

No, she didn't actually hold anyone's hand.

"Please, light... don't go..."

Xiangzi's voice trembled so badly that it was almost impossible to make out what she was trying to say.

"I'll do anything... Please... Please... Don't leave me..."

“Xiao Xiang y/u*e-alreadyI~》IYiD(厁柒诌%衫......” Deng looked at Xiangzi sadly.

"But... I really can't live without lights—"

brush----!

That was the sound of a sharp blade being drawn from its sheath.

The limit of Xiangzi's pupil constriction.

"I'm...sorry...Xiao Xiang...I'm sorry..."

Takamatsu's eyes dimmed, and he slowly collapsed to the ground.

Disappear.

A blue-haired girl wearing a black and red dress replaced Takamatsu Akari's original position.

That was Toyokawa Shoko herself.

She calmly sheathed her sword.

"What did you do to her...?"

Xiangzi's eyes became vacant, and he knelt on the ground, his pupils reflecting the gray sky.

“I didn’t do anything to her. Your brain doesn’t need a false haven of tenderness anymore, so she became me,” Toyokawa Shoko said calmly. “A more decisive, more ruthless, more like Toyokawa Shoko… Toyokawa Shoko.”

She stood in the rain, looking down at Xiangzi.

"The lamp is too gentle; if she can't say it, I will."

"'I can do anything,' how much determination did you have to say that, huh?"

Toyokawa Shoko bent down, pinched Shoko's chin, and forced her to look up at her.

Do you know how much pressure she, as your second personality, has taken on for you?

Do you know that she is actually very, very tired?

Do you know how desperate she must have been, knowing all along that she was a fake?

"You never thought about her at all, because she was born to share your psychological burden."

"Can you do anything?"

Toyokawa Shoko snorted coldly.

"You have no money, no power, no strength, you wander around, you have no fixed abode, you can't even find a place to sleep at night, you're struggling to survive, what can you possibly do?"

"I can do it! I can find a place to stay, figure out how to maintain the Soul Gem, and find a way to earn money—I can do it all!"

Xiangzi grabbed his other self's hand as if it were a lifeline, knelt on the ground, and looked as humble as if he were begging.

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

Toyokawa Shoko shook off Shoko's hand.

"Selfish.

"stubborn.

"Unintentional ten mixed with the passing of the ling] Qi Er 〤弍捌十/'Q *un meaning self-esteem.

"Hypocritical kindness."

Toyokawa Shoko kicked the Remington M11 in front of Shoko.

"You might as well be dead."

"Why not just die?" Xiangzi's blank expression finally stirred. She gritted her teeth. "No, I absolutely cannot die. I have to live..."

"Why should I live?" Toyokawa Shoko looked at her disdainfully, as if she were looking at a rat.

"for......"

What is the purpose of living?

Xiangzi realized with despair that he didn't know.

She didn't know why she was so desperate to live.

If it's because of the Takamatsu lamp, then it's about that Takamatsu lamp that belongs to you...

It’s gone now.

"Ah... Ahhh..."

Xiangzi curled up into a ball, letting out a beast-like whimper from deep in his throat.

She couldn't even cry.

It was as if they were no longer worthy of being human.

"It is better to burn brightly than to linger on in vain."

Toyokawa Shoko squatted down in front of Shoko and produced several No. 20 shotgun shells, slowly loading them into the chamber.

"Did you know that this sentence was actually someone's last words before committing suicide?"

She pressed the butt of her shotgun against the ground, pointing the muzzle at Xiangzi's chin.

Actually.

Xiangzi slowly loaded the bullets, placed the butt of the gun on the ground, and aimed the muzzle at his chin. The jet-black Soul Gem was pressed against the muzzle, between his flesh and the gun barrel.

A completely black soul gem indicates that its level of corruption has reached...

99.99999999%

"Come on, pull the trigger."

Shoko Toyokawa said.

"Come on, embrace the sweetness of death."

Click.

The cracks in the Soul Gem began to widen.

......

......

......

Xiangzi released the shotgun, letting it fall to the ground following the force of free fall.

"I can't die..."

With eyes as empty as a dead man's, Xiangzi lay trembling and numbly repeating a single sentence in the rain-soaked, muddy pine forest.

"I can't die, I can't die, I can't die... I have to live..."

"You don't want to pull the trigger, Toyokawa Shoko? You really are..."

A sarcastic smile appeared on the face of the other version of himself.

"No matter what, they only think of themselves. Even when they run away, they are so selfish."

100%

Click.

The level of filth reached its extreme, and the Soul Gem shattered completely.

The fragments of the gem collapsed inward like a dead star, forming a black hole the size of a thumb.

Within the black hole, a seed of lamentation was born.

==========

"Xiao Xiang! Xiao Xiang, where have you gone!"

Kasumi Toyama stood near the park, cupping her hands to her mouth like a megaphone, and shouted everywhere.

After searching for a while, just as she was about to give up, a powerful surge of magic unleashed a shockwave that swept past where Kasumi was.

"A witch?!" She immediately switched to battle mode, preparing to deal with the impending attack.

But after the shockwave, nothing was left.

"Disappeared again? Or am I imagining things?"

Kasumi frowned, feeling that something was amiss.

==========

Yutenji Wakana, also known as Meow Dream, is in a good mood today.

That idiot who came to collect the debt has probably already been killed by money. It would have been even better if he had become a witch before that. Money would definitely kill the newly born witch and then hide the Seed of Sorrow in its own treasure vault.

The money barrier is like a bank for Miaomeng; she can withdraw money from it anytime.

"I am H~A~P~P~Y~Iam H~A~P~P~Y~I know I am I sure I am H~A~P~P~Y~"

She walked along her usual path, through the pine forest in the park, intending to climb over the wall to the apartment on the other side and go home for a good night's sleep.

It was this decision to climb over the wall and take the back path that made her experience the first time in her life...

It leaked out.

【————————】

A shockwave of magic swept over her, forcing her to shield herself with her arm.

When she opened her eyes again, she found that the scenery around her had changed.

Those were skyscrapers you only see in movies, floating cars flying overhead, roads packed with cars, horns blaring incessantly, and pedestrians wearing masks walking past Miaomeng with lifeless expressions.

"What...is this a cyberpunk movie? Metropolis or Blade Runner?"

She realized she had been caught in a witch's barrier.

But where is the witch?

This is a barrier the size of a city; it needs to have a—

Boom!

A giant, plaster-colored human face lay before Miaomeng. It was a complete human being, but it was so enormous that only the head lay before Miaomeng. The eyes alone were several times larger than Miaomeng's, and the entire head was as tall as a dozen stories.

Eyes so large they could evoke the most primal fears in the human brain looked at Miaomeng.

Miao Meng collapsed to the ground.

A name came to mind.