Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

"Safe? This is what you call Safe? I'm going to give Kasumi Toyama a bad review when I get back!"

This is the umpteenth time today that Xiangzi has complained about the rating system of the rally.

One of the legendary magical girls, and the pioneer of the magical girl band era—Kasumi Toyama. After starting university, she spent all her time working part-time as a receptionist at RiNG, and this request was taken from her by Shoko.

"Don't worry, Xiang~ It's definitely something you can handle on your own. I even reserved a batch of low-level jobs for you." That's what Xiangcheng said at the time.

I believe you!

Struggling to pry open the classroom door, Xiangzi threw his climbing axe into the old school building corridor. The end of the axe, with a rope attached, flew out, shattering the glass window and hanging on the windowsill. Xiangzi gripped the rope tightly and desperately climbed forward.

The attraction from behind was so strong that she had to hold on tightly to the rope to avoid being sucked in; the candy's figure completely enveloped the crayon drawing space.

Xiangzi's hands were bleeding from being rubbed raw by the rope, and the sound of the saw teeth spinning was less than a meter away from him.

Just a little bit more, just a little bit more, Xiangzi, give it your all!

Don't lose to these spineless cowards who break down when bullied at school.

Try a little harder, Xiangzi!

Again—! Go—! Forward—! One—! Point—!

Finally, Xiangzi grabbed the windowsill.

Arrived!

【I am Xiaoxiang's grateful heart.】

Before he could even feel relieved, Xiangzi heard a strange noise, the sound of cement cracking coming from the windowsill he was gripping.

The windowsill she was gripping shattered under the immense allure of the candy.

Xiangzi watched helplessly as he drifted further and further away from the windowsill, "falling" towards the umbrella behind him, which made a sawing sound as if his flesh was rubbing against his bones.

Do not......

The Tale of Nirvana: Where Did You Sleep Last Night: Chapter 6 Counterattack

When life is like a revolving lantern, you can see a lot of things in a very short time.

What did Xiangzi see?

It was probably a long time ago, not long after I met Takamatsu.

Deng often says things that seem strange to others, and Xiangzi often doesn't understand them, but she tries to comprehend them.

That day, she was composing music at Deng's house, but couldn't come up with any phrases and was getting a little frustrated. Deng watched her for a long time, then suddenly said:

"Xiao Xiang, there is a terminal illness care hospital in the center of Luweiyuan City. They often organize some activities there."

"Huh?!" Xiangzi, who was still a naive and innocent girl at the time, covered her mouth in shock. "A... a terminal illness?"

"Yes, it's where people who are about to die go for psychological counseling to help them accept their death."

Deng turned around and took out a notebook with an ant drawn on the cover from the box where she kept her notebooks.

“My mother knows a teacher who works as a psychological counselor there, and she helped me…” Deng hesitated for a moment, then glanced tentatively at Xiangzi.

Gao Songdeng had always been withdrawn since childhood, and his family once thought he had mental problems, so he saw many psychologists. Xiangzi knew all of this.

"What's wrong?" Xiangzi asked with a smile, pretending not to have noticed the psychologist. "What did the teacher say?"

“She said there was a way to calm people down, and I found it very interesting…” Deng opened his notebook and wrote it down.

The notebook reads:

Imagine there's a door in your mind. Imagine opening it and seeing a healing white light. Step into that light; it leads to the deepest part of your heart. There you'll find a spiritual being that empowers you, guiding you through confusion and fear, leaving only peace... peace...

"Would you like to give it a try, Xiao Xiang?"

Xiangzi couldn't stand the way Deng looked at him like a little animal when she begged him, so he nodded and took Deng's hand.

"Come on, Xiao Xiang, let's do it together."

Xiangzi pushed open the door and stepped into an icy hole.

Following the light, she continued deeper into the ice cave and arrived at the end of the tunnel.

Xiangzi saw a penguin that looked a bit like a lamp, staring at her blankly. It was very cute.

She suddenly calmed down.

The world seemed to slow down. He was falling towards the candy's open umbrella. If he fell in, he would be crushed to dust by the meat grinder hidden under the umbrella. His familiar and Kyubey both told him from their own experiences how terrible it would be if he fell in.

Xiangzi opened his eyes.

Two grenades reappeared in his left hand. His long, slender fingers, honed from years of playing the piano, hooked the pins, released his hand, and let the grenades fly towards the parachute canopy by gravity.

At the same time, he grabbed the climbing axe with his right hand, turned around and swung it toward the classroom door of Class 3-E. The climbing axe hooked onto the classroom door, and just as the grenade was about to fly out the door, he pulled the rope hard, and the climbing axe slammed the door shut with a bang.

Xiangzi slammed violently against the door panel due to inertia, his chest hitting the doorknob with a muffled thud that overlapped with the explosion sound coming from behind the door.

"Well--!"

The Soul Gem can store pain, allowing magical girls to feel less pain or even no pain at all during battle, but this consumes magic power.

To conserve her magic power as much as possible, Xiangzi had her pain sense fully activated. When she slammed into the door, it felt as if her internal organs had shifted, two or three of her ribs broke, her heart seemed to stop beating for a few seconds, and a metallic taste rose in her throat.

Fortunately, it's all in the past now.

Xiangzi gasped for breath, turned over, leaned against the door, and his forehead was covered in sweat.

"Hahaha......"

I feel fortunate to have survived, Xiangzi. Congratulations on your survival, Xiao Xiang.

If the lamp were here, she would definitely say that. It sounds a bit strange, but it's true... Asagiri's writing is quite interesting.

...Two grenades should be enough to give it a hard time.

Fortunately, her bastard father had grenades in his armory, which she could reproduce; otherwise, she really couldn't think of any way to retaliate.

"Well done. Not only did you not get killed by the witch, you even turned the tables on her."

Cupid jumped in through the window and rubbed against Xiangzi's feet in a cute manner.

“Strength is important, but the mind truly determines a person’s potential. Your ability to adapt to changing circumstances is beyond imagination. My evaluation of you has risen once again. Congratulations, Toyokawa Shoko.”

"Get out of my way." Xiangzi kicked Qiu Bi away in disgust. "Keep your sarcastic remarks to yourself."

“I was sucked in and shredded to pieces. It was terrifying inside, full of jagged edges. It even shredded its own familiars.” Kyubey rolled twice on the ground. “Don’t you even have a shred of sympathy for me?”

"..."

Xiangzi nearly choked on his breath. He adjusted his breathing, too lazy to care about Qubi. The axe and the rope wrapped around his wrist vanished into thin air, and the Remington M11 reappeared in his hand.

He grabbed the doorknob and took a deep breath.

"Shouldn't we rest for a while? It should be too weak to fight back."

"No, let's finish this quickly." Xiangzi shook his head and reopened the door to Class 3-E.

A whiff of gunpowder smoke wafted from behind the door, replacing the smell of crayons, and entered Xiangzi's nostrils.

Various crayon drawing fragments were scattered on the ground, some black and some red. An umbrella-shaped witch lay on the ground, mixed with the surrounding line drawings, making it a little difficult to distinguish.

It's not dead yet, but it's almost dead.

[The candy is dying.]

Candy is going to get bullied again.

[Candy represents Asagiri's unwilling heart; Asagiri doesn't want to die, and neither does Candy.]

The witch's voice echoed in his mind. After Xiangzi used his Remington M11 to eliminate the surviving familiars, he walked up to it.

"In the end, it's not really that hard."

Xiangzi let out a long breath, stepped on the top of the umbrella handle, and pulled the trigger. The bullets hit the same spot repeatedly, separating the candy's umbrella cap from the handle.

Now it's absolutely safe.

"But I still find it strange. The witch's name is Candy, but I haven't seen anything related to candy in the entire witch's barrier."

"Maybe the candy has something else in mind," Cupid said, hopping over to her.

What else could it be—?

Xiangzi suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head.

[Candy doesn't want to die, please spare her, I beg you.]

"Hiss..." Xiangzi swayed and covered his head. "What happened?!"

[That often happened on sunny afternoons, during art class when we were drawing landscapes.]

They said the crayons were the same color as candy.

The witch's voice grew louder and louder in Xiangzi's mind, and she began to see...

remember?

The Tale of Nirvana: Where Did You Sleep Last Night? Chapter 7: Candy

It happened on a sunny afternoon, when Asagiri was painting a landscape in art class.

"Wow, Asagiri, your crayons are so pretty."

someone said.

"Its color is the same as candy."

Another said.

"Really, it doesn't look like paint at all."

Asagiri lowered her head, her face flushed.

She was a typical quiet, unassuming girl; she never spoke or made a sound in class, always coming and going alone, and no one noticed her. The crayons were a birthday gift from her mother, and she was very happy to receive praise from her classmates.

"Take a bite." Someone picked up Asagiri's crayon, held it to her lips, and said with a smile, "Quick, open your mouth."

Asagiri's expression froze.

[I am the heart that fears Asagiri; that girl's hair is yellow, so mine is yellow too.]

Finally, Asagiri swallowed the crayon her mother had given her. It had no taste and tasted terrible, but she could only manage a forced smile as she looked up and said to them:

"Well, it's delicious."

Being given an offensive nickname; being forced to hand over one's allowance; having dirty water splashed on one in the toilet; having glue smeared on a stool; having one's ear pierced with a paperclip...

Even though I haven't done anything wrong, people around me have started to distance themselves from me, talk badly about me, and tattle on me to the teacher... Even though I haven't done anything wrong, it seems like the whole world hates me.

She didn't know what she had done wrong to deserve such treatment, but she knew that if she resisted, she would be in an even worse situation.

Those people seem to represent justice. If you resist them, you're making an enemy of the whole world. So, it's better to obey them than to resist, as it will prevent you from being bullied even more.

Asagiri had thought about becoming a "strong person" who wouldn't be bullied, but no one had any hope for her. Even her mother just smiled wryly, patted her head, and told her to go to sleep.

That night, she hugged her blanket and thought.

What does love taste like? What shape does friendship take? And what about that "candy"...?

She will never forget the taste of "candy" for the rest of her life.

......

The witch seemed to be singing. The only part of her that could still move was the umbrella handle. Even if left unattended, it would die soon, but it was still using its last remaining strength to sing.

"...Ahhh...Ahhhhh!"

Xiangzi covered his head and knelt on the ground. Memories that were not his own poured into his head like water. Every movement in his brain felt like waves crashing against his skull, creating an even stronger resonance.

Candy doesn't want to be bullied.

But the candy dared not resist.

“Ah ...

Xiangzi's head was about to split open.

Cupid quietly squatted to one side, observing everything.