Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

"Aren't there always those news reports lately, 'crime rate in Reed Plains has decreased as of last year' blah blah blah, all that nonsense? Everyone knows that homeless robberies have increased recently... Huh?"

Miaomeng finally noticed the key point in Hailing's words.

"Is there a problem with the homeless?"

Miao Meng thought about it again.

"That doesn't make sense. As a marginalized group in society, vagrants are prone to developing strong negative emotions. Isn't it normal for these negative emotions to attract witches and familiars?"

"Miaomeng is wrong. The minds of homeless people are more easily occupied by the desire to 'survive'. In fact, compared to white-collar workers who sit in the office all day and students who collapse due to the pressure of college entrance exams, they have fewer negative emotions. Most of the urban legends you hear circulate among this group of people because witches are more likely to target them."

Chu Hua said.

"This is what my senior from Kamihama told me."

"Khubi said something similar."

Xiangzi pursed his lips, recalling the information he had received from his conversation with Qubi.

"It says that 'productivity' has become quite high since the 21st century... This should refer to the economic shock caused by the broken two decades, coupled with the subsequent major earthquake. Although everyone can still have enough to eat, they can't do anything else besides having enough to eat, so the output of negative emotions has become quite high."

"People who can't even get enough to eat don't have the brain capacity to generate negative emotions," Chu Hua said.

"Is that so? Would that white doll tell you something like that?"

"It won't tell you unless you ask, but it will answer if you do." Xiangzi glanced at Miaomeng as if she were an idiot. "Qiubi is just like a search engine; you have to learn to find useful information yourself."

"So that means there really is something unusual?" Miaomeng spread her hands. "But what does that have to do with what Haizi wanted to say?"

"How long have you been involved in the magical girl community?"

Hailing suddenly asked a seemingly unrelated question.

“Three years,” Chu Hua said.

“Five years,” Miaomeng said.

“A year and a half,” Xiangzi said.

"Then only Nyanko should have had contact with the period before the gathering was established."

"I guess so. Actually, I didn't get involved in gatherings much at first because I have a talent for intelligence gathering. I usually just pick on the weak ones and didn't cooperate with others much."

Miao Meng's eyes darted around as she recalled.

"After the gathering started offering information trading services, I transitioned into an information broker. By then, I already had 'money,' so I never lacked seeds."

“'Money'?” Hailing became interested in the name Miaomeng mentioned. “Is it a witch, the kind that harbors many seeds of sorrow?”

"Yeah, yeah, how did Hai Zi know that? He's so smart."

Miaomeng snapped her fingers and gave Hailing a thumbs up.

Then...

"Ah—! How did you know?!?!"

The cat's dream was transformed into the world-famous painting "The Scream".

“You have already revealed the witch’s name.”

"I never said that was a witch's name! Isn't 'Money' a common word?!"

"Its witch name fits the characteristics of a domesticated witch. As for its traits, it should be either greed or hoarding, which has a storage function."

"I'd like to ask you the same thing, how did you know?" Xiangzi asked.

Hailin not only immediately recognized that "Money" was the witch's name, but also accurately described its characteristics, and even accurately explained the purpose of Meow Dream keeping Money.

Hailing gleaned so much from just one word.

“This is exactly what I wanted to tell you.” Hailing turned to look at Xiangzi. “The practice of keeping witches as pets was very common six or seven years ago.”

"Huh?! Six or seven years ago?"

Miaomeng's jaw almost dropped to the ground.

Chu Hua didn't express her surprise like Miao Meng did, but her pupils did shrink slightly.

Xiangzi previously speculated that Hailin and Kasumi became magical girls around the same time, between five and six years ago, and were witnesses to the "Witch Night Era".

But... it seems that Hailin has been a magical girl for longer than they imagined.

"How long exactly have you been a magical girl?!" Meow Dream asked all the questions that everyone wanted to know.

"Nine years, now it's the tenth year."

Hai Ling said it casually, as if she were saying, "I'm sixteen years old this year, and I'm a first-year high school student."

Although she is indeed sixteen years old this year and is indeed in her first year of high school.

Nine years...

Xiangzi was only seven years old at that time.

Hailin is the same age as them, which means that Hailin became a magical girl at the age of seven.

No, no, no, no.

Xiangzi felt increasingly uneasy.

The key point isn't how old Hailin was when she became a magical girl, but rather the nine years that have passed.

It's 2020 now, I'm sixteen years old, nine years ago... in 2011.

“You said you were a Hagiwara no Man… So, Hachiman, you were here in the year of the Great Earthquake… No, could it be that day…” Shoko slowly, slowly, revealed her guess, word by word.

"Do you know why, even though Witch Night landed nine years ago, the 'Witch Night Era' refers to the four or five years that followed?"

Hailing sighed softly.

Let me tell you a story.

The Tale of Nirvana: Keeping the True Self: Chapter 72 Hachiman Kairin - The Song of the Four Seasons

Earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, volcanic eruptions.

natural disaster.

In this land plagued by disasters, natural calamities are the deepest fears rooted in people's hearts.

A fierce storm raged, the earth shook, and surging lava swallowed countless lives.

The voices of eight million gods pleading for salvation became hoarse and desperate.

2011年3月11日14时46分21秒。

Witch Night has landed in Japan.

Duration: 180 seconds.

In 180 seconds, a 26-meter drop cliff appeared deep in the western Pacific Ocean, causing Japan's elevation to drop by 1.2 meters and shift 3.6 meters towards the Pacific Ocean.

The confirmed death toll is 15906, the number of missing persons is 2523, and 3802 people died during the refugee period due to deteriorating health conditions and other reasons.

The arrival of Witch Night manifested as an earthquake, with the aftershocks being a tsunami.

The earthquake caused direct economic losses exceeding five trillion yen, and post-disaster reconstruction and other projects cost over one hundred trillion yen, leaving behind a host of unresolved historical problems and plunging the national economy into a prolonged recession.

Hailing was born in Chiyo Castle, about 300 kilometers away from Ashihara, Hagino Prefecture. Since Hagino is primarily an agricultural and livestock prefecture, Chiyo Castle is not a megacity like Ashihara or Kamihama, but it has many universities. In Hailing's childhood memories, it was a place with a slower pace but full of vitality.

But that was a memory from almost ten years ago.

The earthquake and tsunami turned everything into rubble. Hai Ling could no longer remember what her hometown was like. She even forgot what she felt during those long three minutes. Memories of her hometown gradually faded, leaving only the enormous, unforgettable shadow reflected in her pupils.

The earth is crying and trembling.

The witch's maniacal laughter echoed through the sky.

The houses in the countryside swayed left and right like building blocks. People who managed to escape gathered in open spaces. Office workers in high-rise buildings grabbed the nearest handrails. The shaking of the earth caused water glasses on desks to fall over. The overflowing water flowed across the tabletop. The boundary between the ocean and the land kept shifting, spreading inland.

A tsunami isn't a towering wave; it's more like a cup of water overflowing.

The sea, carrying with it shattered houses, submerged all life on earth, carrying the desolate souls of eight million gods of this land, transforming into a gray-brown torrent that continued forward, forward, forward.

Then, led by stage installations floating in the sky, the world is submerged.

This is the most high-profile Witch Night event since the beginning of the 21st century.

The image of the stage setup was deeply imprinted in Hailing's mind when she was just starting elementary school, becoming a nightmare for her every night for the next ten years.

During the earthquake, Hagino Prefecture was the hardest hit. Of the 20,000 deaths nationwide, 10,000 were in Hagino, including Hailin's parents.

She would have been one of them.

At the last moment, her parents used their backs to shield Hailing from the collapsing building.

She lay prostrate beneath her parents, unable to move an inch.

Twelve hours later, Hailing went through cycles of fainting and waking up.

Twenty-four hours later, Hailing began to smell an unpleasant odor.

Forty-eight hours later, Hailing could no longer smell anything.

She was also nearing her breaking point.

"Being able to see the stage setup proves that you have the potential to become a magical girl."

Just as everything was about to go completely dark, a white rag doll appeared in front of her.

"Do you want to live, Hachiman Kairin?"

The answer couldn't be anything else.

miss you.

Hailing opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

"Is this your wish? If so..."

The creature named Cupid seemed to have heard her voice, and crouched on the ruins, looking down at Hailing.

"Your wish has come true."

A white light enveloped Hailing.

A few days later, Hailing's survival was hailed as a miracle by the rescue team.

No one could survive for seven days under such rubble, and to be so healthy—it's not like someone who's been buried for seven days would be in such a state.

Miracles like hers have occurred thousands of times during disasters.

This means that on the day Witch Night landed, thousands of magical girls were born in this country.

......

After being rescued, Hailing, like many other children who lost their homes in the earthquake, was sent to an orphanage.

The orphanage that initially accepted her belonged to a Protestant church and was a charity organization that received aid from abroad after the earthquake. The nanny was a kind old lady who was very good to the children and tried her best to help them out of the shadows.

This welfare home, established due to a natural disaster, is a prefabricated building constructed on the ruins. However, the treatment there is even better than that of ordinary welfare homes, with good food and clothing, and dedicated staff to teach children to read and write.

But Hailing eventually left.

It wasn't because she was disobedient, nor because she was withdrawn, or because others disliked her.

On the contrary, the people at the welfare home liked Hailing very much. She was not a troublemaker and never caused any trouble. Instead, she was very well-behaved and obedient. Unlike other children who lost their families in the disaster, she would not cry and make a fuss at night.

Awakened by a nightmare, she simply leaned quietly against the edge of the bed, looking at the moon outside the window.

Seven or eight-year-old Hailing is mature beyond her years.

Wandering was Hailing's own choice.

The welfare home is not her home, nowhere is her home, she has no home anymore.

Since that's the case, why not take a look around?

With these thoughts in mind, young Hailing left the orphanage where she lived and embarked on a life of wandering, which lasted for several years.

As a magical girl, Hailin possesses exceptional talent. Relying on her innate combat abilities, she kills witches and searches for local magical girls, offering them Lament Seeds in exchange for a period of time.

Hailin wasn't the only one to become a magical girl during the disaster; the landing of Witch Night prompted many magical girls to make wishes to "survive."

Everyone here has experienced disaster, and Hai Ling's requests to stay with us have almost never been rejected.