Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

“The problem is back again, isn’t it?” Mary’s severed arm had mostly healed. She tried to move her fingers and shook her head. “Life doesn’t offer that many choices. Do you think I haven’t tried?”

"During the days when the shadow of the Witch's Night loomed, I held firm to my principles and refused to collude with them. I have held firm long enough, but no one has ever told me what I would gain from holding firm."

“I don’t know either, but I’m trying to find out,” Hailing said.

"That's what makes you both annoying and lovable."

As she spoke, Mary pulled a... cigar from her pocket.

She held it in her mouth, struck the kerosene lighter, and lit it.

Cigar smoke drifted through the air.

Mary looked up with a relieved expression and exhaled acrid smoke.

"What you can do, I can't do. I was already like this long before we met again."

Mary leaned against the broken statue of the Virgin Mary, whose face, which had fallen to the ground, was almost shattered, with a crack running from the corner of her eye down to her cheek like a tear stain.

The burning cigar tip glowed in the dim light as Mary inhaled the pungent smoke into her lungs.

The smoke from a regular cigar only passes through the nasal cavity and cannot enter the lungs.

The thick smoke, several times more irritating than regular cigarette smoke, tormented her lungs, but she seemed to have gotten used to it, letting the smoke circulate in her lungs and then exhale.

Mary stretched out her palm in the dimly lit chapel, towards Hailing.

Hailing alertly placed her hand over the handle of the knife.

"Five years."

Mary, with a cigarette dangling from her lips, held up five fingers to Hailing.

The dim firelight outlined the smoke into intricate threads, weaving a large net in the air that enveloped the area around Lu San'er Mali.

“I persisted for five years, even after those guys started keeping witches as pets, and even my colleagues started joining them. I still persisted for five years, to be a real nun and help those in need.”

"Then why?"

Hailing gripped the knife hilt tightly, the veins on her wrist bulging.

"You'll end up like this."

“I don’t know why.” Mary lowered her eyes and looked away. “Maybe it was because she gave me a witch training manual, maybe it was because she turned into Ave Maria in front of me, maybe it was because living like this was too tiring, maybe there are many, many maybes, but in the end, I embarked on this… path.”

Mary's seemingly lifeless eyes suddenly narrowed slightly, as if she had sensed something, and her expression instantly became extremely forlorn.

“I am a liar, an unfaithful believer, a scoundrel who goes with the flow. I know all of this, and I often convince myself that there is nothing I can do about it, that this rotten world made me rotten.”

Mary dropped her cigar and stomped out the faint flame with the heel of her high heel.

A whoosh.

A gust of wind blew in through the window, which shouldn't have been there, causing the firelight inside the chapel to flicker.

She lowered her head, staggered to the greatsword embedded in the ground, and grasped the hilt.

"Why, Hailing, why are you standing in front of me?"

Mary raised her eyes, as if using all her strength, and forced a smile that was both resolute and ugly.

"After you appeared, the rate at which my Soul Gem became corrupted reached its current state. Every day, I have to use up one Seed of Lamentation. In order to maintain balance, I had to expand the scale of the Ave Maria operation."

"Why do you have to set an example for me after all this has happened, telling me that if I choose to persevere, like you, I might also become a 'good person'?"

"..."

"If you had appeared a few years earlier, even just one meeting would have been enough..."

"There are no 'what ifs' in this world," Hailing said softly.

"Then there's nothing more to say, Hailing."

Sonorous.

Mary drew her greatsword with her fully recovered hand, assumed a fighting stance, and her stagnant eyes finally regained some of their sparkle.

"This is the end."

Hailing also bent down slightly and gripped the knife hilt.

The two were only six or seven meters apart, their eyes locked on each other, unmoving, as the surrounding atmosphere gradually sank into darkness.

The wind outside is getting stronger.

The wind rattled the windows, and the connection between the window frame and the window groaned.

Mary held her sword high above her head, assuming the stance of a German two-handed swordsmanship, while Hailing remained motionless with her right shoulder facing Mary, her right elbow raised, concentrating all her attention on the hilt of her unsheathed sword.

The distance between the two was slowly closing, their breathing so heavy it could almost be counted. The brazier, nearly extinguished by the strong wind, made the interior of the chapel even more difficult to see.

"..."

The drain on their energy was beyond imagination. They gradually closed the distance to within two meters, entering the attack range of the German greatsword. Hailing stopped advancing; for every step Mary took forward, Hailing took a step back, and vice versa.

Although the interval remained unchanged, a gradual wavering could be felt in the darkness surrounding Mary.

Her breathing was already more disordered and rapid than Hailing's.

With a crash, the wind blew the rickety window off and onto the brazier.

The brazier, which served as the only source of light, fell to the ground.

The burning charcoal embers were poured out.

The intermittently lit chapel finally came to a conclusion, and everything was plunged into complete darkness in an instant.

when----!

A sound like a resounding bell rang out, and the sparks from the clash of swords illuminated the faces of the two men for a moment before all that could be seen were the embers of the charcoal fire that had not yet been completely extinguished on the ground.

“Hailin, my dear Hailing.” Mary gripped her greatsword, her back to Hailing.

“I’m listening,” Hailing said softly.

"Don't let me become a witch."

puff-

The sound of blood splattering.

The pitch-black chapel was suddenly illuminated as sunlight streamed in from outside.

Chu Hua pulled the one-handed sword from the last familiar, just as Xiangzi and Miaomeng pushed open the chapel door.

Mary knelt before the podium, a wound running from her right abdomen to her left neck that had almost completely severed her in two, rendering her utterly incapable of movement.

Blood was spilled all over the podium.

Hailing raised her hand, pointed the blade upwards, held the katana between her elbows, wiped away the blood, and then slowly, very slowly, sheathed the katana.

She walked up to Mary and took the Soul Gem, which was 99% corrupted, from her hand.

Squeeze it tightly and crush it into powder.

The Tale of Nirvana: Keeping Your True Self: Chapter 99 Vinegar

And so, the nun died in front of all the believers in the church.

His broken body knelt before the podium, gazing at the statue of the Virgin Mary until his death.

In their eyes, Hai Ling became a complete murderer.

The murderer is now kneeling beside the nun's body, his hands clasped together, praying toward the statue of the Virgin Mary.

"At this time, we bid each other farewell, until the day we meet again."

Under everyone's watchful eyes, Hailing recited the lyrics of the song she had learned since childhood in a dry, monotonous voice.

Xiangzi stood aside and watched silently.

Ono Mari received the punishment she deserved, and this matter should be over now.

She had a feeling that "it's finally over." Although she had only known Hailing for less than 48 hours, it felt like she had spent several years with her.

And that guy, Meow Dream, is one of them too.

It was as if they had suddenly become old acquaintances.

“Speaking of which, this song,” Miao Meng said, standing next to Xiangzi with her arms crossed, “is said to be a song that middle school students sing together when they graduate.”

"Really?" Xiangzi turned his head and asked Chuhua.

“I was auditioning for performers in Luweiyuan around the time I graduated from junior high school, so I didn’t participate,” Chu Hua said.

"I don't know either, since I dropped out of junior high school." Miao Meng shrugged.

"..." Xiangzi scratched his cheek awkwardly.

"What? What's with your reaction? You didn't drop out of junior high school too, did you? Didn't you say you were studying at Yuqiu?" Miaomeng growled in a low voice in Xiangzi's ear.

"I was homeless for more than half a year and only recently returned to school, so I didn't experience a graduation ceremony."

"Oh~ I almost forgot you're still considered dead in the social sense, aren't you afraid of being recognized?"

“I’m using a new ID card,” Xiangzi said calmly. “No one should associate ‘Sakiko Toyokawa’ with ‘Shoko Toyokawa’.

"That's right."

Miao Meng breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sigh, it's finally over. How about we have lunch together as a celebration?"

"It's not over yet. This is just Hailing's battlefield." Xiangzi glanced at Miaomeng. "And there's still ours to go."

"To be precise, it's yours." Miaomeng's face fell, and she poked Xiangzi's shoulder. "Haizi is so sad, we should at least comfort him."

“That’s true,” Xiangzi nodded, “but…”

“But it doesn’t feel like what Miaomeng said.” Chu Hua nodded as well.

"What?! I'm really not that bad, am I?! I've been completely open with you guys these past few days, okay?!"

""Shh...""

Xiangzi and Chuhua raised their index fingers together and said in unison.

"Let the sea bells be quiet."

"Let's go to a buffet, and invite Mu," Chu Hua said. "It's on me."

"Muto? Is that Wakaba Muto? I've only heard the name but never seen her." Meow Dream seemed to have detected a target on radar and immediately moved closer to Chu Hua. "I thought Xiangzi was just giving me a bad check to fool me. Turns out you two really know each other."

“The Toyokawa family and the Wakaba family used to have a very good relationship, didn’t you know?” Shoko raised an eyebrow.

How would I know if they even considered you a living person?

"...Yes, we know each other, and Mutsu is also a magical girl, so there's no need to hide anything when we're together," Hatsuka said.

"Oh, Chuzi, you are a ray of light in my life." Miaomeng smiled and hugged Chuhua.

"Ha ha......"

Chu Hua's left eye seemed to say "That's enough," while her right eye seemed to say "Get lost." Her face was full of impatience, but politeness still made her try her best to restrain herself in public.

Xiangzi left the two of them aside and turned his attention back to Hailing.

Hailing's prayers seemed to be coming to an end.

It sounds strange.

Even though Mary, the witch, and the familiar had all been dealt with, these believers remained in place and showed no intention of leaving. The corpses of the unfortunate souls lying on the ground did not shake them in the slightest, and they did not even take any extreme actions against Hailin, the murderer.

Chu Hua's performance just now seemed to have stunned them all.

They sat back down in their chairs, quietly watching Hailing and Mary kneeling before the statue of the Virgin Mary, softly repeating the lyrics Hailing had recited.

"Always trust each other, and cherish every joy in your hearts..."

Until the last line of the lyrics fell.

Hai Ling stopped reciting and stood up.

She turned around to face the worshippers sitting in the chairs.