Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

"You'd better give me an explanation—"

Before she could finish speaking, a gust of wind swept up behind her. Hai Ling turned around, raised her knife, and blocked the flying blade.

Chu Hua, standing on his one-handed sword, spread his wings and swept over Hai Ling's head, landing between Hai Ling and Xiang Zi.

His purple eyes turned into vertical pupils, his tiger teeth grew into sharp fangs, and Chu Hua gripped his one-handed sword in a backhand grip, making a threatening gurgling sound in his throat.

"Stay away from Xiao Xiang."

Chu Hua opened his mouth, revealing his ferocious fangs.

"Move aside, for the sake of us being classmates." Hai Ling's voice also became unusually muffled.

"Unless you step over my dead body." Chu Hua completely abandoned their former friendship and grinned at Hai Ling.

Heavy, wet breathing lingered around them; the slightest lift of a foot would create ripples in the pool of blood.

Chu Hua tensed her muscles; hard scales had long since covered most of her skin, even slowly spreading to her face, making her look more like a wild beast.

The air was tense, like a taut bow; if one side relaxed even slightly, the arrow on the string would be released.

Suddenly, Hailing moved first, her hand holding the katana taut like a snapped string, swinging it forward.

—"Hey! Hey! Hey!"

The purple figure pushed forcefully between the sword and the blade, creating some distance between Chu Hua and Hai Ling. Miao Meng's arm, which was blocking Chu Hua, was split open like a peeled banana, while the other hand, which was blocking Hai Ling, fell directly to the ground.

"Wow! --- Two yo? Three V` Thirty-seven $ grab slip Shaanxi Japanese!"

The hand that had been cleaved in two by the one-handed sword was glued back together in the blink of an eye. The severed hand was pulled from the pool of blood and reattached to the broken arm.

Much faster than Mary reattached her arm, Meow Dream skillfully moved her newly reattached arm and glanced at the two people she had pushed away.

"Hey everyone, calm down, okay?" Miao Meng shrugged.

Hailing's eyes told her: Get out of the way, or I'll chop you up too.

She looked at Chu Hua again.

Chu Hua told her with her eyes: Get out of the way, or I'll cut you down too.

You guys are such a perfect match, why are you fighting? Why don't you fight me instead?!

I rely on.

Miao Meng rolled her eyes, glancing past Chu Hua and staring straight at Xiang Zi.

It seems that the sense of fragmentation that one might occasionally see is not an illusion. Now, the feeling that Xiangzi gives to Miaomeng is more of a contradictory and pieced-together feeling, rather than fragmentation, that he was shattered into pieces and then pieced back together.

It's as if she had no intention of killing anyone, yet she killed everyone left in the church.

"You're the boss, you have to explain why you did this, right?"

Xiangzi gave Miaomeng a grateful look, patted Chuhua on the shoulder, and gestured for her to move aside.

Chu Hua looked at Xiangzi with concern.

Xiangzi simply shook his head. (The remaining text appears to be gibberish and unrelated to the previous sentence.)

I walked past Chu Hua and stood in front of Hai Ling.

"I'm sorry, Hailing."

"I don't want an apology, I want a reason." Hailing slung the knife over her shoulder and stared at her coldly.

“Before I opened fire, I gave them a minute to leave. Those who didn’t leave until they died…” Xiangzi said softly in a hoarse voice, “They had already worshipped Mary as a ‘god.’ If left unchecked, they would create new churches and do the same things as Mary.”

"In fact, it didn't even require a witch to push it from behind; everything was spontaneous and voluntary."

“You might say they are still young and can be saved, and that they can be corrected if they are properly educated. But these are children from the slums. They have no parents, and if they do... it might be better if they didn’t.”

Xiangzi lowered his eyes and said softly.

Hailing stared at Xiangzi for a long time, then finally let out a long sigh, sheathed her katana, and deactivated her transformation.

She has always been clear-headed.

She had already decided to never care about these corpses lying on the ground again, to treat them all as dead people whom she had never seen before.

There is a significant difference between simply being regarded as dead and actually becoming dead.

It's not something that's easy to accept.

......

......

......

Chu Hua also deactivated her transformation, but she still kept a wary eye on Hai Ling in her position.

"This is a good opportunity to talk things out," Miaomeng interjected, trying to mediate.

How did she end up doing this kind of job?

It shouldn't be.

"Is this reason acceptable?" Xiangzi looked down at his blood-stained clothes. "I'm sorry, I know your original intention... I've done my best to let them go."

"That's not the reason I want. I want to know what you're hiding from us."

Hailing tapped her head with her fingers.

"Mental health issues."

"Huh?! Who's mentally unstable?" Miaomeng looked around, finally settling on Xiangzi. "Are you being talked about?"

"..." Xiangzi lowered his head, not denying it.

“The expression on your face when you told us you had something to do and would have to wait was completely different from how you look now.” Hailing glanced at the mess around her. “I don’t want the leader of the place where I’ll live in the future to be an unpredictable person.”

"A place to stay?" Xiangzi looked up, staring at Hailing in astonishment. "Are you still planning to continue the transaction? I went so far, and everything is not going as planned?"

“A deal is a deal. Once a promise is made, it cannot be taken back.” Hailing replied with a matter-of-fact look. “Even if I end up serving a tyrant, I’ll accept it.”

"He wouldn't be called a tyrant, although he often targeted me, had a bad temper, and liked to show off. He was the type who would go home, hug his blanket, and cry to himself."

Miaomeng walked over to Xiangzi and patted her on the shoulder.

"But we have similar tastes and similar methods. These days, people like us are rare. Putting aside the fact that you always trick me, I quite like you as a business partner."

Chu Hua silently raised her hand, which transformed into wings, and put her arm around Xiangzi's shoulder.

The midday sun shone through the skylights at the top, illuminating the dimly lit church.

Xiangzi suddenly felt as if he had been reborn.

The lamp once told her that everyone has a door deep inside their heart, and by going through that door, they can see the spiritual animal that gives them the motivation to move forward.

Behind the first door, there was only an adorable little penguin.

Now there's an affectionate and clingy Golden Retriever, a stray cat that was tricked into coming back and being neutered, and a German Shepherd that's probably a retired military dog.

The little penguin was still squatting not far away, looking at him with a silly expression.

The golden retriever stuck out its tongue and licked its palm.

The stray cat she was holding kicked her, jumped out of her arms, turned around, and rubbed against her.

The German Shepherd sat quietly beside me, which gave me a sense of security.

Xiangzi suddenly found himself surrounded by a group of small animals.

Then her nose stung, she covered her face, and squatted down.

"...Thank you, thank you all."

The Tale of Nirvana: Keeping to Your True Self: Chapter 102 Time Is Running Out

Xiangzi told Miaomeng and Hailing about some of his affairs, which elicited a "Wow!" from Miaomeng and a nonchalant nod from Hailing. They didn't seem to care much about Xiangzi's occasional outbursts of madness.

Or rather, even if you care, what can you do?

Hailing had no intention of leaving, and Miaomeng had no choice but to leave.

The matter at the church was eventually reported to the assembly, who then arranged for someone to clean up the mess.

After all, the deaths of more than a dozen ordinary people are no small matter; they are the kind of major events that make headlines.

Hailing's original idea was to resolve the issue as discreetly as possible, but since things have come to this point, there's no other way.

The church was surrounded by police, but in order to avoid attracting the attention of those around them, not many police cars were actually deployed.

The police officers who came were all people who had direct contact with the magical girl community. After the gathering was established, Yukina advocated sharing the facts with some ordinary people, including people from the police and political circles. With their help, they formed a complete system for handling the aftermath. The police department even established a secret department to handle magical girl-related incidents.

Among the magical girls, there are also members who have joined related organizations. The drummer sisters Aftglow and Roselia are studying at the same police academy. The older sister, Tomoe Udagawa, has already interned in this secret department and has officially joined the company.

The existence of a group of young girls with superpowers has become a semi-open secret in political circles. In the early stages of the gatherings and contact with the political world, a small group of people did indeed covet the power of magical girls and tried to influence their future.

However, since magical girls are born within the limited range of young girls, and given the special relationship between magical girls and witches, after several unfortunate magical girls were driven to despair and turned into witches, causing considerable impact, the country's leadership ultimately chose not to touch this unfortunate situation and let them solve their own problems, just like when they decided to leave the mess left by the massive earthquake in the Ryukyu region.

As for making it public?

If all the information were made public, it would be difficult for Kewpie to work.

Therefore, everyone who had this idea died without knowing why.

They went a little too far.

In short, thanks to the gathering and contact with adults, the mess that Xiangzi left behind was finally cleaned up.

The doorway was blocked off with yellow tape. Xiangzi, wearing a blood-stained red dress, leaned to one side. When she met the gaze of Yuxin, who had come to clean up the mess, Yuxin's eyes were many times more ferocious than Hailin's.

"Why you?" Xiangzi looked at Yuxina. "I shouldn't have called you."

“Nearly twenty lives lost, who do you expect to handle this?” Yushi walked up to her, using her height advantage—though not significant—gained from her high heels to look down at Xiangzi. “Why didn’t you report it to the assembly first?”

"I believe we can solve this ourselves."

"Look at how you've solved it??" (The rest of the text appears to be nonsensical and unrelated.)

Yushina glanced at the church floor being washed, where blood and sewage were mixed together and flowing into the drain.

“All captive witches, regardless of their actual magical power, are classified as Dangos because they are often controlled by one or more magical girls from the old era. This matter should not be resolved privately; reporting it to the assembly is the wisest choice.”

"..." Xiangzi's gaze shifted slightly, but then she hardened her heart and looked directly into Yuxina's eyes, "At least we've eradicated the cancer you left behind, haven't we? If it weren't for your negligence, how could she have taken root here for so long? If it weren't for your negligence, how could these two major robberies have happened this year?"

"Are you blaming me?" Yukina said with a dark face.

"Are there any other possibilities?" Xiangzi asked with a sneer.

"Okay, okay."

At that moment, a girl with brown hair, tied in a single ponytail, who looked to be about the same age as Yukina, walked over and put her arm around Yukina's shoulder from behind.

"Yuki was just worried about you guys; she's all talk and no action."

"Senior Lisa," Xiangzi greeted her with a slight bow.

Lisa Imai winked at her in return, then pinched Yukina's shoulder.

"Um, Yukina, Tomoe is busy today. The police need you to negotiate. There are quite a few casualties this time, but fortunately it happened in the Kabukicho slums, so the news can't be suppressed."

"Humph."

Yukina gave a cold snort and turned to walk away.

After a few steps, she stopped and looked back at Xiangzi.

“The Nirvana Barrier does indeed cover the entire Reed Plain, just as you said. We have confirmed the existence of the barrier. The next step is to find a way to locate it, or simply carve out an entrance.”

Yushina said.

"Although Pastel*Palettes and Raise A Suilen are not in the area, the five teams that remain in Reed Plains—Roselia, Morfonica, Popin'Party, Aftglow, and Hello Happy World—can assemble at any time to take down Nirvana."

"Our agreement expires in less than a week. You can decide what to do yourself."

Xiangzi's face immediately darkened. He pursed his lips and watched Yuxin slowly walk away.

"Well... she's often like this, you'll get used to it."

Lisa turned to look at Yushina, who was walking towards the police car, and said with a forced smile.

"No," Xiangzi muttered to himself, biting his lip, in a voice only he could hear, "We can't let so many people in, absolutely not..."

The currently known information is that familiars can learn to kill humans.