Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Mu followed behind Xiangzi, as if he were Xiangzi's shadow.

Even if Xiangzi didn't turn around, as long as he lowered his gaze slightly, he could see the figure on the ground that seemed to overlap with his own.

"you......"

Xiangzi stopped in front of the yellow warning strip on the platform, seemingly wanting to say something to Mu behind him.

Mu looked up at her, the words he was about to say stuck in his throat.

It's all the same few sentences over and over again; I'm tired of saying them.

"Alright, let me tell you about your task first."

Xiangzi changed the subject.

"Your mission is to find Mortis and kill it, then the barrier will reset, and you will be marked with the Witch's Kiss, connecting you to the barrier."

Xiangzi said.

"The barrier will change afterward, but we don't know what that change will be like for now, so we only need to figure out how to kill Mortis once."

"Mortis's task was to maintain the operation of a library."

"The library?" Mu turned her head slightly.

"A museum that stores memories, where countless people's memories are arranged in the form of dramatic scenes in the library," Xiangzi explained.

Mu nodded silently.

Mu rarely speaks or shows much emotion, but those who know her well know that Mu is actually very easy to understand.

A slight nod means you understand, a slight shake means you don't understand; it's straightforward, without any beating around the bush.

After confirming that Mu had understood what he was saying, Xiangzi continued to explain.

“Our relationship with Mortis is more like… hide-and-seek,” Xiangzi said. “It hides within a certain memory, pretending to be a person involved. Mu, you have the best eyesight, so Mortis needs to be entrusted to you…”

The sound of the tram passing over the tracks drowned out Xiangzi's voice. The tram windows behind the girls acted like picture frames, framing the several abrupt and bizarre buildings and the girls standing close together in the same scene.

As the perspective gradually zooms out, leaving the inside of the carriage and moving outside, the tram running on the elevated bridge becomes a silhouette in the city.

The tram, now a silhouette, pulled into the station and came to a stop. After the hydraulic doors made a "whoosh" sound, Xiangzi's harmonious figure remained on the platform.

"This is... the station near the villa area."

Mu is very familiar with this place. There is only one tram stop around the villa area, and she passes by this stop every day on her way to and from school.

"why?"

She looked at Xiangzi, puzzled.

“Because this is Mortis’s territory,” Xiangzi said calmly. “The museum’s real location is my home.”

======

The two-story museum occupies the area of ​​an entire estate belonging to Xiangzi's family in the real world. Its exterior is dominated by oppressive gray-black glass, with sharp angles and no excessive decorations. The straight lines follow a minimalist modernist architectural style.

Stepping inside, a gray plush carpet unfolds before your eyes. Tables and chairs in the same loft style are neatly arranged inside the venue. From the outside, the glass appears gray and black, but from the inside, you can clearly see the scenery outside, making it look like a huge transparent glass cage.

The translucent ghosts sat in their places, holding books of air and pretending to read. Every now and then, a ghost would disappear into the deep blackness, while another would emerge from that profound darkness.

Passing through the hall and continuing forward, you'll reach Mortis's hiding place, the library's exhibition room.

Mortis doesn't possess any combat abilities like the other three familiars; it's a shapeless shadow.

Xiangzi had never seen Mortis's true appearance. All the information he had was collected by Qubi. According to Qubi, just knowing Mortis's appearance had cost him several bodies as a price.

Mortis is a typical bully who preys on the weak. If it were just a matter of getting inside, it might never show itself and would simply remain hidden in the memories.

So Xiangzi planned to do what he did at the bank back then: personally take the lead and act as bait to lure Mortis out.

Then, before Mortis can do anything to himself, let Mur expose him.

Mu's insight is the best among the people Xiangzi knows. He was Crychic's intelligence agent back then, responsible for using puppets to explore the way and find the weaknesses of the barrier and the witch in the process of advancing the witch's barrier.

Unlike the lone explorer type like Meow Dream, Mutsu's exploration ability is flawed. However, when she encounters a witch face to face, her sharp eyes can always find the witch's weaknesses in an instant, providing Xiangzi with a lot of convenience in planning tactics on the spot.

Furthermore, the combined firepower of the puppet and the re-enactment is something that a type like Meow Dream, with its weak combat ability, cannot match at all.

Meow Dream: You're always trying to trick me, aren't you?! You've gone way off-topic!

Xiangzi banished the impolite thought from his mind and focused his attention back on the library.

I don't know how long I've been lost in thought. The glass that lets in light has disappeared, and the surroundings have been replaced by complete darkness. The person leading the way has unknowingly become Mu. She walks in front, leading Xiangzi through rows of "bookshelves" marked with names.

The inside and outside of the library seemed to be two separate spaces. The interior space expanded to an almost infinite size, with all the memories neatly arranged to one side.

“Cupid,” Xiangzi said softly.

“I’m always here.” Cupid popped out from the corner. “What do you want to ask?”

"Has this place gotten bigger?" Xiangzi frowned slightly, glancing at the endless, pitch-black space.

She remembered the last time she came here, there weren't many bookshelves.

“Indeed, the library’s ‘library’ is currently expanding just like the universe with increasing entropy.” Kyubey walked between Mutsu and Shoko and said slowly, “I guess this is because Nirvana is about to hatch and the connection with the outside world is deepening.”

From an overhead view, the "bookshelves" standing on both sides are actually huge boxes, each containing a miniature miniature garden with a fixed set of scenery. The view inside the miniature garden can be seen through the "fourth wall," which is the glass facing the corridor.

To put it nicely, these rows of shelves are library bookshelves; to put it bluntly, they actually look more like storage cabinets enlarged to the height of an average person, meant to hold urns containing ashes.

Each miniature garden is playing, or rather performing, a memory that belongs to someone whose identity is unknown.

Each bookshelf is constantly extending forward, backward, and upward, just as Kyubey said, expanding like an ever-expanding universe.

Just now, the place they passed by was an ordinary street in the miniature garden. The girl who was the protagonist looked to be about the same age as Xiangzi. She was holding a chandelier and swinging it above her head excitedly.

In another miniature garden, the protagonist seems to be the same girl. When Xiangzi looks over, she seems to be in a school broadcasting room, blocking the doorknob with a chair, and then playing her favorite song on the radio with the volume turned up to the maximum.

The protagonists of this row of miniature gardens all seem to be the same person; the further you walk, the older the protagonist appears to be.

Xiangzi turned her gaze away from the somewhat amusing miniature garden and looked at Mutsu, who was walking a little ahead.

"Mu?" Xiangzi asked, "What are you looking for?"

"Looking for...Mortis."

Mu turned his head to look at Xiangzi, swallowing back the words he wanted to say.

"This place is too big, is there any way to search it?"

"Have."

Kyubey turned and ran toward the spaces between the miniature gardens. Every few miniature gardens, on the walls between the larger spaces, there was a computer that looked like the kind of computer used for searching in a library.

It actually looks quite decent.

Xiangzi walked to the computer.

Please enter your name/date.

Sure enough, it was all witch-themed fiction, and even the keyboard was a mess.

Mu couldn't possibly understand it.

"Tell me what you're looking for," Xiangzi said.

"..." Mu lowered her eyes, looking at the screen and keyboard filled with witch-themed text.

She didn't really want to say it.

If I tell him, Xiang will be unhappy again.

"Go ahead and speak." Xiangzi saw Mu's hesitant expression and had a certain expectation in his mind.

"Xiang...the date is..."

Mu mentioned a date.

Xiangzi's expression darkened to the naked eye.

"......it is good."

Xiangzi clenched his fist and typed his name on the keyboard, along with the date Mu had just mentioned.

Press the OK button, and the surrounding scenery begins to change rapidly.

The constant creaking and groaning of the machinery filled the air, and the scene before us seemed to be a Rubik's Cube in motion, with the ashes—the miniature garden display box—beginning to rearrange itself along the midline of the space.

The structural transformation lasted for nearly twenty seconds, and finally...

A miniature garden, imbued with Xiangzi's memories, stood before them.

beep----

The long, drawn-out hum of the electrocardiogram echoed between the bookshelves.

Shoko, still wearing her Tsukimori school uniform, knelt by the hospital bed, her eyes red from crying. Shoko's father stared at the electrocardiogram, which had turned into a straight line, and let out a whimper like a dying beast.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Both men and the boy fell silent.

The images inside the miniature garden continued to play.

Xiangzi saw that when his bastard father was crying his heart out and had no time to care about his surroundings, Qiubi jumped onto the windowsill and took the initiative to contact his past self.

"I can grant your wish, Xiangzi."

"Please, please save my mother! I'll do anything!"

“This is the conversation from back then,” Cupid said, tilting his head.

"Shut up."

Xiangzi lifted his leg and stepped on Qubi's head, twisting his heel forcefully as he did so.

"Is that so? Then make a wish, Xiangzi. You can wish for anything."

That's what Cupid said at the time.

Xiangzi doesn't remember much after that, only vaguely recalling that she made a wish, her mother was resurrected, and she became a magical girl...

but......

The scene continues.

"But as a price, Toyokawa Shoko, you will become a magical girl."

"I told you I'd do anything! Get my mom back!"

"Is your wish to resurrect your mother?"

In the picture, Cupid tilts his head.

"But your karma is not enough to reverse life and death. If you insist on making such a wish, something might happen that even I cannot control."

“I made myself clear enough at the time.”

Off-screen, Qubi is being trampled under Xiangzi's feet, making a whimpering sound.

"The wish is one you made yourself."

The Tale of Nirvana: Staying True to One's Heart: Chapter 113 - The Movie of the Past (Part 2)

"I know! Anything is fine as long as Mom comes back!"

"—Then, as you wish—"

The large play/pause button on the keyboard was slammed down with a punch, and the people in the miniature garden seemed to have their time frozen.

Xiangzi's eyes blazed with fury, his gaping mouth revealed sharp fangs, and his lips moved uncontrollably, as if he wanted to devour Qubi.

"After that, shut up before I ask you to speak."

Cupid looked at her with his emotionless, ruby-like eyes, offering neither approval nor disapproval.

Xiangzi raised his leg, tiptoed like kicking a ball, twisted his waist and whipped it to the side. Qubi crashed into the glass not far away and slowly slid down the glass.

Then, his angry eyes slowly moved toward Mu.

"Why are you showing me this?" Xiangzi's voice was like the gurgling sound of a predator's throat.