Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

"..." Mu seemed to have known all along that this would happen. She looked away and said softly, "Some things you can't simply avoid facing..."

"That's none of your business," Xiangzi said, his voice thin yet stubborn, head bowed as if drenched in cold rain. "Why does everyone have to reopen old wounds..."

She's said that many times, hasn't she?

Every time, I try to distance myself by saying "it has nothing to do with you".

But recently, the effect of this sentence seems to have diminished, or rather, it has rarely had any effect at all, as if even this sentence is mocking her incompetence.

"It has something to do with me."

Mu suddenly raised his head and looked directly into Xiangzi's eyes.

Xiangzi's flimsy self-defense was easily breached. Mu took two steps forward, closing the distance between herself and Xiangzi to a point where they could feel each other's breath brushing against their cheeks.

“Mortis means ‘death’. I think it might be hidden in memories related to death, and specifically, memories related to ‘death’.”

Mu spoke at length, which was unusual for him.

"Even if Xiang doesn't want to face these memories, he has to, because it's what Xiang asked of me, Xiang's request, and even Xiang himself can't do without it—"

"What if I let you kill me?" Xiangzi said coldly.

"...I will do as instructed."

Mu looked at Xiangzi and his pupils shrank and then dilated, becoming like a black hole that could swallow everything.

"Then live on with Xiang's memories until the day you die."

Mu's words were like adding coagulant to soy milk; the air condensed into tofu-like blocks, blocking Xiangzi's airway and forcing her into a corner, making it impossible for her to even breathe.

Their eyes reflected each other, neither willing to back down an inch.

"..."

Xiangzi loosened his clenched fist.

"it is good."

she says.

"So much the better."

Xiangzi calmly turned around, pressed the continue button, and the figures in the miniature garden began to move again.

Mu took a step back and focused her attention back on the memory that had started playing again.

As if the argument had never happened, the two tacitly focused their attention back on the most important thing at hand.

"Xiang, go back to the beginning."

Mu suddenly said.

Following her instructions, Xiangzi reversed back to where he started.

Mu seemed to be observing something, and made Xiangzi rewind the tape several times.

Perhaps she had seen it too many times, and Xiangzi had become numb to it. Listening to the sounds in the ward, she sighed and said.

"Speaking of which, is this really my memory? I can't even remember it clearly myself."

"Perhaps Xiang remembers it much more clearly than he thinks," Mu said calmly.

"I think I should be angry about what you said," Xiangzi sighed, "but I feel like I've run out of anger to be angry about."

"...Rewind it one more time."

How many more times do we need to rewind?

"the last time."

......

"So, did you find anything?"

“Not here.” Mu shook his head. “Let’s move on to the next memory.”

"Memories related to death... Let me think about it for a moment."

Xiangzi entered new numbers into the search bar, clicked confirm, and started the search.

The shelf holding the miniature garden rotated and deformed like a Rubik's Cube. This time, the rotation lasted for a very short time, less than five seconds, before slowing down. Like the last slot on a slot machine, the rotation became slower and slower until it finally stopped completely.

Xiangzi had come into direct contact with death quite a few times in his life, but not so many that he needed to think about it carefully.

But directly encountering death is one thing, while being associated with the word "death" is quite another.

When Xiangzi first met Deng, he thought she was going to jump off the bridge. They talked about death and flower petals, which could be considered as related to death.

The witch that Crychic killed during the event might also be considered related to death.

The word death seems far away, but if you think about it carefully, you'll find that it permeates every corner of life.

In short, they went through all these memories in chronological order. Although they were all related to a word that sounded a bit ominous, they included the joy of their victory after defeating the witch, or other lighthearted things.

Mu couldn't find anything amiss in his memory, until time moved on to...

The night Xiangzi's beautiful dream was shattered.

The mechanism moved, and the sound of gears meshing gradually stopped. The sandbox setup was complete, and a new performance began.

boom----!

The first thing the man did after opening the door was to raise his gun and pull the trigger on his wife.

The bullet pierced the woman's brain, leaving a fist-sized crater in the back of her head.

Xiangzi had already received news of his family's bankruptcy and returned home ahead of time. After hearing gunshots downstairs, he hurriedly went downstairs.

Before she could even process the devastating news of losing everything overnight, she witnessed a man murdering her mother.

But what truly broke her down and caused the entire family to collapse happened a dozen seconds later.

The blood on the ground disappeared; to be precise, it flowed back into Xiangzi's mother's head. The bullet hole in her forehead was gone, and the flower-like pattern on the back of her head was gone too.

Xiangzi's mother got up from the ground, her face bearing the same smile as before; she was still the mother Xiangzi remembered.

"Honey, did I do something wrong?"

After that, there were intermittent shouts and curses.

You created a monster using your mother's body! Look at the mess you've made! This lump of flesh isn't her at all! What have you done...? Wouldn't it have been better to just let her go...? Why did you have to desecrate her body...? You... Xiangzi... are you really my daughter...? How could you... be so cruel...? and so on and so forth.

The man yelled at Xiangzi, then slowly turned into sobbing. He knelt on the ground, pounding his fists into the earth, tears streaming down his face. His distorted face was filled with expressions that Xiangzi at the time could not understand at all.

He raised his gun and killed the woman as she tried to get up again and again, until finally, she could no longer stand up.

"Mom, don't get up again," Xiangzi said softly, his head bowed.

pat.

He heard the sound of something falling to the ground behind him, so Xiangzi pressed the pause button and turned around.

Mu accidentally dropped her phone and hurriedly picked it up.

"What's wrong?" Xiangzi asked.

"Is this Xiang's memory?" Mu's voice trembled slightly.

"Yes," Xiangzi said matter-of-factly.

"Xiang...why..." Mu's gaze was fixed on Xiangzi's mother, who was getting up from the ground. She took two steps back in disbelief, pointing at the paused memory, "Why would Auntie..."

"meeting?"

Xiangzi glanced again at the paused scene in the miniature garden.

The doubts have been resolved.

Mu was talking about her mother coming back to life.

"Oh...didn't I tell you?" Xiangzi tilted his head. "I don't think I've ever hidden anything from you."

“No, not at all.” Mu shook his head. “I almost mistook it for Mortis, but a familiar that likes to play hide-and-seek wouldn’t be so blatant.”

"Then it seems I really didn't say it." Xiangzi sighed softly. "I probably forgot it subconsciously. But thinking about it carefully, I don't think I've ever told anyone about it."

Even the light that I was looking out at wasn't there.

"What exactly happened? Didn't Auntie come back to life?"

"Do you know why I got so angry when I saw the previous memory?" Xiangzi asked.

"Is it because Kyubey turned Xiang into a magical girl... no, could it be because of Auntie?"

"You reacted very quickly." Xiangzi exclaimed in admiration and continued to explain, "Making a wish when the cause and effect are insufficient may lead to unexpected situations, as you just heard."

"Ah."

“Let Qubi explain the rest.” Xiangzi kicked the white rag doll beside his feet. “Hey, you can talk now.”

Qiu Bi looked at Xiangzi, then at Mu.

“Xiangzi’s karma was insufficient to bring her back to life, so her wish was fulfilled in a way that her karma could bear—that is, the so-called ‘wish was distorted’,” said Qubi.

Xiangzi shrugged. "That's exactly what it says."

"Xiangzi's wish is..."

“You can shut up now.” Xiangzi kicked Qubi away and turned to say peacefully, “My wish was to ‘bring my mother back,’ which Qubi granted in a distorted way. So, as you can see, she will ‘come back’ as long as I want.”

“…I understand.” Mu nodded gently.

"As long as you know."

Xiangzi pressed continue playing, and the massacre in the miniature garden was repeated once again.

"Is there a problem with this section? I don't really want to stay here any longer." She watched herself pick up the gun, point the muzzle at her temple, and pull the trigger, her heart skipping a beat.

"If being resurrected isn't a problem..." Mu's voice also became less confident.

"Let's move on to the next section then."

Xiangzi abruptly stopped the playback and entered the next date in the search bar.

The next memory... is related to death.

Three days later, Xiangzi woke up in the villa reeking of corpses. He learned the whole truth from Qubi and pointed a gun at his Soul Gem, attempting suicide for the second time. This was undoubtedly a memory related to death.

This scene only features Xiangzi; it's a one-man show, so there's no problem.

Next game.

One miniature garden after another flashed before my eyes, like a montage pieced together from various edits, presenting Xiangzi's memories of wandering for half a year and hunting witches alone.

The Takamatsu lamp that he had imagined also frequently appeared in his memories.

"Is this Xiang's illness?" Mu asked.

"......Um."

Xiangzi never imagined that one day he would be able to share the delusions in his mind with others, especially in such a strange way, like watching a holographic projection.

"It's much better now."

Xiangzi said.

"She hasn't come out all day. Maybe I'm slowly getting better."

“…That’s good.” Mu blinked and said softly.

She was expressing her concern in the most awkward way.

Xiangzi saw through it, but as always, he didn't know how to respond.

"Did you find anything?" Xiangzi abruptly changed the subject.

Mu shook his head.

"not yet."

Xiangzi responded softly, pressed pause, and entered the next date.

The next date was that night in the pine forest.

After the miniature garden changed, a Takamatsu Akari and two Toyokawa Shoko appeared in Shoko's field of vision.

If I include myself, that makes three.