Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

The Tale of Nirvana: Maintaining One's True Self: Chapter 117 Five Days

Wednesday marks four days until Yushina's ultimatum.

The location is the center of the Nirvana Barrier, the initial entrance.

"We need to set a time when we can kill the familiars simultaneously," Xiangzi asked, arms crossed. "Is an hour enough?"

“For me, it would take an hour or even longer.” Hailing leaned against the flower bed, her cool voice carrying a reassuring sense of security. “Anyway, let’s first gather information on the four familiars.”

"I'm fine with it too." Mu nodded gently.

“Let’s summarize first.” Xiangzi clapped his hands and said, “In chronological order, Doloris’s territory has become a place where white soldiers gather, and Doloris’s true form has become very similar to Chu Hua, and has learned Chu Hua’s magic ‘Hundred Forms’, is that correct?”

She stood at the top of the steps, while the other four stood at the bottom, with Xiangzi at the center.

Chu Hua nodded and added:

"Although I have mastered the Hundred Forms, I am still quite clumsy in using it. It is still within my capabilities. Including the time to clean up the lower-level familiars, an hour should be enough."

"Hmm." Xiangzi nodded and continued, "What about the 'bank' that Miaomeng is in charge of?"

“That’s what I’m asking. Now that Amoris has its head on, where am I supposed to steal things? I can’t exactly go and fight it head-on.”

“After Amoris’s vital point is gone, its characteristic changes from ‘immortality’ to ‘super regeneration,’ just like you, Meow Dream,” Xiangzi said. “You can fight a war of attrition with it.”

"...That's easier said than done."

Miao Meng pouted, counted on her fingers, and made a mental calculation.

"However, if we bring enough Seeds of Sorrow, this time is not impossible. I'll have to try it out later to see how it goes."

Anyway, everyone else has their own role. Amoris probably learned both the good and bad aspects of Meowmew, and after leveling up, it became weaker than before—of course, this only applies to Meowmew.

Xiangzi nodded.

"I'll find a chance to make up for the seed of lamentation for you later."

“Hey, even reimbursement from you is just empty promises.” Miao Meng shrugged. “Forget it, I have enough in stock myself. You can compensate me with something else.”

"For example?" Xiangzi tilted his head.

"Like, sleeping with me for one night or something..."

Miao Meng suddenly felt two cold gazes licking her body.

Two! Not just one! What's going on?!

She shuddered.

"...I didn't say anything, you might as well use the Seed of Lamentation to make it up to me."

Xiangzi looked at Miaomeng, who had suddenly changed her tune, with a bewildered expression.

"What did you just want to say?"

"No, it's nothing." Miaomeng chuckled and glanced to the side. "Let's skip Amoris's part for now and move on to the next one."

"Is it my turn next?" Hailing asked.

“The changes at the Reed Plain Skyscraper are no less dramatic than those at the White Queen. I suspect the path to the top won't be easy; there will be quite a few obstacles,” Xiangzi said. “Considering that Hailing dealt with Timoris in less than a minute, is this enough time?”

"no problem."

Xiangzi breathed a sigh of relief and continued.

"Mu."

"I'm fine," Mu said calmly.

"Hmm." Xiangzi nodded, simply skipping over this part.

She clasped her hands together, took a deep breath, and gazed intently at her father.

"Then, let's get started."

============

Thursday marked three days until Yushina's ultimatum.

From Chu Hua to Miao Meng, and then to Hai Ling He Mu, she has actually dealt with four of the five familiars of Nirvana. So much so that now, Xiang Zi has to face a fact that she has been avoiding: Obliviyi Leng 1qi Shi Wu Si Jiu Onis, she has absolutely no clue.

Saturday is the final deadline, but she's still in class. Even though her eyes are on the blackboard and she seems to be concentrating, she just can't seem to focus.

Thoughts are like popping candy poured into the head, or atoms in a chain reaction, popping and jumping around, extending, diverging, sliding, exploding, and in the end, leaving a mess, without a single contributing idea.

Xiangzi's fingers, which were holding the pen, were unknowingly covered in sweat, and his eyes, which were looking at the blackboard, became unsteady.

"Momoria...memory..."

Xiangzi put down his pen, rubbed his throbbing forehead, and recalled his dream from last night.

"Is that pure white space a memory? Is it my...lost memory?"

Has she already been in contact with Oblivionis?

Is it because you've experienced it that you've forgotten it?

Or is it for some other reason?

—"Queen Himiko, as a rare female ruler in history, is said to have 'engaged in the ways of spirits and gods, and was able to bewitch people with sorcery,' but in reality, there is very little historical record about this queen. Scholars, based on documents related to Himiko and the myth of Amaterasu, speculate that Queen Himiko lost her magical powers on the day of the solar eclipse and was assassinated by thieves..."

"Could Himiko be a magical girl too...?"

Already distracted, Xiangzi's thoughts were swayed so badly by the history teacher that by the time she realized what was happening, the bell had already rung.

In the end, I didn't absorb any lessons and made no progress at all.

Xiangzi felt a burning anger inside him, with no way to vent it.

The students packed up their textbooks and either walked out of the classroom in groups of three or five to the canteen, or gathered in small groups to take out the lunch boxes prepared at home.

I'm alone again today.

Even if you get used to it, you still feel uncomfortable when you occasionally feel the gazes of your classmates around you.

Xiangzi sighed and was about to close his notebook and find a quiet place to think for himself when he noticed a simple sketch drawn on the page.

The illustrations were hastily drawn and the content was so poorly understood that even Xiangzi himself couldn't comprehend it.

"This is......"

Xiangzi received an elite education from a young age. He was proficient in music, chess, calligraphy and painting, but he had some knowledge of them. His painting skills were not outstanding, but he could be considered to have some spirit and form.

However, this painting seems to be a bit beyond what was expected.

A sketch that you don't understand at first glance, but becomes incredibly captivating at second glance.

The pencil drawing is an aerial view. Not to brag, but this hastily drawn aerial view actually has a lot of texture. It's like a composition obtained by looking at the whole city through a fisheye lens. The wide-angle distortion in the center is quite outrageous, but it also provides a strong visual tension. It presents a nearly 270° perspective in a normal frame, making the whole city look clear from above.

Aside from that, there weren't many details, but Xiangzi still recognized that this was Nirvana's barrier.

This is a view that can only be seen from a high point within the barrier. The dense cluster of buildings is outlined with simple lines. In the picture, you can vaguely see four buildings that have been given extra detail: a building that looks like a chessboard, a fortress made of steel, the castle tower that overlooks the whole city, and an exquisite but dark and oppressive mansion.

The White Queen of Doloris, the Bank of Amoris, the Reed Plain Skyscraper of Timoris, and the Library of Memory of Mortis.

Four areas belong to the familiars, but the barrier should have five iconic buildings.

Something is missing.

One familiar is missing.

Where did Oblivionis go?

"Eh?"

Xiangzi's hand, which was holding the notebook, trembled.

Of course, something is missing; there are only four buildings here, and Oblivionis' "cocoon" is missing.

Why is Oblivionis's "cocoon" missing?

Xiangzi gripped the notebook so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

Combining the location of the four buildings with the height of the viewpoint, the answer is simple: the perspective of this painting is from the "cocoon," looking down at the entire barrier. Someone once stood at a certain point on the cocoon and looked out over the whole city.

who is it?

Whose memory is this?

Or......

Was that person himself?

Xiangzi felt a chill creep up his spine, straight to the top of his head.

The songs that Toyokawa Shoko sang in my dream suddenly came to mind.

I swear, I am unarmed, no, I am unarmed, I have no gun, like a long-forgotten memory, a memory, a memory...

Memoria.

Oblivionis, to forget.

Forgotten memories...

What exactly did she forget?

============

Friday marked two days until Yushina's ultimatum.

Xiangzi has taken leave.

Anxiety, like ants, crawled all over my body.

She hasn't slept since last night, she's been trying to think of a solution, but she just can't come up with anything.

She stood at the doorway of the cocoon, which was firmly sealed, biting her lip so hard that she didn't even notice it was bleeding.

Two days, no, less than a day and a half left.

The giant clock in the center of the square ticked away, clearly telling Xiangzi that time was passing by little by little.

The timeline progresses to dusk after Timoris is killed by Hailing.

The crimson sun slowly descended towards the sea level, obscured by tall buildings. The sunlight gradually cooled, becoming viscous and intense. The narrow bands of clouds that covered the sky seemed to flow with life, like fluttering tassels rolling across the sky. The blood-like viscous sunlight passed through the cloud bands, soaking the thin clouds into a somber and silent crimson, so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

Xiangzi raised her head and looked at the cocoon, which was also dyed red by the setting sun. The white building shrouded in wings seemed to be mocking her incompetence.

At this moment, everyone else is "rehearsing" in their own complicated territories, while only Xiangzi sits idly at the entrance of the cocoon, anxiously staring at the locked door.

She was like someone lost in a maze, ending up in a dead end, then turning around to find that the path she had taken before was now blocked.

That person was very anxious; she was starving and wanted to leave.

But she couldn't do it.

There's no such thing as taking it one step at a time, no such thing as things will work themselves out, and no such thing as a sudden breakthrough.

If you can't do it, you can't do it.

A precipice loomed before her, and the hands of time seemed to be pushing Xiangzi forward from behind.

She was already at a dead end.

That ridiculous dream was incoherent and unresolved. Even if she knew that she had once looked down on the entire barrier from the top of the cocoon, so what?

How much can those memories, which aren't even fragments, really help me?

Why can't she find any clues?

Why is this broken door blocking my way?

"what!"

Xiangzi raised his foot and kicked the iron gate.

The iron gate didn't budge, but kicking it hurt terribly.

A tear or two welled up in the corner of his eye, and Xiangzi squatted down, clutching his feet with a pitiful expression.

Shoko Toyokawa, who sings in her dreams, has been like a dead person these past few days, not coming out at all. Shoko would rather she come out now and bother her to death than have herself wandering around aimlessly like a headless fly.

Why? !

Why did they disappear after saying some unclear things?!