Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Page 569

Just then, a ding-dong notification sound came from the elevator, followed by a familiar sound of footsteps.

Xiangzi turned his head in surprise and looked in the direction of the elevator.

Chu Hua stepped out of the elevator with a radiant smile, looking exceptionally happy. When she saw Xiangzi, especially the shy expression on his face that seemed to want to say something, she stopped in her tracks. Her radiance shone even brighter, making her look like a little sun.

"Xiao Xiang!" Chu Hua ran towards Xiangzi.

"Um..." Xiangzi lowered his head, "I'm sorry about what happened this morning."

"It's okay, I don't mind." Chu Hua gently hugged Xiangzi and snuggled against him. "Just being able to see you is enough for me."

"Mmm." Xiangzi also raised his hand and hugged Chuhua back. "It's so good to have you by my side."

“Me too,” Chu Hua said with a smile.

"So... is today's matter over?"

"Of course, I never cared."

"What did you do this afternoon? You seemed to be having a lot of fun," Xiangzi asked curiously.

"Well."

Chu Hua's eyes darted around, and she finally decided to take advantage of Xiangzi's guilt and act a little spoiled.

"Secret~"

The Tale of Transcendence: Stars and Us: Chapter 760 Should We Get Busy?

Rewind a few hours and return to the Wakaba residence.

After a period of chaos, everyone was finally able to sit down and chat quietly, but the current situation was still somewhat strange.

Del was held in Chu Hua's arms like a big toy. At first, he struggled symbolically for a moment, but now he looked like he had no eyes at all.

The other two sat quietly in their seats, drinking the afternoon tea brought by the maid, listening to Miaomeng explain the ins and outs of the matter.

Although she found it extremely troublesome, Miaomeng still explained the whole story of Del to the two of them, and she did so in a very, very, very, very serious manner, almost to the point of kneeling and begging:

"Please, please don't let Xiangzi know about this."

Chu Hua and Hai Ling exchanged a glance.

"Why?" Hailing turned her head and asked.

"Why what?"

"Don't tell us about this."

"The more people who know, the easier it is to leak information, isn't that obvious?"

"Doesn't Miaomengzi want to distrust us?" Hailing asked in a low voice.

“Actually, this decision wasn’t entirely…” Miao Meng glanced at Mu out of the corner of her eye and saw that Mu’s hands were still trembling slightly. In the end, she decided to take the blame herself. “At first, Mu discussed it with me for a while. It was I who suggested that we not let more people know.”

She nodded, admitting it.

“Indeed, I don’t trust you. Or rather, the current Mujica is simply not trustworthy.” She glanced at everyone present. “For over two years, everyone—including myself—has tacitly and cautiously played house with that girl. Do you find that interesting? Do you think it’s enough to accompany her in self-deception for the rest of her life, letting her live in her own created ‘Truman Show’?”

"Or are some people already joining her in deceiving themselves and living in the Truman Show?"

Miao Meng squinted at Chu Hua. Then, she turned her gaze to Hai Ling.

"Or perhaps he's disappointed in her and has started to just go through the motions?"

"..."

Chu Hua and Hai Ling turned their heads away in different directions, answering Miao Meng's question with silence.

“But since you’ve already run into us, there’s nothing we can do about it.” Miao Meng stood up, picked up two cookies from her plate, and handed them to the two of them. “Want to join us? Our plan to change the past.”

"Xiangzi tried so many times and failed, and we..." Hailing hesitated, looking at the cookies Miaomeng handed her. "She said that the world lines converge, and no matter how hard we try, it will only lead to one result—"

“It seems like there are only two possible outcomes: either the loop continues indefinitely, or the lamp takes her place. But—” Del took the cookie from Meow Dream’s hand, put it in his mouth, and mumbled, “In probability theory, there is no absolute 0% or 100%, so for us, there must be some possibility.”

"Even if the probability is infinitely close to zero?" Hailing looked at Miaomeng.

"Or do you want to continue living like this, drifting aimlessly?" Miao Meng shrugged and picked up another cookie. "Choose one."

As soon as I picked it up, a hand reached over and took the cookie away.

Hailing looked at the person who took the cookies and showed a surprised expression.

"I don't want to be a puppet anymore," Mu said softly, taking a bite of her cookie. "So I joined."

"What do you say, Hai Zi?" Miao Meng simply picked up another piece and waved it in front of Hai Ling's eyes. "Join, or... I don't think I can do anything to you, just don't tell Xiang Zi."

"..."

Hailing silently took the cookie, put it in her mouth, and crunched it.

"Now that things have come to this point, what reason do I have to refuse?"

“Good sister.” Miaomeng raised her fist. “I knew you would say that.”

Hailing raised her hand and bumped fists with her.

"Chu Zi, are you interested?" Miao Meng turned her head to look at Chu Hua. "Of course, you can also pretend nothing happened and go home to keep Xiang Zi company."

"..."

“Actually, I came here today to… ask you some questions,” she said softly. “I feel like I understand Xiao Xiang less and less.”

“After all, everyone here only has memories of being with her in these few dozen reincarnations, while I only have memories of one reincarnation.” Del sighed. “Xiangzi has experienced killing her previous self countless times. It’s normal for such a cruel thing to create a rift.”

"...If Deng hadn't sacrificed himself, would Xiao Xiang have continued? And would the rest of us have become the Bremen Orchestra in the next cycle?"

"Why are there only these two possibilities? Isn't there a world where Xiaoxiang can feel happy?" Chu Hua raised her head, revealing hazy eyes. "I've been thinking about this question all day."

Chu Hua lowered her head and hugged the white fluffy ball in her arms a little tighter.

Del felt as if water droplets had landed on his shoulder.

“Xiao Xiang had been searching for this ending.” Chu Hua wiped away the water droplets. “But that day, I stopped her. I told her… it doesn’t matter, there’s no need to keep trying.”

"When I heard you say today that there is still a chance, that there is still a way to make Xiaoxiang happy, I..." She wiped away her tears, raised her head, and revealed a smile as bright as sunshine after the rain, "I feel that there really is still a chance."

She took the cookie from Miaomeng and put it in her mouth.

"I will join. I will do anything to make Xiaoxiang happy."

"It seems that everyone present that day was here, except for Xiangzi."

Another voice came from upstairs.

Homura Akemi appeared at the top of the stairs, looking down at the magical girls gathered together. She brushed the hair that had fallen in front of her chest behind her and said softly.

"If everyone is here, let's speed things up; we don't have much time left."

"Is everyone here?" Meow Dream raised an eyebrow. "I remember there was one more person..."

"Yan just invited me."

Another voice came from behind Flame, and a girl a few inches taller than Flame with flaxen hair appeared on the stairs.

Su Shi lowered her head and looked at Mu with some resentment.

"Why didn't Xiaomu tell me about this?"

"I..." Mu turned his head away, "I don't want to cause Su Shi any trouble."

"You know perfectly well that I care a lot."

"sorry......"

“…Never mind.” Su Shi sighed, rubbing her forehead. “I heard from Yan that many magical girls have infiltrated this city, and the day when the super-causality appears is getting closer and closer.”

"Now that everyone's here, shouldn't we get to work?"

The Tale of Transcendence: Stars and Us: Chapter 761 Undercurrents

"Get to work! It should have started a long time ago! I was doing a good job, but I don't know which guy messed this place up."

The white fluffy ball jumped out of Chu Hua's arms, waving its hands wildly in the air.

"You're all just my henchmen, you know! Nobody else but me could make this thing!"

She stomped angrily toward the pile of parts that Miao Meng had hastily piled up into a small mountain, found the piece she had been working on, sat down, and continued her work.

“By the way, I have an idea.” Del suddenly stopped what he was doing and tossed the parts aside. “How about I make an instruction manual, like how you humans assemble those building toys? With an instruction manual, I won’t have to guide each person individually. If there are more people, maybe this will be more efficient.”

“If you all come and help me, maybe…” she calculated with her fingers, “a week! In less than a week, we can build the entire time machine.”

At this point, everyone except Xiangzi who still retained memories of the old world was dragged onto the same pirate ship.

Meanwhile, Xiangzi was still completely unaware of what was happening, preparing for her upcoming college entrance exams at the library. It wasn't until she came out of the library that evening that she learned that the Reed Plain had fallen into the stillness before the storm.

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

As soon as Xiangzi opened the door to her room after putting on makeup, she smelled a rich fragrance.

"Good morning, Xiangzi." Chu Hua poked her head out of the kitchen, holding a frying pan, and gave Xiangzi a big, warm smile. "Winter vacation starts today~ It's okay if you don't have to get up so early."

"Good morning, Chuhua." Xiangzi smiled. "I'm used to it, I can't sleep that long."

"Breakfast is a traditional breakfast, so it will take a little while. Please wait a moment, Xiao Xiang."

"Well, that's troublesome."

Xiangzi sat at the dining table and rubbed his sore and tired eyes from an angle where Chuhua couldn't see him.

She couldn't sleep before, but last night she didn't sleep at all, and didn't get home until late at night. She's already arrested several spies who were trying to infiltrate Reed Plains, and now the atmosphere in the entire Reed Plains is very strange.

a week.

Unbeknownst to Xiangzi, a group of girls were constantly appearing around Ruoye's mansion, and the time machine's progress was steadily increasing, getting closer to the final product.

Xiangzi, who is completely unaware that he is being "isolated" by a large group of people, is trying to protect the world that the lamp sacrificed itself for in his own way.

She first tried to use Rebecca to locate Norlin, but Rebecca helplessly told herself that this elusive boss could only be found by actively contacting her.

It seems Rebecca is in a semi-abandoned state; her superiors are indifferent to her, possibly believing she has no impact on the overall battle. Furthermore, Xiangzi had already informed Kasumi about Norin's information, but the reply a few days later was that the Reed Plains intelligence network couldn't find her at all.

Despite her obvious features, Xiangzi couldn't find any trace of her anywhere, which made him feel a cold sweat run down his back.

Indeed, their opponent is the CIA, and their reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance capabilities are probably on a completely different level from those of the young magical girls from Ayashihara who have just entered society.

Besides the CIA, many other things have happened in the past few days. The number of magical girls in Reed Plains has almost doubled, and various supporting intelligence organizations have been deployed in every corner of Reed Plains. With the intervention of so many powerful forces, Reed Plains is like a girl without the ability to resist, only able to be slaughtered.

Everything seemed to be rife with tension, and even the morning air felt unusually oppressive.

In just one week, Xiangzi deeply realized how insignificant she was in this vast world, relying solely on herself—or even solely on the Reed Plain Magical Girl Gathering—after losing the timeless and irrational power of super-causality.

The familiar reed field became incredibly unfamiliar in a short period of time; she slept less and her stress increased.

However, just as others wanted to keep the construction of a machine that could alter the past a secret from her, she also had no intention of telling any of Mujica about it.

Seeing Chuhua's increasingly bright and cheerful smile every morning, Xiangzi thought to himself that he couldn't drag them into this. It was already a precious thing that everyone could live in this new world; it was something Deng had sacrificed for them. He had to protect this hard-won peace...

If one can obtain the supercausal link, one can make it disappear from this world. In this way, there will be no resources to fight over, and wars will not occur.

The tacit understanding between these awkward individuals reached its peak at this moment, achieving a strange balance that prevented any of them from noticing each other's subtle actions.

However, this fragile balance won't last long.

Xiangzi ate the traditional breakfast combination of saury, white rice, and miso soup that Chuhua had served him, while pondering.

Chu Hua ate the same breakfast as Xiangzi, sitting opposite him, seemingly lost in thought.

What neither of them knew was that they were thinking about the same thing at that moment.

The brief period of calm was like a bubble, bursting at the slightest touch.

This winter is not going to be peaceful. The weather forecast says that within three days, a strong cold front will hit the Reed Plain, bringing heavy snow that will be heavy enough to affect traffic. The temperature will also plummet to minus twenty degrees Celsius, which is quite extreme for the latitude of the Reed Plain.

Just like when the Witch Doctor landed, the weather was extreme. The new world no longer has witches; instead, there is a monster tide.

The monsters will move south from the north on a large scale, and the Reed Plains will be hit. Although it will not be the first wave of attacks, it will be fierce.

At that time, the scene will become very chaotic, and the magical girls will fight a great battle with the monsters. No matter which side the magical girls are on, they will all have to devote their energy to dealing with the monster tide.

However, the focus that day was not on the Warcraft tide.

Rebecca told Xiangzi that her boss had vaguely hinted that the Holy Grail would appear along with the blizzard and the monster tide.