Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Page 479

Miao Meng and Medine sat facing each other, staring blankly at each other, looking completely idle. The moment Xiangzi entered the room, they both turned their heads and turned their gazes toward Xiangzi.

Xiangzi was startled by their synchronized movements.

"You guys, it's not a subconscious projection, is it?" she asked, a slight smirk playing on her lips.

"Oh my, I've been waiting for you!" Miao Meng stood up and enthusiastically grabbed Xiangzi's upper arm, patting him like a leader giving a consolation gift. "Where did you come from? You had to come all this way."

"It's all thanks to your excellent design." Xiangzi raised his eyebrows and lowered his voice. "You designed an airport that I almost thought was in the real world."

"It can't be that bad," Miao Meng lowered her voice as well. "Airports are quite different from reality in many ways."

"For example, a sign that displays eighteen languages?"

“That wasn’t my design; it was Medine’s subconscious that filled it in herself,” Miao Meng said, looking rather flustered. “There was just too much time; I only had time to design a rough framework.”

"Just as I thought." Xiangzi frowned.

Almost exactly as she had guessed, the petri dish-like airport was indeed Medion's masterpiece—though she herself was unaware of it.

"Never mind how strange the airport is, what's our clue?" Xiangzi looked up at Miaomeng's face. "Don't tell me you didn't have a plan."

“Yes, the airport offers a service to store valuables. I designed it as a large, empty room, big enough for Medine to fill with everything in her head,” Meow Dream said.

"Then let's set off quickly." Xiangzi nodded. "I haven't seen any of the security guards Alina sent yet, and I'm a little worried."

"Isn't it a good thing to have no enemies?" Miaomeng asked, puzzled.

"It could also be the calm before the storm." Xiangzi's expression didn't look good.

"That's true," Miaomeng sighed. "But there's one more thing..."

Just as Miaomeng was about to continue speaking, a violent coughing sound came from behind her.

"Ahem—!"

Without warning, Medine covered her mouth and coughed.

"Cough cough cough cough—!"

The coughing sounded as if she was coughing up her entire lungs. In between, she tried to bend over and press her chest, taking deep breaths to calm the pain in her chest, but this only brought on more coughing.

After a long while, when the suffocating cough finally stopped, Medine realized that Xiangzi was gently hugging her and stroking her back.

"Hello, Lingba, have you finished dancing yet?"

"What's wrong with me?" Medine stared blankly at the floor in front of her, her pupils dilating uncontrollably.

In front of her, on the white tiled floor, there appeared a few blackish-red spots, like mold.

That was the blood she had just coughed up.

Why is this happening?

"It's nothing, just a normal reaction, it'll pass quickly," Xiangzi patted her back, comforting her.

“Normal…why would I cough up blood?” Medine clutched her sleeve, the blood on her palm staining the fabric.

She turned her head and looked at Xiangzi in horror.

"What exactly... happened?"

"..." Xiangzi lowered his eyes, not daring to look at Medien's dark, abyss-like eyes.

Something must have happened on the first floor that caused Medine's injuries to worsen, otherwise she wouldn't have shown signs of discomfort so quickly.

The lies piled up, and to fill in one lie, more lies were needed. Eventually, Xiangzi couldn't think of any new lies to deceive Medien.

"What on earth happened?!"

The blue, shoulder-length hair began to grow at a visible rate, with the roots gradually transitioning from a striking cobalt blue to a deeper color.

Her hair was gradually turning black, and her face was so pale from the cough that she looked like a ghost.

Medion's emotions were gradually spiraling out of control. She suddenly turned around and grabbed Xiangzi's collar.

“You’re my subconscious, right? You know a lot of things I don’t even know myself, right? Then you should know very well—cough cough—!” Midian coughed twice more, dark red blood smearing on Xiangzi’s face, carrying a strong metallic smell. “—You—should—know very well what happened to me!”

Strange fragments of memory appeared in my mind, and my lungs felt like they were being shredded, with waves of throbbing and stinging pain.

What exactly happened to her body, her body in the real world?

I don't know how...

Medine's pupils dilated due to excitement, blending into her black irises, making them appear as if they had lost their luster.

not......

Xiangzi turned his head to the side, his bangs covering his eyes, and whispered the answer that Medine had guessed:

"The real you is about to die."

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

Boom!

Lightning flashed across the sky, and thunder rumbled in all directions.

A flash of lightning illuminated the two monsters battling in the torrential rain. Rebecca stood not far from the monsters, tilting her head back as high as she could, watching them deliver brutal, bone-crunching blows.

One of the monsters was the deer-headed monster that Rebecca had just seen, the one that had knocked the carriage over. What about the other one?

It was a monster that looked a lot like a wolf.

But it wasn't a wolf; instead, it looked like a monster that was both wolf-like and human-like, wearing armor.

The pearly white shell clung to the monster's entire body, reflecting a metallic sheen under the lightning. The pure white fur peeking out from the gaps in the shell was tangled into clumps by the rain.

It was smaller than the Leshen Monster, but much faster. Every time the Leshen Monster swung its deformed hand, it could take the opportunity to scrape off two layers of flesh from the Leshen Monster's body with its claws.

The two monsters fought in the rain, tearing each other's flesh, the flowing blood being washed away by the downpour.

The commotion from the battle overturned the muddy ground, damaged the bluestone slabs on the road, and tore up the trees along the roadside. The roar of the deer-headed monster in pain could not be drowned out even by the torrential rain and echoed throughout the entire sky.

Rebecca used her power gauntlets to push the carriage desperately, trying to get it away from the area where they were fighting.

"Ouch——!"

At the same time, the roars of the deer-headed monster were interspersed with faint wolf howls coming from all directions. Suddenly, a werewolf figure pounced out from the rain, but before it could reach the carriage, it was smashed away by Rebecca's iron fist.

Several more restless werewolves pounced, but Rebecca smashed their heads in a few blows and tossed them aside.

Suddenly, the wolf pack seemed to stop moving.

Rebecca lowered her hooked fist and wiped the rain from her face with her arm. Only then did she realize that the carriage was completely surrounded by wolves, with no way to escape.

"Am we going to die here?" Rebecca gritted her teeth. "The cliff is just ahead!"

Rebecca was seething with anger and had nowhere to vent it; she didn't want to admit that the mission was about to fail.

She's on her way home! If she doesn't succeed, she won't be greeted by family when she lands, but by a mob of former colleagues.

She doesn't want to become like this!

"Aaaaaahh ...

Boom!

At that moment, a huge thud and a thunderclap rang out, tearing a gap in the wall formed by the wolf pack.

Rebecca stared wide-eyed at the shadow that had fallen from the sky.

That was the head of the deer-headed monster, crashing down like a meteor, sweeping away an entire pack of wolves that had been lying across it, and tearing a hole in the encirclement that would be difficult to heal in a short time.

"Go to the back of the carriage and play music for them! There are too many pursuers; we need to crash immediately!"

Chu Hua's voice appeared in Rebecca's ears at some point, brushing past her.

Rebecca's body acted before her mind. She put away her boxing gloves, jumped onto the carriage, and was about to open the door when her mind finally caught on.

How can a carriage run without horses?

Just as Rebecca was thinking about this question, Chu Hua provided the answer. She jumped to the spot where the reins had broken and bit both reins into her mouth.

Wait, what is she doing?

Rebecca hung on the car door, staring blankly at Chu Hua biting the reins, as if she were playing some kind of game.

No... wait a minute?!

The next moment, Chu Hua's mouth, which was biting the reins, began to deform and lengthen noticeably. Her fingers, which were pressed against the ground, merged into one, and her prostrate posture on the ground also rose considerably. She became less and less human, and finally transformed into a white steed clad in armor.

when.

That sounded like Rebecca's jaw hitting the ground.

Who are they? Can ordinary magical girls transform into this?

This should be a witch!

Could the magical girl I spend every day with actually be a witch?! I haven't actually seen her Soul Gem, have I? But do witches even possess self-awareness? Honestly, she doesn't seem to have killed many witches; she's usually killing people or other magical girls. Could it be that there really are witches like this that I'm unaware of...?

"(Hey, what are you standing there for!)" Chu Hua's voice pierced through the rain, like a needle pricking Rebecca's ears, accompanied by a hissing sound.

"Ugh!" Rebecca wiped her face. "I don't care anymore! As long as she's still here, can communicate, and can help me get home, then she's not a witch!"

Maybe there are magical girls who can actually transform into this! It's understandable that her Grief Seeds are managed by the department and she wouldn't know these things!

Rebecca, in a fit of despair, crawled into the carriage and put headphones on everyone.

Although the appearance of headphones—specifically Sony headphones—under the first layer of the dream worldview is quite disruptive, they are now surrounded by the subconscious guards and no longer need to concern themselves with such minor worldview-disrupting matters.

She pressed play, and the song began to play.

"Ten seconds!"

The era we live in loves to come up with all sorts of reasons to explain things, like speed, new inventions, four-dimensional space, and so on.

Buzz—!

Green lightsabers flashed in the corridor, and several security guards who seemed to be there just to make up the numbers were cut into a pile of broken parts.

"Ok?"

As her arm fell naturally, the tip of the lightsaber pointed towards the ground. The moment Hailing heard the song, which had been slowed down twenty times, all the muscles in her body tensed up.

"No, it's too early!"

Mu raised his head and looked at the ceiling, his gaze seemingly piercing through this layer of dream, returning to the first layer of dream amidst the torrential rain.

She could almost imagine how much subconscious pressure Chu Hua and Rebecca endured in the first layer of the dream.

At first, it was said that the first layer of the dream would last a full week, and the subsequent layers would have even more time. Then an accident happened: the mysterious magical girl named Alina turned into a witch and parasitized the dream created by the Dream House. She shot the person she was supposed to protect and sent out an overwhelming number of subconscious guards, compressing the seven days into about an hour.

Xiangzi made a decision in the shortest amount of time. They started their escape plan while dreaming, trying to buy themselves an hour.

But now, less than half an hour has passed in the first layer of the dream, and the music has already appeared in the next layer of the dream.

Hailing closed her eyes, listened to the music that had been stretched twenty times, took a deep breath, and then exhaled, completely expelling the stale air from her lungs.

As time goes by, moonlight and love songs will never go out of style.

“Your life is in danger, Medine,” Xiangzi said, pressing on Medine’s shoulder. “But that’s not something I can control.”

"Why?!"

“Because…” Xiangzi paused for a moment when he heard the noise around him.

That's... music.

Although it was very blurry, and although it was slowed down by four hundred times, Xiangzi could still tell that it was music, and it wasn't coming from the second floor, but from the first floor.

When the music starts, it means the final impact has begun, and there are only ten seconds left before the carriage plunges off the cliff.

How could it be so fast?!

She was stunned.

"Why! Why did you suddenly stop talking!"

Medion completely ignored the faint noise and roared at Xiangzi, but Xiangzi remained unmoved like a puppet with its strings cut.

"Because we are just your subconscious, we can't determine the state of your physical body." Miao Meng answered Mei Dien for Xiangzi, and walked to Xiangzi's side, picked her up, and tucked her under her arm.

Xiangzi struggled slightly.

But Miaomeng patted her hair to calm her down for a while.

“She’s also having problems because of your health. We don’t have much time left, so we need to hurry,” Miao Meng said, looking at Medien.