Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

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She blinked, slowly got up from the ground, and walked to Xiangzi's side.

"But, little master... how did you know?" She opened her mouth slightly, recalling Xiangzi's every move. "When? How did you find out?"

“I felt something was off about her from the very beginning,” Xiangzi said. “She always walked with her head down, carrying her schoolbag, and deliberately chose to walk on less crowded roads. This wasn’t just about this particular road, but all the routes she had taken before; she was intentionally looking for places with fewer people.”

"But if you have social anxiety, this should be quite normal."

“Yes, so I was only suspicious at first.” Xiangzi nodded and continued, “Even after I found out that she was a homebody with glasses as thick as the bottom of a beer bottle, my suspicions about her decreased a lot.”

"What went wrong?"

"Her words and actions."

"Her words and actions?"

"Yeah." Xiangzi nodded.

"But I feel like she's pretty normal. If she's socially anxious, her actions, expressions, and the things she said should all make sense."

“Her glasses are too thick, and her bangs are so thick that they cover more than 60% of her face. You can’t tell her expression from her face at all.” Xiangzi pinched his chin, lowered his head, and looked at Lin Hai’s face, which had become a blurry data cluster. “But her mouth, her jaw muscles, and the entire lower half of her face are too stiff when she speaks.”

"stiff?"

“Like NPCs talking in a game,” Xiangzi added, “like the NPCs of the old days, before motion capture.”

"Ah..." Ai Yin's expression suddenly changed. "As expected of the little master, you are very observant."

"Actually, the target was drawn after the arrow was shot." Xiangzi shrugged, a slight smile playing on his lips. "I noticed something was off in her tone, so I started to observe her mouth."

"what?"

"At first, I just thought it was strange how her mouth opened and closed when she spoke, but that was all."

Xiangzi said.

"What really made me start to doubt, and even confirm, that she wasn't human was when I went to ask her the second time."

She looked at Aine.

"Didn't you say back then... that I looked like a pyramid scheme member?"

"Haha..." Ai Yin scratched her cheek and turned her head to the other side. "Let's just... not pursue this matter."

“Let’s just let it go then. I’m a magnanimous person.” Xiangzi swept her hair behind her back and continued to explain, “She said the same thing the second time she spoke, and even the third time.”

"Hmm...Isn't it normal to use the same words to refuse?"

“But the tone should be progressive,” Xiangzi said.

"Oh, I get it." Ai Yin clapped her hands, her expression becoming excited. "I knew something was off."

She recalled Lin Hai's actions at the time.

"When refusing someone, the tone should be progressive, from calm to impatience and anger. A normal person would not say the same thing three times in the same tone."

This not only fails to emphasize the point, but it's also counterintuitive.

It was this counterintuitive aspect that confirmed Xiangzi's suspicions.

“I understand, little master.” Ai Yin snapped her fingers, revealing Xiangzi’s next guess, “Don’t you also think that she not only doesn’t seem like a human, but also like a…program?”

The Tale of the Lost: The Lost Child - Chapter 306 Didn't you want to become stronger?

Stiff movements, repetitive responses, and a wooden tone.

Compared to humans, "Lin Hai" looks more like an NPC from an old-fashioned game, with only one dialogue, and no matter how you trigger it, she will only repeat the same sentence.

"I understand, little master. Don't you also think that she's not only not like a human being, but also like a... program?"

Aiyin felt she had caught up with Xiangzi's line of thought and excitedly shared her judgment.

"Yes." Xiangzi nodded, which was taken as an admission.

"As expected of the junior master, you're amazing! You're practically Sherlock Holmes!" Ai Yin clapped her hands. "I'm only fit to be Watson, asking 'why'."

"It's nothing, just a very ordinary deduction."

Xiangzi turned his head away and snorted.

She wasn't happy about being praised; she just felt embarrassed by the compliments.

Thin-skinned.

“But,” Aine frowned again, “Little Master, you said she…it’s not human, nor is it a familiar, so what could it be? Isn’t it a witch’s creation?”

“This thing doesn’t have a precise name, I call it ‘phenomenon’,” Xiangzi said, holding up one index finger. “That is, ‘phenomenon’.”

"Why is it called this name?"

"Inside the witch's barrier, besides witches and familiars, you'll also encounter storms, abstract television images, intertwined telephone poles, and all sorts of other random things. Sometimes you might even vaguely see blurry figures, but when you walk over, you'll find they don't exist at all."

“Ah, right.” Aine nodded blankly.

That's true, I see it often.

"The figures you see are actually no different from telephone poles and television sets; they are all products that were present when the barrier was created."

Xiangzi briefly explained the relationship between witches, dreams, and barriers to Aine.

The witch creates the barrier by relying on the subconscious of the original owner; everything the subconscious "dreams" will generate the barrier.

Therefore, the intangible phantoms that Aine saw inside the barrier were actually a kind of "natural phenomenon" constructed by her subconscious, just like the environment inside the barrier.

Ai Yin was completely confused.

"Hey, but shouldn't that be a product of the barrier? Why am I seeing it in the real world?" Aine discovered the blind spot.

A blind student discovered a key point.jpg

"..." Xiangzi fell silent.

That's a good question; it stumped her too.

She lowered her head and pondered for a while before slowly speaking.

"I have a guess," Xiangzi said.

"Yes, I'm listening," Ai-yin replied, acting as the most loyal straight man.

"The top magical girls of Reed Plains once conducted in-depth research on the relationship between witch barriers and dreams, and achieved considerable results." Xiangzi raised her hand and subconsciously created a miniature barrier.

A diamond-shaped frame unfolded in Xiangzi's palm.

Within the diamond-shaped frame, one can see a city with a style completely different from the reed plains.

"This is......"

"Ahem!" Xiangzi clenched her fist and crushed the diamond-shaped frame. She cleared her throat and pretended that nothing had happened. "This is the thing. Its full name is 'Reverse Witch Barrier,' but we'll just call it 'Barrier.'"

I just unconsciously activated the barrier, it was like... an instinct.

It seems that even if Oblivionis erased her memories, she couldn't stop her body from remembering that feeling.

This made Xiangzi increasingly curious about what happened during that deleted period.

"Kasumi-senpai and the others learned to control dreams. Using their experience in controlling dreams, they created a barrier woven by magical girls in reality. Within the barrier, the magical girls who can create barriers can weave it at will."

"Like a lucid dream?" Aine blinked. "I know I'm dreaming, so I can do whatever I want in the dream world."

"Right, that is it."

"What does that have to do with what we just saw—ah!" Ai Yin suddenly covered her mouth. "Little Master, you mean 'Su Shi'—the witch she transformed into, like a magical girl, is having lucid dreams?"

"That's why she can freely create 'phenomena' within her own barrier, and even use these 'phenomena' to influence reality in turn." Xiangzi nodded, once again acknowledging Ai Yin's guess.

Xiangzi discovered that his brainwaves were quite compatible with Aiyin's; basically, if he started something, Aiyin could quickly guess what would happen next.

"This is impossible! How could a witch possibly...?"

Witches are beasts and cannot have self-awareness; this is an ironclad rule in the eyes of most magical girls.

But for Xiangzi, she was an exception among exceptions. After the existence of the Flower Witch was confirmed, witches with self-awareness sprang up one after another like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

Su Shi is also a flower witch. For Su Shi, it is not difficult to let a "phenomenon" replace her and let the people trapped in the barrier live in real life.

and......

“Why is it impossible? Didn’t you see it with your own eyes?” Xiangzi’s voice unconsciously lowered a few decibels. “What similarities does that ‘Nagasaki Motoyo’ have with those wild beasts?”

If it weren't for Motoyo using the phenomenon... no, Motoyo isn't a phenomenon. "That Nagasaki Motoyo" is the familiar of the witch Nagasaki Motoyo, just like Oblivionis is the familiar of Nirvana and Yaeyama Mio is the familiar of Ji. Before the Flower Witch fully hatches, there will be a humanoid familiar.

This is also what troubles Xiangzi the most.

Because of the Flower Witch's unique nature, they didn't notice when or where Su Shi had quietly transformed into a witch.

"...Does that prove that Su Shi can still be saved?" Ai Yin turned her head and looked at Xiang Zi, as if she had grasped a lifeline. "Since she still has self-awareness, does that mean she can be saved?"

"That's right, there's still hope."

Xiangzi squatted on the ground, stroking the spot where Lin Hai had disappeared.

"I will do my best."

"Thank you," Ai-yin said softly.

"No need to thank me, this is something I was planning to do anyway."

“Hmm…” Ai Yin nodded, then asked, “Is there anything else today?”

"And one more thing."

Xiangzi held up two fingers, giving off a drill instructor's expression that said, "I'm going to get you, so get ready."

"What is it?" Ai`Jiu Liusi Luqi Ba Zhuo Yin swallowed hard.

She had a bad feeling.

"I just accepted a witch extermination quest that's about a tram stop away from here, and I just happened to level up to Normal in Safe mode."

"what?"

"Don't you want to become stronger?" Xiangzi smiled brightly. "This is the path to becoming stronger."

She put her hands together and said gently.

"Don't worry, leave the purification of the gems to me. Don't worry about Desuwa."

The Lost Story: The Lost Child - Chapter 307 White Room

A white house, decorated with black curtains, stood amidst a sea of ​​dark rooftops, the only exception being the white house itself. Weary crows perched on telephone poles, the sky a hazy gray, devoid of any golden sunlight.

Clang——!

A gleaming silver horse, with a metallic sheen, burst out of the window of the white house. Crows on the telephone poles were startled and flew down to circle around the horse. Only upon closer inspection could one discover that the horse's head was not a normal horse's head, but rather a simple geometric shape, with the upper body of a human girl's figure vaguely visible.

The centaur-like witch, covered in knife wounds, limped to her feet.

It stared in terror at the white house it had used to hide in, as if some terrifying monster were inside.

Witch's Name: White Room

Difficulty level of the task: Normal

Intelligence: The nature of the story is escape. A horse trapped in a dust-free cage yearns for freedom, but after gaining freedom, it is corrupted by the dark world.

The witch who has been on the run for a long time is constantly active and will never stay in one place for more than one night. Magical girls, please complete the extermination as soon as possible.

This is not the first time this witch has been defeated. According to observations, this witch is an "assimilated clone" of the previously defeated witch "Zetsu-shu," with greatly weakened power and limited harm. However, due to the difficulty in locating her, she is classified as "Normal."

Ordinary witches are magical girls who have fallen from grace, and each witch takes on a variety of forms and appearances due to the unique experiences of the magical girls they were raised to.

However, if the seeds of lamentation left after a witch's death are not collected but instead placed in densely populated areas, they will eventually give birth to a new witch once enough negative emotions have been collected. The new witch will be exactly the same as the original witch, and this kind of witch that has been reborn is called an "assimilated clone".

A witch transformed from a familiar has a very high probability of becoming an "assimilated clone." The Virgin Mary she once killed was collected by using the process of a familiar transforming into a new Virgin Mary.

What Aine is facing now is a "homogenized clone" that has only recently been born.

This is the closest barrier that Xiangzi found to them; it was even just refreshed, probably because a magical girl who was farming points submitted the information.

Since they were already so close, Xiangzi thought he should let Ai Yin give it a try.

In the end, it turned out like this—Xiangzi led Aine into the witch's barrier, observed from the sidelines, and then let Aine go up and fight alone.

Well, just make sure she doesn't die. Let her handle the rest herself. We can review the battle with her later.