Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Page 235

Chu Hua's cries grew louder and louder in Xiangzi's arms, gradually turning from soft sobs into loud wailing.

She was finally able to cry, her voice so loud it drowned out the hairdryer.

Xiangzi freed one hand to turn off the hairdryer, then hugged Chuhua and crawled into bed.

Snapped.

Xiangzi turned off the light above his head, and the starry sky embedded in the ceiling with fluorescent stones immediately came into view.

Chu Hua held her and cried. She kept looking at the stars on the ceiling until Chu Hua cried herself to sleep. Only then did Xiangzi gently stroke her hair.

"Good night, Chuhua."

Chu Hua's arms wrapped around her without her noticing, and he held her tightly.

They embraced each other, like rain accompanied by wind, like the moon accompanied by stars.

The Tale of the Lost: The Lost Child - Chapter 283 How the World Works

The next day.

They looked much better after getting up. They both tacitly kept quiet about what happened last night, washed up and got dressed, and then went out together, heading in two different directions.

However, they hugged each other one last time before parting ways.

It was another ordinary day until the afternoon when Xiangzi officially took over the management of RiNG.

During the time the magical girls of the Fifth Squad are away from Reed Plains, Shoko will be the de facto manager of the Reed Plains Magical Girl Gathering, and there are still many miscellaneous tasks waiting for them to learn. Since Kasumi and Shoko have a good relationship, Kasumi will be in charge of the handover of work, and Shoko's main base in the future will also be in RiNG.

When Kasumi walked into RiNG arm in arm with Shoko, the smile on her face made it seem like she was about to become a hands-off boss, which sent a chill down Shoko's spine.

She began to wonder if she had embarked on a path of no return, a path of local spirit possession.

Yes, the title of Protagonists—that is, "protagonists of Reed Plains"—does not only represent power. The eight-character mantra "With great power comes great responsibility" is the most important creed for magical girls as "magical girls" rather than "witches." Therefore, once they take this position, they must bear the corresponding responsibilities.

After spending a few days learning more about things with Kasumi, Xiangzi realized that his previous idea of ​​starting his own business was somewhat naive.

The assembly is not a profit-making organization at all. Even though it has become entangled with many conflicts of interest due to its development, it is still an organization that upholds its responsibilities.

The reason why the gathering seems loose and easy to maintain is because the magical girls at the very top of Reed Plains have taken on the pressure of maintaining the gathering.

The public space in the lobby on the first floor is basically occupied by people 24 hours a day. The electronic recruitment board is covered with various team recruitments, temporary team recruitments, and all kinds of witch commission orders.

As a manager, Xiangzi needs to organize this information in the back office and post it on the electronic recruitment board.

Posting is a simple task, but reviewing it is a real hassle. She has to receive not only information from the magical girls, but also information from collaborators in all walks of life who know about the magical girls—primarily from social media and the police.

The sources of information on social media are a mixed bag, including urban legends, neighborhood gossip, and all sorts of things, resulting in a massive and complex amount of information.

The administrators must sift through the fragmented and unreliable information provided by the media to extract useful information, and then issue intelligence missions, which are then carried out by magical girls who are specifically responsible for investigations to conduct secondary verification of the scene.

About 80% of the tasks will go to waste. According to Xiangcheng, they have developed a few relatively fixed information channels over the years. 99.9% of the fragmented information outside of these channels is useless and can basically be ignored.

Long before information channels were established, Kasumi and her friends were truly searching for a needle in a haystack.

This task couldn't be done by Xiangzi alone, so she decided to hand it over to Miaomeng, the most experienced person in Mujica.

Meow Dream: Huh?

Then go to the police station; the police station is the most reliable source of intelligence.

It was during the church incident that Xiangzi learned that the Reed Plain Police Station had a special department involving magical girls, much like the "Special Bureau" often seen in novels.

Their primary task is to investigate witches lurking in human society. Although the department has limited manpower and provides limited intelligence, the information is extremely accurate, and often the scene is already under control by the time the information is submitted to the gathering, making it a sure thing.

The events they come into contact with are generally those that pose a serious threat to society.

The lowest-ranking witches and familiars, due to their weak power, have limited impact on reality, at most causing minor robberies, fights, or car accidents (like seeing a female ghost on a mountain road causing a car accident), and the most common occurrence is suicide. Witches and familiars falling into this category are classified as Safe.

Moving up the ranks, witches can exert a greater influence on reality, causing events like murder, which are usually categorized between Normal and Hard. Murder cases typically first involve the police, so about 90% of the Normal+ missions listed on recruitment boards are provided by the police.

When Xiangzi and Xiangcheng went to the archives to look through the files, they learned that so many murders happened in Reed Plains every day, and many of them were so horrifying and disgusting.

"Society is not peaceful," Xiangzi sighed.

"It's all the witch's fault." Kasumi sighed, giving a look that said "=.=".

Xiangzi lowered his head and continued looking at the files, somewhat dismissive.

Not all of these heinous incidents were the work of a witch. The murders that had nothing to do with witches proved that the human heart can sometimes be more terrifying than a witch.

However, those were not within the scope of the assembly's jurisdiction, nor were they Xiangzi's business.

She continued flipping through the files.

Hard-class witches appear relatively frequently, and the number of them in the Gathering's archives has accumulated to three digits over the years. However, once you reach the Dangous class, the number drops sharply to single digits.

There have only been eight Dangous-level witches since the gathering was established. All eight of them—that is, all the Dangous-level witches—were magical girls who were transformed from the post-Witch Night era, that is, people from the time of Hailin and Mari. It has been a while since we have encountered them.

All eight Dangous incidents triggered significant natural disasters, causing immense damage to the reed beds.

Xiangzi carefully reviewed all eight high-risk incidents and found that at least two of the eight witches met the criteria of the Flower Witch. However, by the time they discovered them, the Flower Witch had already completed her ascension, just like Mio. These two strangely shaped Seeds of Lamentation were still kept in the deepest safe in CiRCLE.

No wonder... Yukina was so certain that she was a witch back then; it turns out they had seen witches with self-awareness.

There are far more flower witches than I imagined, and they're not necessarily more powerful than ordinary witches. Is the incubator's supercomputer really that unreliable?

Xiangzi subconsciously touched the ring containing the Soul Gem, and thought to himself.

She closed the latest paper file she had taken out and put it back in the filing cabinet.

“Let’s go, Kasumi-senpai,” Shoko said.

Where do you want to go next?

"You decide."

"How about we go check on Saya?" Kasumi took out her Soul Gem, waved it around, and said with a smile, "You haven't learned how to adjust Soul Gems yet, have you?"

"Cough cough—" Xiangzi coughed twice suddenly.

The Lost Tale: The Lost Child - Chapter 284 Entering the Dream

"Um... I'll pass."

Xiangzi scratched his face.

She did know that adjusting the Soul Gem was very important, as it was a crucial way for ordinary magical girls to increase their strength.

But she... is not ordinary.

Not useful at all.

The main reason is that it would reveal that her soul gem is different from others, and she doesn't want too many people to know about it.

And I heard that adjusting the gems requires taking off your clothes... cough cough.

"I'm sorry, Kasumi-senpai," she said.

"It's nothing, it doesn't really matter. We've actually seen enough." Kasumi leaned back, watching the passersby on the street as she counted on her fingers, "Venue management, back-end system, adjusting gems—these are the three most important things for an administrator. You can ask Rinrin-nee about venue management."

"Emmmm......"

Xiangzi stroked his chin and thought for a while.

"Is there anything else... Oh, right!"

Snapped!

She snapped her fingers, and an exclamation mark lit up above her head.

"Senior, please teach me about barriers. I've seen magical girls from other places use them in Ryukyu before, and I'm quite curious about them."

"Hmm..." Kasumi nodded, picked up a macaron from the table, put it in her mouth and chewed it, saying indistinctly, "You know that whether it's a magical girl or a witch, the foundation of the barrier is a dream, right?"

"I know." Xiangzi picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip.

“People used to say that the human brain is not fully developed, and of course, that’s generally true when we’re awake.” Kasumi licked her lips. “But when we’re dreaming, the brain is all-powerful.”

"for example."

“For example, when you’re composing and arranging music, you need to consciously build up every detail, every note, every beat, and the coordination between each instrument.” Kasumi used something they all understood as an example. “But sometimes, the music just pops into your head. You’ve had that feeling before, right?”

“Yeah, it’s like it was always there, and I just discovered it,” Xiangzi said.

“That’s inspiration,” Kasumi smiled. “It’s also how dreams work. While creating frantically, it’s also perceiving the world. It’s so natural, as natural as breathing, that we don’t even realize it ourselves.”

"I knew I was breathing the moment you mentioned it." Xiangzi took a breath and was forced to switch to manual transmission.

"...I mean, when we're not paying attention, breathing is our instinct." Kasumi's forehead creased with a few black lines as she continued, "Even in our dreams."

"So what's the connection between this and building a barrier?" Xiangzi picked up his teacup and took another sip.

So delicious.

“We need to seize the inspiration we have while dreaming and master it.” Kasumi raised her hand and made a grasping motion in front of her, as if she were grabbing something. “When you can autonomously construct a dream that is indistinguishable from reality, it’s like you’ve grasped that inspiration.”

"But your barriers, and the witch's... they all seem so surreal."

“Feeling ‘reality’ is the foundation of everything. Only by transcending reality can we build upon it. After all, no one can imagine anything beyond our understanding.” Kasumi pointed to her brain. “That’s the boundary of cognition.”

“But… to create a dream where reality and dreams are indistinguishable, how meticulous would that be?” Xiangzi frowned.

“Actually, we’re very realistic when we’re dreaming, but we only realize something’s wrong after we wake up.” Kasumi gave a mysterious smile, rested her chin on her hand, and leaned closer to Shoko. “How did we end up sitting here?”

How did we end up sitting here?

Isn't it simple?

Xiangzi almost blurted it out.

"We were just chatting in the archives, and then—"

She stopped halfway through her sentence, frozen in place like a wind-up toy.

"Then......"

"Where is this?" Kasumi poked Shoko's cheek and asked with a smile.

"This is......"

Xiangzi suddenly stood up and looked around.

On a sunny day, seagulls flew overhead, cawing loudly, while waves crashed against the beach. Some people were swimming, others playing beach volleyball, and still others building sandcastles. Meanwhile, women in stylish swimsuits enjoyed afternoon tea at an outdoor beach café.

But when did they emerge from the reed plains—

"Are we dreaming?" Xiangzi's eyes widened.

"Hmm~ Actually, we're lying in RiNG's lobby."

Kasumi naturally put her arm around Shoko's shoulder, rubbed her cheek against Shoko's cheek, and took a selfie with her phone.

Click.

"Isn't the beach beautiful? This is my dream place!"

"Ah..." Xiangzi was like a rag doll, letting Kasumi manipulate him.

"Want something more exciting?" Kasumi asked again.

Xiangzi nodded blankly.

"Then—" Kasumi bent down and swept her leg across Shoko's, then pulled her into her arms, "—be careful not to bite your tongue!"

A rumbling sound rose from beneath our feet.

Xiangzi looked down and realized that they were no longer standing on a wooden floor, but on seawater, azure seawater, towering seawater.

Kasumi stood on a surfboard, holding her as they rode on a giant wave tens of meters high.

"Whoa—!"

Kasumi threw Xiangzi into the air with a forceful toss.

"Wow!"

Xiangzi waved his hands and feet helplessly, spinning around in the air like a rag doll.

The waves beneath Kasumi's feet suddenly surged another ten meters, engulfing Shoko in the gaps between the waves. Kasumi, on her skateboard, defied the laws of physics and rode the waves to Shoko's head, waving to her.

"Hi~ Xiao Xiang~"

Xiangzi was in no mood to respond to Kasumi. When she realized she was in someone else's dream, she panicked and even forgot that she was a magical girl.