Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Page 59

“It’s nothing…” Xiangzi turned his head away. “I suspect the Protagonists were also involved in this.”

“They know about the practice of keeping witches in captivity, but they couldn’t possibly know about the targeted training of witches.” Hailing spread her hands. “The magical girls from the time of the Great Earthquake, the group that was me and Mary, are completely disconnected from the magical girls who now control Reed Plains. There’s absolutely no communication between them. They couldn’t possibly know.”

"So there are other survivors like you and Mary. Is it possible that Mary is one of them?" Xiangzi asked.

"impossible."

Hailing almost immediately dismissed Xiangzi's guess.

“I’ve known Mary for so many years, she’s not that kind of person.”

“I also think that someone who does so many thankless things would be so selfish.” Miao Meng shrugged. “I admit I’m a bit selfish. After all, ‘Every man for himself’ is my motto, but I still respect people who are selfless.”

"I wish they could be selfless towards you, right, Miyako?"

“Absolutely right~ I find we get along quite well, Hai Zi.” Miao Meng pursed her lips into a cat-like shape. “It would be even better if you would call me Miao Meng.”

After finishing the nutritious conversation, Hailing, seeing that it was getting late, said:

"That's all for now. Let's get together again tomorrow at noon, and start looking for the witch hiding behind the scenes in the afternoon."

"Ah."

Xiangzi glanced at the Witch's Kiss in his palm.

"Anyway, I can't get away from this matter now, so it's better to resolve it as soon as possible."

"The reed plain is so vast, where do we even begin?" Chu Hua asked.

"I have some ideas, but let's talk about them tomorrow." Hailing tapped the face of her watch. "Now, let's go back and get some rest."

The Tale of Nirvana: Maintaining One's True Self: Chapter 75 Night Talk

Around 3 PM, Hailing returned to the apartment she had rented in Luweiyuan.

I bought two boxes of milk jelly from the vending machine downstairs, one chocolate flavored and one citrus flavored.

It's called milk jelly, but it actually tastes like pudding, and the flavor is alright.

A box was placed in the neighbor's window.

Hailing turned and sat on the stairs of the apartment building, looking at the street under the night sky.

The road under the streetlights is clean, and occasionally one or two stray cats will pass by. Hailing will take some cat food from inside the house and pour some for them.

There's a cardboard cat house downstairs in the apartment building, which Hailing and her neighbor made together.

After finishing its food, the cat went into its cat bed.

Not long after, the neighbor's door opened.

My neighbor is a night owl and often stays up very late. When she saw a box of her favorite milk pudding on the windowsill, she knew what had happened.

The neighbor found a seat next to Hailing, beckoned to the stray cats below the steps, and a small white kitten with heterochromatic blue and yellow eyes ran out of its den and jumped onto her lap.

"Coming home so late again, Hailing," the neighbor said. "What are you doing?"

“Stay up all night again, Lixi.” Hailing replied with the same sentence structure, “What are you doing? Learning composition, or organizing information on witches?”

“Composing music.” Li Xi hummed the tune he had just written. “How does it feel?”

You seem to be in a good mood.

"Have it."

"This is the first time you've asked me how the composition is going," Hailing said, looking at the road ahead. "The first time since you moved out of your family home."

"I moved out after I went to Hanasaki River, right?" Riki asked, resting her chin on her hand.

"Yeah, nothing you said made any sense back then, neither the band nor our home, so we just moved out."

“Of course! Everyone knows my sister. They say to everyone they meet, ‘Are you Shiina Maki’s sister?’” Riki clicked her tongue. “I don’t want to.”

Lixi patted the cat that was crouching on her lap.

The kitten meowed softly and rubbed its cheek against Lixi's fingers.

"So how did it turn out?"

“It’s fine,” Hailing replied.

“I see.” Li Xi nodded.

The straw made a sucking sound, and the milk jelly box in Hailing's hand was crushed.

Only then did Lixi use a straw to poke open the milk jelly that Hailing had placed on her windowsill, and then she sucked on the straw.

The two sat side by side without exchanging a word, playing with the cat and enjoying the night view.

Hailing is used to this kind of relationship; the distance is just right, not too much or too little.

Speaking of which, when did she and Lixi first meet?

Hailing's thoughts drifted back to the past.

She decided to stay in Reed Plains last fall because she planned to go to school.

She was almost sixteen years old and had never even read a book properly. The world of magical girls was ultimately parasitic on the world of ordinary people, and it was impossible to live completely outside of ordinary society. She had to think about the future.

She thought this way because she hadn't eaten for several days.

She donated most of the money she didn't need to Mary's church, without thinking about saving any. As it turned out, there were no bands hiring temporary members these past few days, and she ended up running out of money.

I'm having really bad luck.

She had only two or three seeds of lamentation left in her hand, and she couldn't bear to take them to the gathering to exchange for money.

Thinking that since the magical girl's body was just an external device, it didn't really matter, and that she could just endure the hunger, Hailin didn't eat anything.

For seven days under the ruins, we didn't even have water, just a few days without food. There was nothing to be afraid of.

But the effects of hunger were much greater than she had imagined.

A few days later, she started to feel unsteady on her feet. In this state, she might not even be able to protect herself, let alone kill the witch.

It's just a soulless, moving corpse, so why can't it exert any strength even when it's hungry?

Hailing sighed helplessly, clutching the seeds, and floated towards CiRCLE.

We really need to exchange the seeds of lamentation for some money.

"Hey, I'm talking to you."

In the CiRCLE meeting hall, a girl with slanted eyes wearing an employee uniform called out to Hailing.

"You look like you've been driven away by a witch, all sorry for you?"

Hai Ling's somewhat disheveled appearance was reflected in her cherry blossom-colored eyes.

She carried a tattered guitar bag—containing her bass guitar, which she used to earn a living—wore a leather jacket reminiscent of a biker gang member, her hair hung down in a mess, and her pale blue eyes showed little spirit.

Did I really look that disheveled?

Hailing only discovered this later.

"I was just hungry," Hailing said casually.

"Oh, then come and sit down."

"doing what?"

"You can just sit there and it'll be fine."

The girl with slanted eyes grabbed Hailing's shoulders, pressed her down in front of the glass table in the CiRCLE meeting hall, then clapped her hands and went into the kitchen.

Hailing rubbed her rumbling belly and waited quietly for a while.

Two or three minutes later, a plate of hot curry rice was placed in front of her, along with a box of chocolate-flavored milk pudding.

"Marina-nee made this for me and asked me to try it. I don't know how to evaluate it myself, so I want to find a few more people to try it."

The girl with cherry blossom-colored, slanted eyes brought over a chair, sat opposite Hailing while hugging the back of the chair, and scratched her face as if to cover up her embarrassment as she explained.

Hai Ling looked up at the girl with slanted eyes who was about her age, and without hesitation, picked up her utensils and started eating voraciously.

The plate was clean in no time. Hailing took a tissue from the table to wipe her mouth, straightened her posture, and looked at the girl sitting opposite her.

"How does it taste?" the girl with slanted eyes asked.

"I would repay a meal's kindness with my life," Hai Ling said earnestly.

“I didn’t ask you to repay a debt of gratitude. Is the curry okay? Is it too sweet or too spicy? I need to give Marina-nee feedback.” The girl with slanted eyes hugged the back of her chair, raised her eyebrows, and said, “You’re quite… funny.”

Am I funny?

Hailing was sucking on the straw from the chocolate milk jelly that the other person had given her.

It tastes pretty good.

"It's like that comedian named Kita-something-take, who's always serious and expressionless, but then suddenly says something unexpected, which is quite interesting."

The girl with slanted eyes seemed to realize that what she had just said was inappropriate, and waved her hand.

"I'm not mocking you, I genuinely find it quite interesting. How should I put it, the idea of ​​'repaying a debt of gratitude for a meal' has a samurai feel to it, it's pretty cool."

Hailing blinked.

Take the other person's evaluation to heart.

"By the way, what's your name?" the girl asked again.

"The sweetness is just right, but the spiciness is a bit too high. Maybe not everyone can accept it, but it's the first time I've had curry like this, and I really like it."

Hailing answered the question posed by the girl with slanted eyes in the sentence before that.

"OK, then I'll mention it to Marina-nee."

The girl with slanted eyes seamlessly returned to the original topic.

"Hachiman Kairin."

Hailing answered the girl with slanted eyes' previous question.

"My name is Shiina Tatsuki."

Lixi seamlessly returned to the previous question.

That's how they became acquainted.

......

My wandering thoughts were brought back by a snarling sound.

The little wildcat was probably annoyed by the two of them, and made a purring sound in its throat that was completely different from when it was comfortable. It crawled all over Lixi and climbed onto the top of Lixi's head.

Hailing poked the stray cat's butt on Lixi's head.

I was met with a "ha!"

Lixi picked up the stray cat, placed it back on her lap, and gently stroked its fur.

After a while, the wild cat's purring sound turned into a deep purr.

The night was quiet. Summer hadn't arrived yet, there were no cicadas chirping, and no one would be on the street at this hour.

The only sound you can hear is the wind.

Sometimes there isn't even a breeze, and the hissing sound from the aging filaments of the streetlights becomes the only source of noise.

Oh, and of course, there's the purring sound a stray cat makes when it's being stroked and feels really good.

I don’t know how long it took.

"Are you doing a late-night live show again?" Li Xi broke the silence. "How many bands are playing today?"

“Notoria, Jasmin & Husky, Yin Li>ng Yi Qi Wu (Nine) Private Jiu Ba Yue = Easy Disruption.” Hai Ling said almost without hesitation.

"Have not heard."

Notoria is a magical girl band that performs at Galaxy, Jasmin & Husky is a jazz band that performs in bars, and Disruption is a metal band that performs in underground livehouses by the sea.

"That means they also defeated the witch."

"Ah."

Hai Ling wasn't lying; she did indeed go to support the three bands mentioned above this afternoon before meeting with Xiangzi, but that's not why she came back so late.