Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Page 28

Her family were fishermen who made a living by fishing, which is a common occurrence for many ordinary families in the Ryukyu Islands.

But I don't know when it started, fishing no longer makes money, and even staying at home has become a problem.

Dad said it was because of the major earthquake that year, which was a natural disaster.

My mother said it was a problem left over from history, a man-made disaster.

They had a fight, but finally reached an agreement to send Chu Hua to a big city.

Chu Hua didn't understand. She didn't know what the earthquake ten years ago had to do with her life now. All she knew was that she was about to leave her hometown.

Chu Hua was thirteen years old at that time, and she was still a child who loved to sing.

Chu Hua's first place was Kamihama, where she spent her junior high school years.

This world is so big.

When Chu Hua first arrived in the big city, she was filled with curiosity about every corner. In her first year there, she visited more places than many of her local classmates had ever been in their entire lives.

Even though the location has changed, she has not forgotten her dream of becoming a professional singer. She continues to practice singing and earns some pocket money by playing and singing in bars in her spare time, hoping to become a professional singer one day.

Back then, she was full of energy and felt that everything was slowly getting better. There is an English phrase called "In Bloom," which means a flower in full bloom. It also has another meaning: "in the prime of life." Chu Hua felt that the world was a blooming flower, and she was that young girl in the prime of life.

The world is not what I imagined.

When Chu Hua had this idea, she was going through the most important turning point in her life.

She accidentally entered a witch's barrier and almost died.

In order to survive, she became a magical girl.

Kamahama is a big city with a large number of magical girls and powerful witches. In order to have someone to look after her, she teams up with Junda Mana, who is also a magical girl.

During her time as a magical girl, she and Mana defeated one witch after another, and witnessed one girl after another, just like them, die in battle.

Magical girls and witches are both prey and hunter.

Chu Hua gradually realized that the world was not what she had imagined. The world was not a blooming flower, but she still did not know what the world was.

Back in the real world, Junda Mana becomes her magical girl partner, as well as her partner for singing and playing guitar at the bar.

She and Mana have slightly different aesthetic tastes, but it doesn't affect their tacit understanding, not only in fighting but also in music. The bars they go to are always packed, and the two have made a small name for themselves in Kamahama.

Just when Hatsuka thought her life would settle down in Kamahama and continue to grow slowly, a business card was handed to her and Mana.

"I am Toyokawa, a shareholder of Honeycomb. Our company is located in Reed Plain. Would you like to consider developing here?"

Toyokawa, the big star who once visited his hometown.

He was also Xiangzi's father.

Familiar names and faces acted like a lit fuse, illuminating Chu Hua's memories.

Xiangzi......

Summer, cicadas chirping, starry sky, rhinoceros beetles we caught together, greensleeves we sang together, and the lawn we lay on together.

"Are you... Toyokawa Shoko's father?" Chu Hua asked instinctively.

"You know Xiangzi?"

"I know him... oh no..."

"Ah, that explains why you look so familiar. Mr. Misumi from Ryukyu is your father, right? We used to go there for vacations a long time ago, and we were so grateful for Mr. Misumi's help. I remember you and Xiangzi were very close. She was studying in Reed Plain. Would you like to consider it?"

To become a debut artist and step onto the professional stage.

Chu Hua's long-cherished dream was within reach for the first time, and more importantly, Xiangzi was in the reed plains.

Chu Hua accepted Xiangzi's father's invitation.

Mana agreed even faster.

"We're going to be stars? Chu Huahua! We're going to be stars!"

Mana is a very ambitious girl. She is capable, energetic, optimistic, and positive, which complements Hatsuka, who is not very sociable.

She told Chu Hua that her biggest dream was to become a big star, and for that reason she asked Qiu Bi for a good voice.

Chu Hua asked her why she didn't just wish to become a big star when she made her wish.

Mana said she wanted to enjoy the feeling of getting everything through her own efforts.

This is similar to Chu Hua; otherwise, they wouldn't be partners.

So, Chu Hua's next stop was the reed plain.

She told Xiangzi about it immediately, even faster than she told her parents.

[Toyokawa Shoko]: Congratulations.

[Toyokawa Shoko]: You've become the professional singer you dreamed of as a child. Someone as positive and motivated as you will definitely succeed.

[Triangle Chuhua]: Thank you. Your words have given me motivation.

This message is from over a year ago, and Chu Hua checks it whenever she has free time.

They met again later, but the scene was not the heartwarming reunion that Chu Hua had imagined. Instead, it was quite awkward, and neither of them could find anything to talk about.

After all, they have always lived in different worlds.

Although Chu Hua and Xiang Zi had run out of things to talk about, Chu Hua was still very happy.

Because she was closer to Xiangzi.

With this thought in mind, Chu Hua lay down on the bed and quietly waited for the next day to arrive.

As time went by, Hatsuka and Mana's Sumimi duo made a name for themselves in livehouses, eventually debuting successfully as planned, holding their own live performances, releasing new singles, and enjoying a thriving career.

On the other hand, the witches of Ashihara are very strong, comparable to those of Kamahama, but there are more of them, making them more dangerous. She and Mana are still a magical girl duo.

During their time at the Livehouse, they gradually integrated into the magical girl community of Reed Plains, joined the [Reed Plains Magical Girl Gathering], and began to make a name for themselves in the Otherworld.

Chu Hua felt a sense of unreality about the success of the two worlds.

When she first arrived in Reed Plain, she and Mana lived in a low-rent apartment. After a few days, they moved to a better apartment. Now, she and Mana each rent a high-end apartment of over 100 square meters and live a luxurious life that many people envy.

It went too smoothly; she reached this position with almost no setbacks.

Life in the Reed Plains seemed to be shrouded in a thin film, with singing and dancing everywhere, yet revealing a sense of unease that made Chu Hua uncomfortable.

Chu Hua didn't know where these feelings of unease came from.

She opened her mouth as if to ask Cupid.

But when Chu Hua saw those lifeless, ruby-like eyes, she shut up.

The Tale of Nirvana: Keeping to Your True Self: Chapter 35 The Monkey Goes to Heaven

Chu Hua never considered live performances as a show. To her, standing on stage and singing songs she didn't like was work, torture.

It was mentioned before that Hatsuka and Mana had different aesthetic tastes.

Mana likes sweet songs, just like herself, sweet songs that taste like orange soda.

Sumimi's fans also love it.

Chu Hua wasn't disliked; she just didn't know what she was singing.

She clearly has the ability to sing and compose, but she can only sing the songs that the studio assigns to her and Mana.

During the live performance, Hatsuka and Mana sang Mana's favorite sweet songs. Hatsuka watched as the vibrant young men and women waved their glow sticks and arms, swaying to the music.

They sang along and swayed along.

A war has broken out in a distant country, and refugees are selling their children for food.

The weather has changed, which may affect the mood of citizens;

Spring has come again, to the prosperous land.

Those teenagers like songs that everyone says are good. They hum along and sway along, but they don't know what they are singing.

Chu Hua felt that she and they were all somewhat ridiculous.

They look like a group of monkeys.

She was a trained monkey, standing on a platform leading the other monkeys.

Chu Hua's favorite song is "Greensleeves" which she sang with Xiangzi during her childhood summer. Apart from that, she doesn't have any particular favorites.

So she was very confused.

She doesn't like the songs sung at live performances, yet she doesn't know what she actually likes.

Until one day, I passed by a livehouse located underground. It wasn't Galaxy, but a heavy rock livehouse located in some nameless corner of the reed plains. It was so obscure that Chu Hua had forgotten its name.

There, for the first time, Chu Hua felt that she was no longer surrounded by a sticky, suffocating film.

The day after visiting that livehouse, Hatsuka, behind Mana's back, behind her manager's back, behind everyone she knew, started playing underground music, and started appearing alone in underground bars as the lead singer and guitarist.

It's not just underground rock, but also jazz bars and anonymous accounts on YouTube.

Chu Hua found herself.

She wanted to break through the thin membrane that had always enveloped her and see the real world.

Humanity represents the number five.

The devil represents the number six.

God represents the number seven.

To get to heaven, one must pass through the six demons.

Chu Hua saw it as she wished.

In the restroom of a smoky underground bar, she witnessed a magical girl transform into a witch.

The magical girl hiding in the bathroom is so weak that she can't even afford to use the Grief Seed, and so weak that no one wants to team up with her.

The magic power required to maintain bodily functions each day increases the taint level of the Soul Gem by 1%, meaning a magical girl can only live for one hundred days without any hunting activities.

The child hiding in the toilet waited until his 100th day.

That wasn't the first time Chu Hua had witnessed a magical girl transform into a witch. The first time was when she passed by a school on a sunny midday. A vibrant young girl leaped from the top of the school building and, without hesitation, free-falled, crashing squarely into a fire hydrant on the street.

Chu Hua was nearby at that time, giving a roadshow.

She heard a bang, and then a shockwave of magic swept over her. The fire hydrant sprayed liquid into the sky, and the water droplets fell back after losing their potential energy, turning into cold raindrops.

The witch was born in the rain.

That day, Hatsuka and Mana had to work overtime. At that time, she thought he was just an ordinary person who had been bewitched by a witch.

But now that I think about it, Chu Hua seems to have seen the reflection of the Soul Gem in the free-falling figure.

A monkey went to heaven.

They discovered that Heaven is a lie fabricated by Hell.

If you find a broken window, don't panic. If the cabin catches fire, don't despair. Next, fasten your seatbelt, adjust your seat back to a comfortable position, put your oxygen mask over your head, relax, and take deep breaths.

Despair is useless; we're all finished.

This world is awful.

The plane began its dive.

It plunges into the bottomless abyss.

The world in Chu Hua's eyes had changed. There were no more vibrant magical girls. They, including herself, were nothing more than witch eggs, demons.

She sees a witch when she looks at Mana, she sees witches when she looks at other magical girls, and she sees witches when she looks in the mirror.

The taint of the Soul Gem was rapidly increasing every day in response to the deterioration of her emotions, and Chu Hua doubled her usage of the Seed of Lamentation.

Fortunately, she and Mana had plenty of savings and could afford to spend them.

After purifying the Soul Gem with the Seed of Lamentation, Chu Hua opened her phone and held the text message she had been reading for a year.

I really want to find Xiangzi. If it were Xiangzi, he would surely comfort me.

But Chu Hua knew that Xiangzi had become a magical girl, and she was afraid that when she saw Xiangzi, she would also see a witch.

She didn't dare to go to Xiangzi.