Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Page 551

She reached out her hand, wanting to grasp the city before her.

This world is dead; I killed it with my own hands.

The crimson world is the result of Nirvana covering it with its own barrier; only magical girls can survive in this crimson environment. Ordinary people will soon be assimilated by the world.

In such an environment, there should be no survivors; normal humans have no ability to prevent the barrier from assimilating them. However, the existence of magical girls allowed some people to survive.

Magic can neutralize the barrier, creating a space large enough for ordinary people to survive, while also restoring the barrier-bound world to some extent. The bento box Chu Hua gave herself yesterday was taken from the convenience store next door using this method.

But even if magical girls can neutralize the effects left by the Nirvana Barrier, so what?

Witches can also survive in such an environment. In fact, due to the influence of the Nirvana Barrier, their actions have become much more unrestrained. They can swagger onto the streets without needing to create a barrier to protect themselves or use it as a trap.

Magical girls not only have to protect ordinary people, but also fight against countless witches. The Reed Plains are no longer a city, but a primeval forest that looks like a city.

Perhaps, it's not just the reed plains.

Xiangzi looked up at the moon, which was clearly visible even in daylight.

The moon also turned red and became enormous, occupying a small part of the sky.

Even the moon wasn't spared. Xiangzi felt there was no need to think about what the world had become anymore.

Even if she had already killed Nirvana... no, to be more precise, it was Nirvana who, after satisfying himself, made her kill him.

By killing Nirvana, Xiangzi inherited everything from Nirvana and also learned the deepest despair buried in Nirvana's memories.

Nirvana returns from the future in search of a way to change the past.

But its existence is defined by being killed by its past self, thus starting the next cycle.

Even I am the same.

Their existence is meant to be killed by their next self, then absorbed... and then the same cycle begins again, repeating endlessly until it accumulates.

This is a task assigned to it by a higher being, and also a task assigned to itself by that higher being. Everything they do is simply for... the next version of themselves.

From the very beginning, they were puppets on strings, living to kill themselves and to be killed by themselves.

Nirvana has had enough, but it can't escape.

She'd had enough, and she couldn't escape.

They could only submit to the guy behind the scenes and continue the cycle of despair.

Xiangzi lowered his head and looked at the ground, which was several hundred meters away from his toes.

"This world is absolutely rotten."

So she slowly leaned forward until her balance was lost and she felt weightless. She began to fall to the ground.

So be it.

She shouldn't exist.

The Tale of Reincarnation: Bonds: Is Chapter 736 over?

Xiangzi broke through Nirvana's eyes, crashed into its body, rolled on the ground, and got up after dissipating the force of the fall.

This is the body of Nirvana.

If I'm not mistaken, only she, who is also a Toyokawa Shoko, can enter here—

She saw a vast expanse of white space, and at the end of the space was a very long floor-to-ceiling window from which she could see the reed fields.

If I'm not mistaken, the scene she saw was what Nirvana saw.

However, besides that, there was another figure she was extremely familiar with standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, with his back to her.

She is... Nirvana, her future self.

Xiangzi swallowed hard, took a step forward, and slowly walked towards the direction of Nirvana.

"You've come, the me of the past..."

Nirvana seemed to sense Xiangzi's presence, turned around, and gave Xiangzi a tired smile.

She paused, then changed her words, casually uttering a statement that struck like a bolt from the blue:

"Perhaps it would be more appropriate to call you Number 7776, Toyokawa Shoko."

Xiangzi suddenly stopped in his tracks. A chill ran straight to the top of his head, and his pupils, after shrinking to their smallest size, began to dilate noticeably again.

No. 7776 Toyokawa Shoko?

What is she saying?

Xiangzi stopped in his tracks. The scenery behind him seemed to stretch out and expand, becoming extremely empty.

Nirvana turned around and faced Xiangzi.

She gracefully placed her hand above her chest:

"Only you can enter this space, and only you have the chance to stop me. Therefore, this is the place where we will fight to the death. The past me is also the future me."

She took a step forward, walking towards Toyokawa Shoko, and at the same time, she drew her weapon—the Reinhardt Gunblade, a gunblade she had acquired unexpectedly and which had been with her for a long time.

“You must have been scared, whether by this string of numbers or by this name,” Nirvana said, as he stealthily put a bullet into the magazine.

Xiangzi was clearly overwhelmed by the immense shock, and that was exactly the effect she wanted. Only in this way could she have the opportunity to defy her own fate.

With all the bullets loaded, Nirvana's composure vanished completely, and her expression grew increasingly conflicted and ferocious.

The reflection of Nirvana appeared in Xiangzi's pupils. With the bulging of his eyeballs, the reflection showed a wide distortion similar to a fish eye. As Nirvana got closer to Xiangzi, the face became more and more ferocious under the distortion.

"Number 7776... Why do you call me that?" She opened her mouth and weakly uttered a few words.

“You can call me Toyokawa Shoko, number 7775.” Nirvana distracted Shoko with words while slowly approaching her, observing the distance between them at the same time. “Why don’t you use your brain and think about what this sentence means?”

As soon as he finished speaking, Nirvana was close enough, and with a powerful push off the ground, he charged towards Xiangzi.

It was only then that Xiangzi suddenly came to his senses and realized that he had actually come to kill Nirvana.

She hurriedly raised the gun blade and held it in front of her.

The sound of the gun blade detonating the Seed of Lamentation rang out in mid-air. The accelerated blade struck Xiangzi's weapon, and the violent impact made Xiangzi's arm go numb.

She was forced to take a few steps back, her mind still a complete mess.

Nirvana continued its relentless pursuit, and Xiangzi could only raise his weapon and desperately try to block the slashing blades.

Nirvana completely controlled the rhythm of the battle. Ever since she heard Nirvana address her, she couldn't muster the same momentum she had when she charged in, and instead, she was constantly being suppressed.

Xiangzi had to live in fear when using Reappearance, worried that her Soul Gem wouldn't hold up, but Nirvana didn't need to, since she had already fallen. Therefore, when Nirvana used Reappearance, she didn't need to worry about so many things.

Don't panic, Xiangzi, she's trying to make you waver.

Xiangzi bit his tongue, using the pain to stimulate himself and try to clear his mind.

However, the pitch-black cannon barrel was glaringly displayed before her eyes.

Nirvana reappeared with a cannon, aimed at Xiangzi's face.

"What a joke!"

Get rid of that unnecessary string of numbers!

Xiangzi's eyes were completely filled with the cannon barrel; he could almost see the cannonball flying out of the barrel guided by the rifling.

Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry! Weren't you already prepared?! Now's the time to take it out!

Xiangzi bit his tongue hard, finally managing to clear his mind of Nirvana's words. In the instant before he was about to be hit by a cannonball, he pulled out the weapon he had prepared for this day—

brush!

The shell, which hadn't even left the barrel, vanished without a trace along with the cannon barrel.

Xiangzi was covered in cold sweat, clutching a cracked flower that was emitting a faint glow in his hand.

"You created an isolated area using the power granted to you by the flowers of Doloris?" Nirvana raised an eyebrow in surprise. "I didn't expect that you could do this after isolating the ability to summon familiars."

Xiangzi had always resisted absorbing other flowers, but for this battle, she absorbed the half flower left by Dolores. In addition to isolating the power of Nirvana to summon familiars, as long as she activated this ability at close range, she could create an area where neither of them could use any magic.

She couldn't possibly compete with Nirvana in a rebirth anyway, so why not force everyone into a situation where they can only fight at close range? That way—

"Now we're on the same starting line!"

Xiangzi, carrying his gun blade, sounded the horn of his counterattack.

However, although Nirvana has lost her most prized magic, she is still Toyokawa Shoko. She has experienced everything Shoko went through, and she possesses all the skills Shoko had. If it comes to swordsmanship, she will not lose.

The blades clashed together, producing a crisp clang and sparks flying everywhere.

Xiangzi gritted his teeth and pulled the trigger as the two men were locked in a stalemate.

Bang-!

The flames of the Seed of Lamentation covered the area where they were, and the battle paused briefly as their vision was obscured.

However, the silence was broken in just a second or two as two figures burst out of the smoke from the same direction, their blades clashing once again.

In the pure white space, the sounds of clashing swords echoed frequently, reverberating through the boundless void.

Xiangzi felt she had found her rhythm. She was beginning to adapt to the pressure Nirvana was putting on her. The initiative in the battle had shifted from being firmly held by Nirvana at the beginning to being able to switch between them. She wasn't without the ability to fight back; on the contrary, she was gaining the upper hand more and more often. If this continued... it just didn't seem right.

Xiangzi gradually sensed something was off.

Nirvana wasn't as powerful as she had imagined. After her ability to reappear was sealed, her physical abilities seemed far inferior to her own; in fact, her opponent's strength was gradually declining?

Is it an illusion?

Is she getting weaker, or am I getting stronger?

Or perhaps, both are happening simultaneously?

why is that?

Is it really true, as the Bremen Symphony Orchestra said, that Nirvana is already at its last gasp?

Or is it related to how she addresses herself?

Xiangzi frowned, his mind wandering once again.

Nirvana seemed to realize that her advantage was getting smaller and smaller, and began to launch an attack on Xiangzi with some impatience. She seized the opportunity when Xiangzi was distracted, pulled the trigger of the gun, and the swift and fierce blade struck Xiangzi's weapon.

when--!

With a muffled thud like the tolling of church bells, Xiangzi staggered back two steps, barely managing to maintain his balance by plunging the blade of his gun into the ground behind him.

This is a major flaw.

Nirvana continued to stride forward, raising the spearhead above his head.

The vertical slash exposes the greatest opening, yet it is also the most powerful strike. Nirvana only unleashed such a wide-ranging and powerful move because he judged that Xiangzi was unable to mount an effective counterattack at this moment.

However, with the gun blade embedded in the ground behind him, Xiangzi released his grip, reversed his grip on the sword hilt, and pulled the trigger of the gun blade before Nirvana could react.

Boom!

Two gunshots rang out almost simultaneously, as the two gun blades received a powerful boost from one in front and the other behind.

With a muffled thud, the sound of sword hilt striking sword hilt was heard. Before Nirvana's vertical slash came down, Xiangzi used his own sword hilt to strike Nirvana's sword hilt.

The immense recoil caused Nirvana's hands to almost lose all feeling.

This time, it was Xiangzi's turn again. The gun blade twirled in her hand, returning to a proper grip, and pressed Nirvana forward.

While applying pressure, she continued to question him.

"What do you mean by that string of numbers?!"

She couldn't help but care about how Nirvana addressed her; that title, which made her feel like she was just an ornament on a shelf, gave Xiangzi a very, very uncomfortable feeling.

“I just wanted to distract you.” Nirvana curled the corners of his mouth. “While you were dawdling with me, this city was gradually being enchanted by my protective barrier.”

"I won't let that happen!" Xiangzi used more force, forcing Nirvana to take a few steps back.

"Tsk." Nirvana gritted his teeth, clutching his arm that was numb from the shock. "How can someone be so strong... or has my strength decreased... Damn it."

This time, the weakness emanating from deep within her body made Nirvana unable to control the rhythm. Under Xiangzi's pressure, she could only retreat step by step.

In contrast, Xiangzi's movements became increasingly swift and precise, and her eyes grew sharper with time.

She could almost feel that she was about to win.

However, even though they had gained the upper hand, and Nirvana was showing signs of decline, it seemed that this situation was not what the opponent wanted... But why...?