Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Page 439

She still doesn't understand why they are here.

“No need to guess anymore, this is your dream.” Oblivionis, who had changed into a new outfit at some point, squatted down next to Xiangzi and poked her cheek. “You’re really something, to have a dream like this.”

“What you think about during the day, you dream about at night. It’s normal to have nightmares after seeing such a stimulating scene during the day.” Somniorum patted Xiangzi’s head, his voice as gentle as ever.

"What did I see?" Xiangzi frowned.

She has no recollection of anything outside of her dreams.

“The battlefield,” Oblivionis said softly, “the real battlefield.”

Just then, a rumbling sound came from above.

Xiangzi looked up and saw a military transport plane fly overhead, traversing the dim sky and slowly disappearing into the distance, like a whale soaring overhead. The occasional, dry blasts of cannon fire could be heard, and the air around them was filled with the smell of burnt meat and a faint scent of gunpowder.

So realistic...

This is... the real battlefield?

"What exactly happened... I don't remember." Xiangzi murmured, staring at the mass grave in front of him.

"It's just a simple plane landing and heading towards its destination. What appears in your dream is just what you see in reality, just a little exaggerated," Oblivionis said.

"No way, what did I see to have such a dream?" Xiangzi rubbed his head, feeling a throbbing sensation.

“You’ll remember when you wake up,” Oblivionis shrugged. “At least you’re aware that you’re dreaming.”

"..."

Do you always appear in my dreams?

“No, not exactly,” Somniorum said. “We were originally only able to operate within the deepest part of your heart, the deepest barrier.”

“It is also the deepest dream,” Oblivionis added, “but now it’s different; we can freely enter the shallower dream realm.”

"It's also a shallow barrier," Somniorum chimed in, "and this is all related to your recent changes."

“You have to be careful.” Oblivionis turned his head and looked at Xiangzi with a warning look. “You’re getting closer and closer to your ‘id’.”

“It also means you’re drifting further and further away from us.” Somniorum lowered his eyes. “Xiao Xiang, don’t become someone you don’t want to become.”

Xiangzi felt dizzy.

Dreams are always bizarre and fantastical.

Just as Oblivionis finished speaking, an off-road vehicle drove up from the edge of the wilderness, kicking up a cloud of dust and sand, and came to a stop in front of him.

The driver's side window was rolled down, and Miaomeng poked her head out and waved at Xiangzi.

“You should wake up.” Oblivionis patted her shoulder and pushed Xiangzi toward the SUV. “Remember what we said… even though you might not remember it after you wake up.”

Xiangzi got into the SUV, turned around in the passenger seat, and looked at the two figures and the mass grave, which became increasingly blurry in the dim dream.

The Tale of Reincarnation: The Path of Fall, the Road of No Return: Chapter 574 Hell on Earth

Xiangzi fell asleep in the SUV in his dream, but opened his eyes in the SUV in reality.

"Headache..." Xiangzi said, rubbing his throbbing forehead.

Although he hadn't slept for long, he felt a throbbing headache, like when you accidentally sleep in the afternoon and wake up at dusk. Xiangzi subconsciously let out a soft moan.

"Hey, you finally woke up."

Everywhere was muddy; it had rained in the area two hours earlier. As the SUV's wheels kicked up dust and mud in the muddy road, making a loud engine noise, the voices from the driver's seat clearly reached Xiangzi's ears.

The driver is Miaomeng.

"Where are we?" Xiangzi asked.

Outside the car window, it was a pitch-black night, and nothing could be seen except for the road ahead illuminated by the car headlights.

"On the way from Casablanca to our destination," Miao Meng sighed, feigning to wipe away imaginary tears from the corner of her eye. "I fell in love with you while watching Casablanca~ Even though the song is so romantic~ we never stopped there~"

"Stop singing and focus on driving." Xiangzi covered his ears and curled up in a small ball in the passenger seat. "You sing really well."

"Thank you for the compliment." Miao Meng pursed her lips into a W shape, looking quite pleased.

"Can't you tell I'm being sarcastic?" Xiangzi rolled his eyes at her.

"Whether it's positive or negative actually depends on what the listener thinks. If I feel you're praising me, then you are praising me."

"Haha." Xiangzi laughed twice in a sarcastic tone.

"Don't be like that. I'm quite relieved to see that you don't have much of a reaction, after all, Muko's face is still pale." Miaomeng said slowly, "This journey has not been easy."

"What? I didn't react much... Ah!"

Some unbearable memories surfaced in her mind. The scene they had witnessed not long ago caused Xiangzi to feel a stomach spasm, and she almost vomited up her stomach acid.

She stuck it in her throat, then swallowed it back down.

That feeling was very unpleasant.

"Don't remind me of what just happened," Xiangzi said, his face pale.

“But I reckon there’s more ahead.” Miao Meng slowed down the car. “There’s a village ahead, and there’s no light at all. Either someone is lying in ambush on us, or everyone’s already dead and gone. Which do you think is more likely?”

“How could someone be lying in ambush on us?” Xiangzi said. “Isn’t it possible that they’re already asleep?”

"Come on, it's only eight o'clock. What era are we living in? Still resting at sunset?" Miao Meng stepped on the brakes, and the wheels slowed down completely. The SUV followed the tire tracks left by the previous car and drove into the village covered by night.

His flippant expression turned serious after the vehicle entered the village.

"I advise you to prepare yourself for the possibility of seeing the same thing again," Miao Meng said in a rather subdued voice. "And who knows, something even worse might appear."

As an intelligence agent with expertise in reconnaissance, Miaomeng had already sensed something was amiss.

The off-road vehicle continued deeper into the village, its modified headlights illuminating the devastation ahead as if it were daytime.

Xiangzi saw a girl with her head buried in the rut.

She was like Alice in Wonderland, the tire tracks to her like a rabbit hole. But the back of her head was wide open, blooming with crimson flowers, revealing everything inside her skull.

Less than ten meters away, a little boy of about the same age as her lay sprawled on the road just as the SUV was about to pass. The bullet appeared to have entered the boy's body from behind, traveled around inside, and finally emerged from his abdomen. His intestines were exposed from his open belly, gleaming in the air after being washed by the rain, and under the car headlights, they had a disgustingly smooth texture.

"I shouldn't have gone to see it..." Xiangzi said, covering his mouth and trembling.

When they passed the previous village, the sun hadn't set yet. Xiangzi had already witnessed this once, which is why she had a nightmare.

It was now late at night, and the only light on the road ahead was from the headlights. A gruesome corpse lay before the headlights, and a feeling of nausea rose from my stomach along with the urge to vomit.

She remembered some things she didn't want to remember.

Shoko found it hard to accept what she had done in the church in Kabukicho. That memory remained in her heart like a nightmare. The scene before her brought back the scene of that day, playing in her mind like a holographic movie.

But the scene before them was even worse than what had happened at the church that day.

Miao Meng lightly pressed the accelerator, turned the steering wheel, bypassed the corpse on the ground, and continued walking forward.

As she passed by the little girl whose head had been blown open, she peeked out, took a closer look at the girl's side, and then shrank back in.

"What's wrong?" Xiangzi asked, suppressing his nausea.

“This girl is a magical girl,” Meow Dream said. “A dead magical girl, or a magical girl who turned into a witch.”

"Ah...so you mean there might be a witch in this village?"

"Probably."

Meow Dream continued driving forward.

A pit was dug in the village square, and many corpses, blackened and smoking, were piled together in the pit, just like the one Xiangzi saw in his dream, only much smaller.

The air was thick with the stench of burnt meat, and the acrid smell of burning hair, leather, and cloth. Half-burnt muscles clenched up, and people curled up like fetuses in the womb.

Bones are not as flexible as muscles; some are broken, and you can see that some broken limbs are clearly not bent at the joints. The atrophied and deformed limbs are intertwined, like a spider web of limbs.

Besides, there were many unburnt corpses around, their bodies torn apart as if they had been gnawed by some wild beast, their faces showing extreme terror as they died.

"Get out of the car." Miaomeng pulled the handbrake and turned off the engine. "It's nearby."

Xiangzi jumped off the bus, then went around to the back and opened the back door.

"Mu, is it okay?" she asked in a low voice.

Mu nodded, her face pale.

She felt she could do it, but Xiangzi clearly didn't.

Such a horrific massacre would be unbearable even for seasoned soldiers. The hellish scene had a profound psychological impact on Mu, clearly affecting her mental state.

"Take care of yourself on the bus." Xiangzi patted Mu's hair. "Can you do that?"

"I can too..."

"protect yourself."

Xiangzi repeated what he had just said without leaving any room for doubt, and then closed the door.

The Tale of Reincarnation: The Path of Fall, the Road of No Return: Chapter 575 Live for Today

Xiangzi closed the door and turned to look at Miaomeng.

"Can we find it?"

“No,” Miaomeng said. “Should we take the initiative?”

“It’s better than waiting here.” Xiangzi nodded and drew his gun blade.

"Where's Mutsuko? She seems to be reacting very strongly."

“She’s had strong reactions before, you just didn’t notice,” Xiangzi said.

In the past, Mu would show discomfort when he saw "big scenes," but he always hid it very well.

"Are you sure it's okay?"

"She can protect herself."

"Okay, it shouldn't be a big deal anyway." Miao Meng shrugged and took the lead into the darkness.

The two searched through the dark village, which was filled with the smell of blood and burnt food. They pushed open several doors and went into the rooms.

Just as he had imagined, each room was filled with messy signs of struggle and bloodstains. Xiangzi even accidentally kicked a foul-smelling eyeball.

"What kind of wishes can a magical girl born in a place like this make?" Yi Miaomeng lowered her head and picked up a bit of spilled wheat flour from the ground.

It had just rained, and the weather was damp, so the wheat flour had clumped together.

"To live." Xiangzi answered without hesitation. "There is no more valuable wish than this."

"Isn't that the same as those older generations from the Witch's Night era?" Meow Dream sighed.

“Perhaps even more…without choice than them.” Xiangzi said in a low voice, his eyes half-lowered. “To protect themselves, or to protect the people around them, that’s all they could do.”

"That's right, magical girls in war-torn regions are mostly like that."

Delete, as always, preferred to appear only when Xiangzi needed it.

“Compared to peaceful places, there are more children facing despair in war zones, and they are more prone to despair.” Delete emerged from the shadows and swept away the eyes blocking his view with his tail. “But there aren’t many magical girls produced in Africa. Their monotonous lives (just to survive) make it difficult for them to generate enough delicious ‘despair’ and to give birth to powerful cause and effect.”

"The large number of powerful magical girls produced during Japan's Witch Night era were based on the fact that they had experienced disasters while also being members of a developed country with rich spiritual lives. They did not have that; they had to fight with all their might just to survive. Therefore, both their wishes and their final appearance as witches were very monotonous."

“Struggles and death happen every day on this smoke-filled land, and every day new magical girls and new witches are born.”

"You seem to know quite a lot about this." Xiangzi glanced at it without any emotion. "Looks like you've done this kind of thing quite a few times."

“Before I left Gestalt, we weren’t much different from me,” Delete said calmly. “Besides, I don’t need to feel guilty about this. After all, it’s a mutually agreeable transaction. We help them fulfill their wishes, turning their deaths from today into tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or even further into the future. It’s a very worthwhile transaction.”

"I knew I couldn't expect you to suddenly become a better person," Xiangzi scoffed.

“I’m serious,” Delete said. “Don’t assume that everyone is as privileged as you to make wishes about the troubles of adolescence.”

"Why are you suddenly attacking me?" Meow Dream rolled her eyes. "Seriously, who knew this stupid wish would actually come true?"

“The same goes for the girls living on the battlefield. They didn’t expect their wishes to come true, but we gave them the opportunity to realize their wishes and the opportunity to take control of their own future.” Delete grinned. “Do you know how many magical girl mercenaries there are in the Third World? Their existence has long been an open secret.”

"Although the vast majority don't live more than a month or even a week?" Miao Meng directly tore open the unspoken half of Delete's sentence.

"Of course, there are many magical girls, so there will naturally be many witches and familiars. Moreover, witches in these places are more ruthless when they kill people, and they are more likely to become stronger after absorbing negative emotions."

"How does it compare to the Reed Plain?"

"The lower limit is much higher, but the upper limit should not be as high as that of the Reed Plain."