Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

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"I didn't see what you were doing, so where did this new development come from?"

"Bullshit! My brain (in human terms) is operating at full capacity every minute. It contains information from the entire universe over 124 billion years. The sparks of thought that flash through it every second are more numerous than the entire history of humankind combined. How dare you talk to me like that—"

"—There must be progress."

"Yes. Er*yin Shanwu 7 Jiu Liu Shan II."

"explain."

"Put me down first, treat me to good food and drink, and once I'm comfortable—wait, why are you grabbing my ear?"

Xiangzi grabbed Delete's two ears and stood up.

"It's nothing," she said.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" Delete began to struggle.

Xiangzi ignored it, instead grabbing the two long, thin ears, walking to the handrail in the middle of the carriage, and then... threading Delete's ears through the handrail and tying a knot on them.

After finishing, Xiangzi clapped his hands and sat back down.

Delete swayed back and forth in mid-air, its short arms and legs kicking helplessly at the air.

“You you you you you—!”

"I...I...I...I..." Xiangzi crossed his legs, hugged his knees with both hands, and looked at Delete with a smile. "Go ahead and say it, I'm listening."

"You bully people!"

"hehe."

"You're being sarcastic!"

"I learn it from you."

"You, I—!"

"uh-huh?"

"Hey, can you put me down?!"

"No."

"You're so mad! Aren't you afraid I'll get upset and stop talking?!"

"Then you can stay angry for a while, and talk to me again once you've calmed down and are in a better mood." Xiangzi put his legs down, leaned back, and closed his eyes. "I'm not in a hurry."

“…Alright, let’s leave it at that.” Delete’s voice suddenly turned somber. “I’m serious, spending this money is a bit beyond our expectations.”

"you?"

“The entire Incubator race.” Delete stopped swinging back and forth on the rings and settled down. “The witches of this shore gave me a hypothesis, which is related to the source of supercausality.”

"Is it possible that the excess causal quantities that these supercomputers cannot calculate are not because their capabilities are insufficient, but because these excess causal quantities are being sent back from a future where even supercomputers no longer exist, or even a future after the entire universe has disappeared?"

The Tale of Reincarnation: The Shore of Oblivion: Chapter 531 Deep in the Mountains and Forests

When the tram arrived at its final stop, Xiangzi looked down at the tram network map, leading a group of people like a mother hen with her chicks, walking from one side to the other, from the tram station to another platform.

After changing to the next train, I embarked on another journey.

But before that, we had lunch outside.

The journey took a long time, and by then the sun was already high in the sky. By the time we arrived at our destination, it was already afternoon.

After passing through the gaps between the tracks and having a satisfying meal, we followed the map and wandered around before boarding an old, dilapidated tram with only two carriages. Through the carriage windows, we watched the city gradually recede into the distance as the train slowly entered the deep mountains and finally arrived at a desolate wilderness.

The place where I got off the train... was an unmanned station.

Most of the stations on this line are unmanned, so there's nothing surprising about that.

The unmanned station where I got off was surrounded by lush greenery. The platform, covered in moss, was slippery and sticky, and the handrails were covered with dark red rust, indicating that it hadn't been maintained for a long time. The platform was only about three shoulders wide, and there was a small house next to it.

The small building was actually a train station, with a tiny waiting room and a row of benches. Next door was a toilet, and that was it; there was nothing else, and you couldn't see anyone.

It's quite clean, probably because no one has been here for a long time.

Xiangzi glanced down at his phone's location; from where he got off the bus to the location indicated, there were still several kilometers to go.

It's not close at all.

Xiangzi thought.

We continued walking, deeper into the green forest. The asphalt road under our feet looked rather old; since there was a station and a road, it must be a populated area. However, the road surface was very smooth, without any signs of heavy traffic, suggesting that even if vehicles did pass by, the frequency was not high.

Xiangzi looked up again, gazing at the sunlight filtering through the dense trees and the dripping leaves.

Actually, it drizzled for a while earlier, but now the rain has stopped. You can clearly hear the sound of dripping water in the forest, like music, a lovely, gentle patter.

"It feels like stepping into the world of Studio Ghibli." Xiaoyuan looked around and saw a cement wall covered with moss and various plants, and exclaimed, "I thought I could only see places like this in movies."

"I thought there wouldn't be any roads in this deep mountain forest." Sayaka lowered her head and stepped on the asphalt road. "But it turns out there's even such a good asphalt road."

“Before the bursting of the bubble economy, almost every inhabited place that was discovered had roads like these.” Xiangzi turned his head and explained to them, “Back then, everyone had so much money they didn’t know what to do with it, and roads were built just for the sake of building roads.”

"With the roads repaired, these places should become more..." Xiaoyuan pursed her lips, thought for a moment, "...more like a city, right?"

“Once the road is repaired, people won’t stay here anymore.” Xiangzi smiled. “They’ll all go to the city, to places like Kamihama, Ayakahara, and Mitakihara. These are the big cities that the countryside longs for.”

"So these places have just been abandoned..."

"Hmm." Xiangzi nodded. "Thinking about it the other way around... why would Mayi give us this address?"

Continue walking along the road deeper into the forest.

Since the asphalt road kept extending inwards, it meant that there must be a settlement at the end of the road. We continued along the damp road, walking on the path that Xiaoyuan described as "like the world of Studio Ghibli," and slowly walked for about an hour before the forest path finally came to an end.

The sun shone down without any obstruction, illuminating the asphalt road ahead and evaporating the water stains left by the previous drizzle. The air was filled with the steaming smell of asphalt.

Xiangzi covered his head with the back of his hand and walked out of the forest path.

At first, it was a little dazzling, but after her eyes adjusted to the light for a while, she put her hand down—at that moment, a valley surrounded by small hills appeared before her.

The asphalt road continued to extend forward, winding down the hillside of the valley like a tiger's skin scroll, finally ending in front of a large house at the bottom of the valley. Scattered beside the winding asphalt road were a dozen or so cement bungalows. From Xiangzi's angle, he could see several somewhat unnatural-looking figures working and hanging clothes in the small courtyard of the bungalows.

This is a small, secluded village that, despite having connections to the outside world, still lives its own life.

Xiangzi squinted and looked down at the address.

The location tracking ends here, so it seems she didn't come to the wrong place.

But where should we go?

Before the asphalt road bends downwards, look up. There's a faded torii gate on one side of the road, and stone steps lead upwards. At the very top of this small village, there's a dilapidated wooden building.

“There are also temples,” Xiangzi said. “Why don’t we go to the temples first and see if anyone is there?”

And so, Xiangzi led a group of people up the stone steps and back into the shade of the trees.

The steps weren't long, maybe only two or three stories high in total, and that's how you get to the top.

rustle--

rustle--

Before he even reached the top, Xiangzi heard the sound of sweeping. Near the entrance of the shrine, someone was sweeping. She was dressed as a shrine maiden and wore a headscarf. Judging from her back, she was a woman.

She was initially worried that there would be no one at the shrine, but thankfully there wasn't.

Xiangzi walked towards the hunched figure sweeping the floor and asked:

Hello, may I ask...?

Uh.

Xiangzi was stunned for a moment.

What should she ask? What should she ask? PasPale just gave her this address and said nothing else.

"Is that Toyokawa Shoko?" The person who had his back to Shoko straightened up and asked.

Xiangzi raised her eyebrows, feeling a strange familiarity with the voice. It was a voice sweeter than the sweetest sugarcane, sounded quite young, and remarkably like someone she'd seen before…

Then, the figure removed her headscarf, revealing long pink hair, and turned around.

"You—you are!" Xiangzi's eyes widened. "Maruyama Aya?!"

Is it really her?!

"I've been waiting for you for a long time." Maruyama Aya leaned on her broom, hands on her hips, and looked at them with a smile. "Welcome."

No, wait.

Xiangzi immediately realized what was going on.

At this point, she had only just invaded the art museum, hadn't even received Mami Tomoe's invitation, and had no idea that she was about to steal the flower held by PasPale... So why did Aya Maruyama recognize her?

The Tale of Reincarnation: The Shore of Oblivion: Chapter 532 The Mysterious Box

"Do you know me?" Xiangzi asked.

If this Maruyama Aya in front of me knows me... could she be someone who came back from the future? From the future after we met?

But Maruyama Aya shook her head.

“No, this is our first meeting... a formal one,” Maruyama Aya said. “It seems you know me? Are you from the future? Did you travel back to this time from the other side?”

She looked at Xiangzi, her eyes sparkling.

Xiangzi nodded.

"That's great." Cai put down the broom and grabbed Xiangzi's hand. "I've been waiting for you here."

"Wait for me? Why?" Xiangzi was completely confused.

Cai let go of the broom, picked it up from the ground, put it aside, and then turned and walked towards the shrine.

"Come in and sit down for a while, I'll explain everything to you in detail," she said, turning back as she walked away.

===================

A little while later, in the shrine's reception room, Xiangzi was sitting on the tatami mats, accepting the tea that Aya handed him.

The reception room was open, and outside was the small courtyard behind the shrine, beyond which lay the deep mountains and forests. It had just rained, and many small insects had emerged, making the chirping of cicadas particularly noticeable.

"You don't have to be so reserved," Cai said with a smile.

"It's alright, I've always done it this way." Xiangzi took the tea, holding the cup by the side with one hand and supporting the bottom with the other. "Thank you."

Cai nodded and continued serving tea and water, handing the cups to the others. After a while, she took out a box containing pastries and placed it in the middle of the tea table.

"Has Senior Cai been here for a long time?" Xiangzi asked curiously.

She picked up her teacup, took a sip, and put it back on the table, her entire movement exuding an elegance that seemed to penetrate to the bone.

"No, I only stayed here for a few days, doing some work for the shrine and staying here for a while," Aya said.

"Why are you here?"

"Because someone told me that my injuries could heal here." Cai pulled open her collar, revealing layers of white gauze wrapped around her neck.

Xiangzi remembered that Yachiyo had said that Maruyama Aya was seriously injured in the battle at the former site of the Kamahama Magical Alliance, and that the injury was caused by the other side.

"Who told you that?"

“Shh…” Cai raised her index finger. “Sometimes, ignorance is a weapon.”

“…I understand.” Xiangzi rubbed his forehead.

“As a price for healing my wounds, I’m waiting for you here at that person’s request, Xiangzi,” Cai said. “Then, I’ll tell you what you most want to know right now.”

"Could you tell me in detail what happened, from beginning to end?" Xiangzi said.

“Of course, that’s exactly what I was going to talk about.” Cai glanced around at the crowd who were sitting upright, looking like they were listening to a story, and her gaze finally settled on a certain spot, lingering for a moment.

After a moment, she seemed to receive a response from the other person's eyes, and began to speak.

To explain from beginning to end, we need to start with why PasPale stayed in Kamihama.

Like RAS, the band Pastel*palettes frequently tours and often does good deeds in the places they visit, helping local magical girls and resolving some difficult witches.

Originally, Kamihama was a big city with many powerful magical girls. After PasPale's performance there, she felt that she couldn't be of much help, so she decided to go back to Ashihara after chatting with the local magical girls.

However—it's better to arrive at the right time than to arrive early; they entered Kamihama just as the Ode to Praise was being born.