Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

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Xiangzi raised an eyebrow and took it seriously.

“What happened in the future?”

“I don’t know.” Delete blinked. “I didn’t see it. By the time I got here, it was all over.”

"It's over? Then why am I still standing here? You were able to come back from the future, doesn't that mean Mami's plan, whether in the future or the past, was never realized?"

"Optimistically speaking, that's true."

"What about the pessimistic side?"

“In the parallel universe and timeline theories, there are other possible outcomes for the world, and you’ve already experienced that once, haven’t you?” Kyubey blinked, looking at Xiangzi. “Maybe we don’t have a future at all.”

"Tsk." Xiangzi gave him a disgusted look. "None of the other Kyubeys are as disgusting as you."

“Because they don’t understand what hope and despair are, but I do.” Delete squatted down beside Xiangzi. “I’m a pessimist. Maybe at the end of time, only you and I will be left.”

For some reason, Delete suddenly felt melancholy.

"What are you saying?" Xiangzi turned his head to the side.

"It's nothing," Delete wagged its tail. "I was just talking nonsense."

It smoothed its fur with its tongue, and although its lips, pursed into a W shape, were not open, it still made human sounds.

“Let’s get back to what you’re interested in, about the Witch of This Shore… I already know who she really is.” Delete turned around and looked at the container behind him. “She’s lying in a hospital bed right now, her wound has just been stitched up.”

"flame?"

You don't seem very surprised.

“Her abilities are related to time, and so is the witch on the other side. I think I’ve guessed something.” Xiangzi sat down next to Delete, patted the empty seat next to her, and gestured for Mu to sit down as well.

Xiangzi rested his chin on his hand, gazing at the waves that "grew" from the beach in front of him.

"I just can't believe she's turned out like this."

“Who knows what will happen in the future?” Delete said with emotion. “That child has even managed to reverse entropy. Our clan’s long-cherished wish is within reach.”

"Really? Does that mean that as long as the Witch of This Shore exists, you can give up producing magical girls?"

“It’s fake,” Delete said. “Impossible.”

"why?"

“The Witch of This Shore’s abilities are something the Kyubey clan has always dreamed of, but—during the analysis, I’ve already discovered its problems.” Delete blinked. “The passage to the other shore, its familiar, when it transforms objects from this shore to the other shore, creates a temporary barrier. This barrier is a small black box that can separate the matter of this shore from that of the other shore, so you can see two of you instead of being completely obliterated.”

"...Are you saying that the witch, as the true form, doesn't have this ability?"

“Creating a black box the size of the universe?” Delete shook his head. “It’s not impossible, but it doesn’t seem enough at the moment. The number of flowers that make it up is not enough, far from enough.”

The Flower of Creation/Destruction: Only when a flower gathers enough of the super-causal energy of many flowers can it possess the level of power described by Delete.

The lamp can transform the world of Fairy Tale Town into a real, independent world by relying on wishes, Delete said. On the one hand, the world has already built a fairly complete foundation, providing some of the super-causal factors needed to create the world. On the other hand... the wishing machine is a black box. Making a wish and the wish coming true are not under Kyubey's control. Even Delete doesn't know why this wish can succeed.

It always felt that there was some other reason that led to the lamp's wish being fulfilled.

But generally speaking, that was about the lights; we're discussing something else now.

"Then why is it that the witch on this side of the river can...?"

“A chain reaction,” Delete said. “The witch on this side can trigger a chain reaction that spreads throughout the entire universe.”

"A nuclear bomb?!" Xiangzi's mouth dropped open.

“Chain reaction isn’t just fission, so why does it immediately bring up nuclear energy—oh, that makes sense, it’s pretty much the same.” Delete blinked. “It’s a nuclear bomb, a cosmic-level nuclear bomb. The witch of this shore is that uranium nucleus.”

Anyway, a detailed explanation wouldn't be understood by a normal person, so let's just assume it's like this.

Nuclear weapons remain the most powerful weapon of this race to this day, so using them as a metaphor is not inappropriate.

"Well....."

Xiangzi frowned.

She wasn't a science student, but after listening to Mami's long-winded explanation and Kyubey's long-winded explanation, she felt like she was about to develop a brain.

"Whatever, we're all going to die together anyway."

"If you understand it this way, then there's no problem."

The Tale of Reincarnation: The Shore of Oblivion: Chapter 516 Listening to a Song

Destroy the world!

What an outdated goal.

Xiangzi sat on the edge of the container, swinging his legs, slowly and peacefully watching the sea.

Delete was sent away to find somewhere cool and play. Seeing that the four little ones from Takihara were still fast asleep, they were on the other side of the past, waiting for time to return to the day they invaded the Kamihama Art Museum.

They would have to stay in the container for quite some time, and there was nothing they could do even if they were anxious, so Xiangzi simply relaxed, sat down with He Mu side by side, and simply looked at the sea.

Layer upon layer of waves receded into the sea, and after listening to the reversed sound of the waves for a while, I began to get used to it.

"Quiet times are so nice," Xiangzi said.

"Hmm." Mu leaned on Xiangzi's shoulder and yawned slightly.

More than eight hours have passed since we entered the other side. Everyone has already taken a nap, but Mu is still stubbornly staying awake.

She looks very sleepy now, and her eyes are glazed over.

"Do you want to go back and get some sleep?" Xiangzi asked softly.

"It's alright..." Mu rubbed her eyes. "I want to sit for a while longer."

The main purpose of Mu was to be able to quietly watch the sea with Xiangzi.

"Then it's up to you." Xiangzi turned his head and looked towards the ocean.

She took out her phone, pulled it out of her pocket.

Because their phones traveled to the other side with them, they can no longer receive signals from this side, so they are currently offline.

However, for the phone, time, like Xiangzi's, continues to move forward. So the system's default time continues to advance, and the seemingly normal time displayed on the phone finally gives Xiangzi a sense that "my time is still moving forward."

She comforted herself with this thought, telling herself that being on the other side didn't mean time was actually flowing backward; it just meant that her time and the world's time had become a relative confluence.

For this phone and for myself, what happened "yesterday" is truly "yesterday."

Unlocking the screen and opening the music player, Xiangzi is someone who has a habit of caching music in case she can't listen to it when there's no internet. Her phone is full of songs by Protagonists from Luweiyuan (mostly Morfonica), various rock music that her father likes, and a lot of classical music. She has arranged them all neatly by genre and author.

The first category is her own preferences, the second is her father's preferences, and the third is her professional needs.

Xiangzi pressed shuffle, and the song came from the phone's speaker, but it was drowned out by the sound of the reversed waves and the wind, making it indistinct.

She pressed pause again, pondering what to do.

Can we recreate a pair of headphones?

It was easy for me in the past, but now...

With a flick of his wrist, Xiangzi took out the shattered Soul Gem and sighed.

Mami's actions have truly brought her back to the days when she was alone, desperately searching for witches to kill in order to survive.

The fear of "dying" at any moment kept haunting me.

Xiangzi closed his eyes.

Since the witch of this shore exists, then the Nirvana that appeared on the 27th, is it... is it also a future self who returned to the present from the other shore?

What exactly caused my future self to become like that?

Xiangzi became increasingly curious, but along with that curiosity came an equal amount of fear.

She didn't want to become like that, someone who didn't care about anything.

Of course not.

Her divergent thoughts caused her pupils to dilate, and a thin layer of fog formed on the goggles of her gas mask as her breathing became increasingly rapid.

Xiangzi suddenly felt something warm touching his palm.

Mu's hand was intertwined with her own, their fingers clasped together.

She stuffed something into her palm, which was now sandwiched between the two of them.

Xiangzi let go and found a tangled ball of wire lying in his palm.

earphone?

"How did you get...?"

"I've always carried it with me, inside the Soul Gem."

“The Soul Gem’s space isn’t a storage room.” Xiangzi smiled helplessly. “…Never mind.”

She straightened the tangled headphone cord. Judging from how messy the cord was, Mu usually didn't take it out much, and it had probably been lying in some corner of the Soul Gem for a long time.

Xiangzi straightened the wires and connected the phone.

She held her phone in one hand and an earphone in the other. After a pause, she gently placed one earphone into Mu's cochlea and then put on her own earphone.

Press play, and a gentle song comes through the headphones.

The first song playing in my headphones was someone I knew very well, Kasumi Toyama. It was a song by Popin'Party, and Xiangzi remembered it was called... "Go Forward!" It must be one of their earlier songs.

A song that celebrates courage.

Close your eyes and listen to Kasumi's unique voice playing through your headphones.

When musical notes come together and are arranged in a special order, they can be combined to create an inspiring melody.

No matter how difficult things are now, even if you can't do anything well, never forget what you've accumulated over time.

Kasumi-senpai and the others must have faced some difficulties when they created this song.

But we made it through in the end, right?

The future awaits them.

"Forward bravely..."

Xiangzi sang the lyrics softly, placed his hand over Mu's hand, and held her small hand, which was smaller than his own.

Muhe had played the piano since childhood, just like herself, but she was not actually suited to the instrument. Her hands were too small, unlike Xiangzi's long and slender hands, which Xiangzi could hold firmly in his palm.

Xiangzi gripped the handle very tightly, so tightly that Mu felt a little pain.

Mu opened his sleepy eyes and looked at Xiangzi through the goggles of his gas mask.

Then she closed her eyes again, leaned on Xiangzi's shoulder, and listened to Popipa's songs together, watching the midday ocean gradually move towards dawn.

Having stayed awake for almost a day, Mu felt her eyelids getting heavier and heavier.

After a while, less than the length of a song, Xiangzi noticed that Mu's breathing had become steady.

He must have fallen asleep.

Xiangzi pressed pause and carefully took off his headphones.

She picked up Mu and went back into the container.

Delete squatted on top of the container, watching Xiangzi pick up Mu like a kitten and carry him back into the container.

They are such good sisters.

Unfortunately, Yoon Mio and Teraya Ryu...

"You should thank me properly for helping you out, Wakaba Mutsumi."

It wagged its tail, jumped off the container, and disappeared.

The Tale of Reincarnation: The Shore of Oblivion: Chapter 517 The Broken Sleeve

Back in the room, Xiangzi placed Mu on the bed, took off the gas mask and hung it back on the wall, then turned around and covered her with the blanket.

What to do next?

Xiangzi's mind went blank for a moment.

She moved a small folding stool to the head of Mu's bed and sat down. Since thinking would take time anyway, and doing something to pass the time would also take time, she might as well stay here with Mu for a while.