Whose youth romance story begins with a witch's trial?!

Regardless, Kurobe Nanoka told the person in front of her what happened in her hallucination: "herself" pinning Chang Rong down on the hospital bed and doing that, and what the scene would require payment to unlock later.

"—"

After listening to Kurobe Nanoha's story, Chang Rong was stunned for a moment.

"Um, Chang Rong...?"

"Ahem, Kurobe-kun, I'm serious about what I'm about to say."

Chang Rong snapped out of his daze, coughed twice to clear his throat, and then looked at Kurobe Nanoha with a serious expression.

"Serious? I... understand."

Kurobe Nanoha Kaori also straightened up, wanting to know what choice Chang Rong would make.

"Listen carefully, Kurobe-kun—" Chang Rong sat facing Kurobe Nanoha, holding both of her shoulders with his hands, his tone extremely earnest.

"No matter how difficult our current situation is, no matter how oppressive this prison is, we cannot give up hope, and we must not immerse ourselves in the world of illusion!!"

“…Eh?” Kurobe Nanoha blinked.

However, Chang Rong ignored Kurobe Nanoha's reaction and continued to earnestly persuade the lost girl.

"What we feel in the present moment is what constitutes our true existence. No matter how beautiful an illusion may be, it is still just an illusion. Besides... a normal person wouldn't have any fantasies on a closed prison island where murders could happen at any moment!"

"So, that wasn't a fantasy...! It was—" Kurobe Nanoha Kaori hurriedly tried to explain, feeling that Chang Rong had mistaken her for a purely repressed pervert...!

"Still insisting it's a hallucination? So, Kurobe-kun, you've already unknowingly done *that* with me?"

"No... I, I haven't... I haven't done that kind of thing..."

Kurobe Nanoha's already flushed cheeks became even hotter under Chang Rong's persistent questioning.

"Indulging in desires is not what a proper avenger should do, Kurobe. Don't you want to find out who's behind this? Don't you still have unfinished business to do? In that case, abandon those ridiculous illusions and face the harsh truth! Think about it, really think about it, Kurobe!"

Chang Rong stood up and stood next to Kurobe Nanoha, pointing to his temples with both hands as he spoke to the black-haired twin-tailed girl.

"I can't be your accomplice, pet owner, comforter maker, purveyor, pillow maker, and bed-relaxation toy all at the same time, right?"

"Ugh...why not?"

"Ah?"

The temperature of the black-clad B-section Nai-ye-yu-ka-ko-yomi reached its peak. Her originally hesitant and stammering tone due to shyness instantly became incredibly fluent, and the words that came out of her mouth seemed to carry a certain gravity.

“It seems Chang Rong will never believe it no matter what… It’s okay, maybe I was never considered trustworthy by everyone.”

—You're still the legendary drummer of Galactic Battleship, Kurobe-kun!?

"Since explanations are pointless, let's settle this with the force I'm best at... It won't hurt much, Chang Rong, just a little bit, and everything will be over when you wake up..."

"Huh!? The end? What's ending??"

Nanoha Kurobe slowly got up from the sofa. She gradually pulled out a rope from her waist and wrapped it around her hands. Judging from its length, it didn't look like it was for strangling, but rather for binding up a pig.

"Don't resist, Chang Rong, you might get hurt—"

Looking at Kurobe Nanoha, who seemed ready to deliver two light punches followed by a thousand blows at any moment, Chang Rong suddenly realized that he had been deceived by this girl who always messed up, put on a weak and embarrassing act, and claimed to be a lone wolf but would drop her little pearls if she was disliked.

You have to understand that when the two of them first and second met... Kurobe Nanoha Kaori was a ruthless character who would come up without saying a word and pull out a thick, black, stick-like object (a magic spear) and smear it directly in her face!

"Wait, wait a minute! I understand now, it really is a hallucination, I believe it, I believe everything, Kurobe-kun!!!"

"...You believed it?"

"That's right, those images were hallucinations, there's no doubt they happened!"

"...Well, I'd be so glad you believe me."

Kurobe Nanoha breathed a sigh of relief, while Chang Rong breathed seven or eight sighs of relief.

"After all... I'm not really confident that I can tie you up and transport you to the secret warehouse without alerting anyone else."

Kurobe Nanoka smiled somewhat embarrassedly, and Chang Rong could only force a smile along, his face covered in cold sweat.

I have this feeling that if I don't find a way to leave this prison island, I might just disappear physically one day while walking down the corridor.

After believing Kurobe Nanoka's testimony that "this is illusion," Kurobe Nanoka finally had the opportunity to explain to Chang Rong in detail the specific workings of her magic, "Illusion."

Contrary to what Chang Rong initially thought, it turns out that Kurobe Nanoha's illusion magic wasn't just limited to seeing "things that have already happened on objects," she could even see "things that will happen on objects in the future."

"So, that means... someday in the future, Kurobe-kun, you'll... uh, um, in the infirmary...?"

Upon hearing Emu's explanation, Chang Rong instantly looked at Hei Erbu with a conflicted expression, her face showing a mixture of emotions, and asked cautiously.

After all this time, it turns out this wasn't just xyy's jungler's fantasy, but rather a prelude to Kurobe Nanoha's mango crime!?

While everyone else is busy figuring out how to escape, you're busy tricking your buddies into lying on the bed and showing their butts. That's so dishonest!

"No... I probably won't. I... I probably don't have that kind of courage..." Kurobe Nanoha said pitifully, her head drooping down, looking somewhat dejected.

She had initially thought she could become a bloodless, tearless machine of revenge, but after arriving on this prison island, Kurobe Nanoha realized that simply 'surviving' alone had already consumed too much energy. If she truly wanted to eliminate all the darkness, cooperation with others was the right option. But... Kurobe Nanoha herself lacked that courage.

She didn't even dare to actively try to drag her only accomplice, the white-haired boy, into the mess. She could only stand still and try to pry open the boy's heart with those non-rejecting methods, but each time she ended up being fooled by him in various ways... Over time, Kurobe Nanoha Kaori herself began to completely lose confidence in her social skills.

"Don't give up, Kurobe! No one is born brave. Everyone has overcome their past weaknesses to get to where they are! Since you said you want to become a lone wolf who can stand on his own, then don't easily show your weakness in front of others!"

Chang Rong couldn't bear to see Kurobe Nanoha so depressed, so he immediately rushed over and held Kurobe Nanoha's hands, saying...

"...Yes, you're right, Chang Rong."

Nanoha Kurobe blinked, then nodded to Chang Rong.

—Seriously, don't always make me the counselor... Speaking of which, did I just essentially advise Kurobe Nanoha to start throwing herself into bed more often...?

Chang Rong looked at Kurobe Nanoha, whose despondent spirit had been crushed by her own actions, and first showed a helpless yet satisfied smile. Then the smile turned into a belated chill.

Qi Shanlin grabbed the flag (Shan Si) "By the way, Kurobe-kun, what I just said wasn't about you—"

"Don't worry, Chang Rong, next time I'll try my best... I'll try my best to leave you no chance to react...!"

—Which direction are you trying to go, you idiot?!

It seems that Super Agent Kurobe Nanoha is really determined to use Super Tracking, Super Slap, and Super Kidnapping on herself now ^q^...

"In short... if that hallucination was from the 'past,' it might be easier to explain—I know what you're trying to say, Chang Rong. The 'past' I'm referring to isn't the past of this year, but... the past that was much longer ago."

Kurobe Nanoka suppressed her urge to pack up and send Chang Rong away, and slowly began to express her guesses and deductions about that 'hallucination' scene.

"The even more distant past? Ah, you mean the witch's trial when I was frozen in ice!"

At this point, Chang Rong gradually understood the meaning behind Kurobe Nanoha's words. The missing memory he had always had, and even doubted at one point, about 'possessing another's body,' might be related to Kurobe Nanoha's hallucinations.

"However..._...Isn't this Kurobe Nanoha's first time participating in the Demon Queen Trial? How come she appeared in the previous Witch Trial?" But Chang Rong quickly discovered the flaw in Kurobe Nanoha's reasoning.

"Regarding this..."

Kurobe Nanoka sighed softly, took off her cycling helmet and hugged it to her chest. At this moment, Kurobe Nanoka was neither the number one white flour manufacturer on Prison Island, nor the lone wolf king, nor the naive and eccentric older sister, but more like... a 'little sister' who had made a mistake and was afraid and remorseful about it.

Nanoka Kurobe briefly told a story about an older sister and her younger sister.

When she was in school, Nanoha Kurobe wasn't very good at socializing, and she always felt awkward about interacting with others.

Even so, Nanoha Kurobe did not become a lonely and gloomy girl, because she had an 'older sister', a shining and perfect older sister like a magical girl in an anime.

The older sister would take good care of and cherish Kurobe Nanoha. In order to give Kurobe Nanoha the courage to be independent during the time they were apart at school, the older sister smiled and tied one of her hair ribbons to Kurobe Nanoha's hair.

—That way, Nana will always have my encouragement and support by her side!

Like Nanoha Kurobe, her older sister possesses magic, but unlike the inexplicable magic of "Vision," her sister's magic is "Transformation."

Whenever I feel like I can't handle any exams, my older sister transforms into me like a magical girl saving the world, and swiftly annihilates all those dreadful exams.

Whenever I feel bullied or isolated but don't dare to ask, my older sister will handle everything for me in an orderly manner.

Originally, this was just an ordinary daily life between a somewhat timid younger sister and her gentle and reliable older sister—until one day, when Kurobe Nanoha was riding the train home with her sister, Kurobe Nanoha's magic [Vision] suddenly activated.

In the [Vision], Nanoha Kurobe saw herself. She was imprisoned in a cage, she had become a captive 'preparatory witch', her mind was possessed by the so-called 'witch transformation', she killed people, and she... was killed by others.

The images that appeared in the "hallucination" were too real. Even after Kurobe Nanoha went home and huddled under the covers with her eyes tightly closed, the screams of the witches in front of the execution platform in the courtroom would still wake her up trembling and covered in cold sweat.

Nanoha Kurobe takes leave from work and begins investigating matters concerning witches at home. She finally learns that prospective witches will be examined by the government when they turn 15. If they can avoid that examination, they may be able to avoid this terrible future.

Nanoha Kurobe was terrified and eventually told her older sister about it. Her sister didn't say anything, but as always, as if she were giving Nanoha a test, simply told her to use the [Transformation] magic.

And indeed, that was the case. Kurobe Nanoha managed to escape the inspection, but her older sister was taken to Prison Island.

In that instant, Kurobe Nanoha finally realized that what she was seeing in her "hallucination" was not her own future, but the future of her "transformed" into Kurobe Nanoha, her beloved older sister.

------

"Transformation magic, sister... so that headband guard really is yours, Kurobe-kun..."

"My elder sister... yes, yes, she... she is my elder sister who has almost become a wrecked corpse...!"

Kurobe Erna Kagome leaned against Chang Rong's chest; the immense guilt made her unable to stand up during the latter half of her story, and she could only lean on Chang Rong's body as she slowly recounted the original sin of having personally killed her sister.

Chang Rong didn't say anything for the time being, but silently ruffled Kurobe Nanoha's hair, letting this timid and socially awkward girl hug him like a pillow to vent the guilt that had been suppressed in her heart for a long time.

Chang Rong finally let go of Kurobe Nanoha's chest after it stopped heaving violently.

"I'm so sorry, Chang Rong. I lost my composure just now... It's just that the thought that I'm the one who caused my sister to go through such a hellish ordeal makes me..."

"This is the choice your sister made. What you need to do now is not to regret her decision, but to do something next so as not to let her down."

"Um... I... I need to be stronger... So, um—brother-in-law?"

"Pfft cough cough cough cough!!!?"

Kurobe Nanoha looked up at Chang Rong, hesitated for a moment, and then uttered a single word that almost made Chang Rong choke to death on the spot.

Volume 1: Chapter 106. Naoya Kaori Under the Table

"Don't, don't talk nonsense, Kurobe-kun!? Even if you hallucinated that scene, it's not necessarily true that anything strange happened afterward, right? No, no, maybe I was poisoned by snake venom and your sister was trying to suck out the venom for me or something...! Besides, Kurobe, you're older than me now, how could you be my sister!"

Chang Rong quickly stepped back and waved his hands, trying to extricate himself from this abrupt family drama that had inexplicably come to him.

"...You really have no memory, Chang Rong? And my older sister...no, that's not right, back then my older sister was me...that is, you and me, Chang Rong—"

Nanoha Kurobe tilted her head, and as she asked questions, she blushed again.

The relationship between these three is even more intense than that of Ran Dong. It seems that the throne of the pinnacle of intellectual battles on Prison Island will have to be handed over to the Kurobe family's intrigue. Their seniority alone could be discussed for three episodes.

"Stop! I don't actually have any memories of my own witch trial, but I can see all sorts of déjà vu in many places in the prison... If my seniority is confirmed, then it makes sense."