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

"—V—..."

After listening to Chang Rong's advice, Tachibana Sherry remained silent, squinting her eyes and continuing to laugh carefree.

For some reason, Chang Rong felt that the blue-haired man had an option box in his mind at that moment, with the words "Kiss Me" and "Kill Me" written on it.

...It's probably just my imagination.

"Well, I really want to help, but Xiao Nai is still in a feverish state, so I need to take her to rest... Ugh, I thought I could rest after taking care of Xiao An, but Xiao Nai is letting me down again."

Saeki Miria glanced helplessly at Kurobe Nanoha, the 'cool and silent' older sister type character, whose brain was overloaded from receiving so much encouragement and praise.

—This nobody's gotten to this point. I feel like I should consider getting rid of him as my 'accomplice,' hehehe... He might as well become my own... my... baker.

Chang Rong, the instigator, thought this way.

“But I feel really bad about it. It’s the result of everyone messing around together, but Chang Rong is the only one who has to clean up,” Leia said, frowning.

Ryota Hasumi couldn't understand why the other prospective witches all looked so eager and competitive. She just felt that it wasn't right to push all the work onto Chang Rong, and that they really needed to find someone to share the burden.

"How about we edit the video later?"

"If we really need to find someone, isn't there still Yi Linyi Qi Siwu Zhou 4 Jiulang over there, I say?"

Sawatari Coco interrupted Hasumi Ryoya, and the others followed her finger to see Shito Arisa, who had been staring at Noah's painting since the beginning, as if she were in her own world, and was just making terrifying 'guhe guhe...' sounds.

"As expected of Teacher Balloon—what, what are you all doing? Why are you all staring at me? I'll slaughter you all!"

Looking at the soft, squishy, ​​fire-breathing little hedgehog Arisa, all the prospective witches reached an astonishing consensus in that instant:

She's the perfect person everyone can trust, the one who can casually stay in a small room with Chang Rong without causing any strange incidents...!

"?"

Chang Rong and Arisa couldn't figure out what the group was thinking; they just wondered if they were going to have to play overtime soon.

Volume 1: Chapter 59. Even my dad has never hit me!! (6K)

"Tsk... Damn it, why did it turn out like this, you bastard!!"

"Because when you were asked to do this by Nikaido and the others, you gave them a silly, dazed smile and mechanically nodded, saying you agreed and it was no problem, right?"

"I didn't ask you anything! I'll kill you, Kora!"

Arisa, who was entrusted by everyone to help clean the studio, blushed and breathed on Chang Rong, but she still dutifully kept up with her work.

—Although he's not very good at housework, his skills are clumsy, and he's a bit neurotic, he does try to clean seriously.

1; When the group started, Chang Rong was still a little reluctant to touch the two umbrellas of the wisteria. To be honest, when it comes to cleaning, the problem isn't that no one is willing to lend a hand, but that someone might do more harm than good.

However, for some reason, everyone in the group unanimously agreed. Even though Sha herself was drunk and her face was flushed, she vaguely agreed, and Chang Rong could only swallow her protest.

Fortunately, although Arisa Fujito was inexperienced, she was at least genuinely sincere in helping, which changed Chang Rong's opinion of her considerably.

The only thing Chang Rong couldn't understand was that Arisa would often pause halfway through cleaning and then mutter something like, "Being so honest won't work with this guy... but they trust me so much, I have to do a good job, but doing a good job means I can't do it..."

But that was all. Arisa Fujito didn't do anything strange. She just occasionally spaced out, suddenly shook her head, glared at Chang Rong, and then continued sweeping, tidying up papers, and wiping away the butterflies that had half-flew away and crashed with a damp cloth.

After their initial bickering, the two began cleaning diligently in a slightly eerie and quiet atmosphere. Chang Rong was finally able to find time to organize her logical thoughts for the day.

—Seriously…I’ve been so caught up in all sorts of messy things since I woke up from a nightmare that I haven’t even had a chance to check the ‘stock market’.

Chang Rong took a break from her busy schedule and opened the YUKI Romance System, giving a cursory glance at the heart rate of each prospective witch.

The good news is that Zedo Coco's market value, which had originally risen, has fallen back considerably after Zedo Coco's manipulation. It seems that Hakimi won't be loved to death so quickly.

Nanoha Kurobe's stock price also dropped slightly. Finding an accomplice might alleviate some of the pressure of loneliness for her.

The bad news is that 'Natsume Anan,' whom I've only met a few times, seems to have bought the stocks that Zedu Coco sold off, and instead, it has risen by nearly 20 percentage points.

Natsume Anan... To be honest, I've hardly ever had any contact with her.

Chang Rong's only impression of the furry girl was that she was 'silent'. When Natsume An'an had nothing to do, she seemed to stick close to Saeki Miria, asking the older man to show her movies. But when she was 'working,' she would stay with Noah, studying what she called a stage play script.

Although Chang Rong hadn't seen the script written by Natsume Anan, judging from Noah's few words about the original version of the 'Reconciliation Operation' script, Natsume Anan was more suitable than Tachibana Sherry to take over the script for Mother Hen's third season.

All I can think about is explosion! Let's go big! As for the structure and central idea, we'll talk about that later.

Let's just hope Noah isn't influenced by her and turns into some kind of nonsensical guy...

Although I asked the silly AI questions like "Why do I always feel déjà vu?", "What exactly is a witch?", and "What is the true intention behind imprisoning people here?", the system that called itself YUKI gave completely worthless responses, which were nothing more than pure evasion.

Even in CWM, this shedding system would be considered unwanted junk.

However, a sentence that the system had inadvertently mentioned earlier, combined with what Hasumi Ryouya had just said to him, made Chang Rong realize a new problem.

Rie Hasumi said that her murderous intent toward Noah Kinosaki swelled up immediately after she learned of Noah's identity as a "balloon artist," because this well-known "balloon artist" would deprive Rie's "vision" of what should have been hers.

The YUKI system has also stated that its attempt to 'take control' is not very meaningful, because witch transformation does not follow a set schedule step by step, and one's consciousness may be instantly overwhelmed by murderous intent, just like Hasumi Ryoa.

in other words--

'Stress', 'mood', and 'interpersonal relationships' do indeed affect the girls' progress in becoming witches, but beyond these variables, there seems to be a 'taboo'.

It's like the "Return to the starting point" move in a board game, like "Oh crap, the reels are all messed up!", like "Nuclear power, easy peasy!", like "The streets are so quiet!"

Touching it will cause irreversible consequences.

For Ryota Hasumi, her taboo is having her gaze stolen by others.

However, Lady Rhea Hasumi suppressed this murderous intent with her willpower, and fortunately, it did not cause irreversible consequences. She truly lives up to her reputation as the cool Rhea-sama.

In fact, Marge had already revealed her taboo once. The ABB ice skating made Marge feel the warmth of being loved, but this warmth was precisely her Achilles' heel that could not be touched.

So, without any guidance or help from others, Baosheng Mag killed Bing Shang Dieci out of love. This was her taboo.

Since there are already two examples, it must not be a special case. These prospective witches should all have their own "taboos" that cannot be touched.

Hiro's taboo... He was wearing a suit and eating potato chips in bed, which caused a lot of crumbs to fall. So he tore off his notebook to wipe it, but the ink was still stuck to the bedding. So in a fit of anger, he skipped school and went to a bar.

Emma's taboo... chocolate?

Lady Tono's Forbidden Passion...Kasuga Kage?

Ze Du Ke Ke's taboo... data cable?

Sherry Tachibana's taboo... oh, there's a trace to it, it's related to her contradictory psychology of believing herself to be 'inhuman'.

Damn, there's no way you could guess that!

However, since we've mentioned taboos—

"Wisteria, I have a question for you."

"If you ask me again whether Whitebeard can beat XXX, I will absolutely, absolutely tear your mouth apart...!"

"No, no, no, that's not the question! What I wanted to ask was, do you think there's anything strange about Noah's paintings, or rather, the way she paints?"

I have a feeling that Arisa Fujito really wanted to beat me up just now, so I should try to avoid being a troublemaker in the future...

"Huh? Why are you asking me? How would I know!"

Arisa Fujito responded irritably, but for some reason, there was also a hint of expectation in her words.

"But aren't you a huge fan of 'Balloon Teacher'? Don't glare at me like that, like, 'How did this guy know?!' Are you also the type who has no idea about the ugly things you do when you're a fan?!"

"Tsk...!"

Not only did it criticize itself, but it also anticipated its own complaints and even preemptively criticized them in return. Arisa Fujito realized once again that she couldn't possibly win against this rabbit in the verbal battle. If she really wanted to win, she had to get rid of the verbal sparring and just fight it head-on.

"Balloon Teacher's paintings? I don't see anything wrong with them... no, I wouldn't say there's anything wrong with them? Balloon Teacher's paintings do seem to lack... a bit of expressiveness?"

Although Arisa Wisteria verbally expressed her annoyance at Chang Rong's questions, her mind was actually busy analyzing and pondering them.

"The desire to express oneself?"

"Tsk, I can't really explain it clearly! But isn't that what art is all about? You take what you want to tell others, package it up in paintings or words, and throw it all in their faces. If they want to look at it, they can look at it; if they don't, they can leave. I've never seen this feeling in Teacher Balloon's works."

"Hmm..." Chang Rong seemed to be deep in thought. Surprisingly, what Arisa Zifang said was worth considering.

"However, Balloon Teacher is not some kind of person who follows the crowd without having her own opinions! She never accepts any painting invitations, and even at the art exhibition just now, Balloon Teacher did not respond to anyone's requests for her to paint, did she! Ah, this unconventional feeling, as expected of Balloon Teacher...!"

—This guy has fallen into that completely clueless, green-eyed phase again.

Miss Jiaxin is already immersed in the underwater world of Atlantis, so it seems she won't need it for a while.

Regardless of whether he 'never responds to other people's requests,' Noah did create paintings that reflected his own desire for expression.

But those 'paintings'...

Chang Rong thought of Noah's painting "Hiro Chang Rong Noah Goes to the Beach", Noah's "Monster Detective Agency Promotional Poster", and the "Sewing Machine Duo" painting she drew when she was almost sent back to her original world by Sherry's punch and became depressed.

These paintings—

It's very abstract, and it has no 'expiration date'; those lines of paint will almost quickly twist into an even more abstract blob of color.

Noah is so cute, she couldn't possibly have deliberately drawn something abstract to annoy herself. On the contrary, it's the opposite. Noah is so cute, the drawing she made for herself must have taken her 114514% effort!

But this is strange; a serious drawing is less effective than a casual slap? And the artist 'never draws for others,' lacking 'expressive desire' in their artwork…

If you put these clues together, it sounds like Noah has been... possessed by a spirit?

He can only draw what the spirit wants to draw; his own drawings will be distorted by the spirit. He doesn't draw for others because he simply can't draw them. He lacks the desire to express himself because those drawings weren't originally drawn by Noah.

Hmm... I understand!

Noah Kinosaki's magic is actually [Water Element Communication]! She can only act as an intermediary to negotiate with the liquids; as for what those pigment liquids want to become, Noah herself has no right to bestow titles upon them!

If that's the case, then Noah's taboo should be—[wasting water resources]!

That's why Noah said he didn't like taking baths, because bathing itself easily wastes water... It's connected, everything is connected!

The mystery has been solved...!

"No, but Balloon Teacher's most amazing work is still that huge project at the Asakawa River, right? He wasted nearly five tons of water just to wash the floor into a 'canvas'... Ah, so cool, so romantic!"

The mystery remains unsolved...!

—Well, this direction is definitely correct, but there are still quite a few possibilities. Instead of guessing blindly, it's more reliable to take some time to go and gather some more information from Noah.

Chang Rong ended his wandering thoughts, and the studio, under his muscle memory-like cleaning, became clean and tidy again, even more so than before.

"Thank you so much, Wisteria. You've really gone to a lot of trouble today."

"Oh... wait!? What, when did you clean it so thoroughly!?"

—This guy is also a master at immersing himself in his own world.