People are in Mygo, and I can write their personalities.

"You think I can't see it?! This isn't a 'choice' at all! You're just using them to torture me! What is this?"

"Nanami Natsuki...you've made me look down on you! Didn't you keep saying you wouldn't force me to make any choices? Didn't you say you valued fairness and justice the most?"

"This is what you call 'equivalent exchange'?!"

Nanami Natsuki paused slightly in her stomping motion, and for the first time, her eyes, which always held a playful smile, clearly reflected Shoko's amber eyes burning with despair.

The only sounds in the living room were Chu Hua's slightly rapid breathing and Xiang Zi's violent heartbeat.

"Oh?"

Nanami Natsuki's voice trailed off, carrying a hint of surprise, but more so, an intrigued curiosity stemming from having her authority challenged. Far from being angry, the corners of her mouth curved into a deeper, almost pleasurable smile.

"Xiao Xiang... she's actually learned to argue back? That's a surprising growth. It seems pressure really can accelerate transformation." She gently brushed Chu Hua's blonde hair with her toe. "Xiao Chu, did you hear that? Xiao Xiang is questioning me. She's really different from before, isn't she?"

"Sister Yue, you cannot be questioned. You are the most perfect..." Chu Hua's voice trembled slightly, but her tone was unusually firm, as if she were reciting an unquestionable creed.

"Perfect?"

As if he had found some leverage, Xiangzi ignored his nausea and leaned forward, getting closer to the two people in front of him, his voice hoarse with excitement.

"Where is it perfect?! Tell me! Taking Mu means you can't take Mom, and taking Mom means you have to abandon Mu! They both belong to themselves! Who gave this scumbag the right to control other people's freedom?!"

"This isn't an exchange, it's plunder! It's using our suffering to satisfy her twisted pleasure! This is completely different from the 'deal' she made with Mu and Chu Hua back then! Where is the 'equivalence'?!"

She practically screamed it out, all the pent-up grievances, anger, and powerlessness against the witch controlling everything before her erupting at that moment.

"Why... Nanami Natsuki... why do you have to pick on me? Why are you bullying me like this? What did I do to upset you? You have absolutely no relation to my family... and what do my friends think of me as having any connection with you!"

"Who told you to meddle! Do you think that just because you did a few good deeds before, you can claim to have some moral bottom line? Can you just go die... You're so annoying, why did you have to do something that I might regret for the rest of my life? Do you think forcing me to betray my friends and my own mother is such a big deal?"

"You're a complete scumbag with no moral compass. I was so wrong about you... Just seeing you makes me sick. Why did you even exist in my life? Did I do something to offend you in my past life?!"

As she continued, feeling incredibly wronged, Toyokawa Shoko even started to cry. Although she tried to keep her head down so that Nanami Natsuki wouldn't see her disheveled expression, she couldn't hide her sobs.

"You promised to help Xiaomu fulfill her wish, and she did indeed pay the price."

"Chu Hua... Chu Hua wanted to get rid of her identity, and she did get what she wanted."

"But what does that mean now? You forced Mom and Harmony onto your gambling table, forcing me to use them as chips! That's outrageous logic! You unilaterally tore up your own 'fair trade' principle! Nanami Natsuki, you're nothing but a cowardly liar who abuses his power! I despise you! I'll despise you for the rest of my life!!!"

A deeper silence fell over the living room.

"Sigh, Xiao Xiang... Can't you just listen to me? Why do you have to attack me, who is so cute and kind, at a time like this?"

"……what?"

"Xiao Xiang, do you know why you've always lived such a miserable life? Do you know why people are slowly starting to distrust you, who should be trusted by everyone, and instead starting to embrace me?"

"...Of course, it's because you have superpowers."

Toyokawa Shoko sobbed twice, then glared at Nanami Natsuki with a fierce look, appearing quite resentful.

"That's one reason. Actually, there's a difference between us in terms of personality."

"Different? You...you're not trying to fool me, I won't believe your nonsense."

"Lie to you?"

Nanami Natsuki grabbed Hatsuka's hand and helped her up from the ground. Then she patted the back of the head of the girl who was slightly taller than her. The obedient Hatsuka immediately understood, turned around and went into the inner room and closed the door.

"Of course I lied to you, and I don't care at all whether lying to you is bad or terrible, because I know that what I did was wrong. I was doing evil, although the evil wasn't that great, just the level of a minor brat... but I know whether what I was doing was right or wrong."

"...What are you trying to say?" Xiao Xiang wiped away her tears, looking quite unconvinced.

What I'm trying to say is that I know what is truly 'right,' but you don't seem to know it.

"You...you're talking nonsense!"

"Isn't that right? You always think you can control everything. You don't believe that others can do better than you, and you think that what you do is a great feat, either sacrificing yourself to save your family or enduring humiliation and hardship, making the band's leader suffer a short pain rather than a long one."

"You've been wrapping all your actions in the abstract concept of 'correctness,' regardless of whether they are actually correct or not."

"..."

"Don't you understand?" Nanami Natsuki smiled, like someone straddling heaven and hell. "You always think you're right, whether it's leaving the Toyokawa family to live with your father, forming Crychic and then disbanding it, or ignoring your friends after that, or passively avoiding the changes in Hatsuka and Mutsuki..."

"In your view, the fault lies not with you, but with those others who make you feel 'betrayed,' or perhaps with your fate, your family, or this distorted world that makes you unable to be human."

"You've never experienced the agony of truly doing something bad. You don't feel the regret of realizing that your values ​​and moral compass are really wrong after they've been clashing in your head. You don't understand that the consequences you caused are your own, and you don't know that your so-called good intentions are actually just a one-person show."

"I...I didn't do that, Lixi! I felt it was my fault about what happened with Lixi, and with Su Shi and the others...I've already decided to make up for those mistakes!"

"is it?"

"You..." Toyokawa Shoko took two steps back, crossing her arms defensively. "Don't look at me like that! What right do you have to call me a bad girl? You're worse than anyone else!"

"Of course I know, but I don't think everything I do is right."

"Me too... Although... although I did change my mind because of you... at least I'm not as bad as you say..."

Is it really?

Toyokawa Shoko felt as if she were backed to the edge of a cliff, as if she had been cornered by Nanami Natsuki.

She admitted that during this time she had indeed been constantly thinking about whether what she was doing was the right thing or the wrong thing because of Nanami Natsuki.

She also admitted that every time she reached a point where she couldn't think any further, she would give herself a sense of legitimacy called "correctness" because, in her mind, if she couldn't convince herself that she was doing the right thing, then she couldn't do anything well.

This sense of correctness not only means that she needs to ensure that what she does is in a way that "helps" everyone, but also that after a long time, everyone will understand her so-called "difficulties." In other words, she can tolerate being "misunderstood" for a while, but she cannot tolerate feeling from the root that what she did was foolish and completely hurting others.

She would always feel that the cause of those tragic consequences was her fate, and even Su Shi felt the same way. After all, after learning about what had happened to her, Su Shi forgave herself without a second thought.

She even... made it seem like the disbanding of the band wasn't Toyokawa Shoko's fault at all.

This renewed sense of correctness imposed upon her once again made Xiangzi unaware of how ridiculous each of her self-proclaimed correct actions actually were. Even when faced with the changes in Chuhua and Hemu, she would think that ignoring them was an absolutely correct choice.

"Xiao Xiang, don't you understand? The reason I let you choose is so that you will become a villain like me."

"Huh? What are you saying?!"

During her introspection, Nanami Natsuki's words pulled her back to reality. Feeling the bewitching gaze that Nanami Natsuki gave her, Toyokawa Shoko felt even more uncomfortable.

“Betrayal, abandonment... these are things that can only be done with a sense of guilt. Only when I put the two people you care about most in front of you and force you to make a choice, like I am now, will you not turn around and run away like that coward Xiao Xiang before.”

"I...I didn't run away...I just went to the bathroom that day..."

As he spoke, Xiangzi's voice grew softer and softer, and his face turned increasingly red.

"What's the use of telling me all this? You should know I know what kind of person you are, Xiaoxiang." Nanami Natsuki waved her hand, as if there was nothing she couldn't foresee since Xiaoxiang stepped through this door. "Going back to the previous topic, only when you can't back down, when you know that making a choice will actually hurt another person, and when you can see that hurt directly, will you realize that what you do is never right."

"Sometimes, no matter what you choose, it's wrong. So when you do something, the most important thing you should do is not to convince yourself that you did the right thing, but to be clear in your mind what kind of result you want to achieve with each action."

"Of course, it's a pity you didn't fall into my trap. You realized that this was a choice I forced you to make, not something you would truly regret for a long time."

"So you still chose to run away, but this time your reasons are very valid, and I really can't refute you."

"..."

Upon hearing Nanami Natsuki's explanation, Shoko's brows furrowed even more.

"Xiao Xiang, how about we talk in a style of conversation that you're more familiar with? For example... would you rather I help you completely resolve Xiao Mu's dissociative identity disorder, or would you rather I resolve this twisted coexistence between you and your mother that shouldn't continue?"

"Huh? Nanami, you mean Mutsumi really has that illness?"

“Yes.” Nanami Natsuki nodded. “Although I was also surprised, it is indeed the truth. Of course… my ability can solve this problem, but the price is… Mutsumi’s other personality may really disappear.”

"This...does this count as murder?"

“Hehe.” Nanami Natsuki chuckled. “It depends on whether you consider someone who doesn’t have their own independent body, only has a past memory, and is forever imprisoned in a cage that doesn’t belong to them, to be a ‘person’.”

"you……"

Toyokawa Shoko realized that Nanami Natsuki was hinting at her mother.

In fact, Xiangzi also sensed that her mother had indeed left her forever. It was difficult to convey the grief of losing a loved one to others, and the girl in front of her was the kind of person who only felt resentment towards her biological mother and had no love for her.

Even so, Xiangzi felt that as long as she could recognize that such emotions were painful, that would be enough.

"Of course, since you've put it this way, I certainly won't do anything too outrageous, although I never intended to do anything to them in the first place."

"……What's the meaning?"

"What I mean is, no matter who you choose to help, they won't really do anything to them. I will return your mother to you, and I will also let the Xiao Mu you remember return to the life she should have lived."

"However, if you choose the latter, that is, if you decide to truly face the fact that your mother has passed away, then I will do my best to help you change your unhealthy dependence on your mother."

"You actually said I'm morbid..."

So, what's your choice?

"...May I ask what kind of price I need to pay?"

"The price? Pfft pfft pfft..." Nanami Natsuki suddenly covered her mouth and burst into laughter. "You'll find out what the price is soon after you make your choice."

"What?"

Toyokawa Shoko looked bewildered, but her emotions had indeed stabilized considerably.

But at the same time, a strange thought arose in her mind: she seemed to have really missed a rare "opportunity to do evil".

Although she quickly changed her mind and felt that such a thought was too absurd, she did not need to be forced to do such a thing as betraying and abandoning others. That was a kind of artificial predicament deliberately set up by Nanami Natsuki using her tyranny.

But the problem is... weren't the difficulties she encountered before man-made?

Or rather... is the person who created those predicaments, ignored them, and ran away really not the same person—that is, Toyokawa Shoko?

Suddenly, Toyokawa Shoko asked a question completely unrelated to the previous topic:

"Natsuki... um, how do you feel after you do something bad?"

"I'm very excited and satisfied."

"...Huh?"

Shouldn't you feel ashamed and remorseful? So, after all that righteous talk you just gave, you're just a bad kid at heart who needs to be punished!

"Because I always manage to achieve my goals, I don't care at all whether what I do is right or wrong; I only care whether the result is achieved."

"You...you really have no shame at all."

"Humph."

"...I've made up my mind." Toyokawa Shoko didn't hesitate at all, because for her, there were no other options. "I want you to help me cure Mutsumi's dissociative identity disorder..."

“Although I know I’m a terrible friend for not realizing Mutsu had this condition sooner, I feel that Mutsu’s problem is more important to address than the ‘mistakes’ you mentioned that are related to me and my mother.”

"Oh?"