Watching the anime from Madoka Magica and writing the rules

"why?"

"Look, we track witches by the magical traces they leave behind. So, how many of these traces do you think overlap in the wild? The witch's aura is so strong that you can't guarantee that there aren't other witches or familiars around the witch's barrier you found."

"Once you enter a battle and provoke the surrounding witches or familiars, you'll basically be dragged into an endless battle, and most likely die from exhaustion of magic power. So even though there are more witches in the wild, no one is willing to take risks in the wild unless it's an emergency. After all, there will always be more familiars than witches. Unless..."

Anzi didn't say it out loud, but Sayaka had heard about witch breeding from Anzi before, so they quickly connected the dots.

"Isn't this a contradiction? Wouldn't that make a lot of noise? The size of a witch's barrier is different from that of a familiar."

"When a familiar eats enough, it will transform into a witch. If you're lucky, you might even encounter a witch that hatches directly from a seed of sorrow."

"At that time, we can bring the Seeds of Sorrow back to the edge of the city and hatch them there undisturbed."

Xingzi's popular science awakened Zhixing, who was worried about the problem of storing the seeds of sorrow. Zhixing regained some of his rationality, broke away from his own thoughts, and noticed the real environment. Then he asked:

"So, what about the used Seeds of Sorrow? Can't they be hatched and reused?"

"Let's not even mention how many familiars will spawn after a witch is hatched. If it's not a pure wild witch, hatching a witch with our Seeds of Sorrow will only consume it into a barrier, turning it into a familiar without weaknesses and consuming even more mana. Destroying it won't help, but if we don't, it will consume the city's population, reducing the chances of a familiar becoming a witch."

"Furthermore, there can only be one Seed of Sorrow. Among the familiars that split from the same witch, there's no telling which one the Seed of Sorrow will appear in. It's a completely unprofitable deal."

Zhi Xing really wanted to complain about what kind of inheritance of giant power this was, but he felt that the people around him wouldn't understand, so he held it back. After thinking for a while, he asked:

"So, are all those overflowing seeds of sorrow given to Kyubey? Will there be more seeds of sorrow in the future?"

"What are you thinking? Of course they'll appear again. Who would let the Seeds of Sorrow disappear in vain, leaving only a bunch of immature familiars running around?"

After Zhixing got the answer, he couldn't help but look at the girl who distrusted Kyubey the most among those present.

The girl tossed her hair and said, unsurprised by Zhi Xing's gaze:

"Throw the Seeds of Sorrow out, and they'll find it themselves. Now that the Seeds of Sorrow are full, it'll take quite a while for a witch to hatch. That's enough time for me to check on the situation the next day."

Zhi Xing nodded upon hearing this and confirmed:

"That is to say, no matter what Kyubey does, the magical girl cannot leave Kyubey's help. After all, the thing that poses a great threat to her is in her hands. No matter how reluctant she is, she can only voluntarily hand it over to Kyubey."

"What bad things has Kyubey done that warrants such discussion?"

Zhixing looked over when he heard the voice and saw Mami frowning, but he didn't ask Xiaoyan, who was obviously more disgusted with Kyubey being questioned by Zhixing, but looked at Zhixing and waited for an explanation.

Zhi Xing closed his eyes and looked in the direction of the witch, thinking for a moment, and said:

"The witch seems to be very far away from us. She must be on a highway or something. I'm afraid she won't be able to come so quickly."

Opening his eyes, he saw that Asami was unmoved and could only reply:

"So, what have you learned?"

"is it a lot?"

"Many, as you know, all magical girls are contracted by Kyubey. It can be said that the magical girl system was built by Kyubey himself. So why must Kyubey handle the Seed of Sorrow?"

"That's because witches are born from human despair. Humans are unable to bear or digest this emotion, so Kyubey is the one who finally eliminates them."

"Well, it's not exactly a lie, but are witches really born from human despair? Anyone who could be desperate has already been captured by a familiar or witch."

Mami looked at the paper in confusion and asked, "Aren't you? Didn't the familiar barrier appear before?"

""

Zhixing touched his neck. He was still thinking about falling into despair when he suddenly heard Xiaoyan calling him. He came to his senses and saw a dark space with only Xiaoyan and Xingzi in it. Then, a familiar appeared in Xiaoyan's decryption.

The paper bank has no idea what happened during this period.

"Don't make groundless accusations. Kyubey may have done something bad, but don't blame Kyubey for everything. Kyubey isn't that capable."

""

Zhixing kept his mouth shut, keeping the settings such as witchification or soulification to himself, not daring to speak nonsense. As a result, apart from the two problems given by the original plot, other situations cannot be proved.

Covered by the witch's barrier? What does that have to do with Kyubey? Are we talking about the relationship between Kyubey and the witch?

Magical girls from other cities? Isn't that a special situation caused by the girls' own wishes? Or was it Kewpie's suggestion?

Is there a question about the magical girl's magic power? That kind of thing will only lead to the question of magic power recovery. Although I haven't figured it out yet, I can try.

The paper company sought help from the information source, and sure enough, found a problem that could be discussed:

"So, the magical girls' magical powers are the same, and this has nothing to do with Kyubey, right?"

"Magic power?"

Asami didn't understand the question and repeated it in confusion, but Kyoko on the other side interrupted and said:

"Are you saying that it's not just the wishes that are being tampered with, but there's also a problem with the Soul Stone?"

"Isn't it obvious? The entire magical girl system was designed by Kyubey. If there's a problem, it's everywhere. It's just that it's a little inconvenient to talk about. After all, it doesn't matter if I'm not a magical girl, but you can't get rid of your magical girl identity."

"Hmph, you're so arrogant! You're not a magical girl, but you act like you know everything. But you just needed us to tell you about the magic power situation. You're not desperate because of the uneven distribution, are you? Didn't you realize that your understanding was wrong?"

"You're right. I did realize my mistake, which is why I felt desperate."

"Could you elaborate on that? I'm really curious, what kind of thing could scare you to this extent?"

Zhixing turned his head away, not wanting to let his newly awakened thoughts face that hopeless conclusion again.

"Magical girls and apostles, contact between the two can cause misfortune or something. I've kept you at home for so long, and it seems nothing like that has happened. The only time something really happens is after you've stopped contacting them, and..."

Asami looked at Homura, but Homura didn't feel embarrassed and said calmly:

"That witch isn't particularly afraid of restraint. Strictly speaking, that can be considered your misfortune."

"I'm sorry, but I can't accept that explanation."

Feeling the discord between Mami and Homura, Zhixing sighed and asked:

"Asami, how many times have you ever run out of Sorrow Seeds?"

"It's just barely enough. After all, I need to preserve enough combat power just in case, so I don't have much in stock."

"What about you, Xingzi?"

"Kazumino is not as good as Mitakihara. There are many witches there, and the drop rate is so high. Witches are very rare there, so I dare to let go and run here."

Zhixing nodded, and then expressed his newly-thought-out opinion:

"I personally think that all those witches were brought about by Mami's wish."

"My wish? What does it have to do with a witch?"

"The Magical Girl system was designed by Kyubey, so Kyubey didn't tell you that you will die when your magic power is exhausted."

"So, when you have magic power, you can't die? That's what you meant when you held Asami's Soul Gem."

Kyoko understood the situation a little, and Mami understood it even more quickly:

"So the way to control me at that time was to make me fake my death?"

Zhixing glanced at Sayaka, who was more sensitive to this topic, and continued:

"Pretty much. What I'm saying is that in order to sustain your efforts to eliminate both witches and familiars, witches continuously pour in under the influence of your wish, bringing you seeds of lamentation that barely allow you to survive."

"Are you trying to say that my wish will put the people of Mitakihara in even more danger?"

"Ah? No, I wanted to talk about the Soul Gem's magical power, you see."

"If I refuse to use the Seed of Sorrow, will there be no problem?"

"How could that be? The wish is based on you. It will force you to have the opportunity to live, even if you don't want it. But a wish is a wish, and the opportunity will be given to you. You can't refuse it even if you don't want it..."

Zhi Xing's tone slowed down, and a thought that he had just been thinking about came to mind:

If wishes are mandatory, can Homura really keep the result of defeating Witch Night?

Chapter 98: The Witch Trial in the Magic Circle

Can showing people something hopeful and then denying it lead them to despair?

I could have endured the darkness if I had never seen the light

Realizing the compelling nature of Homura's wish, Jixing's explanation suddenly stopped.

"If I maintain the minimum requirements when using the Seed of Sorrow, then according to what you said, there won't be any witches beyond my ability. After all, my survival is the requirement."

Mami didn't believe what Zhixing said, but she still followed Zhixing's words and put forward an extreme situation, hoping to get information from Zhixing's future.

"Well, from the perspective of ordinary people, that's probably the case. After all, they have no ability to resist wishes. But wishes are basically ineffective against magical girls themselves."

Following Mami's words, Anzi further denied Jixing's statement. After all, Anzi had personally experienced her father's ability and was sure that this ability could not affect her.

"A wish I can't refuse? Kyousuke..."

Sayaka, the only one who witnessed the second realization of the wish, had some understanding of this and noticed the abnormality of the paper line.

"What's wrong? Did you think of something, Conan?"

Zhixing closed his eyes, then covered his ears with his hands and took a long, deep breath.

Now is an opportunity to judge whether the alleged compulsion of desire is a genuine guess or a conclusion that can be overturned.

Zhixing thought so, then eliminated the influence of vision and hearing, calmed down, and tried to listen to other sounds in the environment of the tram, such as the witch's kiss from the neck.

But I couldn't block it at all. Even with my hands blocking it, the sound of the tram running and the noise of people around me, near or far, all penetrated the blockage of my arms and entered my ears, even though I couldn't translate it.

And when he closed his eyes, he would involuntarily look at the witch, the only one with a clear outline in the darkness, so he was completely unable to concentrate his attention and listen to the sound that he had not heard before.

"However, if wishes in this world are still subject to this kind of mandatory setting, then as long as the magical girl survives, variables will continue to appear until either the wisher or the object of the wish disappears."

Kazuyuki couldn't help but think of the wishes that were preserved and prolonged because of the girl's disappearance, as well as Anzu's father who brought Anzu's family to deliver the family bucket, and Madoka who kept dying in front of Homura.

Obviously, in both cases, the wish is still effective, so civilization is still developing, while Homura is still regressing.

However, Xingzi's father did not appear again, and even Xingzi's own special abilities brought by her wish disappeared.

The difference is that Xing's father, who used to be the head of the local church, chose to sneak into Xingzi's house when she was not around. He not only took herself away, but also took Xingzi's younger sister and his lover with him.

Zhi Xing opened his eyes, looked at Kyoko and Homura, and asked:

"Can I know what the church here thinks of magical girls?"

"What? Are you bringing up my wish again? Let me tell you, the wish I made didn't affect my judgment. I'm sure there's no mandatory effect to fulfill the wish."

Anzi impatiently rejected Jixing's question and predicted that Jixing might bring up his past, but Jixing didn't care about this issue and turned his attention to Xiaoyan.

"In order to gain power and status, the medieval church launched witch trials in the name of witches spoken of by victims, hunting down girls suspected of being magical girls."

"Of course, how could ordinary people possibly be a match for a magical girl? However, this resistance actually allowed the ordinary people around them to witness the true nature of the witch. Since the family that ostracized and expelled the magical girl, and the magical girl's departure led to an increase in the number of familiars and witches in the town, people began to call it the witch's curse."

"The families of the victims who died because of the witch's curse, unable to find anyone to avenge, and the magical girl herself was unable to defeat her, so they targeted the girl's family and spread the word that sacrificing the witch's family could lift the witch's curse. This was adopted and put into practice by the church at the time."

"So, for the sake of their families, many magical girls at the time were able to resist, but they didn't dare to, and became victims of the church's status under the general trend."

"Hey, where did you make this up? I've never heard of it."

Kyoko clenched her fists and looked angrily at Homura who was talking about the history of this world.

Homura sighed and then said to Kyoko:

"Of course, the church's actions didn't lead to any good results. After all, they couldn't tell which were the real magical girls and which ones hadn't made a wish. So, after a few years of the witch trials, which were kept secret, a shortage of magical girls appeared. Without the magical girls' help, ordinary people suffered heavy casualties at the hands of the witches, and they had to use a plague to cover up this widespread tragedy. The church, which had risen to power through this action, was also wiped out by the girls' wishes, and thus the witch trials were brought to an end."

"However, although it was not a glorious event, it was a well-known and significant move by the church and was still recorded."

"Do you remember what your father said when he saw you, Sakura Kyoko?"

Xingzi swallowed and uttered two words through gritted teeth: "Witch".

"Did he know it before or after?"

Zhixing's tone was a little disappointed, because since Xiaoyan could say it, it meant that she had already done some research, and the fact that she could spend time on things other than Xiaoyuan was obviously something she had thought about a long time ago.

"I'm afraid it was later. After learning about Xingzi's situation, Xingzi's father listened to the explanation normally and accepted it. But after verifying everyone's belief that his mission was motivated by desire, he must have gone to the headquarters to investigate. With his abilities at the time, it was quite easy for him to obtain the historical records stored inside the church. After all, I also went in to take a look at the details of the Witch Trial."

After Xiao Yan finished explaining, she set her eyes on Zhi Xing. Seeing the Witch's Kiss on his neck turned back into a GIF, she looked at Zhi Xing who was thinking normally. She gave up the idea of ​​removing the influence of the Witch's Kiss. ​​After all, the witch this time was still far away from Mitakihara and could not be dealt with in a short time.

"For this reason alone, Dad would never do such a thing. It must be some witch's doing."

"Well, do you want to go and see for yourself? See for yourself if it's really true?"

Zhi Xing stared at Xingzi's Soul Gem, which had not yet turned into a ring, and interrupted Xingzi's rebuttal.

"After defeating the Witch Night, I can tell you the exact location. Otherwise, you'll have to find the corresponding historical record on your own among those thousands of books. You shouldn't be so naive as to think that the history of that dark operation would have a title like Witch, right?"

Xingzi looked at the paper line, then looked at Homura who was cooperating with the paper line, and she calmed down from her anger and said calmly:

"What? So you're afraid I'll run away during Witch Night. You're threatening me with this excuse because you want me to protect you then, right? Don't look down on me. Since I made an agreement with Mami, of course I'll stay and fight. As for the location you mentioned, I don't care. It's up to you whether you want to tell me or not."

After saying this, Xingzi didn't wait for their reply and walked back to her original position.