Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

She had confirmed Mortis's location. This familiar, who loved playing hide-and-seek, had not only failed to completely hide itself, but had also left behind magical traces like footprints, allowing her to follow the trail as if it were leading her to a specific place.

Specific places...

Mu Zhou 2 Er Yi I Shan Long 〦 (Eight? Ten) (Two) Raise eyebrows.

Things aren't looking good.

Where are those magical girls who were brought in for a "visit"? How many memories related to Xiangzi did they see?

As Motokay stepped on the last thread, she landed on a rotating miniature garden.

Welcome, welcome! You've finally arrived.

Mu squinted his eyes.

She saw Mortis standing very close to her, using her own face to stand in front of the five magical girls, with a strange smile on her face.

Got you.

but.

The small garden behind Mortis made Muku's gaze freeze.

A pure white humanoid figure spread its wings, capable of covering the sky, beneath a crimson sky, as if...

Like a god.

"That's... Xiang?"

The Tale of Nirvana: Maintaining One's True Self: Chapter 144 Victory or Defeat

After the gunshot rang out, a bloody mark appeared on Oblivionis' left chest.

She clutched the wound on her chest, staggered back two steps, but did not fall.

There are less than ten minutes left.

"you......"

Oblivionis was panting heavily, his breathing hesitant and labored, sounding like a bellows.

She could already sense it; the cocoon had hatched into the form of a witch. Although she and Xiangzi seemed to still be inside the building, they had actually long since... merged into the witch.

This is merely the deepest part of a dream known as the Witch's Barrier.

It's a place where only she and she exist.

"Have you made up your mind?" Oblivionis asked.

"That shot should have hit the heart! How could you!" Xiangzi's eyes widened. "Even a magical girl's body should have rendered her incapacitated!"

“…” Oblivionis shook his head with a wry smile and waved the pistol in his left hand.

She holds the gun with her left hand, which, in the absence of dual pistols, indicates that Oblivionis's dominant hand is her left hand.

Xiangzi followed her gaze to the hand he had just raised.

It's the right hand.

The person named "Toyokawa Shoko" was not left-handed. Before he regained his memory, Shoko, who rushed out of the mirror, used his left hand.

They are mirror images.

Xiangzi has reverted to being right-handed, which means he is now a mirror image, an Oblivionis. Except for being left-handed, all his organs, including his heart, are reversed.

So the bullet actually only passed through Oblivionis's lung lobe.

Xiangzi finally realized what a huge mistake he had made, wasting the best opportunity to launch a sneak attack.

Oblivionis took a few breaths, and after his lungs had regained at least some function, he asked in a slightly breathless voice.

"You probably didn't hear what I said clearly just now, so I'll ask you again."

"what."

"Have you made up your mind? Has the two-month grace period given you the courage to do so?" Oblivionis said softly. "Even a witch must live."

Xiangzi nodded seriously.

"Ah."

"Then try to stop me."

Oblivionis pulled the trigger.

boom--!

The bullet grazed Xiangzi's cheek, leaving a long, narrow trail of blood.

It wasn't that Oblivionis deliberately missed; rather, the moment she pulled the trigger, the battle, which had been paused, had already restarted.

Gunshots echoed in the empty white hall like thunderclaps. Oblivionis dodged Xiangzi's bullet before it even left the barrel, and his retaliatory shot also missed by a hair's breadth.

The open, flat ground was the easiest battlefield for gunfights to break out, but the two men emptied two magazines without inflicting any effective damage on each other.

Ultimately, they are the same person, and of course, they know their own thoughts best. Even if one side predicts the other's actions in advance, the other side will also know that they have been predicted. The nested reaction means that every bullet is known to the other side before it is even ignited. In the end, the bullet leaving the chamber and missing is just the result of a series of games.

Therefore, the distance between firefights gets closer and closer, until guns lose their advantage.

Oblivionis was the first to change tactics, dropping his gun after a brief encounter.

I don’t know if it’s related to a wish, but once again—no, for the familiar Oblivionis, this is the first time that the magic she has gained after becoming a magical girl is exactly the same as the magic of the previous Toyokawa Shoko.

Furthermore, with the added power of the familiar itself, the "Recreate" magic can do more than just recreate objects.

This includes memories, which can also be reproduced.

Oblivionis threw down her pistol, moved her right leg back half a foot, and held her hands at her waist, pulling them back so that her shoulders faced Xiangzi. At the same time, she held a gleaming samurai sword in her hand.

She can also recreate memories of battles related to Hachiman Kairin.

The blade traced a crescent moon from bottom to top, the sword's trajectory encompassing Xiangzi's heart and throat.

The only difference between Oblivionis and Xiangzi is that their experiences over the past two months have been quite different.

Xiangzi was quite surprised by her decision, but Oblivionis could not be Hailing. The swordsmanship she used by imitating others had not been tempered by life-and-death experiences. The swordsmanship of imitating others was completely incomparable to Hailing's swordsmanship.

The pull-back motion was too large, and the upward flick at the bottom was adjusted temporarily because the hand position was incorrect. Although the power chain was correct, there was a strong sense of blockage.

Xiangzi saw Oblivionis's sword clearly and made his decision in the same instant.

He dropped the pistol, and the fire axe he had used in the church appeared in his hand. The axe blade was positioned in the path of the knife blade, and his own weight was enough to deflect the path.

At the same time, his free left hand gripped his usual shotgun again, tucked under his arm. He didn't need to aim; he just needed to point in the general direction and pull the trigger when Oblivionis was inevitably stunned by his missed shot.

boom--!

The bullet unexpectedly exploded inside the barrel.

"what?!"

Xiangzi's pupils contracted sharply, his eyes reflecting Oblivionis's "I knew it all along" expression.

It turned out that the deflection of that attack was exactly what Oblivionis had anticipated. After the upward trajectory was deflected, Oblivionis had already conserved some of his strength so that he could make his next move more quickly.

This is called "residual heart".

Canxin successfully minimized her stiff movements. As Xiangzi pulled the trigger of the shotgun in his left hand, the blade, which had not yet been raised above her head, turned and chopped down, cutting the shotgun in two.

With the enclosed environment disrupted, the pressure from the gunpowder explosion lost its direction and burst directly into Xiangzi's palm, injuring her left hand.

Xiangzi, clutching his injured left hand, pushed forward, stepping on Oblivionis's knife handle to forcefully pull himself away.

Then, an M2 heavy machine gun with a triangular mounting and shield reappears on the spot.

This deadly weapon is an antique from the war years ago. It was kept as a collectible by my bastard father at the shooting range and maintained by a dedicated person every day, but it has never been fired.

The bullets, about the size of a thumb, combined with an exaggerated amount of gunpowder, meant that once fired, they could instantly tear a human body into flying pieces of flesh. Xiangzi hid behind a heavy machine gun with an iron shield, gripping the handle with one hand, aiming at Oblivionis.

"*!"

The moment that thing appeared, Oblivionis's calves started to exert force. Being hit by that kind of bullet would not be as simple as just having a bullet hole in your body.

The heavy machine gun spewed furious flames like a dragon, relentlessly pursuing Oblivionis. The ammunition belts were being consumed while simultaneously regenerating rapidly, and the shield mounted in front of Oblivionis prevented him from launching a powerful counterattack.

She could only keep going in circles with Xiangzi, and couldn't even bring out the same weapon to face him again.

In a perfectly evenly matched situation, whoever finds the opponent's weakness first has the right to suppress them and win.

But......

Xiangzi was the one who first showed a weakness, but it was Oblivionis who ended up at a disadvantage.

This doesn't make sense.

unless......

"What are you thinking?! Why did you hold back?!"

Xiangzi angrily squeezed the trigger and roared at Oblivionis, who was fleeing in all directions.

Oblivionis had the opportunity to strike Xiangzi, but instead conservatively deflected his own hunting rifle. This overly conservative decision gave Xiangzi a chance to retaliate and even seize the initiative in the battle.

Why didn't she make a move?

Why didn't she make a move?!

Just now, at the moment when Canxin succeeded, she clearly had the ability to kill herself. As soon as the blade was on her neck, she didn't even have a chance to pull the trigger.

Isn't Oblivionis the most decisive, cruel, and perfect Toyokawa Shoko?

Why has things come to this...?

"Because you are me."

Before he knew it, a soft, warm object snuggled into Xiangzi's arms.

"When did you...?"

"While you're lost in thought."

Oblivionis smiled faintly.

While Xiangzi's heavy firepower was formidable, it was ultimately sluggish. The tripod could stabilize the recoil, but it wasn't very agile in turning. Oblivionis, always traveling light, was constantly closing the distance between himself and Xiangzi while being chased by the flames.

The closer the distance, the harder it is for the fire to catch up with Oblivionis, given that the machine guns are rotating at the same speed.

However, Xiangzi was too immersed in the past and overlooked this point, which gave Oblivionis an opportunity. She finally ran into the blind spot of the machine gun, leaped over the shield, and jumped into Xiangzi's arms.

Although he didn't know why Oblivionis rushed into his arms, Xiangzi instinctively produced a small knife in his hand and stabbed it into Oblivionis's neck.

drop--

Beep be ...

A hurried sound came from Oblivionis's pocket; it was the sound of the countdown ending.

Xiangzi's hand suddenly stopped.

"you lose."

Oblivionis chuckled softly, raised his katana, and pointed it at his own abdomen.

"don't want--!"

The long knife pierced through the abdomens of both men.

Next, Oblivionis turned the handle of the knife sideways and slashed it forcefully.

======

P.S.: What are "ordinary" and "taken for granted"...?

The Tale of Nirvana: Keeping Your True Self: Chapter 145 A Day in the Life of Chihaya Aine

Chihaya Aine wakes up to find the world has changed.

At home, she discovered that her parents had turned into strange, semi-transparent things that floated around with their heads replaced by an X.

At first, she only suspected that there was something wrong with her eyes. After all, apart from her parents' appearance changing, they could still communicate, chat with her, and urge her to go to school.

But when I go out, I take the tram to school.

Aside from one or two girls around my age, which is normal, everyone around me looks like this.