Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

The surviving guards gave Aine a thumbs-up to show their support.

"......ah."

Ai Yin stared at the thumbs-up signs, her surprise impossible to hide. The security guards before her seemed to be looking at her with the same eyes the passengers on that plane had seen that day.

Aine gripped the katana tightly, slung it behind her back, and nodded to the people who were giving her thumbs up.

"I understand," Aine said. "Thank you."

Now is not the time to be discouraged, Aine. There are still people here who need your protection. Even if you can't do much... at least do your best.

If you fall down, just get up and start over.

Even if I can't play a decisive role, I can still do my best to rescue people like these guys who are lost on the battlefield and giving me a thumbs up.

We'll save as many as we can.

Aine turned and jumped into the chaotic mass of tentacles, rushing towards the ordinary people who were also surrounded.

============

锔——!

Hailing's blade sliced ​​through the night, which resembled a black curtain.

A giant anemone was sliced ​​along its midline. The tentacles that were about to touch Mu suddenly lost their strength and were cut to pieces by the greatsword that Mu used to pull it back with binding silk before they could touch Mu.

“You’re daydreaming, Mu,” Hailing said calmly. “Now is not the time to daydream.”

Mu manipulated the silk threads, moving the greatsword back behind him, and turned his gaze to Hailing.

"Yes, I'm sorry," she replied in the same flat tone. "It won't happen again next time."

Mu rarely explains what he did or why he did it.

If the result is bad, the original intention and the process are not important.

“I know you want to save her,” Hailing said. “Your intentions are good, but you also need to consider yourself. If you make a wrong step, it could affect your whole life.”

Mu's eyes brightened as she looked at Hailing.

Did she see what she was just doing?

"I saw it, that's why I came over to take the blow for you," Hailing explained.

“…Thank you,” Mu said softly.

"Since I made an agreement with Xiangzi, taking care of you is just one of my duties. It's nothing special."

"It's alright," Mu nodded. "Thank you."

"...Whatever you want."

Hailing turned around and faced the overwhelming tentacles.

"Now we are facing an even more troublesome opponent than before."

"Are you talking about me, you little girl with excellent swordsmanship!" Aden jumped off the sea slug and stood in front of Hailing. "After countless hardships, we are finally about to face the final boss, brave little girls!"

“It’s not you.” Hailing shook her head. “You’re not qualified.”

"Huh?!" Aden's jaw dropped with a thud.

"I think he's a bit pitiful."

"Hey, come out!" Hailing looked up and called out to a spot under the moon. "You've been watching there for a long time, haven't you?"

Whoosh-!

An unseen arrow shot toward Hailing.

when--!

The blade rubs against the air, generating intense sparks and producing violent vibrations.

Hailing clutched her arm, which was numb from the vibration, and took a step back.

What a strong force.

She gritted her teeth, watching the figure emerge from the captain's cabin of the ghost ship.

She has W-shaped pupils like all familiars, and her octopus tentacles hang down like a skirt.

Aden held his chin, his pupils trembling as he looked at the person.

"Witch—Witch! What are you doing here!"

===

P.S.: This chapter is from the 28th.

The Lost Tale: The Spirit of Youth: Chapter 246 - Birth

boom--

boom--

It was a deafening roar, comparable to the firing of a cannon, rhythmic and regular, echoing through the valley.

At first, Xiangzi didn't realize that it was a "sound." She thought it was her discomfort caused by the fluctuations emitted by the water. It wasn't until they got closer and closer to the source of the fluctuations that Xiangzi realized the root of her discomfort was the sound that came along with the fluctuations.

A very loud sound.

It was so loud that she could barely maintain the form of the spirit behind her.

But apart from her, it seemed that no one else could hear the deafening sound.

The ground was littered with all sorts of corpses: sea slugs, laser starfish, and some strange, newly emerged creatures.

"call--"

Chu Hua knelt in the scalding seawater, which barely reached her calves.

The high temperature of the seawater came entirely from herself. Her body had developed some heat dissipation problems due to prolonged strenuous exercise, and visible blue smoke was shooting out from the gaps in her keratinous armor.

Once her body temperature had dropped a little, Chu Hua stood up and continued walking forward.

Mio poked her head out from the bunker, hopped over the corpses on the ground, and followed in Hatsuka's footsteps.

boom--

boom--

The sounds of gunfire continued to grow louder.

Xiangzi noticed that as the sound grew louder, the bright spots of light hidden beneath the rock walls, like blood vessels, seemed to increase in number and become brighter.

Finally, as his vision suddenly opened up, Xiangzi finally found the source of the sound and the vibration.

At the end of the canyon is a huge open space, with the shipwreck surrounding it, leaving a circular area in the center, like an altar.

In the center of the altar, all the eerie green veins spread outwards from a giant rock in the center of the open space, filling the entire visible area.

boom--!

The boulder contracted inward like a heart, emitting the sound that Xiangzi had always heard. A ghostly green fluorescence flowed in all directions along the veins, and an aggressive wave swept over Xiangzi's spirit.

Is that stone the sea witch's "cocoon"?

That's terrifying.

If I stayed here any longer, and listened to this sound that was like gunfire and a heartbeat for a little longer, I don't know if I would go crazy.

Xiangzi suppressed his discomfort and whispered in Chuhua's ear.

"Chuhua...can't you hear that voice?"

"A sound? What sound?" Chu Hua asked, puzzled. "I can only feel the ground shaking."

"The loud pounding of her heart would constantly damage her regenerating eardrums. She was already deaf, so of course she couldn't hear anything."

Mio's voice pierced through the loud noise from the rocks and drifted into Xiangzi's ears.

That wasn't talking to Chu Hua, that was talking to... me?

"You—?" Xiangzi turned around abruptly.

Mio slowly walked past Chuhua, stepped over the vein-like protrusions on the ground, and headed towards the giant rock in front of her.

"Surprised?" she said as she walked. "I thought you had already guessed, after all, my acting skills are terrible."

"Xiao Xiang? Who are you talking to?"

"Can't you...see her?" Xiangzi swallowed.

"Who did you see?" Chu Hua turned around in confusion. "The further we went in, the darker it got. Now we can't see anything at all. Are you talking about Mio? She should have been staying close to me."

Xiangzi finally saw Chuhua's eyes.

A pair of eyes filled with blood clots, their focus gone.

“With each heartbeat, she generates pressure equivalent to that of water tens of thousands of meters deep. She couldn’t possibly see anything long ago,” Mio said calmly. “To be precise, it’s already a miracle that Chu Hua can stand here in this state.”

Mio turned around, walked to the boulder, and raised her hand to cover it.

"..." Xiangzi hugged Chuhua's neck tightly, looking at Mio warily, "What do you plan to do by bringing us here?"

“What do you mean by ‘planning to do something’? Didn’t you guys come here yourselves?” Mio sighed. “Let me tell you a story, Xiangzi, a story about the sea witch, about her origins, her past life.”

"Speak," Xiangzi said, looking at her with a complicated expression.

"Xiao Xiang, who are you talking to...it can't be...?"

Chu Hua wasn't stupid; they had made their own guesses before they even set off.

And now, besides her, only Mio is standing here.

“Ha…” Chu Hua lowered her head and said with a wry smile, “When I set foot on the island, I was prepared for everything to go astray, but it turns out… was it because my understanding of the word ‘worst’ not good enough?”

"The sea witch was once a princess of the sea. She saved a prince who had fallen into the sea. In order to pursue her love, she exchanged her most beautiful voice for a pair of human legs," Mio said. "She longed to see the prince again, but when she came ashore again, she found that the prince had married the princess who found him on the beach."

"Isn't this the story of The Little Mermaid...?"

“Yes, that’s the story of the Little Mermaid.” Mio turned around, her eyes wide, staring intently at the person behind Hatsuka, her upturned lips showing a bitter and manic expression. “So you know that she finally got one chance, to kill the prince, or to turn into sea foam.”

"But—the details of the story are different, and the ending is different too."

"The Little Mermaid was not actually the most beloved princess. She did not love her sisters. Her father was a tyrant of the sea. Her mother was in tears every day. She struggled to reach the shore and had already experienced all the hardships on land before reuniting with the prince."

boom--!

The boulder emitted an unprecedented roar, and the ground trembled in response.

The entire canyon seemed to come alive in an instant.

The vengeful spirits clinging to the ship's wreckage howled to the sky, drawn into the eerie green veins by an attraction, becoming part of the barrier.

Within the barrier, mountains collapsed and the earth cracked.

Stalactites fell from the sky and landed beside Xiangzi and Chuhua.

Mio stood in the middle of the crumbling space, smiling faintly.

"At the end of the story, she—"

......

"Witch—Witch! What are you doing here?!" Aden, rubbing his chin, stared at the woman who had just joined the battle. "You, shouldn't you be presiding over the ceremony?! How come you have time to participate in our after-party...?"

Lin lowered her eyes, completely disregarding Aden.

She put down her bow and arrow and spoke in a voice just loud enough for everyone to hear.

"The ritual is complete, Lady Sea Witch—"

Boom!

A deafening roar erupted from the island.

Everyone turned their gaze in that direction without prior arrangement.

The mountain collapsed.

Something crashed through the mountain and surged onto the sea.

"—Successfully emerged from the cocoon."