Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Misaki Okuzawa, like Kokoro Tsurumaru, is a member of HHW and one of the thirty-five Protagonists. Her magical girl form is different from the others; she is a pink bear named Michelle.

After leaving the bear, she looked exceptionally ordinary, like a typical senior colleague, with a similar demeanor to the older female colleague Xiangzi had met while working.

Especially since she was wearing office lady attire.

Of course, that's not the main point. With Misaki's experienced tone, Xiangzi could easily guess what she wanted to say to him.

It's nothing more than those kinds of things... We've all been there, we've been through similar things, some things can't be forced, you have to learn to let go... and so on.

to be frank.

If Misaki really said those words, Shoko felt she would actually listen to them.

The radar and sonar scans have yielded no results after so long. There's a high chance that Chu Hua and Mio are beyond saving, and... we might not even be able to find their bodies.

Did she want to save Chu Hua?

Of course I do.

But the hope is too slim. The volcano erupted around 3 a.m., and it is 5:30 a.m. now.

The sky was no longer pitch black, but began to lighten.

Is there really still a chance?

Repeatedly urging the pilot was just to make himself feel better, especially when he realized he seemed to be convincing himself—Xiangzi was almost confused about what he was thinking.

There's something stuck in my heart that I can't let out.

How selfish, Toyokawa Shoko.

Xiangzi blinked his dry eyes.

During this time, with the help of Oblivionis and the lamp, Nirvana was sealed, saving Hatsuka from almost becoming a witch once, and the Soul Gem was sublimated into a flower, creating two miracles.

Xiangzi even felt that he had become omnipotent and that everything could be left to him.

So she became assertive, unquestionable, and... arrogant, just like the person she used to be who had never experienced anything.

It wasn't until Mio bounced back into her body that she realized how blind she had been.

Xiangzi had run out of tears. Facing the calm sea, she realized what she had missed. She felt that she didn't even have the right to be sad.

Niobe, proud and arrogant, was punished by the gods, losing all his children and becoming a statue that constantly weeps.

My God, is this God's punishment for her?

Xiangzi leaned against the wall, thinking weakly.

If Oblivionis were here, he would surely berate himself for not making any progress.

Misaki looked at Xiangzi, who looked dejected, and said softly.

"I've met people I couldn't save before. Everyone has. After all, we don't really live in a fairy tale where everything we want can come true."

See? Just as expected, this is how it unfolded.

"But after encountering so many bad things, she still sticks to her original intentions, with the spirit of a young girl, doing what she wants to do and what she can do." Misaki slightly raised the corners of her mouth. "I am a very ordinary person who just gets by. The reason I can persevere is because of my heart."

Xiangzi blinked.

What Misaki was about to say was not quite what she had in mind.

She suddenly remembered Genjuro Shin, this shining young senior, who was also one of the survivors of the so-called "post-Witch Night era" of raising Gu. How could she not have encountered those terrible things?

Yet she still seemed so radiant, optimistic, and happy. Her close friend, Kasumi-senpai, was the same; they were both magical girls who emerged from a dark era, wading through the mud, their shining personalities remaining untainted by it all.

What kept them going?

“It’s all about sheer willpower,” Misaki said. “What keeps her going is the will to make everyone happy. As long as that willpower is there, she will never give in to despair.”

She then pointed to herself.

"What keeps me going is 'Xianjuan Xin' (a type of string scroll)."

“Once a person loses that spirit, they quickly give in to reality and feel powerless to do anything.” Misaki looked into Xiangzi’s eyes and said earnestly, “Xiangzi, what kind of spirit keeps you going?”

What kind of spirit?

Before, she only had one thing to consider: how to survive.

She found herself a ton of things to do: reading, being in a band, re-entering the circle her father once belonged to, forming a magical girl organization under her own control, with plans A, B, C... It seemed like there was never enough time to finish.

There were too many things to do, but Xiangzi didn't really know why he was making things so complicated for himself.

Moreover, why did Misaki-senpai tell me all this?

Is she trying to comfort me and teach me to give up?

It didn't sound like that; rather, it sounded like they were encouraging me.

A picture suddenly flashed through Xiangzi's mind.

It was a circle formed by several girls, with five hands stacked on top of each other, each representing one of their own hands.

For "Toyokawa Shoko," what is most important? Is it her future career, the piles of things she created for herself, or saving the world?

still.

Those who unconditionally support you and let you do whatever you want.

wow——

Xiangzi suddenly stood up from his seat, startling Misaki beside him. She walked straight to the tail of the helicopter and pressed the red switch.

The cockpit lights came on red, and the depressurization alarm wailed.

"Hey, what's going on behind us?! This is three thousand meters!"

"Wow..." Misaki looked at Shoko and seemed to see a fire burning on her body.

“I’ve thought it through, Misaki-senpai,” Shoko said. “Thank you for your advice.”

"Think about what?" Misaki gripped the armrest, watching the hatch slowly open.

Xiangzi turned around, the wind blowing her hair, her face flashing in and out of focus under the flashing warning lights.

She stood at the cabin door, and in the blink of an eye, her clothes transformed into a magical girl's outfit.

"What I have, what I want, and what I can do."

After Xiangzi finished speaking, he fell backward.

She was governed by the simple laws of physics, falling freely from a height of three thousand meters, passing through clouds of volcanic ash, and plummeting into the sea.

A Lost Tale: The Spirit of Youth: Chapter 264 Searching for My Footprints

Xiangzi did not use a parachute.

She could easily use magic to recreate a parachute on her back, open it at a safe low altitude, and slowly descend onto the sea like a feather.

That won't work.

Xiangzi's goal is the seabed, the deepest part of the ocean.

If Hatsuka and Mio's bodies are still intact and cannot be detected by sonar and radar, then there is only one possibility: their bodies were carried away by ocean currents to a deeper place.

Going straight down from here seems a bit like trying to find a sword by marking the boat, but the ocean current—as long as she can find that ocean current, she can follow it to find Chu Hua.

To reach the ocean currents at the bottom of the sea, she must use more specialized equipment.

Black muscle fibers enveloped Xiangzi in mid-air, transforming her into an object resembling an insect egg case, stabilizing her descent as she plummeted vertically towards the sea.

That was a mysterious new piece of equipment that Xiangzi had found at a military base. It was sitting in a locked room, gathering dust, and there was only one of it; its purpose was unknown. Originally, she had copied it into her database out of curiosity, without even figuring out how to use it.

The instructions on how to use it were obtained from a classified document he picked up from a colonel at a military base while cleaning up after Homura Akemi.

If it weren't for that secret document, Xiangzi wouldn't even believe that humans could create such... amazing equipment.

【sheath】

The full name of the sheath is "Intrusion Sheath". It looks like a coffin made of flesh, just big enough for one person to lie inside. It is an experimental piece of equipment used to carry out "HALO (High Altitude Low Opening)" tactics. The sheath is made of biomimetic materials and can precisely control the airflow to determine the landing point. It uses fluid dynamics to control the descent speed and ensures that while the parachute opens at the maximum altitude of 100 meters, the landing point error is within 10 meters.

Within fifteen minutes of landing, the sheath will undergo a self-decomposition process, with the bionic muscle secreting an enzyme that dissolves itself without leaving a trace.

Oh, and it can also be equipped with two automatic machine guns to clear any potential threats around the landing site. Its entire body is also covered in the highest level of stealth coating...

Of course, for Xiangzi, none of these terrifying effects mattered. She only needed one thing.

The underwater function of the sheath.

The sword-like sheath accelerated faster and faster under the force of gravity, and the speed alarm inside the cabin kept sounding.

Xiangzi knew that falling into the sea at this speed was no less than crashing directly onto the ground, but that was the speed she wanted.

The magical girl's body is far stronger than a human's, and with the protection of the sheath, she is unlikely to die.

thump--!

The intrusion was like a sharp sword piercing through the water's surface, and Xiangzi's consciousness briefly disappeared for a moment.

The viscosity of water is much greater than that of air, and the speed of the sheath decreases significantly after entering the water. Then it extends its soft, dolphin-like tail, spreads its folded fins, and begins to dive downwards.

Xiangzi switched the sheath to manual control mode and clumsily steered it, relying on the instructions for the magic reappearance.

One hundred meters, two hundred meters, three hundred meters...

Xiangzi, covered in sweat, stared at the depth indicator on the sheath.

The sheath is like a lone dolphin that has found the ocean current and is moving along it towards the deepest part of the sea.

Five hundred, seven hundred, one thousand, one thousand five hundred meters...

It is said that the average depth of the Pacific Ocean is four thousand meters, and Xiangzi did not know how deep he would eventually end up underwater.

The outer wall of the sheath began to make a crackling sound. This airborne equipment was designed to penetrate deep behind enemy lines. Its diving function was only "good enough" and deep diving was not considered at all. Even for an experimental machine that was designed to explore the limits of its design, its design limit was only about 1,500 meters.

Xiangzi used a partial reconstruction method to repair the tendons damaged by water pressure, allowing it to dive into deeper waters. However, the delicate operation put a lot of pressure on Xiangzi's thinking, as he had to pay attention to the water flow, the damage to the sheath, and all sorts of other details at all times.

Not to mention that her head was still throbbing from maintaining a spirit state for so long.

Xiangzi felt nauseous and wanted to vomit. His hands were shaking as if he had Parkinson's disease. He was so tired that he felt he would faint if he closed his eyes.

We've reached 2,000 meters. Is Chuhua there?

Even if it's just a corpse, we must find her.

Just then, perhaps because the sheath had reached a sufficient depth, or perhaps because Yue-yi-ling-qi-ba-qi-si-wu-liu had approached Chu Hua, Xiangzi seemed to hear a song.

—"Follow my footsteps..."

A song? How could that be?

Xiangzi's heart began to beat faster.

Hearing singing more than two thousand meters deep in the ocean would make most people think they've encountered a ghost, but Xiangzi felt as if he were seeing the hazy light of a lighthouse in the fog.

The camera that had penetrated the sheath couldn't withstand the water pressure and had long since broken down. Xiangzi closed his eyes, briefly transforming into a spirit, searching for the direction of the song.

—"The purpose of seeking me..."

From the spirit's perspective, she saw a golden light in the distance. It looked like a person.

No, those can't be people. They're the souls I saw inside Mio's barrier. They've changed their appearance, but their form of existence hasn't changed. Shoko can recognize them.

If you can see the soul, it means you're not wrong!

Xiangzi immediately returned to his sheath and manipulated the bionic weapon to emerge from the ocean current—

Oops!

A pressure warning and a sharp sound came from the sheath's outer shell; a simple turning maneuver nearly caused the sheath to collapse.

The sheath was not strong enough to support it leaving the ocean current!

Xiangzi couldn't help but want to curse.

Ignoring her headache, she activated her magic at full power, focusing all her attention on repairing the invading sheath. The water pressure at two thousand meters was equivalent to the sheath bearing approximately two hundred tons of pressure in every aspect. At this depth, the sheath's muscle fibers were constantly cycling between rupture and repair.

Unbeknownst to Xiangzi, under the immense physical pressure, her mastery of magic had broken through a long-standing bottleneck.

She had never attempted such a precise reproduction before. This was no longer a simple reproduction, but a regeneration through reproduction; she had never imagined she could wield magic to this extent.

The "bionic design" of the invading sheath is actually a real man-made biological fiber. It becomes stronger and stronger through continuous cycles of damage and regeneration, and gradually becomes able to adapt to the high pressure of the deep sea.

Under Xiangzi's unrestrained control, the intrusion sheath, which had also broken through its limits, broke free from the shackles of the ocean current and turned back to march in the direction from which the song came.