Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

"Help me, Desuwa—!"

Xiangzi suddenly opened his eyes on the recliner and roared.

"Shhhh—" Kasumi suddenly grabbed her hand, "—There are other people around."

Xiangzi's pupils opened and closed in shock.

"I'm back?"

"Not really, RiNG's structure is also a barrier, after all," Kasumi said.

"Well, at least I'm back." Xiangzi habitually pinched the bridge of his nose and straightened his back.

"Hehe~" Kasumi gave her a bright smile, "How does it feel, experiencing a dream while fully conscious?"

"...Woo."

Xiangzi carefully recalled the feeling that was both real and ethereal in Xiangcheng's dream just now...

The feeling was like a feather drifting past me in the wind.

The Tale of the Lost: The Lost Child - Chapter 285 Dream Weaving

"Ah..." Xiangzi clenched his fist.

She seemed to have grasped something.

"How is it?" Kasumi blinked, looking at Shoko's face. "Can you catch it? If you can't, I can take you into the dream again. Actually, you usually need someone to guide you three or four times to learn it. That's how I did it."

"Who created that barrier in the first place?"

“Tae, she’s a genius,” Kasumi said with a smile. “She can discover things that others can’t in their entire lives.”

"Is this so..."

Xiangzi lowered his head and looked at his palm.

Could it really be Oblivionis who was just talking to me...? Are she and the lamp also watching me from the deepest part of the barrier right now?

The place where they are is the deepest barrier and the deepest subconscious.

If I master the method of creating barriers, will I be able to see them?

Xiangzi's eyes lit up.

She suddenly raised her head and looked at Kasumi.

"I think I've actually grasped it."

"Eh!" Kasumi was startled by her sudden upward gaze. "Is that so?!"

"Hmm, it's a kind of... indescribable feeling." Xiangzi raised his hand, and the magic power slowly began to move according to the feeling in his memory.

"I always thought that what I saw in my dreams was visual, and that the things in my dreams were constructed by my vision."

Xiangzi closed her eyes, and magic flowed out through her fingers, creating a "cage" around her and Xiangcheng.

"But no, that's not visual, that's feeling, that's inspiration."

A moment later, the "cage" disappeared, and Xiangzi suddenly opened his eyes.

"Kasumi-senpai, shall we go for a walk?"

Xiangzi extended his hand, inviting him.

“Okay.” Kasumi took Shoko’s hand and followed her out of RiNG.

She sensed that she had left RiNG's barrier and entered Xiangzi's barrier, so she shouldn't be surprised by what she saw when she opened the door.

"Wow--!"

Once Kasumi stepped outside, she realized she had been oversimplifying things.

What unfolded before her was a near-future city, with floating cars occasionally seen flying in the sky, and the streets crowded with retro cars from the era of "Back to the Future," horns blaring incessantly, and crowds weaving and crisscrossing like several converging rivers.

"Is this your first time creating a barrier?!" Kasumi's eyes lit up with excitement. "Amazing!"

"Uh...I guess so." Shoko scratched his face awkwardly behind Kasumi.

This was a barrier she created to save trouble. Luckily, Kasumi had never entered the Nirvana Barrier, otherwise she would have been exposed.

Kasumi spread her arms and circled around in the bustling square, then turned back and waved to Xiangzi.

"Come on, show me around here!"

It's more accurate to say that Xiangzi was taking Xiangcheng sightseeing than that Xiangcheng was leading Xiangzi on a aimless stroll. Xiangzi followed behind her the whole time, wandering around in the barrier he had created.

"Speaking of which, Kasumi-senpai, do barriers have boundaries?" Shoko asked.

She created this world, but she actually created the barrier based on what Kasumi called "inspiration" or "instinct," and had no idea how big it was.

“No,” Kasumi explained, turning around. “It’s as far as your eyes can see.”

She pointed to a tall building very far away, with a temple roof resembling Kiyomizu-dera built on its roof. In the former Nirvana Barrier, that was Timoris' territory.

“That place doesn’t actually exist,” Kasumi said again.

"does not exist?"

“Yes, the area we are in now is actually a circle centered on us.” Kasumi pointed to the ground. “It moves as we walk, creating new scenes as we go, just like real-time loading in a game.”

"Those tall buildings in the distance..."

"It's just a distant view texture. The barrier will only create realistic terrain when you get closer."

"Amazing..." Xiangzi murmured.

“There’s something even more amazing.” Kasumi winked at Shoko and raised her hand. “Watch closely.”

Magic emanated from Kasumi, making contact with Shoko's barrier, and then...

Rumble————

Just like what Xiangzi saw when he watched Kasumi and Yuki flirt and duel that day, the ground of the barrier was stacked up like a cubic cardboard box.

Xiangzi craned his neck, watching the tall buildings gradually cover his head.

"This... isn't this my barrier?!" She gaped in astonishment.

"Who said only you can control your barrier?" Kasumi shrugged and continued walking forward. "I don't know if you've ever seen it, but sometimes witches fight each other, and their barriers merge and influence each other. What I'm doing now is the same thing."

"You need to be careful in the future. The barrier doesn't belong to you alone. Once it's created, anyone can get involved."

As Xiangzi and Kasumi walked among the crowd, Xiangzi noticed that everyone who passed by would turn their heads to look at them.

"Kasumi-senpai, why are they all...?"

"Looking this way?"

"Ah."

"Because your subconscious senses that someone is altering this barrier. The more things are changed, the more your subconscious will reflect on you and rush towards you—actually, it's me."

"Flowing towards you?"

"They will attack things that are not part of the barrier, just like white blood cells attack other invading bacteria. Well... for witches, familiars are all part of the barrier, which follows the same logic."

Kasumi raised her hand, bent down and folded the tall building next to her, revealing an escalator. She then took Shoko's hand and stood up with him.

“Also, we are now inside your ‘barrier’,” Kasumi said. “What I just took you into was a ‘dream,’ and there are many differences between the two.”

"Different?" Xiangzi asked, looking around.

Although he was moving forward in an upside-down world, Xiangzi did not feel anything unusual when he went from one side to the other.

She also noticed that as Kasumi's movements became more and more exaggerated, the pedestrians around her became increasingly rude.

“The simplest way is that if you die in a dream, you'll wake up; if you die inside a barrier,” Kasumi shrugged. “You know that.”

"I think I understand..." Xiangzi looked curiously at how Kasumi had messed up his barrier.

Eh.

and many more.

Didn't Kasumi just say that familiars follow the same logic?

Moreover, this place... strictly speaking, is also the barrier of the witch's rebirth?

Moreover, if you die inside the barrier, you won't wake up?

Boom!

Suddenly, a large, white hand reached out from the folded world.

The large hand appeared without any warning, pressing down on Xiangzi's head and grabbing Xiangcheng in its hand.

Kasumi didn't even have time to react before her hand was grasped.

"Oblivionis, no!"

The Lost Tale: The Lost Child: Is there a missing chapter in the middle of Chapter 286...?

"Oblivionis, no!"

Xiangzi suddenly stood up from his seat.

Rustling, rustling.

Everyone around her was watching her.

Kasumi looked at her strangely as well.

She looked at herself strangely as well.

What just happened?

"What's wrong with you? You were perfectly fine, why did you suddenly..."

"Don't you remember, Kasumi-senpai? Just now, I created a barrier, and then you... and then... what happened..." Xiangzi realized that she couldn't remember either.

"You must be mistaken. You were just in my dream, and then you suddenly woke up." Kasumi tilted her head. "You said you wanted to go back into the dream to capture that feeling."

"......Really?"

"Hey, sit down first." Kasumi grabbed Shoko's hand and pulled her back to her seat. "Do you want to hold a concert?"

"Cough cough..."

Xiangzi then noticed that he was still standing there, receiving everyone's attention. He cleared his throat, pretended that nothing had happened, sat back down, picked up the black tea on the table, and took a small sip.

cold.

She glanced again at the lemon tea in front of Kasumi. The ice had obviously melted quite a bit, but since it was a cold drink, the difference wasn't as obvious as with hot drinks, so Kasumi probably hadn't noticed.

Xiangzi lowered his eyes and looked at the reflection in the teacup.

There is indeed a gap in my memory, whether it's Kasumi or her... Oblivionis, is that you?

Are you trying to stop me from learning how to create barriers?

"Shall we try again?" Kasumi tilted her head and asked.

"No..." Xiangzi shook his head. "I might not be used to it. I feel a bit of a headache."

“It’s really stressful to consciously explore dreams, and this phenomenon does occur,” Kasumi said helplessly. “But we’re leaving Reed Plains tomorrow, so this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

"It's okay, I don't need it for now, so it won't affect me much," Xiangzi said.

She is lying.

Actually, she really wants to learn it, okay? It's so cool.

But Oblivionis disagreed, so there was nothing that could be done. Although she didn't know why Oblivionis wanted to erase her memories, it was best not to provoke that bad luck.

Xiangzi didn't want his memories to be erased and altered again, leaving him not even knowing where he was, like he had blacked out from drinking.

Since Oblivionis deleted it, there must be a reason.

"Could it be that the barrier gave Nirvana a window to leave the Soul Gem, which is why Oblivionis is preventing me from learning it..." Xiangzi muttered to himself. "...On the other hand, is it possible that as long as I'm inside the barrier, I can... No, no, no, that's too dangerous. I absolutely can't think like that."

The sound of ice cubes clattering could be heard in my ears.

Xiangzi snapped out of his daze and saw Xiangcheng holding a cup and waving it near his ear.