Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

The tram has arrived at the station. (The last part appears to be a typo and can be omitted.)

Xiangzi looked up and glanced at the station.

"It's time to get off," Xiangzi said.

"Eh...did my answer pass?"

"Not bad, you've passed." Xiangzi turned his head and revealed a gentle smile. "Your companions will come back, don't worry."

The Tale of the Lost: Chapter 309 We are Frozen Meat Lost on the Road of Life

"Little master, I remember your home isn't at this stop."

Aiyin happily followed Xiangzi off the bus.

"Yes, it's not at this stop, but..."

Xiangzi nodded.

It's one stop away from home, but—there's a supermarket right outside the station.

"I'm cooking tonight, so I'm planning to buy some groceries."

"Hey, you can cook?"

“？亦柒溜亿鸸尔韭兒*”

What does it mean to say "can you cook?"

Xiangzi raised an eyebrow.

Feeling Xiangzi's scrutinizing, suspicious, and disapproving gaze, Ai Yin shrugged and stuck out her tongue.

"Hey, I thought you were the kind of pampered young lady who never lifted a finger." She scratched her head. "After all, you... your words and actions are just like a pampered young lady."

Aine initially wanted to say that after all, she was the daughter of the Toyokawa family. Aine had heard from several other people that Shoko was the eldest daughter of a wealthy family many times. But after thinking about it, she decided it was better not to touch on her sore spot.

"...You're not wrong."

Xiangzi didn't react much. She looked at the supermarket's billboard with a slightly nostalgic expression.

She would never have come to a supermarket before; usually, someone in her family would buy everything she needed, including food and other necessities.

“But people always change, just like the witch you killed,” Xiangzi said softly. “She used to be a young lady from a wealthy family.”

"Little Master knows it used to be..." Ai Yin's face darkened instantly, "Do you know it?"

Xiangzi shook his head.

"I don't know him, I just looked up some information."

She led Aine into the supermarket, pushed a shopping cart, and while shopping, she told Aine about the witch they had just defeated.

While Aine was battling the witch, Xiangzi used his administrator privileges to look at the files related to the witch and discovered that she actually had quite a story.

Although it's an assimilated clone, it's likely a witch reborn from the same Seed of Lamentation. Actually, all magical girls who become witches probably have some kind of backstory.

The previous witch, who was transformed from a magical girl, was a witch who almost wiped out her own team. She was originally a pampered young lady who grew up in a strict family. After being cooped up for more than ten years, she was targeted by Kyubey and her wish was to escape from her home.

After that, they become magical girls, make friends, and form teams. Many magical girls go through the same process.

This includes the inevitable transformation into a witch, or dying tragically before becoming a witch.

The predecessor of the Absolute Chamber became the Witch.

She was a typical pampered young lady from an ivory tower, much like Xiangzi. After leaving her pristine environment and falling into the melting pot of society, she, a blank sheet of paper, was quickly stained with all sorts of colors... the red of anger, the blue of melancholy, the pink of lust... the more colors she acquired, the closer she got to black.

Ultimately, unsurprisingly, she became it six months after becoming a magical girl.

The newly born witch killed all her teammates who witnessed her transformation, and then, following her original wish—"to escape from here"—she embarked on a great escape.

The original Dust Chamber could be rated Hard because it killed countless innocent people and magical girls who came to punish it during its escape.

The magical girl squad that finally defeated it didn't actually kill it.

They still managed to let it escape while it was on the verge of death.

Although it wouldn't live long even if it escaped, the seeds of sorrow it left behind after its death were soaked in the bustling environment, and before long, a much weaker assimilated clone was born.

That is, the one that Aine just killed.

After listening to Xiangzi's story, Ai Yin's expression changed from surprise to sadness to numbness, and then to a complex feeling of not knowing what expression to make.

Even though she already knew that magical girls could turn into witches, and even though she had seen Suze become like that in front of her, she still felt very uncomfortable when Xiangzi told her the story of a magical girl she had just killed and who was a complete stranger.

The witch I just killed was once human, and once a magical girl just like myself.

This understanding was deeply imprinted in Aine's mind.

"Do magical girls really have to go through all this?" Aine whispered. "They all end up becoming witches or something. It's so unreasonable, so cruel."

"That's reality," Xiangzi said, bending down to select meat from the freezer to cook that night. "You'll get used to it after a while."

What should we eat tonight... a roast chicken? Is it too late to marinate it now? Or how about steak? Steak only takes a few dozen seconds, it's pretty quick.

As Xiangzi leisurely picked out his things, Aiyin looked at the dazzling array of meat products and, for some reason, suddenly felt that she was very similar to them.

In the eyes of the incubators, what difference is there between themselves and the livestock meat displayed here?

I am... livestock.

At the mercy of others.

"Ugh..." A wave of nausea washed over her, and Aine covered her mouth and turned away.

She made small movements, pretending that she just wanted to look at other products.

She didn't want to dampen Xiangzi's enthusiasm for cooking.

However, Xiangzi saw all of this. Her hand holding the box stopped in mid-air, her eyes turned towards Aiyin, she looked at her for a while, and then put the half-eaten meat back.

She gently stroked Aine's back.

As a fellow magical girl, she could understand what Aine was thinking.

Back then, she had been living away from home for a while and had saved up a little money. She thought she would buy some good food to treat herself, but when faced with rows of frozen meat, her reaction was exactly the same as Aine's now.

She took Aiyin with her and left the freezer.

Are you feeling any better?

After a while, Xiangzi asked.

"Little Master," Ai Yin's voice was low and somber, "what should we do...?"

She thought of Su Shi, herself, and... everyone else.

"What should we do..." Xiangzi sighed with emotion. "Actually, I don't know what to do either. We're all just lost kids on the road of life."

“A lost child…” Aine murmured, “A lost child.”

She felt that the word looked familiar.

It seems like I've seen it in the lamp's notebook before.

"Thank you, little master." She smiled gently and looked at Xiangzi. "I know what to do."

Xiangzi noticed that Ai Yin's eyes had returned to normal. In addition to returning to normal, they had become even more resolute.

Even if you get lost, you have to keep going.

This is also what the lamp wrote in the notebook.

......

......

......

"By the way, what are you planning to do tonight, little master?"

"Playing games all night long."

"what?!"

The Lost Story: The Lost Child: Chapter 310 Why are you taking other people's things without permission!

"Huh?" Ai Yin was stunned. "What do you mean by playing games all night? Didn't you say you don't usually play games?"

"The literal meaning," Xiangzi said.

Several of the SOS messages mentioned that they were unknowingly trapped in the game world while playing, but only one message explicitly stated that "I played all night and when I wanted to log off, I found that the surrounding environment had changed."

"The game is likely the key to entering the barrier."

"But shouldn't the entrance to the witch's barrier have a specific geographical location? I've never heard of this urban legend-like way of entering before."

"That's why I said I wanted to give it a try."

They had already learned their lesson from Lin Hai once.

Even so, Lin Hai's disappearance still provides some useful information.

Xiangzi felt that since no more clues could be found, he might as well continue to delve into the existing clues. Perhaps he would gain more insights, and even if not, the final result would be to eliminate a wrong answer.

"Staying up all night... isn't out of the question."

As soon as Ai Yin heard this word, she felt sleepy and wanted to doze off.

"I've tried it once before, and it wasn't a good memory."

That all-nighter was when I was studying in the UK. I was so anxious that I couldn't sleep. I got up and didn't know what to do. I held my vocabulary book and memorized words until dawn, but when it came time to actually speak, I still couldn't open my mouth.

Hey.

Therefore, Aine did not have a good impression of staying up all night.

【Goodbye my friend it's hard to die~When all the birds are shining in the sky~】

A weak, feeble song came from Xiangzi's pocket.

She took out her phone and answered the call.

It was the first day of the second month, and it was a strange stroll at noon.

"Hey?"

——"Xiao Xiang".

The noise from Chu Hua's side was very loud, with background noise everywhere, and you could vaguely hear people arguing.

Something like, "This audio track seems wrong," or "Where did that microphone go?"

"What's wrong?" Xiangzi forced a smile.

She could roughly guess what Chu Hua was going to say.

"—Um... tonight..."

"You have to work overtime, right?"

"Yes... recording... you know what I mean."

"Hey, should I save some dinner for you tonight?"

Before Xiangzi enrolled in school, she had worked with the company for a while. She knew that those who did these jobs often worked overtime until late at night, or even all night.

"No need, it might be really late."

"Ok."

—“Guomei…”

"It's nothing, it's your side. If you're too tired, take a rest."

"Miss Triangle, the equipment here is all set up. When do we begin?"

The background sounds became clearer.

"They've already started urging us, hurry up and go," Xiangzi said. "That's all, bye-bye."

After hanging up the phone, she noticed that Ai Yin was looking at her with a very strange and indescribable gaze, which made her feel uneasy.

"What, what are you doing?" Xiangzi shuddered and shrank his shoulders.