Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

"It's good that you're alright." Xiangzi followed behind Yachiyo.

"Thank goodness I'm alright, or rather, that's more like it." Yachiyo covered her forehead. "I'm really fed up with you kids. You always act impulsively and do your own thing."

Xiangzi glanced at Yachiyo with dissatisfaction.

"I also want to ask you, what exactly is the Other Shore? What restored wall? And those distorted explosion sounds? I saw all of that myself just now, but why are those traces left by the Other Shore? Aren't you going to explain?"

"I was planning to tell you anyway."

Yachiyo led Shoko to the gap created by the rocket artillery.

"Well, this is it."

She pointed to the gap and asked.

"Do you think there's any difference between the gap you blasted in and the gaps in the wall before it was restored?"

Xiangzi shook his head.

"I thought those were left over from the battle."

"It was indeed left behind during the battle, but it was left from the battle just now, not from before."

"But it was already like this when we got there!" Xiangzi shrugged.

That's only true for us.

Yachiyo found a piece of broken stone, then picked up another piece of broken stone, and tossed the two stones between her palms.

"The two stones in my hand, one is on the 'this shore' like us, and the other is on the 'other shore' like the attackers just now. Can you tell the difference?"

Xiangzi squinted and looked carefully at the stone in Yachiyo's hand.

Both pieces of stone were flying up and down in Yachiyo's hands, but the one in her left hand looked particularly uncomfortable. Shoko felt as if she had seen this kind of form before, with its strange trajectory, combined with the unpleasant sound of the explosion.

It's almost like... reversing the motion of throwing a stone with your right hand?

Playing it backwards?!

Xiangzi's pupils suddenly contracted.

She suddenly understood what Yachiyo was going to say.

“Everywhere here are traces left by the other shore. For them, our future is their past. We are on ‘this shore’, and they are on ‘the other shore’.”

Yachiyo stopped and grasped the two stones.

"In other words, their time is the opposite of ours, do you understand?"

The Tale of Reincarnation: The Forgotten Shore: Chapter 455 A Chaotic Future

“Everywhere here are traces left by the other side. For them, our future is their past. We are on ‘this side,’ and they are on ‘the other side.’ In other words, their time is the opposite of ours. Do you understand?”

"Would you like to give it a try?"

"Time, is it reversed? Like playing it backwards?" Xiangzi frowned.

"almost."

Yachiyo stopped, grasped the two stones, and handed the "stone from the other side" to Shoko.

"Do you want to give it a try?"

"How do I try it?"

"Try to 'drop' it."

"You just said something like that too."

“Now it’s your turn to try it yourself.” Yachiyo took out her phone and started recording. “Imagine dropping this stone and then replaying the action in reverse.”

Xiangzi swallowed hard, reached out his hand towards the pebbles in Yachiyo's hand, and then slightly pulled his palm back.

—Swoosh

The stone really flew into her palm, just like Yachiyo had done.

"...Me too? How did you do that?" Xiangzi's eyes lit up.

Yachiyo paused the recording and showed the video to Shoko.

She first played the normal video, and Xiangzi saw the stone fly into his hand just like before. Then, the video was played in reverse, and Xiangzi's action of pulling his hand back turned into the action of throwing the stone.

Judging from the reversed video, it was Xiangzi who threw the stone into Yachiyo's hand.

“From your perspective, the stone flew into your hand; from the stone’s perspective, you threw it away. The stone’s perspective is the perspective of the other side,” Yachiyo said. “Essentially, as long as the object is on the other side, the person who makes the action, whether from this side or the other side, can have such an effect on it.”

"This... doesn't fit the cause-and-effect relationship at all."

Xiangzi realized where the counterintuitive part was.

Cause and effect, cause and effect, there is cause and effect, this is common sense, and it is the truth of the world - it should be the truth, the existence of cause and effect is even the key to the existence of magical girls.

However, the other side has an effect before a cause, which completely breaks the logic of common sense.

“From the perspective of the stone on the other side, it was you who threw it out,” Yachiyo said. “Cause and effect exist in the same way. Whether this video is played forwards or backwards, the stone’s fate is caused by you.”

For the first time, Xiangzi had the feeling that "something's gone wrong and he's about to grow a brain."

“It’s normal to find it hard to accept at first.” Yachiyo patted her on the shoulder. “We also spent a lot of time trying to understand the enemies of the Ode to Praise.”

"Hmm..." Xiangzi pouted, somewhat unwilling.

“I remember that the magical girls of Reed Plains all like to do art, right?” Yachiyo suddenly said.

"Uh, about the same?" Xiangzi raised an eyebrow.

During the era of the big girl bands that were popular in Reed Plains, she did indeed overlap significantly with the magical girls of Reed Plains, and she herself was one of them.

“Those of you in the arts should have all heard the saying: Don’t try to understand, feel.”

Yachiyo made a gesture of withdrawing her hand, taking the stone back from Shoko's hand. The movement was like the stone being turned upside down in her hand, flipping back and forth, from the back of her hand to her palm, and then circling at her fingertips.

Just as Yachiyo was about to throw the stone away, the disobedient stone from the other side flew out again and landed steadily in Shoko's hand.

Yachiyo looked at her with some surprise, seemingly not expecting her to master it so quickly.

"Relying on intuition and inspiration? I understand."

If you look at the whole process in reverse, it means that Xiangzi threw the stone first, and it landed in Yachiyo's hands. It rolled around in Yachiyo's hands, and then Yachiyo threw it back into Xiangzi's hands.

The effect comes first, then the cause.

Xiangzi had fully understood, and even thought of a word that not many people knew.

[Beyond Cause and Effect]

Could the existence of an effect followed by a cause be related to a non-causal relationship with a completely unknown origin?

Xiangzi held the stone from the other side of the river and, imitating Yachiyo, turned it over and over in his hands, watching the counterintuitive, uncommon, and physics-defying stone roll back and forth in his hands.

"As expected, you artists understand things the fastest. Maruyama Aya and the others also grasped it very quickly."

Where are they now?

"Recover your injuries in a safe place."

"Who is injured?"

“Maruyama Aya, she was injured by the Ode to the Praise Faction in the battle that took place here.” Yachiyo leaned against the wall, her eyes half-closed. “Attacks from the other side will radiate some of the objects they touch into objects from the other side as well. These stones left on the ground are examples of that. That’s why I call them ‘traces left by the other side.’”

"Wouldn't being injured by an attack from the other side...?"

“Only the area around the wound will be radiated. The wound is reversed, while the person is forward. The ‘future’ of the wound’s recovery is in the ‘past.’ Unless the whole person and the wound are synchronized to the other shore state, this wound will never be healed.” Yachiyo shook her head. “But the witch of this shore is in the hands of the Ode Faction.”

"hiss......"

Xiangzi gasped.

"Is she alright?"

"This is bad. She's even losing consciousness. We can only try to maintain the status quo for now." Yachiyo sighed.

"What exactly do they want to do, controlling the witches of this side?"

“I don’t know. We’ve been at odds with the Acura party for a while now, and we still don’t understand what they’re thinking.” Yachiyo paused halfway through her sentence, then continued, “But maybe someone does know.”

"Who?"

“I just heard that you’ll have new roommates,” Yachiyo said. “They’ll be arriving in Kamihama tonight.”

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

That evening, Xiangzi sat in the living room waiting for the "new roommate" that Yachiyo had mentioned.

Xiangzi suddenly remembered that Yachiyo had mentioned that there was a high chance of a new roommate moving in, but she didn't expect it to happen so soon.

Sitting idly on the sofa, Xiangzi began to organize the information he had gathered that day in his mind.

A celebration of the end, "justice," the witch of this shore, the positive shore and the negative shore...

What will it ultimately become?

Will the Nirvana I saw on the 27th be related to what happened in Kamihama? Could that Nirvana be a return from the future through the witch of this shore?

The future is a mess, like a ball of yarn that a cat has dragged around the house on.

squeak-

Just as Xiangzi was starting to get irritable, the door to the small house was opened.

A head with two braids peeked in from outside and asked in a low voice:

"Hello......"

The Tale of Reincarnation: The Shore of Oblivion: Chapter 456 Homura Akemi Makes a Grand Appearance!

A black-haired girl with two braids and red-rimmed glasses poked her head in from outside the door.

"Hello... My name is Homura Akemi. Ms. Yachiyo asked us to come here. We might be causing trouble here for a few days... Ah! It's you!"

Shoko didn't expect to see an acquaintance. Their eyes met in mid-air, and when Homura Akemi saw her, her gaze froze.

Could it be that the person Yachiyo mentioned who might know the secrets of the Ode to Praise is her?

Xiangzi blinked, just about to greet Yan and say "long time no see," when she suddenly remembered—they hadn't met in this cycle, so why did Yan have that expression when she saw her?

"Do you know me?" Xiangzi asked tentatively. "We probably haven't met before."

Flame clearly knew her.

However, her response to Xiangzi was somewhat unexpected, almost as if... they had some deep-seated grudge.

"Toyokawa Shoko!"

Flame's pupils suddenly contracted, and a transformation light flashed across his body. He took out a Beretta M92F from the small round shield in his left hand and pointed it at Xiangzi.

"What did you do to Senior Ba?!" Yan gripped the gun tremblingly, aiming at Xiangzi five steps away, her voice strained and trembling, "Give Senior Ba back to me right now!"

Rather than a threat, Xiangzi felt that her tone was more like she was forcing herself to face something terrifying, like when facing a small animal much stronger than herself, using some seemingly exaggerated behavior to bolster her courage, while pinning her hopes that this intimidation would frighten the opponent.

"Wait, can't we talk this out?" Xiangzi raised his hands in surrender.

Although Yan's threat seemed weak and ineffective, Xiangzi never intended to provoke a conflict. She was always the type to speak peacefully whenever possible.

"Hand over your senior first!"

Unfortunately, the other side didn't seem to intend to accept Xiangzi's surrender. Yan's emotions became extremely unstable after seeing Xiangzi, and her finger on the trigger pulled as she threatened. The firing pin ignited the gunpowder, propelling the bullet from the chamber towards Xiangzi.

"?!"

Xiangzi turned his head to the side, letting the bullet whiz past his face. At the same time, the resurrected M1911 also pointed its muzzle at Akemi Homura. As soon as she pulled the trigger, he would fire at the same time, and the bullets would inevitably collide.

She never expected Yan to fire directly.

How scared must one be to do this?

Seeing how skillfully Xiangzi dodged the bullets, Yan made a sound as the small round shield in her left hand opened.

Click.

The world suddenly turned black and white.

The Beretta M92F bullets, just fired, froze in mid-air, surrounding Xiangzi.