Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Giving up is the main theme of her life.

This is the only time in her life that she will shine like this, and it will be the last.

When her body crashes onto the concrete, it will shatter, her hands, feet, brain, intestines, and other miscellaneous parts will be scattered everywhere. Moreover, the magic power of the Soul Gem has been depleted after being bombarded several times, and she will not have a chance to regenerate this time.

She would fall to the ground, shattering into pieces. The Soul Gem would continue to drain its magic to repair her body until it broke through the threshold, shattering completely and giving birth to the Seed of Lamentation.

She will die; she will become a witch.

Regret?

Miao Meng asked herself repeatedly.

Do you regret it?

Even if there's no chance to regret it now, if she were given another chance, would she still jump off the building like that?

The answer was the same; she did it anyway.

She would die for Xiangzi.

but.

Was it instinct, or some function in her brain that controlled "altruistic behavior" that directed her to perform such a self-sacrificing act?

Are behaviors driven by instinct actually behaviors that arise from "self-awareness"?

In the instant she leaped into the air, she understood.

To shine brightly in the end, to let the whole world know about her, to make herself immortal... these are all excuses she used to convince herself to die for Xiangzi, all under the premise of "love".

She chose to fall in love with Xiangzi and sacrificed herself for him.

But Xiangzi has so many people around her who love her and are willing to sacrifice for her, does she really need one more? If she had any self-awareness, she should have given up long ago.

However, if a fool had the self-awareness to know his own limitations, he wouldn't be a fool. She just happens to be the kind of fool who doesn't back down when faced with difficulties.

They are truly beyond redemption.

Having lived for so many years, she never imagined that she would die for "love." If her younger self from a few years ago had seen this scene, she would have burst out laughing and spat a few times.

Is this person some kind of dreamy, obsessive woman who's been reading too many romance novels? How could she willingly throw her life away for such an absurd and pointless reason?

My past self would definitely have thought that way.

One might wonder: what is the point of dying for love?

Does it make sense?

significance?

What exactly is meaning?

Meaning is nothing but an ethereal concept, a meaning arbitrarily assigned by humankind. Meaning itself is meaningless, and in such cases, the pursuit of meaning is utterly pointless.

However, it is precisely because humans arbitrarily attribute and impose their own ideas on things that this originally empty world has acquired "meaning" for the first time. It is because humans chose to attribute meaning that the world has "meaning".

This is human beings’ own choice.

Her behavior may be controlled by brain function. Even her liking for Xiangzi was nothing more than the brain secreting hormones under the suspension bridge effect that tied everyone together several times, making her develop a different feeling for Xiangzi.

Killing, hatred, and selfish behavior, as well as love, tolerance, and altruistic behavior, are all functions of the brain. It was she herself, the individual "Yutenji Ruomai," who chose to give them meaning.

This was her own choice, and even if it was driven by her brain function, it was still her own voluntary decision.

She is a very self-centered, selfish, and self-serving person. She has to think of some reason to convince herself. Thinking about it this way makes things much clearer.

--"ah--!"

A sharp scream shattered Miaomeng's reverie.

She noticed that she was standing on the ground, not lying down.

Strange, shouldn't she have already fallen to the ground and shattered into pieces...? Why is she still standing? Why can she still...think?

By the way, who made the scream?

The sound was coming from beneath me. Whose scream was that? Was it my own? Had my soul left my body after the fall?

impossible.

Miaomeng lowered her head, looked down at herself, and then...

She saw her own body, covered in a waxy substance that enveloped her entirely. Strangely, she didn't feel anything special; it was as if the wax was part of her body.

Miaomeng raised her head and looked around.

The scream came from the soles of its own feet. A magical girl, only up to its knees, had half her body burned by the high-temperature wax and was being dragged back behind the cover by her companions.

Everyone around him had turned into dwarfs, and he was the only one who was normal—no, no, it should be said the other way around, only he had grown bigger, while everyone else remained the same.

It saw a bloody, mangled unidentified object on the ground, which looked like it had fallen from a height.

It then looked at the mirrored exterior of the tall building, where its current appearance was reflected.

what.

So this is ah.

Meow Dream understood.

It turns out she has become a witch.

[Witch's Name: Plair d'amour]

Its nature is a burning emotion of one-sided devotion.

"Plair d'amour" is a classical piece of music that originated in the 18th century. In the 1960s, a popular song based on its melody was created and became a global hit. The singer was Elvis Presley.

The song is called "Can't Help Falling In Love," which means "I can't help but fall in love with you."

At the end of her life, the former magical girl finally realized that she had fallen into an inescapable love, and she completely broke down in the moment before she fell.

The Tale of Reincarnation: The Path of Fall, the Road of No Return: Chapter 661 This is Between Us

When Xiangzi arrived at the scene, he could see the towering wax figure, several stories high, from afar, and the name of the witch immediately came to mind.

[Witch's Name: Plair d'amour]

Its nature is a burning emotion of one-sided devotion.

Xiangzi stopped and looked at the witch who stood there like a statue from afar.

It was a half-melted wax doll, several stories high, with wax tears solidified into a half-broken set of knight's armor, the broken parts revealing charred rose embroidery.

Half of the knight's helmet had melted away, revealing a serene, smiling face underneath. The face inside was also made of wax, and the curve of the corners of the mouth looked much rougher than the rest, as if it had been forcibly carved on later.

Behind each of the wax knight's arm armors, a thick chain extends, dragging on the ground. Each section of the chain has a sharp blade. As the wax knight walks, the chains drag deep grooves in the ground, while rose-colored flames burn on the chains, creating a line of fire along the drag marks.

The magical girl was injured by the flames of the chain blade and had to retreat to a safe distance.

Before Xiangzi arrived, several aggressive chainmail armors had nearly killed the three magical girls. Strangely, this witch didn't attack proactively; she only reacted to attacks. The three seriously injured magical girls almost died from her counterattacks.

There was also the magical girl who had gathered the Nekodama outside the building. She had completely exhausted her magic power due to the relentless attacks and had to retreat.

The witch that Meow Dream transformed into had single-handedly defeated four magical girls in less than half an hour.

After no one attacked it, it stood there blankly, neither opening its barrier nor exhibiting any predatory behavior, as if waiting for something.

Within the knight's tattered breastplate, one could vaguely see a heart-shaped heart that was half-melted and still beating. Each beat of the heart produced a muffled sound like a bass drum, which Xiangzi could hear clearly even from two streets away.

I wonder what this sound would sound like to an ordinary person.

“That’s the witch who just appeared at the scene,” Rebecca explained, standing beside Xiangzi. “Witnesses confirmed that it was one of the robbers from earlier, which means…”

“That’s Meow Dream,” Xiangzi said in a hoarse voice.

“Like the original magical girl, the newly born witch has super regenerative abilities, and conventional attacks cannot harm her.” Rebecca stared at her phone and told Xiangzi the information she had just received. “The rose-colored flame is attached to the wax and will stick to objects after it touches them.”

“It’s between five and six meters tall, but it’s very fast. The chain blades on its arm armor are its main attack method. Combined with its powerful regenerative ability, it’s very difficult to deal with,” she said. “Given that three magical girls have almost died at its hands just now, the guild has classified it as ‘Red Hot Chili Pepp’.”

"union?"

“The Magical Girl Guild is a formal guild under the Labor Federation. All of us who are officially registered have to pay to join,” Rebecca said. “Of course, they also provide Lament Seeds regularly, as well as various welfare services. In case of emergencies, they will also call on nearby magical girl volunteers through the guild—but I’m usually on missions abroad, so this is the first time I’ve received a notification.”

"What is the Red Pepper Grade?"

“The guild uses a grading system that names witches based on the first appearance of that grading level, like the Red Pepper grading level…” Rebecca scratched her head. “The grading is based on many factors, such as the type of magic, the ability to cause damage, and the difficulty of defeating them. I don’t know the specifics, but it’s hard to generalize it into an incremental grading system like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.”

"About what level?" Xiangzi asked casually. "No need to go through all that trouble to explain."

Each region has its own way of dividing things, and Xiangzi was too lazy to understand how Rebecca's hometown was divided.

"Its sustained combat ability is strong, but its destructive power is not that strong. It is difficult to subdue and its destructive power is relatively weak. It mainly fights with its own body... That's roughly the characteristic of this level," Rebecca said. "If I had to divide it into 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, it would probably be somewhere between 4 and 5."

"That's enough," Xiangzi interrupted Rebecca, turning his gaze to the witch.

If we categorize it like this, it's roughly Hard and above, approaching the Dangos level. I never expected that Nekomushi, who wasn't much of a magical girl, would become unexpectedly strong after becoming a witch.

"Do you want to kill it with your own hands?" Rebecca asked.

"Is it not allowed?" Xiangzi raised an eyebrow. "It has to be allowed, no matter what. Yutianji Ruomai is my man, so he should die if he has to."

"No, no, no, don't get so excited." Rebecca quickly waved her hand. "I didn't say it was impossible. It just so happens that all the magical girls from the nearby guilds have been wiped out by it, leaving only me who can provide backup. At this point, unless an unregistered vigilante suddenly appears, no one will be able to take it from you."

"That's good." Xiangzi pulled out the gun blade hidden in the Soul Gem and loaded the bullets one by one.

“But—you can’t just go up and kill it, or it’ll cause a lot of trouble later,” Rebecca added. “It might even delay your return home because of the investigation.”

"Say it all at once," Xiangzi glared at her, annoyed.

“What I mean is, you need to go through a process.” Rebecca turned on the recording function on her phone. “I, Rebecca Kravis, a magical girl belonging to the United Magical Girls of America, authorize you for this witch extermination. Shoko Toyokawa, a magical girl from another country, do you agree?”

Then Rebecca desperately tried to signal to Xiangzi with her eyes, "Agree, agree, agree quickly."

"..." Xiangzi sighed as he looked at her anxious expression. "I agree."

“Alright.” Rebecca turned off the recording. “I will take full responsibility for any consequences that may arise afterward. You can go now without worry.”

"Thank you." Xiangzi nodded his thanks to her.

"Xiao Xiang, do you need our help?" Chu Hua asked from behind Xiangzi. "If the four of us work together, we should be able to finish quickly."

"Do not."

Xiangzi shook his head, slung the Reinhardt gun-blade over his back, and walked toward the witch.

The witch, who had been standing still, seemed to sense someone approaching. Her half-melted wax helmet turned towards Xiangzi. She swung the chainmail blades extending from her arm armor, assuming a fighting stance for the first time without anyone attacking her.

"It's waiting for me. This is between her and me, and no one else is allowed to interfere."

The Tale of Reincarnation: The Path of Fall, the Road of No Return: Chapter 662 What Do You Mean to Me?

Da da da.

The high heels clicked against the floor tiles, making a crisp sound like a passionate kiss.

Xiangzi weaved through the crowd, gripping her gun blade, and walked step by step toward the witch standing in the square. The witch seemed to sense her arrival and turned her gaze in her direction.

It had never acted this way before; it only reacted when someone attacked it. But as soon as Xiangzi arrived, it turned its head, swung the lockblades on its arms, and folded them into blade shapes, assuming a ready-to-fight stance.

"—!"

A loud roar, like the sound of cymbals, came from beneath the wax knight's helmet. The witch's barrier gradually expanded from its center, enveloping Xiangzi and herself within it.

Soon, only Xiangzi and the witch remained in the world.

The sky transformed into a ceiling illuminated by darkness, and a miniature city rose from beneath Xiangzi's feet. Although it was miniature, the tallest building was still almost a meter taller than Xiangzi, reaching just to the waist of the wax knight.

All the buildings were made of wax, and the parts near the witch were affected by the high temperature around her, showing signs of melting.

Xiangzi felt that it was not easy to maneuver on the street, so he jumped onto the roof.

Once you get to the rooftop, blinding lights come from all directions.

Lights shone from all directions; those were set lights fixed on iron frames about ten meters high. Cameras of different angles and perspectives were densely packed outside the set, aimed at her and the five-meter-tall wax knight.

This is a film set, a film set used for shooting tokusatsu dramas.

Xiangzi thought.

This is a stage that Miaomeng specially prepared for the two of them.

"As expected, you've been waiting for me all along." Xiangzi raised the gun blade and pointed it at the wax head. "I've come to take you away, Meow Dream."