Aunt Xiangzi, how did you manage to live?

She didn't know what she was running away from.

Is it because she can't look directly at Su Shi and Akari, who are performing "Spring Shadow" with the newcomers on stage, or because she can no longer face the song that once belonged to them, but is now being sung to her heart's content by others on stage?

Perhaps she was running away from the boy who stood in her place with her companions, a boy who seemed capable of easily taking everything away from her.

Kazama Akatsuki.

She couldn't accept it.

Shoko Toyokawa originally thought she could be generous and open-minded in wishing her former teammates all the best, but now she finds that she simply cannot be so carefree.

Even amidst howling winds and torrential rain, she could still faintly hear the melody echoing in her ears.

The song that she and everyone else had repeatedly practiced the harmony in the rehearsal room—rewriting and scrapping it again and again—was now being played and performed by two strangers.

The audience below the stage applauded and cheered, but all of this used to belong to them.

It belongs to CRYCHIC.

She still remembers every detail of that creative period.

Sometimes, Deng would arbitrarily change her lyrics into a mess, but after letting loose, she would obediently bow her head and apologize. Mu recorded a guitar chord for forty minutes repeatedly. Even on the day when Li Xi was at her worst, Su Shi didn't get angry; she just smiled and silently handed her a piece of candy.

If nothing is eternal... will those past memories also gradually be taken over and replaced by new things, just like they are now?

Her pace quickened, as if continuing to run away would allow her to escape the scene she least wanted to see.

No.

Only when the torrential rain soaked his entire face did Xiangzi dare to let the tears flow freely from his eyes.

That kind of thing... no way.

She felt that her position was gradually being replaced, that memories of the past were fading, and that new people were crowding around her, overshadowing her...

"Waaaaah...!"

She could only vent her breakdown through soft sobs in the downpour, and the rain conveniently concealed her vulnerability.

The rain grew heavier, pounding heavily on the sidewalk filled with umbrellas, the shop awnings where people sought shelter, and even on Toyokawa Shoko's chest, which was beginning to feel increasingly breathless.

"That's not how it is...that's not how it should be...!"

She cried out, but her throat was as dry as if she had swallowed shards of glass.

Immersed in his own sorrow, Xiangzi ran wildly through the rain-soaked streets, completely oblivious to the strange looks from the pedestrians waiting for the rain to stop.

This time, she didn't want to live under the gaze of those around her anymore.

Toyokawa Shoko didn't know how long she had been running, nor where she was going.

The streets receded before her eyes like scenes from a movie, car lights, rain, pedestrians, and street signs—all blurred into a blur.

The puddle had already reached her ankles, and it was icy cold, but she didn't care.

Her shoes were already thin, and the heels had twisted when she rushed out of the venue, causing her ankles to ache. Rainwater mixed with pebbles seeped into her shoes, the fabric soaked and clinging to the insteps of her feet, making it feel like rusty nails were embedded between her heels and the sides of her shoes with every step.

Perhaps blood had already seeped out, but Xiangzi didn't care.

She gritted her teeth and kept running until she stepped into a deep puddle next to the manhole cover, lost her balance, and fell heavily to the ground.

“Ss ...

His knee slammed into the rough asphalt, and a sharp pain shot through him.

She tried to stand up, supporting herself with her arms, but due to excessive running, she was too weak and knelt down, panting heavily.

The rain was still falling, as if it would completely engulf her.

She looked down and saw that her socks were already stained with mud and water, and the skin on her heels was worn raw, revealing bright red wounds. When mixed with the mud and water, the blood spread out, like a broken cherry blossom stained with filth.

Her elbows were scraped, and rainwater dripped down her wet bangs to her chin, mingling with her tears and sliding into the crook of her neck.

She didn't know why she couldn't stop crying.

Is it because we didn't say goodbye properly in the past? Is it because we watched helplessly as the people we once stood shoulder to shoulder with formed bands with others? Or is it because, sitting in the audience, watching them sing that song, we could only stand in the darkness?

"Why did it turn out like this..."

She murmured in a hoarse voice.

A taxi sped past, splashing up a huge wave of water that made her whole body tremble.

Looking as disheveled as a bird with wet wings from the rain, she gritted her teeth, pushed herself up from the ground, and staggered forward.

The rain washed away his body heat, and his strength was gradually depleted by the sudden sprint.

She staggered around the street corner, her blistered feet sinking into pebbles hidden in her shoes, the pain making her almost unable to stand.

Blood dripped from the socks onto the ground, mixing with the mud.

Her vision began to blur, and she couldn't tell if the sky was gradually being enveloped in darkness or if her mind was starting to go blank.

Just then, she faintly heard someone calling her name—distant, intermittent, as if it were coming from a dream.

"—Xiangzi!!"

She was startled, but when she turned around, she couldn't see anything.

My vision seemed to be shrouded in the shadow of death.

She didn't know who was calling her name.

Perhaps it was Mu, perhaps it was her partner who had just performed on stage, or perhaps it was Chu Hua, whom she had tried to contact recently but who kept changing the subject.

The red light at the intersection in the distance was flashing, and the traffic began to converge again.

Xiangzi stood in the middle of the road, the bloodstains spreading out at her feet like mottled marks.

Her eyes were empty and lost, like a drowning person slowly sinking into the deep sea of ​​memories.

Suddenly, a blinding headlight hurtled toward her.

Beep beep!

The piercing horn brought her back to her senses for a moment, but the next second the speeding car had completely filled her field of vision—

boom.

Next came the dull thud of flesh being struck by the vehicle, and the sound of it rolling on the asphalt road.

Toyokawa Shoko's gaze gradually became unfocused, and at that moment, not far away, the people who had just been calling her name finally arrived at the scene.

Sankaku Hatsuka stood blankly in the rain, her eyes glazed over. Wakaba Mutsu, who had followed Shoko into the rain, also dropped the umbrella handle from her hand.

A crimson liquid gradually spread across the ground, eventually fading away as the rain washed it away.

—And this blood did not belong to Toyokawa Shoko.

Chapter 79 I'll Shatter Your Theories of God (3k)

Body heat was gradually washed away by the cold rain.

Lying on the ground in place of Toyokawa Shoko was a guy she never imagined would appear in this place.

"Holy crap... Why did you even run onto the road in this pouring rain when you can barely see anything?!"

The car driver leaned out of the window, still shaken. He had tried his best to pull the handbrake, but the slipping tires couldn't stop his vehicle from hitting the person standing in the middle of the road.

To be precise, he bumped into the boy who had pushed Toyokawa Shoko half a meter away, and he himself was knocked several meters away.

"Cough, cough...cough!"

Dizziness and vertigo, and the intense pain throughout the body gradually became numb due to the loss of body temperature.

Kazama, who was lying on the ground unable to get up, could smell a bloody taste in what he coughed up, but he had no idea whether it was blood clots or fragments of internal organs.

He struggled to his feet and staggered over to Xiangzi, who was still standing there in a daze.

Her eyes remained lifeless until Xiao lifted her up by the collar, at which point she realized she had almost been in a car accident.

"Don't die... Toyokawa Shoko."

Coming to her senses, the dazed girl could only see the boy in the rain, his presence completely filling her vision.

And this person was the one who saved her from the car accident.

Seemingly because he had no more strength left, Kazama grabbed his collar and looked down at her expression.

The red dots at the corners of his mouth had been washed away by the raindrops, but the crimson liquid constantly seeping from his forehead still reminded her—

He just shielded her from the impact of the vehicle with his own body.

"You can't die yet."

His voice sounded a little hoarse, but it was calm and composed, like a god delivering a pronouncement.

"Haven't you always thought about taking responsibility for someone's life, being accountable for someone else's future... becoming someone else's god?"

Here we go again, he somehow found out about his past.

Xiangzi didn't interrupt or refute, he just stared blankly at the boy in front of him who was about to lift him up from the ground, leaving him powerless.

“I will let you live... so that from now on you will always listen to ‘Spring Shadow’ without you.”

Her vision was being washed away by the rain, gradually blurring everything in sight.

"—Then you can openly and honestly deny your theory of gods."

But only the boy's voice echoed in her ears.

That seemed to be a judgment even more supreme than that of so-called gods.

puff.

The next second, the boy collapsed straight down beside her, as if he had used up all his strength to say those words to her.

"...?"

Toyokawa Shoko was unable to move until someone ran towards her.

-

-

Ah... this must be the smell of death.

Kazama lay on the ground with his face turned to the side, and everything that was once clear in his vision was gradually becoming more and more distant.

But it is precisely at times like these that memories of the past emerge in the mind more clearly.

His senses seemed to be gradually returning. He seemed to smell the fragrance of cotton quilts dried in the sun, and he seemed to see the gentle smile on Mu's face as she fed him.

The fleeting moment, like a revolving lantern, gradually faded away, and he seemed to see a hospital bed in the hospital.

The curtains in the ward were half-drawn, and the setting sun cast a broken orange silhouette on the wall. The air seemed to be sealed in a slowly flowing amber bottle, and everyone's breathing in the ward became subtle and sluggish.

The hissing of the oxygen machine and the rhythmic ticking of the electrocardiogram monitor intertwined to create an eerie, silent rhythm.

The girl with long silver-blue hair lay on the bed, her thin shoulders almost swallowed up by the white sheets. Her lips were pale, and her chest heaved very little, as if she would be buried in the sheets and never come out again.

He saw an even more astonishing scene.

Mutsu, Riki, Susei, Aine... all the members of MYGO gathered around her bedside, including Mutsu and Hatsuka, who stayed by Xiangzi's side at all times.

Outside the ward, Miaomeng and Hailing looked at each other in silence, but they were also silently waiting for news from inside the ward.

Everyone stood very close, yet they all seemed very far away from her.

Xiangzi opened her eyes, her somewhat unfocused gaze falling on the group of familiar figures.

The girl on the hospital bed managed a weak smile, a smile that seemed more like a reluctant farewell.

"I'm sorry... I should have explained things to you properly a long time ago..."

Mu stepped forward, but her fingers trembled slightly, and her eyes had become dull and lifeless.

"Xiang..."

She managed to squeeze out the syllables to spell out the girl's name in the hospital bed, but this only added to the sorrow of everyone present.

Kazama slowly figured it out.

The scene before me is probably the one where Aunt Xiangzi was making her final arrangements in front of the hospital room when she passed away.