Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Page 598

My right hand... seems to have recovered a little, but it still doesn't have much strength. I'll use Restore to fix it later.

But did I just see green hair...? Green hair, and that reassuring scent...?

“Green hair…is it Mu?” She looked around but didn’t see anyone.

I was lying in a simple room, which was like a dormitory with many bunk beds piled up together. The aisle could barely accommodate one person. If it were full of people, it would be extremely crowded.

The light I just saw was a warm light attached to the wall.

The temperature here seems quite low; the heaters are probably used to simulate sunlight and provide warmth.

These multi-person dormitories are probably for workers, which matches the environment of the city that Miaomeng described: an underwater city, a flesh and blood factory, workers lured in from the sea and forced to work on assembly lines... and so on.

"..."

On the other hand, you saw Mu just now, right? You definitely saw her.

Xiangzi frowned slightly, got off the wooden bed, and walked out of the room.

squeak-

Pushing open the dormitory door, through the crack, the dreamy emerald green hair reappeared before my eyes.

However, this time Xiangzi was completely relieved, not for any other reason than that the owner of the long, emerald green hair was the person he was looking for.

“Mu, you’re here,” Xiangzi said dryly.

"Yes, I've always been here." Mu nodded and smiled. "Xiang, it's been a long time. I didn't expect to see you here."

A Tale of Transcendence: Stars and Us: Chapter 804 Dreaming of "Wonderland"

"Yes..." Xiangzi picked up a strand of hair and twirled it around his finger, as if trying to ease the awkwardness of not knowing what to say. "Long time no see."

She closed the dormitory door, leaned against the door panel, looked at the person opposite her, wanted to say something, but didn't know how to start.

After a long silence, Xiangzi took a deep breath.

“I…” “Xiang…”

“You go first.”

"..."

"Pfft." Xiangzi covered his mouth. "I didn't expect that after not seeing each other for so long, it would be this awkward."

“I never expected to see Xiang again.” Mu smiled. “No matter what happened, welcome back.”

"Hmm." Xiangzi nodded and extended his hand to Mu. "Shall we talk as we walk?"

"Okay." Mu placed his hand in Xiangzi's hand. "I also have a lot to tell you."

Holding Mu's hand, walking down the narrow and oppressive corridor, Xiangzi felt, for some reason, a strange feeling that he wished things could stay this way forever.

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

Meanwhile, above the elevator.

The hideous and terrifying mountain of flesh had grown to the point of completely blocking the passage. Miaomeng and Hailing had no choice but to fight and retreat, back behind the valve, where they used the heavy valve to keep the overwhelming stitched monsters out.

"This is it, we're doomed." Miao Meng turned on the valve, turned around and sat down against the door, slapping herself in the face. "Xiangzi is gone, the only way down is blocked, and I'm covered in injuries."

She looked down at the gruesome wound on her abdomen.

The wound is healing, but the healing speed is far from sufficient given the high intensity of the previous environment.

She had become accustomed to fighting a style of exchanging injuries for injuries; this fighting style had even become her instinct, and she couldn't change it anytime soon.

These injuries, with the magic suppressed, will probably take another two or three minutes to fully heal.

Boom!

Miaomeng slammed her fist on the door.

"Damn it! Seriously! Where did these guys come from? They're everywhere, in endless hordes!" Her chest heaved. "If we can't take the elevator, we're completely helpless!"

"Don't be so discouraged." Hailing took a few deep breaths and wiped the dirty black blood off her face. "There must be some way to get down there."

She swung the blade forcefully, then slammed her palm against the hilt to shake off all the blood, revealing the gleaming silver blade before sheathing it.

If these two swords weren't her exclusive weapons as a magical girl, they would have been chipped or even broken long ago.

While she was cleaning up the weapons, Miaomeng sat cross-legged, pondering if there were any other options.

“This is the only transportation hub. If we can’t go this way… then… wait a minute.” Miao Meng blinked. “There’s a harbor for submarines on the lower level. Can we take the submersible we came in on the way down and go around to the lower level from the outside?”

“Try it? -- Uh!” Hailing suddenly covered her forehead halfway through her sentence.

"Wow?! What happened to you!" Miaomeng quickly reached out to support her. "Don't scare me. We're already in this situation, you can't afford to get hurt again."

"Why say such unlucky things?" Hailing pushed her away and shook her head. "But something really is wrong, didn't you hear?"

"What did you hear?"

"The sound, the sound of those monsters."

Whenever this group of people casually crumpled up something and threw it near her, Hailing would become very uneasy, as if some voice was calling to her.

Join us

"That's what the monsters said."

"Now that you mention it, their roars did sound a bit different, but I didn't pay much attention." Meow Dream swallowed. "Do they have some kind of self-awareness?"

"It's hard to say." Hailing shook her head. "But no matter what, we've all been affected. The weakening of the magic's effect might also be related to the sound."

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

"So, Meow Dream and Sea Bell stayed on it?" Mu asked.

"When I fell, they were still fighting those monsters up there. There was a wall of flesh that grew bigger the more they were attacked, blocking us from each other." Xiangzi sighed. "What exactly are those monsters? There is magic flowing in their bodies, but not enough to form magical beasts. Their origins are unknown, and their vitality is unusually tenacious."

She briefly explained her journey through thirty years and what happened before she fell into the sea.

Because it hadn't actually been long for her, she didn't have much time to explain, and the issue quickly shifted to matters related to the current situation.

“Those were originally residents of the underwater city,” Mu said.

There were no pleasantries, no words of longing; everything was just like it was thirty years ago, and Mu got straight to the point as always.

She only talks more when exchanging information.

"Just as I thought." Xiangzi stroked his chin. "How did they become like this? What exactly happened to this city?"

“This city was originally maintained by the city lord, Renate, using super-causality,” Mu said. “But as her desires swelled more and more, her connection with super-causality also gradually deepened, and then one day, her desires got out of control.”

"Out of control?" Xiangzi stopped in the middle of the corridor and pushed open a half-open dormitory door next to him.

A slight wriggling sound could be heard inside.

As soon as the pistol was inserted, Xiangzi pulled the trigger the instant he saw the grotesque monster, destroying its limbs and finally its head.

Given that some creatures can move even without heads, it's more sensible for her to first strip them of their mobility.

"Over the decades, Del has never stopped her theoretical research on extracausality, and the conclusion that she reached about the loss of control was also a conclusion she reached a long time ago."

Mu followed behind her and they entered the dormitory room together, turning on the lights.

"For life in the new world, supercausality is an energy that can fulfill all desires. Human desires are infinite. Once a person holds supercausality for too long, his desires will expand to an uncontrollable level. Supercausality will also indiscriminately execute his uncontrollable desires, thus causing disaster... In Del's words, that's how it is."

"Just like the One Ring..."

Xiangzi nodded, squatted down, moved aside the corpse on the ground, and pulled out a thick notebook from the side. It was a diary.

Xiangzi opened it and glanced at it casually.

The diary begins with records of daily life, survival on land, and then moves on to the seabed, where the diary depicts factory life, a life never before experienced.

Compared to the struggle for survival, the collective life in the factory, where food and lodging were provided, was nothing short of paradise for the diarist.

However, things started to change from then on.

The monotonous life on the assembly line led the diarist to start spacing out while working, and then he began to hear strange noises.

The voice told him that the ultimate goal of the collective was to become a whole, and so on.

From that point on, the diary entries became chaotic, filled with many things Xiangzi couldn't understand. Eventually, the handwriting became so illegible that it was impossible to decipher anything.

Xiangzi closed his notebook, turned his head, and looked at Mu.

"What kind of wish is it to turn this city into this, to turn its residents into... well, like Frankenstein's monsters?"

“She wanted all the people in the world to be united as one, to be a cohesive whole, to be able to understand each other, to have no more barriers, no more classes, no more suffering,” Mu explained. “This is what she conveyed through the radio before the city descended into complete chaos.”

"Ha." Xiangzi twitched the corner of his mouth.

Is it a complete whole? ...The diary I just read, and the mentally unstable workers that Miaomeng mentioned, all mentioned similar things.

Think about those people who seem to be mixed together. The more Hailing is cut down, the more monsters fill the mountain of flesh. It does fit the concept of "unity". Using such a forceful method to mix everyone together, could it be that her wish has actually been distorted?

"Did super-causality distort her wishes? Turning the people here into this state?" Xiangzi asked.

When a magical girl makes a wish, her own causal foundation is insufficient, so the wish-granting machine will grant her wish in a way that aligns with the causal balance, causing some magical girls' wishes to be fulfilled in a distorted form. Is this also true for things beyond causality?

However, the answer I received from Mu was "no".

“This is the city lord’s own wish, her own desire,” Mu said calmly. “What is truly out of control is not the transcendence of cause and effect, but her desires—after enjoying too much power to have her wishes fulfilled, her mind has become extremely abnormal.”

“This disaster started in the mind. The city lord used the entire underwater city as his testing ground, first gaining the resonance of some of the ‘chosen ones’ in the mind, connecting their minds together,” Mu continued. “This process started when Miaomeng and I came in, which is why we saw some…not quite normal people back then.”

“...Psychological influence.” Xiangzi squinted.

She seemed to suddenly remember something and took out her Soul Gem.

"Could our magic being suddenly restricted during the battle be related to this mental influence?"

“I’ve never experienced this before.” Mu shook his head slightly. “There’s no way to answer that question.”

"Ok."

“However, this intangible spiritual influence has indeed permeated the entire underwater city,” Mu said. “The speech given by the city lord was the fuse that ignited this influence. From that moment on, the influence began to extend from the purely spiritual to the physical.”

“Then, those monsters we saw came into being,” Xiangzi said. “Is that right?”

“Many details of the process have been omitted, but the result is correct.” Mu nodded. “They are neither magical beasts nor humans. They have become part of the city lord, connected to him in both body and spirit… Strictly speaking, they are actually part of a ‘magical girl’s’ limbs.”

"That sounds disgusting." Xiangzi imagined what the city lord looked like and showed a look of disgust. "So how are we going to get the super-causality from her?"

"She hid the supercausality, in the deepest part of the trench, in a heavily guarded vault..."

Mu suddenly stopped, looking uncomfortable, and held his forehead.

"What's wrong?" Xiangzi went up to help Mu.

Only then did she realize that Mu's body was very light, so light that she almost thought it didn't exist.

"Your body..."

"There are some unavoidable effects." Mu gently pushed Xiangzi away and steadied himself. "It's alright."

"How can that be done?"

“In a place like this, Xiang has no way to settle me.” Mu shook his head. “If we aim to transcend causality, this matter can be completely resolved, but…”

"but what?"

"Does Xiang have the black box with him?"

“The black box… oh, you mean the container that holds things beyond causality.” Xiangzi nodded. “Yes, I have it with me.”

This item was given to her by Delete before she set off. She, Meow Dream, and Hailing each carried one. It could temporarily sever the connection between the supercausality and the holder, making it easier for them to take the item out. Otherwise, the scene that happened in Helheim would occur again, where even if the holder died, their remaining resentment would trigger a supercausal reaction.

It looks like an iron box, nothing special.

"That's good." Mu breathed a sigh of relief. "The closer you get to the vault, the stronger the mental influence becomes. If you make direct contact, it might connect the person who touches it directly to the city lord's mind. If we have the black box... there shouldn't be any problem."

"Mu, you know so much, you wouldn't..." Xiangzi looked at Mu's fragile appearance, as if she might break at any moment, and said with a heavy heart, "Have you tried it?"

"It's alright, really, it's alright." Mu shook his head, intentionally keeping a little distance from Xiangzi, as if he didn't want Xiangzi to get too close. "I can lead the way, Xiang. You must get the Super Cause and Effect as soon as possible and take it away."

"Whatever the reason this city was born, it is now dead."

"Letting it sink to the bottom of the sea is the best ending."

“…I understand.” Xiangzi withdrew his hand and took a step back. “Tell me how to get there.”