Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Page 424

With all the threads no longer supported, there was no fulcrum to change their trajectory as they fell. With the shell about to leave the barrel, everyone had to rely on themselves.

boom!

Six bright yellow beams of light flew toward the six figures falling from the sky.

Kyoko was the first to sense the danger. She used diamond-shaped playing cards to create several points of leverage in the air, easily avoiding the laser's lock.

Xiangzi pulled the trigger before the laser locked onto him, using the force of the gun blade to propel himself a short distance, grazing the edge of the laser as he continued to fall.

Mu wove a simple glider out of silk thread and adjusted his posture in time while in the air.

Flame grabbed the nearest small circle and activated time stop.

Although time stop has no effect on Mami, the laser that has already left the barrel has already broken free of direct contact with her.

The laser paused for a moment in mid-air.

Flame, with Madoka in tow, sidestepped the laser beam, letting it glide past them.

All five landed safely on the ground, except for Sayaka.

With a thud, the blue figure landed heavily on the ground.

"Sayaka!" Shoko stared in horror at the body that had been blasted to pieces by the laser.

Before Xiangzi could finish his sentence, she noticed a sea-blue light flashing at her feet.

That was Sayaka's Soul Gem. It looked completely intact. She had desperately protected her Soul Gem and hadn't been hit by the laser.

Xiangzi picked up the Soul Gem from the ground and, as he looked once more at the mixture of flesh and clothing, noticed it wriggling rapidly.

Bones realigned, muscles grew, and the completely rotten head was restored to its original state in a second. Blue light covered the skin exposed to the air, and after disappearing, it turned into brand new clothes.

"So it's the same type as Meow Dream." Xiangzi breathed a sigh of relief and tossed the Soul Gem back. "Thank goodness."

"Thanks." Sayaka caught the Soul Gem, transformed it into an accessory, and put it back on. She tilted her head towards the castle. "Shoko-senpai, are we getting ready to begin?"

Xiangzi glanced at Mami, who had finally revealed her true form, then looked up at the six World-Destroying Flowers in the sky.

"Okay, phase two, get ready to begin."

Xiangzi raised his finger to everyone and began to count down.

"Three, two, one."

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

Let's go back to when Xiangzi was still deep in the mountains, racking his brains about how to arrange "rehearsals" for everyone.

"Mami's true form no longer exists. If we can still see her in person, what we are seeing is just a projection of her consciousness, a familiar, not her true self."

Each Flower Witch is slightly different in this respect; this human form may be a familiar, or it may just be an empty shell projected from the original consciousness. However, what they have in common is that this human form is the "self" of the Flower Witches who have entered the incubation state and are falling towards the Flower of Destruction.

This form is communicative; even if it has completely transformed into the Flower of Destruction, the "self" is merely synchronized with the "id" of the Flower of Destruction in one position, rather than disappearing.

However, in any case, the projection of the "self" is no longer important.

Their true bodies are the Flower of Destruction itself, which is the form of a witch.

"The notes say that Mami's Witch form is called Brutal Justice, and the entire barrier we see is part of her body." Xiangzi raised his index finger. "You can still understand it so far, right?"

The four little ones nodded.

Xiangzi is now telling them the story from the beginning.

"Because the body is the entire barrier, if Mami from the other side touches any part of the barrier, it will trigger annihilation. Therefore, Mami cannot personally participate in the time pincer movement as before. So this battle is absolutely fair, and no one will interfere."

"Then how are we going to fight the entire barrier?" Flame asked, raising her hand.

"No need, we just need to fight the Baroque Core that drives the barrier."

"Baroque Core? What's that?"

"......Ahem." Xiangzi silently opened his notebook and looked at the name written on it, which was probably his future self. "Simply put, it's the core part that drives the entire body, which is the size of the barrier. Don't worry too much about the name."

"Why don't we need to care about the name?"

"Why care about a name? It's just a form of address."

"It seems so."

"Ahem, let's get back to the main topic." Xiangzi cleared his throat, diverting everyone's attention from the somewhat strange (self-chosen) name.

When they finally come into contact with Mami, they will definitely enter the core area and fight Mami.

The entire barrier will activate then, but since they are already located at the core, they won't need to face the pressure from the entire barrier...

At the time, Xiangzi hadn't expected to have so many helpers.

While they were helping Xiangzi and his group buy time, they also had to deal with the moving barrier.

I hope they do well.

"Oh..." Kyoko nodded as if she understood, "So next we'll have to fight this Baroque Core, right?"

"This is the key to the whole operation," Xiangzi said. "Currently, the entire Shenbin region cannot muster a team capable of defeating it, in terms of raw strength."

"What should I do?"

“Without this notebook, we would be doomed.” Xiangzi spread his hands, then changed the subject, “But with this notebook, things are different.”

"When Mami appears in the Baroque Core, her 'self' is dormant, and the Baroque Core becomes the medium for processing external information. I don't know if she hopes someone can defeat her or for some other reason, but the Baroque Core's operating mode leaves people with a 'lifeline' to defeat her."

Xiangzi raised his index finger.

"There is only one way for us to survive the attack on the Baroque Core."

"That's the move to 'correctly' handle it."

The Tale of Reincarnation: The Shore of Oblivion: Chapter 557 The Rules of the Game

The nature of brutal justice is justice, and justice represents rules. Since it is a rule, there must be a pattern to follow. The only way for Xiangzi and the others to win is to play this game with Mami according to her rules and defeat her under the rules she set.

And this method had already been clearly and meticulously written down in a notebook by my future self.

The time pincer movement played a crucial role in places where the other side could not be accommodated. Xiangzi essentially obtained information about all of Mami's possible actions without even fighting her.

In other words.

Xiangzi has a strategy guide written by his future self for himself.

On the circular field, four dim circles shrouded in holy light appeared, located at the four exact points of 12, 3, 6, and 9.

"Homura, Madoka, Kyoko, Sayaka, it's your turn!"

At Xiangzi's command, the four magical girls from Takihara immediately rushed to their pre-arranged positions, each occupying a large circle.

Once each person entered the large circle in their designated position, the circle immediately changed from being dim and dark to being clear and bright. The transparent light formed walls that isolated them from the outside space, turning them into four relatively independent cages.

===========

What do these circles mean?

Xingzi stood in the middle of the large circle Xiangzi had drawn with chalk, looking at the other three with a puzzled expression. The four of them each occupied a circle, but Xiangzi and Hemu were not among them.

"This large circle will be your activity area for the next minute. Once you enter, you cannot leave," Xiangzi said. "You must handle the tasks that need to be done within this circle."

"What would happen if you left?" Kyoko asked again.

"The circle will explode and kill us all." Xiangzi shrugged. "Nothing will be able to stop you from leaving this circle, so... don't be careless."

"Uh... there's another question." Xingzi pointed at Xiangzi, "What were you doing while we were inside?"

========

Once the four magical girls from Mitakihara enter the illuminated circle, they absolutely cannot come out again, but the Baroque Core itself remains on the field.

At this point, only Xiangzi and Mu could hold it back, preventing the castle-sized Baroque core from interfering with others.

This exquisitely crafted, music box-like mechanical castle exudes a suffocating sense of oppression simply by being there.

After the light circle appeared on the field, the mechanism of the four corner towers was activated. The cylindrical towers located at the four corners of the castle extended outwards, revealing a clearly visible mechanism. After a series of clicking gears, the Baroque core transformed into a mobile castle that could move on all fours.

逡揪灵柳IV陸企扒谰V咔——

The castle continued to unfold, with even more heavy cannons extending from within, along with several cannon barrels pointing skyward.

"Mu, help me up!"

The silk thread connected Xiangzi and the castle, and Xiangzi stepped on the silk thread, jumped onto the city wall, and swung his hand to cut down the nearest cannon barrel.

With a light and agile figure, he continued running along the city wall, reloading the empty magazine as he ran. Xiangzi turned his gaze to the four little ones who were surrounded by a large circle.

Yan stood inside the large circle, and could vaguely see Xiangzi pulling at the Baroque core through the white light curtain.

As if by magic, their eyes met.

Flame shifted her attention from Xiangzi back to the new enemy rising from beneath the floor.

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

"What will we need to do within this circle then?"

"Fighting four familiars," Xiangzi said. "Four familiars that aren't very strong are easy to deal with."

"That's good."

"But be careful not to kill them."

"what?!"

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

Four exquisitely crafted mechanical dolls rose from the center of the large circle onto the ground. The dolls had no faces, but their masks were covered with intricate and beautiful carvings. Their bodies were slender, shaped like women, and their spherical joints were exposed to the air.

Familiar: Faust

Subordinate to the brutal justice, this familiar acts upon the commands of the brutal justice. If it is destroyed, it will send "Judgment: Elimination" to the brutal justice, instantly decomposing all life on the platform into the most basic atoms.

This is why Xiangzi didn't let them damage the familiar.

They started moving the moment they appeared.

Despite being humanoid dolls, they moved in a way that was completely unlike humans. Their exaggeratedly large ball joints twisted them into a crouching position as they charged toward the magical girls within the large circle.

With their human-like appearance and completely inhuman behavior, the word anthropomorphism is surprisingly fitting for these four puppets.

Flame pulled the trigger several times at the puppet, but all the bullets were dodged by its strange, erratic movements.

Just as the puppet was about to rush in front of him, Yan activated time stop.

click-

The mechanism, bound by ribbons, was forcibly opened for a moment, revealing an empty face that was only inches away from him.

Flame pulled the trigger at its ball joint, then the time stop was forcibly ended, the bullet flew out and hit the familiar's ball joint.

With a muffled thud, a small burst of electric sparks erupted from the joint of the familiar.

Flame took this opportunity to distance itself from it.

That's far too fragile.

If that shot had been aimed at its core, I might have seen a puppet pierced by a bullet when the time stop ended.

If that really happens, they will all be instantly decomposed by the Baroque Core, broken down into mindless atoms without any reason.

These are the rules set by Mami, and within her barrier, no one can violate them.

"Tsk."

Seeing the familiar still charging towards her despite the sparks flying from its ball joints, Flame bit her tongue in annoyance.

Since we can't destroy it, let's deprive it of its ability to act.

If you break its limbs, others will definitely do the same, since that's the first reaction.

But the reality is not that simple.

Every three seconds, the four Fausts will send a [Judgment: Synchronize] message to their surrounding companions to check the damage status of all Fausts. If the total damage of the four Fausts exceeds 100%, all damage will be immediately transferred to one of the Fausts.

In this way, one Faust will die instantly, triggering [Judgment: Cleanse].

Flame shot and destroyed one of its arms; the damage rate should already exceed 10%. To ensure that [Judgment: Synchronization] is not triggered in the absence of communication, they have agreed that each person's damage to Faust cannot exceed 25%.

However, this was only a verbal agreement; in practice, it was a different story.