Give children a little self-destruction shock to their worldview.

Page 158

This is assuming we don't engage with other fantasy entities and just peacefully get through the situation.

The more energy she consumes in battle, the faster she will disappear.

The reason she answered the scumbag's call was simply to come here and say a few words to Mayumi Haga in front of her.

“You come from the world of children’s magical girls, right?” Kita Kirihara said. “Trying to innocently mediate everyone’s conflicts is actually something a magical girl would do.”

"What are you trying to say?" Mayumi Haga felt that her topic had changed too quickly, and she couldn't quite keep up with her unpredictable train of thought.

“I… while watching your story, I realized something. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but that world is actually powerful and capricious, completely different from yours.” Kita Kirihara mercilessly poked at Mayumi Haga’s sore spot. “Even if it suffered the same attack, the children’s world wouldn’t be destroyed.”

"..."

"You want to rebuild the world? How? Just by recalling that land inch by inch in your mind? So what if you've walked through it countless times? Is the energy contained in that little spark within you enough? Unless it's a miracle, it's absolutely impossible."

"……so?"

What is this guy trying to say? Is he making fun of himself here?

Mayumi Haga was confused, but not furious.

"So why don't you become a magical girl?" Kita Kirihara seemed serious. "Magic and miracles are free in that world, right?"

Haga Mayumi: "...?"

Text: 248. Friends I haven't seen in a long time

While Mayumi Haga was talking to Kita Kirihara, who had come to her door, Yukari Hachiya was doing her homework in her room.

The homework she brought home from school wasn't much, but the math part was really difficult. She chewed on her pencil for a long time, trying to figure it out, but still couldn't find a solution.

When someone encounters a problem while completing a task, if it is one that can be solved by thinking hard, their focus will improve to some extent.

However, if the difficulty far exceeds one's own ability level and one is at a loss, it is easy to start slacking off.

Yukari Hachiya originally wanted to go downstairs to ask the two older sisters, but it seemed that Rie wasn't very good at math. Last time she asked her about her homework, Rie had argued with herself for half the night.

Will the magical girl be able to answer her own questions?

She's a black type, not a red type who usually doesn't do well in school, and she also has an intelligent face, so she should be able to answer any question easily, right?

However, I'm not entirely familiar with it yet...

Yukari hesitated for a very short time; her desire to procrastinate overwhelmed her thirst for knowledge. Glancing at the clock, she realized she had already been studying for quite some time and should definitely take a break.

As she stretched in her chair, Yukari Hachiya suddenly heard her phone vibrate.

Since her parents are not at home and she will be living on her own for a while, it is still necessary for her to keep a convenient electronic device like a mobile phone with her.

Furthermore, Yukari Hachiya is not a very interested child in mobile games; she prefers to use her phone to look up information about magical girls and to contact friends and family.

Therefore, Yukari Hachiya owns a brand new iPhone that is entirely her own.

Who could be sending me a message at this time...?

Yukari Hachiya has few friends in her class. She is so obsessed with magical girls that she doesn't care much about interpersonal relationships.

Generally speaking, apart from her parents, the only people who would message her are her childhood friends from before she moved to this city.

That's right, Yukari Hachiya had friends before she moved, and they also liked magical girls, just like her.

Rather, it was this good friend who introduced her to the world of magical girls and recommended this series to her.

Although I had saved the other person's number and would frequently send them text messages, during the period immediately after we separated, I practically used their text message inbox as my confessional.

They would happily share their thoughts on watching the new magical girl anime with each other, and would also arrange to watch the anime broadcast on TV together at the same time every day.

However, starting one day a year ago, the other party stopped replying to Yukari Hachiya's text messages.

Yukari Hachiya thought that the other person's phone must be broken or lost.

She wanted to send a letter back, but her parents said that the family had moved.

Now, her childhood friend, whom she had lost contact with because of a broken phone, has sent her a message again.

Shiratori Nozomi: Wow! Is it a new anime?! I have to watch it right now!

·Shiratori Nozomi: Magical Girl Red... Huh? It's already finished? When?

Shiratori Nozomi: Whatever, I'm going to start eating now!

Yukari saw that the other party started replying from the last text message she had sent.

The last text message she sent was about how "Magical Girl Red" had ended and she really wanted to watch a new anime.

Yukari Hachiya: Shi! Did you find your phone?

Yukari Hachiya: Seriously, it's been so long since you replied, and I can't get in touch with you either. I'm so lonely.

Yukari Hachiya: Did your mom buy you a new cell phone?

Shiratori Nozomi over there seemed a bit out of the loop.

Shiratori Nozomi: Huh? I've never lost my phone, have I?

Nozomi Shiratori: But Mom did give me a new phone and transferred all my data over, so I can see your messages here, Yukari.

Nozomi Shiratori: Speaking of which, Yukari! Mom said she's taking me to visit you tomorrow! Tomorrow's the weekend, are you free? We haven't seen each other in ages!

Shiratori Nozomi on the other end of the phone was clearly very excited.

Yukari Hachiya and Nozomi Shiratori grew up together. Nozomi has always had this lively personality, and she clearly wears her emotions on her face and in her tone of voice.

When Yukari was moving because of her parents' job change, Shiratori Nozomi chased after her, crying her eyes out.

Yukari Hachiya and Nozomi Shiratori have a very good relationship. Even though they haven't talked for a year, there's no distance between them, and they quickly and happily started chatting again.

-----------------

"Mom, can I pack my bags now? Can we leave today?" Shiratori Nozomi was so excited about seeing her friends again.

She happily wandered around the house looking for things to pack in her suitcase, then suddenly looked up with bright eyes and asked her mother, who was sitting at the table smiling at her, if they could leave earlier.

Mrs. Shiratori said gently, "Of course, I'll buy the tickets now."

Her gaze lingered on her daughter, filled with complex yet warm emotions, and she couldn't look away for a long time.

"Oh, right, remember to ask the teacher for leave for me." Shiratori Nozomi suddenly remembered that if she went to see Hachiya Yukari on Sunday and went to the beach on Monday, she would have to ask the school for leave.

The task of requesting leave naturally fell to Mrs. Shiratori.

As she spoke, Shiratori Nozomi remembered that she had a collection of picture books in her cabinet and planned to give them to Hachiya Yukari.

She rushed back to her room like a whirlwind, her hurried movements filling the house with a clattering sound, as if she were moving the whole house to take to her best friend.

While searching for what she wanted, she also had to reply to messages from Yukari Hachiya on her phone.

Mrs. Shiratori, however, did not immediately book the tickets as she had promised.

On her lap lay a well-worn, long-used notebook. Flipping to a random page, one found a description of the day she gave birth to Shiratori Nozomi.

From the anticipation before birth, the joy of birth, the sorrow and bitterness of growing up... As a mother, after her child left her, she locked herself away and wrote down every little detail about Shiratori Nozomi from the depths of her memory.

Tears streamed down her face countless times, soaking the memoir named after Shiratori Nozomi, and then, finally, it brought her the figure she had longed for day and night.

Mrs. Shiratori could no longer distinguish between dreams and reality. She gripped the notebook tightly in her hand until her knuckles turned bloodless.

Then, that whirlwind-like figure flew down from the second floor again.

The little white bird, overjoyed, didn't forget to give her mother, who had suddenly allowed her to skip school and play everywhere, a leaping hug: "I love you, Mom! Thank you for taking me out to play!"

The small body crashed into the tight embrace, carrying a certain weight and warmth, and opened Mrs. Shiratori's tearful eyes.

Main text: 249. Meeting

"Yukari!" Shiratori Nozomi, carrying her backpack, waved happily to Hachiya Yukari, who had come to pick her up at the station entrance. "Here, here!"

Mrs. Shiratori stood behind her and spotted Yukari Hachiya in the crowd at a glance.

Because a strikingly beautiful, exceptionally tall, and almost superhuman-looking black-haired girl was holding up the sign for the short and stocky Hachiya Yukari.

Mrs. Shiratori noticed Mayumi Haga first, and then Rie Nagai next to her.

This was the first time that Rie Nagai, a reclusive woman, had gone out so early, and being squeezed in so many people almost made her breathless. She looked a little listless, so her reactions were a beat slower.

So much so that she noticed the Shiratori mother and daughter a step later than Mayumi Haga.

The moment she realized what was happening, she wanted to summon her illusionary form, "The Mystery of the Haunted House," but Mayumi Haga's hand on her shoulder calmed her down.

……how so?!

Why are Yukari's friends... fantasy entities?

Is this some kind of offensive by the other side? Is it a phantom entity capable of altering memories?

Rie Nagai felt a chill run down her spine. She instinctively looked around and realized that it would take her a considerable amount of time to cover the area with her fantasy form.

Inside the bustling station, the strong human presence greatly diminished the power of the supernatural fantasy entities.

But Mayumi Haga next to him looked much calmer.

"calm."

This "magical girl" who usually seems to have no emotions displayed extraordinary sensitivity at this moment.

Rather, it's more accurate to say that Mayumi Haga, despite her seemingly cold and unsympathetic demeanor, is actually quite the opposite.

She didn't sense any hostility, at least not yet.

Although in the past she would have started thinking about how to eliminate the enemy silently long ago, having experienced more, Mayumi Haga decided to observe for a while longer.

The main thing is that she noticed Mrs. Shiratori cared a lot about the little girl named Shiratori Nozomi.

The emotion in the other person's eyes was exactly like a mother gazing tenderly and reluctantly at her child.

...Really, when did I learn to read those kinds of eyes?

Even Mayumi Haga herself found it unbelievable.

However, aside from the somewhat indescribable aspect of their gazes, Mayumi Haga also noticed Mrs. Shiratori's affection for Nozomi Shiratori.

The kind of gaze that's constantly watching over a child with worry, and the subtle, unconscious movements that follow them, are hard to fake.

Mayumi Haga is occasionally an intuitive player; her thinking speed sometimes can't keep up with her body movements.

So after her muscles tensed up the moment the Shiratori mother and daughter appeared in her sight, she tried to relax and not overreact.

He also restrained the obviously panicked Nagai Rie next to him to prevent the mystery of the haunted house from causing a riot in the station.

Mrs. Shiratori finally showed fear upon seeing Mayumi Haga.

She never expected to meet another contestant like herself here.

The panic that erupted from this middle-aged woman, who was excessively thin from losing her child, was completely genuine. She instinctively grabbed Shiratori Nozomi's arm, forgetting all about her suitcase, and tried to run away with the child.

But her hand grasped at empty air.

Nozomi Shiratori hadn't seen Yukari Hachiya for a long time. The two children, who hadn't seen each other for so long, didn't notice what was happening behind them. The moment they met, they dropped what they were holding and ran towards each other.

"Aki!" "Yukari!"

The two children, who were happily meeting, didn't notice the expressions on their respective guardians' and temporary guardians' faces. Shiratori Nozomi, in particular, snapped out of her excitement about meeting Hachiya Yukari and noticed that her mother's expression wasn't very good.

Shiratori Nozomi couldn't help but ask worriedly, "Mom, what's wrong with you?"

Mrs. Shiratori opened her mouth as if to say something, but ultimately swallowed the words back. Although she was still uneasy, she noticed that neither the fantasy entity nor one of the contestants over there intended to attack.

"N-nothing, let's go quickly." With a somewhat forced smile, Mrs. Shiratori grabbed Shiratori Nozomi's hand tightly, looking rather flustered and wanting to escape from here.

Her palms were already sweating.

Deciding to take Xiaoxi on a trip was definitely a dangerous and wrong decision...

Mrs. Shiratori knew that this competition was very dangerous for the illusionists. As the mother who had summoned her dead child, she didn't want the clueless Shiratori Nozomi to be involved in the danger.

She absolutely cannot bear the pain of losing Xiaoxi again.

But her child, her little white bird, died so young, never having been anywhere, lying coldly in the coffin, his always smiling face pale.

She couldn't bear to see Xiaoxi lying there alone, so after successfully summoning the fantasy form Shiratori Nozomi, she would grant Shiratori Nozomi's every wish.

You can go wherever you want and see whomever you want.

But to my surprise, I encountered other contestants so quickly...

Thinking about the possible outcome, Mrs. Shiratori's breathing suddenly became rapid.

She was so thin that her face, which looked somewhat frightening due to the lack of flesh, appeared even more distorted, and her pupils seemed somewhat unfocused in her deep-set eyes.