Curse this wonderful world

89: [The Curse of 89]

Time: September ■■, 2007.

Task: Find out the curse spirit that caused the disappearance (disappearance) and bizarre death in the village, and get rid of it.

Location: ■■ County ■■ City (former ■■ Village)

Remarks: The person in charge/Xia Youjie, the third grader of the Tokyo Magic College.Companion/same third grade Hinasaki Fukaha

September 9, to be exact.

Shen Yu raised her head and looked out of the lattice window.

The village in the col is actually not far from the town, and it only takes [-] minutes to drive.However, when you are in the middle, you can only see scattered buildings and distant mountains when you look up, and you will have a sense of alienation that has been stripped from the noisy modern civilization.

Today's temperature is a bit abnormal, it is already four or five o'clock in the afternoon, and the sun is still strong.The clouds are a bit thick and you can't see the blue.The glaring sunlight poured down from the vast white sky, illuminating the flattened loess ground in the village a little dazzlingly.The air was dry and dry, as if the entire remaining summer of September had been gathered in this day.There are not many trees in the village, but there are uninterrupted noises of cicadas in my ears.

This is the case outside, and it is not much better inside the building.Very old wooden longhouses have high ceilings, low light, oppressive lighting, and unscientific ventilation.Even if the lattice windows were left open, what came in was only the hot air mixed with the smell of earth.Even though it was blocked by the wall, the sound of cicadas still echoed in the narrow corridors, like a handful of sharp awls, piercing into the periosteum, piercing into the mind, and lingering.

The air pressure is a little low, but it doesn't look like it's going to rain.All in all, just hot.

Shen Yu lowered her head and saw her sweat dripping down her chin onto the dark brown wooden floor.

However, she slightly moved the hand hanging by her side, rubbing her fingertips against each other, feeling cold.

from head to foot.From the inside out.From heart to hair tips.All are cold.

Then, amidst the chill that made the back tense, the skin tingle and the heart feel cold, the person who led the way stopped.

"Here it is! Look!"

Shen Yu raised her head, and before she could see clearly what was in front of her, she heard Xia Youjie's non-warm voice beside her.

"what is this?"

--what……

Fukaba blinked, and what caught his eyes was the simple wooden cage fixed on the wall.Two small, dirty and emaciated things covered in scars trembled in the cage like captured animals—in the room that was getting darker and darker against the sun, the average person needed to look closely to recognize that they were two looking But a little girl of four or five years old.

But in the vision of the conjurer, the solid and distinct spell power on them was as clear as a candle flame dancing in the dark.

—Really, it’s here.

The heart that had been hanging in mid-air from just now suddenly fell down.The trembling stopped, and the coldness and heat seemed to disappear at the same time.Shen Yu had imagined many times how she would react when standing in front of this scene with Xia Youjie?nervous?disturbed?worried?Or is it anger?anger?

——If it weren't for you guys, Jie wouldn't have thought about such extreme actions!

No matter which one, it seems to be in line with her protective and self-willed personality.However, when this moment really came, Shen Yu found that when she looked at the scene in front of her, what rose in her heart was a strange melancholy and calm like overlooking the scenery.

Around her, the conversation continues.Facing the black-haired youth's question, the vulgar-looking man's eyes widened: "What are you talking about? These two are the culprits of a series of disasters, right? It's because of these two that weird things happen in the village!"

"No." The young man frowned as if he had a headache, and shook his head as if he was suppressing something.

"Impossible! These two are monsters! They are the ones who have attacked the villagers several times with strange power!"

Xia Youjie explained as patiently as possible: "We have already dealt with the cause of the incident."

But the shrill old woman didn't want to hear it at all. "But my grandson was almost killed by these two!"

It's the same dialogue as the original.Shen Yu thought, Xia Youjie's mood became more and more depressed and tense even though he was by his side.She was surprisingly not nervous at all.Her heart sank as if it was stuffed with stones, but her soul seemed to be floating.In the peculiar lightness that was almost dazed, she even had time to think of the words she heard when she was studying spiritual power in the main hall of the shrine.

"Spell power can be strengthened, so the physical fitness of conjurers is almost far superior to that of ordinary people. And spiritual power can make people feel more sensitive. That is what we call inspiration. For the premonition of danger, death or unknown things, Perceive the traces that do not exist, the signs that suddenly appear in the heart, or listen to the power of other people's minds—[Seeing] and [Shadow Seeing] are the use of this direction."

Premonition?

"That's, he..." The child's small voice sounded, and was interrupted roughly.

"Shut up! Monster! Your parents are too, and they should have been killed when they were babies!" Amidst the man's yelling, Shen Yu heard what he said in his heart.

Yes, I already had a hunch.

The fewer and fewer meetings, the thinner and more obvious wrists, the tiredness in the expression, and the darkness in the eyes.How long had she not seen him laughing?The dirty human nature exposed in the bad task, the busy and nerve-wracking schedule, even when he hugged her, Xia Youjie's voice calling her name was like a sigh.

Endless Summer is still blooming, but no matter how hard she tries, she still has to watch the word "happiness" gradually disappear from Xia Youjie.

However, if it's just "unhappy", that's still an acceptable result for her.

— But why?

——She has already done everything she can, why did she still become "like this"?

The conversation was still going on, but Fukaha just listened expressionlessly.She watched Xia Youjie bend over to get closer to the cage, coaxing the frightened twin sisters with her spell.Then when he said that line, he stopped him.

"Jie. What do you want to do?" The black-haired girl looked up, her obsidian-colored eyes were like a bottomless pool of water, and like a polished mirror, reflecting everything reflected in it clearly and quietly.

So Xia Youjie clearly saw his smiling face inside.He bent down and stroked Fukaha's hair as usual, with a gentle and steady tone. "No, nothing. Fukaha, don't worry, I just want to go out and talk with a few."

However, unexpectedly, he saw the girl who had been quiet and obedient since morning shook her head.

"do not go."

Xia Youjie raised his eyebrows slightly and straightened up. "……Why?"

Because I know that if you go, you will never come back.Shen Yu looked at him and repeated his own question, "Jie, what do you want to do?"

"Ah..." This time, the gentle expression faded from Xia Youjie's face.He tilted his head, and looked at the villagers who were still confused about the situation as if he was a little troubled. "Shen Yu, do you really want me to say it here?"

But even though he asked, he said without hesitation before Shen Yu answered, "Probably, kill all these noisy non-conjurers."

And at the same time as his voice fell, Shen Yu slapped the palms of both hands together.With a crisp "pop", white light suddenly appeared, and the translucent barrier suddenly rose around her and Xia Youjie.

Like a translucent [tent], in Xia Youjie's eyes, the white light that burst out from Shen Yu's palm instantly turned into a dome filled with moon-white brilliance, rising and expanding rapidly, covering the entire building in a blink of an eye. longhouse.At the same time, the space inside was distorted and expanded, and the low and low interior was extended to half the size of the stadium in an instant. The walls were soaring, and the top merged with the radiant dome.The cage originally built on the wall and the children in it were placed far behind Xia Youjie, while the villagers and the old woman were thrown to the corner beside Shen Yu.

In the blink of an eye, the place where the two of them were was banned and dragged into another world.

It's not mana, and it's not a domain, but it feels familiar.Xia Youjie looked up at the dome and narrowed his eyes, "This is..."

"Boundary." Shen Yu said. "You've seen it."

Xia Youjie paused.Yes, of course he had, two summers ago, in Daylight.His eyes narrowed slightly, and his smile added a bit of sincerity.Obviously the one who was trapped, the radiant barrier also seemed to be cute in his eyes.

Thinking of what happened that sweltering summer, he even chuckled a little. "So the enchantment can be set up like this?"

"As long as there is a town that is strong enough." Shen Yu replied.There are so many things pulled back from the main hall of the shrine, there are always some that can be used.

"So you carry such things with you to guard against me?" The spiritual weapons or towns of the Shinto system do not have curses attached to them, and under the cover of Shen Yu's own curse power, Xia Youjie really couldn't find them. "Isolate the space as an invisible hidden world, I remember that, right. That is to say, ordinary people outside can't see us now?"

Conversely, as long as he can't leave here, he won't be able to do anything to those people.

Shen Yu naturally knew what he was talking about. "It's just that I just carry it with me. It's you..." Without answering the second half, the black-haired girl looked up, looked at the familiar young man, and finally couldn't help her eyes turning red, "...Jie, why?"

Xia Youjie closed his eyes, "What...why?"

"Why do you have the idea of ​​killing non-conjurers?" Shen Yu didn't care about the two ordinary people trapped together by the enchantment, nor did he care about the twin sisters who were still in the cage.She just looked at Xia Youjie who refused to meet her gaze, "I don't understand."

——She has obviously done everything she can do.

"I know Jie is unhappy. I know it even if [I can't see it]." Looking over his face little by little, Shen Yu's hand hanging by his side tightly clenched the button hanging from the red rope. "I have thought about it many times. I want to tell Jie that if you don't want to be a magician, then don't do it."

It's just that she knows that this person won't listen to what she says.

——Obviously both Riko and Haibara are alive and well.

"Jay who wants to protect the weak is fine. It doesn't matter if you hate ordinary people. Even if we are tired of everything around us, we can go to other places. There are always places with few ordinary people and magic spirits. Hokkaido? Aomori? Outlying islands? If not, we can still go to foreign countries! Jie is free! No one will force you to do anything. If it’s only this level, Satoru, I, and Niozi, everyone will help you.”

"But why do you want to kill ordinary people?"

Only this is absolutely impossible!

Xia Youjie lowered his head, looking at the girl who was about to cry.The mist from those obsidian-colored eyes made him look painful, but in the end, he still didn't reach out his hand as usual.

He just whispered softly, "You know all about it."

"I know! Of course I know!" Shen Yu's voice suddenly rose as if his nerves were burned by these words, "So why?"

"Because..." Xia Youjie paused, "Someone told me that magicians can't produce magic spirits."

"!" Shen Yu's eyes widened instantly.

--This is impossible!who is it? !She obviously stopped 99 Yuki!

But Xia Youjie obviously misunderstood her shock, probably felt that the matter was over and there was nothing to hide.He continued: "It's ironic. Yes. I'm shaken. I was the one who told you and Wu that the strong should protect the weak. Since I have the ability, I can't just sit idly by."

So, what is "good influence"?The corners of his lips curled up in a bitter self-deprecating arc.Xia Youjie thought about what he once said to Shen Yu.If it was those ignorant and selfish hands that dragged her into the abyss, then wasn't it the self-righteous self who pushed her off the cliff?

"However, I was the first one who couldn't bear the ugliness of the weak."

Look at those two guys over there and see what they did to young children?Such an existence, what qualifications does he have to make the people he cherishes pay for it?

"Murder, domestic violence, sexual abuse, jealousy, hatred, greed, fear, despair, and even pure novelty... Those who know nothing produce curses, and those who know nothing enjoy protection." Xia Youjie looked directly at Shen Yu's face Eyes, "As long as there are ordinary people, the curse spirit will never be exorcised. Fukaba, then what is the meaning of what we are doing? Where is the value of ordinary people? I don't understand this anymore. In this world, There must be something wrong somewhere?"

This world, which requires sacrificing you to be saved... must have gone wrong somewhere, right?

"If that's the case, then it's better," Xia Youjie narrowed his eyes with a cold look on his face, "Kill ordinary people and build a brand new world without magic spirits and magicians don't need to be sacrificed."

however--

"Snapped!"

With a loud slap, Xia Youjie's face was pulled aside heavily.He stretched out his hand to touch his cheek, let out a soft "hiss", lowered his head, and met Shen Yu's red eye circles.

The dark-haired girl trembled.Obviously she was the one who hit someone, but her face was pale as if she had been slapped.

"Stop joking! There is no such world!"

This is not the problem at all!

"Besides, the world..." Shen Yu finally couldn't hold back the tears, "I can do whatever I want with the world?! What is Jie? Is it a god? What is this? Righteousness? Idea? Can you not do this? Whether it is a magician, a spell spirit, or an ordinary person...Compared to being obsessed with these things, Jie, what about yourself? Is there nothing more important to you? Yet?"

——Is this world beautiful?

——Not at all.

A curse spirit that can't be exorcised like a cockroach.Yokohama that swallows desire and squeezes out violence and blood.The mafia curse master is a strange supernatural power user. "Dragon Head Struggle", "Five Declines of Heaven and Man", "Hundred Ghosts at Night", "Shibuya Incident", and the Gate of the Underworld, which looks down on the world like a dark and indifferent pupil, and will swallow everything up at any time.

When she realized that she was "Hinasaki Fukaha", when she knew what was going on in this world, she felt that, compared to the Sims, this three-dimensional life was more like a game where people would "pop" without running wildly. Tap" dead escape game.

Ordinary people will die unconsciously, and extraordinary people will die more painfully.And what if all this is avoided?The "heart voice" of others is noisier than cicadas and heavy rain.All kinds of distressed cries for help in the dirty rubble, and the evil thoughts and malice boiling in the dark corners of my heart.Victim Victim Perpetrator Bystander.Standing among the crowd, she seemed to be standing naked in a cold wasteland. What filled her vision were the thick labels on the distorted and blurred figures. Her heartfelt and words overlapped, and her malice and kindness were mixed together.

"I don't like ordinary people either! If I could choose, I wouldn't want to live in such a world!"

She, too, will be in pain, sad, lonely, and desperate!

Does not want to [see], does not want to "know".Why me?Shen Yu looked behind Xia Youjie.When she was as young as those two children, she asked herself this question countless times in a cage that was essentially the same.This world doesn't "need" "Hinasaki Fukaha" at all.So why am I still alive? "Wen Ye" does not have her, and "Curse Return" does not have her.Even in "The Crow", whether she exists or not does not affect the ending of the main storyline.If you don't come, Fang Xili has Kurosawa dense flowers, and Fang Shenglian has mirror palace tiredness.Even for Hinasaki Crimson as a mother, she is not the one who will be "chosen".

——"Hinasaki Fukaha", does it make sense?

"But to me, to me... what matters is not the world itself at all!"

— She asked herself many, many times.Then, the "answer" was found.

— is meaningful.

"Even in this world, there are wonderful people. Some people will need me, some will understand me, some will protect me, some will like me..." Shen Yu cried tremblingly, "...someone accepted me Love, and then gave me lots and lots of love."

"I am a very selfish and selfish person. It doesn't matter what happens to the world. Curses or curses, as long as they don't hurt my important people, I don't care about anything else. If Jie and Wu feel that they want to get rid of them, I will do it together ——But that’s not what’s important at all!”

"The important thing is..." She was sobbing almost out of breath, "The important thing is you!"

Mr. Mori, Dazai, Chuya; Glass, Teacher Noctua; Haibara, Nanami...and, most importantly, you...

——Is this world beautiful?Not at all.But as long as it's the world with the people I love, it's the best world.

"It is because of you that I like this world!" It is because of you that I want to protect this world.

"Whether it's exorcising the curse spirit or being a magician, it's all because of you! No matter how bad things happen, I can laugh when I think of you. I'll be with you all Every day of my life, every day by your side, I am really happy, very happy!"

"It's okay to change the world! It's okay to destroy all the curse spirits! But, there must be other ways!" Fukaba is not pedantic and stubborn. With Dazai Osamu and Mori Mr. Not so concerned about means.Rather, she would happily help Xia Youjie implement it, even if it was something that ordinary people thought was too much—such as the port mafia.

but……

"But only this is absolutely impossible!" Shen Yu's crying voice was raised again, "Jie! Do you understand what it means for you to attack ordinary people now?!"

"...I understand." Xia Youjie's eyelashes trembled twice, and his hands in his pockets were clenched until the knuckles turned white.Even so, his voice was still gentle.

Of course he understands.If the villagers here were massacred, then according to Article [-] of the spell rules, he would be judged to be executed.If he didn't want to sit still, it would be impossible for him to return to the high school.And once you don't go back to report, you will be considered a fugitive.At the same time, referring to his rank, it is only Satoshi who will be sent to hunt him down or execute him.

He has hunted down and dealt with many curse masters, and this is a process and mode he is familiar with.

"Then why do you still want to do this?" Like a child who has been wronged all the time, Shen Yu finally cried out unbearably, "Why? I don't understand! Does Jie hate ordinary people so much? Is it that important? For the sake of the so-called brand new world, does it matter to Jie whether it is Wu or me?"

"……no."

"What is that? Tell me!"

"...I just, can't bear it anymore." Is it really for the so-called new world?Or just to vent?Or is it impulsive?arrogant?confusion?At a loss?Or give up on yourself?The initial passion was suppressed, and now, Xia Youjie also had a hard time recalling what he was thinking at the moment he said those words.But there was only one thing he knew for sure.

"Shen Yu... You said you liked my smile, right?" Xia Youjie's voice was hoarse, as if choked with sobs.He lowered his head, looked deeply at the tearful girl, and slowly and hard, curled the corners of his mouth.

"Tell me, how can I laugh in the face of a world where my beloved girl is locked in a small box, and she can only be saved by wandering in pain and death for a long time?"