[Comprehensive] Light and Shadow

The curse is lifted.

After returning home from that day, not only did he recover from his illness, but even the curse of the Fujiwara couple was completely lifted.

It's just that there was an unnamed flower of black color on Natsume's wrist. When I looked carefully, the ink color spread on the white skin seemed to have a ray of dark purple. Natsume didn't ask, and the witch god didn't say anything.

Rather than convincing Natsume that the wrist was cursed by the Sorcerer God, Natsume felt that it was more like a blessing from the Sorcerer God.

Everything turned too fast, which made Natsume feel a little unreal, but even so, there were more smiles on Natsume's face, with a little more real meaning, and a little intimacy in the interaction with others.

The time in the next two days seems to have returned to a month ago. At that time, Natsume was always used to buying wagashi, thinking of the scene where the witch god stretched out his hand and swallowed the wagashi like a small animal, and then always smiled. It was walking briskly to the shrine to pay homage to that childish shaman.

Although it seems that a lot has changed now, Natsume feels that nothing has changed.

"Natsume, today is the last day."

When the witch god looked at him and said these words, Natsume's smile froze on his face, and then looked at the witch god blankly.Natsume failed to understand what the witch god said, and the five-day agreement Natsume thought it was over.

"Natsume, if you don't leave, I'm leaving."

When the witch god said these words, Natsume froze and opened his mouth, but his throat was so dry that he couldn't speak.When Natsume never thought that they would be together in the future, the witch god was about to leave.

"Why?" Natsume heard his voice trembling in the wind.

"Natsume, you still have a long life, and my time should be over." The witch god replied.

If it weren't for the seriousness of the current situation, if it wasn't for the trembling of Natsume's fingertips, if it wasn't for the coolness pouring out from the bottom of his heart to bind his whole body, Natsume would have almost thought it was a boring joke and laughed out in coordination.

The god said to a human being that human life is long, but should the god disappear?

After all, what a ridiculous statement, my lord Witch God.

"I've already figured it out." The witch god looked at Natsume and sighed softly, lowered his head slightly, and looked at the ground calmly, "I haven't figured it out for a long time, my original body has long been destroyed by the humans who took me away. Go, Pingxi Village has been destroyed and there is no power of faith anymore, Lingzi has already passed away, so why do I still live in the world from a god to a monster?"

The witch god looked at his hand, rubbed the lines on his palm, and slowly raised a wry smile at the corner of his mouth, "Actually, I overestimated myself. I always thought that I had never lived in this world without obsession, but in fact, maybe I am more Not willing to die like that."

"I may have hated human beings with bad thoughts, imprisoning me in a sealed box to fulfill their wishes. I didn't do anything, so I was smashed to pieces by humans in the end, and I was dismembered by humans as a god?" There was coldness in the pupils of the witch god, and he sneered mockingly. Natsume knew that at that time, the witch god also hated humans.

Natsume suddenly felt distressed and trembling, but the god who had always been on top was locked in a box by humans.He remembered that time, the witch god was like a stone, sitting alone stiffly, looking up at the night without any waves in his pupils.In fact, I'm already used to it, every day locked in the box is just sitting and looking at nothingness.

"At that time, I should have disappeared, or in other words, I should have died long ago." The witch god continued, how can a god who has lost the power of faith still be a god, but he still exerted his last strength and did not know why he waited And persistently want to stay.But when that archetypal doll was reduced to shattered sawdust, the Witch-God knew that there was no longer any left.

It just didn't disappear, but turned into a monster instead. He was confused and didn't know why he still existed in the world, but maybe it was because of his intense obsession and unwillingness to be secretly hidden in the depths of his confusion, or maybe it was because he kept begging in his heart Bar.

"I hate myself as a monster, I hate myself who has to rely on nightmares to suck human energy, but even so, I still live in this world..." The witch god's eyes were full of disgust for himself, his words paused, and finally looked Slowly said the last five words to Natsume, "To see you."

"I know that Natsume Reiko never called me, and I also know that she never came back to look for me. In the end, I still feel betrayed." The witch god never felt that human beings betrayed him, because he never felt betrayed by human beings because of their lost beliefs and beliefs. The box felt pain, only when Reiko left and never came back, that was the ultimate pain given, but maybe that didn't qualify as betrayal at all.

Because, Natsume Reiko never promised anything, and there seemed to be only one agreement left between him and her in the end.

An agreement that made the witch god so obsessed that he couldn't leave the world and waited empty-handed.

"I thought about revenge on mankind, I thought about betraying you, I thought about killing you..." The witch god suddenly laughed, and helped his forehead with some sadness and self-deprecating, then shook his head slightly, "It's not that I thought about it, but did it all."

Just like a malicious black hole, if you are not careful, you will be caught and run to the dark side.In the confusion, the witch god thought about doing many things and did many things, but in the end he was even more confused.

The chest cavity of the pure black heartless puppet overflows with indifferent nothingness, nothing but an empty hole.

"What exactly do I want?" The witch god looked at Natsume and muttered to himself, and finally raised his head to look at the tall and prosperous cherry tree, "I want a lot, a lot."

"I want to see the town where Reiko lives, and I want to go to the brightly lit night market that Reiko said."

"I want to eat the food that humans bring to me, and I don't beg for my wish, just to see me."

"I want someone to respond to what I say, and someone to promise me what I want to hear."

"I want people who are waiting for me to stay in the cherry blossom illusion that I guard."

"I want someone I cherish who will come to worship me every day and sleep with him."

……

The witch god said a lot of words, one sentence at a time, as if he had retrieved his original wish from the entangled time and years. Even the gods did not have wishes, but no one listened. It can't be achieved either.

"Obviously I'm so greedy, but Natsume, you've already given me everything I want."

After meeting Natsume, the obsession that had been accumulated for a long time fell apart bit by bit.He didn't say anything, but Natsume fulfilled his own forgotten wish little by little.

"Everything has a definite number, and those five days are not only the time limit I gave you, but also my own deadline."

"Natsume, the time I begged for in the name of the gods will eventually be returned."

Natsume opened his eyes wide, looking at the witch god in disbelief, it's a lie, these are lies.

There has never been such a moment like now that I am so looking forward to hearing lies. Obviously everything has just ended, and obviously beautiful things have just begun. How can everything be silenced here in the name of destiny? disappear.

"Natsume, let's end it like this, I am so happy that I have no regrets."

——In this way, ending at the time when the cherry blossoms are blooming, it might not be the best ending.

"I want to live with the Sorcerer God." Natsume said, staring at the Sorcerer God steadfastly.He finally said what he had been unable to say. He originally thought that everything would continue in a good direction.

It's just that in the end, he didn't even have the chance to refuse.

Natsume thought of that dream, the dream that no matter how hard he ran, he couldn't hold the witch god.

And this nightmare, it turned out that he never woke up.

"Master Wushen, what can I say?" Natsume looked at the silent Wushen and forced a smile.If he said that he was about to leave, he didn't know what else to say.

"Go home, you don't need to come here again." The witch god replied calmly, with a calm expression on his face.

Indifferent to the extreme, as if he never cared about it from the beginning to the end.

Perhaps compared to Reiko, Natsume Takashi is more like an ordinary passerby, a passerby who wants to stay but has no place to stay.

"I'll return my name to you." Natsume lowered his head and took out the account of friends from his bag. Even though he didn't know the words in the account of friends, he could immediately find the contract with the name of Lord Wushen. This page He has watched it countless times.

If the Sorcerer God dies, then this page will not be left. Instead of this, it is better to return the name to the Sorcerer God now.

Even though his fingers were trembling, even though his heart was pounding painfully in the hollow of his chest, Natsume still tore off the paper contract and put it in his mouth, clasped his hands together, concentrated, and then blew lightly.

Natsume finally called out the name of the witch god-An.

The memory of Reiko and the Shaman penetrated into Natsume's mind bit by bit from the page at the moment the name was called out.

The moment that short memory flooded into his thoughts, Xia Mu's eyes immediately turned red, and he silently looked at the witch god standing opposite him.

Just looking at each other silently from a distance, in this place isolated from the world, it seems that there is only him and him in the world.

"Natsume, do you have a wish?" The witch god, who seemed to be surrounded by star-point fluorescent light, finally spoke. The body of the witch god gradually became transparent, and then gently floated in front of Natsume like a breeze, and stretched out his hand to caress Natsume. s face.

"Yes." Xia Mu's eyes were covered with mist, thousands of words seemed to be shattered in the golden-brown pupils, and finally the boy nodded slightly.

"Let the cherry blossoms in Pingxi Village bloom again." The boy's voice was ethereal and weak, as if falling with the light-colored cherry blossoms.

The Wushen's hands paused, and he stared blankly at Natsume. Finally, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly. He was obviously smiling but seemed to be crying.

Until the end, the boy named Natsume in front of him was too gentle.

"Okay." The witch god nodded, then took Natsume's hand, and gently pressed his lips on the black unnamed flower on Natsume's wrist, "This is my last blessing for you."

A god shouldn't have tears in the first place, and no human has ever taught him how to cry.

But when the witch god looked at his increasingly transparent body and the transparent hand passing through Natsume's body, tears finally fell.

"The tears turned out to be hot."

The witch god's expression was dull, his vision was blurred, and a warm arc was drawn from the sockets of his eyes.The witch god stretched out his hand and touched his cheek, and the transparent water color of his fingertips proved that he really could cry.

The overflowing thoughts swayed at the fingertips, and the witch god couldn't tell what he was thinking, but tears kept pouring out of his eyes.

The body disappeared with the fluorescent light, and the tears of the witch god seemed to burn Natsume's heart drop by drop.Natsume didn't speak, just watched quietly with red eyes, as if trying to remember the face of the witch god with his life.

"I am no longer a god." The witch god said this sentence again, but this time it seemed to have a different meaning.

"In the name of An, I wish Natsume Takashi a happy and peaceful life, safe and worry-free."

—and then, everything ends in silence.

The train moved slowly.

The boy in the white shirt just stood quietly on the train, looking at the town from a distance through the somewhat flawed and blurred window, and there was an indelible sadness in his golden-brown pupils.

Few people know that there is a dilapidated shrine in Pingxi Village, where there used to be a shaman god who fulfilled people's wishes.

The scenery outside the window changes quietly, passing by like the passing of time.

Natsume recalled the memory of Reiko in her mind. She was also sitting on the train when she left, standing in front of the window just like him at this moment, looking at the town that once left its footprints with great nostalgia.

The difference is that Reiko knew that there must be a god in that small town who would silently stand in front of the shrine, watching her leaving from afar.

Yes, Reiko knew—that god must have been staring at her from the depths of her pupils.

But Natsume couldn't see it, he could only silently look at the decayed and deserted distance, no one would stand there waiting for anyone.

Even so, Natsume, like Reiko in the past, couldn't help running to the rear compartment of the train when the train was accelerating.Looking at the scenery outside the window without blinking, he seems to think that as long as he keeps running, he can keep all the scenery, the years that have passed, and the gods that have disappeared.

It was like going crazy, running back desperately, knowing that the god was no longer in that place, but Natsume still couldn't bear to leave, still feeling that... the shaman god was still staying in that place and watching him.

At that moment, Natsume felt that she was really envious of Reiko.

Even though he ran to the rear compartment of the train like Reiko, he was still in the scenery Reiko saw through the window.

And he, no matter how hard he chased him, he still couldn't catch the figure of Lord Sorcerer God.

In the end, Natsume could only stand in the last carriage of the train in a daze just like Reiko.

In the memories of Reiko seen by Natsume, Reiko looked at the passing scenery outside the window, burst into tears, then curled up and slowly squatted down, burying her head in her arms and crying.

The powerful and beautiful Grandma Reiko in the cat teacher's mouth will cry in front of everyone in the car because she left a small town, curling up and sobbing as if she was in great pain.

In Reiko's memory, a flight attendant walked up to her and asked suspiciously, "Miss, did you leave something in Pingxi Village?"

Then Reiko raised her head slowly, opened the green book in her hand, and slowly turned to a page, tears couldn't stop falling, dripping warm dark colors on the page.

"I left behind very important...very important...people."

At that time, the girl who was always laughing openly and going everywhere to defeat monsters just knelt in the train and cried, her voice was hoarse and trembling extremely.With red eyes and tears all over his face, he just stared at the white paper with the name of the god written on it.

It was only when Natsume saw this memory that she really understood—Grandma Reiko also liked Lord Wushen.

Not just a god, Reiko regards the witch god as a man who can be touched, communicated, and liked.

It's just that humans and gods are an insurmountable gap.

The witch god is the most noble belief in Pingxi Village, and he can never leave the shrine and the belief of Pingxi villagers.But Reiko is a human being, a girl who traveled here by accident.

Even Reiko, who is always alone, has something to do.She also has acquaintances, human beings who are related by blood, and have a fixed daily life, and often the most ordinary connections on weekdays have also created a bondage that she cannot get rid of.

Just as the witch god cannot walk out of the shrine, Reiko cannot stay in this village for the witch god.

Both gods and humans are bound by their own chains, and can only be forced to separate in the end.

These were clearly the memories of Reiko and the Shaman, but Natsume felt her heart beating empty in her chest, and tears fell down her chest involuntarily because of the pain from being hit.

[Natsume, do you have a wish? 】

At that time, the witch god asked himself this question, and he said that he hoped that the cherry blossoms in Pingxi Village would bloom again.

Wanted to call out his name, wanted to wish him to stay, but didn't.It's just to prevent the sadness from continuing, to remember his brilliance forever, to hide this wish in my heart, and to keep his perfect image in my heart forever.

He went to Pingxi Village, but the long-withered cherry tree was in full bloom.He saw that on the tree, two small people were carved on the dark brown bark. The marks had long been blurred by time, but there were two smiling faces, a girl and a boy.

He knew that this was engraved by Natsume Reiko, and those two faces were Natsume Reiko and Lord Wushen.

A broken puppet wrapped in white brocade was dug out from the soft soil under the cherry tree.

The prototype of the puppet can no longer be seen, and the completely broken wood and brocade cloth are also black and dilapidated, imprinted with the vicissitudes of time.

Who buried this broken doll under the cherry tree?Who, even broken, still stays here and waits?

Perhaps, Lord Sorcerer God has only one obsession.

He was waiting, waiting for a girl's unspoken wish, which was an agreement between the only witch god and Reiko.

The train was rushing to the next destination on the track, but Natsume looked out the window blankly, and the boy in the window burst into tears.

"An..." The young man spoke softly, gently crushing the name of the god in his heart.

There are countless roads in this world, but none of them lead to you.

—I can't find my way to you.