Unlike Shinobu Kocho, Nagasaki Soyo was much easier for Mori Minami's Shadow to deal with.
In the fifteen years of Shinobu Kocho's life so far, she had experienced the deaths of countless friends and family, and had participated in countless battles where death was only a step away.
For Shinobu, the thing she struggled with had never been the direction she should advance in, but the attitude with which she should face bloodshed and partings.
Therefore, external temptation or intimidation meant nothing to her. The only thing that could trap her was her own heart.
But Nagasaki Soyo was different.
She lived in a peaceful modern era.
To deal with her, Mori Minami's Shadow did not need to use any complicated methods.
All she needed to do was follow the deepest desire in Soyo's heart and weave for her a dream from which she would never need to awaken.
Warm yellow light illuminated the entire living room. The air was filled with the browned aroma of butter and sugar from freshly baked sweets.
Nagasaki Soyo lay sideways on the sofa, her head resting on her mother's lap.
She buried her face deeper into the hem of her mother's skirt, breathing in the clean, sun-dried scent of the fabric.
It was something she often did as a child.
Whenever she felt wronged, or simply wanted to be spoiled, all she had to do was curl into her mother's arms like this, and every storm outside would stop.
Her mother's fingers passed through her hair.
Stroke by stroke, they combed downward along the grain of her hair.
When they reached the ends, they touched a small tangle.
Her mother's movements paused. She did not tug at it forcefully, but patiently picked apart the strands little by little.
"Soyo, what do you want for dinner tonight?"
Her mother's voice fell from above her head.
"Curry."
Soyo's voice was muffled in the skirt fabric.
"Curry again?"
Her mother laughed softly, patted the back of Soyo's head, then slipped her fingers back into her hair.
"Your father will get tired of it."
"Dad said he loves curry the most."
Soyo turned her head, resting her chin on her mother's lap, and looked toward the other end of the sofa.
Her father sat in the armchair opposite them, both hands holding open an evening paper.
A glass of barley tea sat on the low table by his feet. The tea had long since gone cold.
Her father did not mind. Between turns of the page, he occasionally freed one hand to lift the glass and take a sip, his eyes never leaving the newspaper.
Hearing his name, her father paused.
He neatly folded the newspaper, placed it on the low table, and turned to look at Soyo. Gentle smile lines gathered at the corners of his eyes.
"Did you finish your homework?"
"I finished it at school," Soyo said.
"Then our Soyo is amazing."
Her father stood up with his hands on his knees and walked to the long sofa.
He bent down, placed his large palm on top of Soyo's head, and ruffled her hair firmly.
His palm was broad and warm.
At dinner, the family of three sat around the dining table.
In the center of the table was a large steaming pot of beef curry, with sliced boiled eggs and pickled radish on the side.
Her father stirred his rice with a spoon while talking about amusing things that had happened at work that day.
A new junior employee had jammed the printer and panicked so badly he was covered in sweat. At lunch, when he went to the set-meal shop he often visited, the owner's wife had given him an extra fried croquette.
Her mother sat beside him, occasionally adding a comment or two.
She kept complaining that he ate too fast, then turned around and added another spoonful of potato to Soyo's plate, muttering that Soyo seemed to have lost weight recently and was eating too little.
The television was on, showing a comedy variety program. Several entertainers had fallen into a pool because of a punishment game.
The volume was turned very low, not loud enough to cover the conversation at the dining table. It merely served as the lively background noise of this home.
Outside the window, the sky had already gone completely dark. The neon lights from distant high-rises faintly reflected on the glass.
Soyo silently watched with a stainless-steel spoon between her teeth.
She saw her father pick up the tenderest piece of beef and place it in her mother's bowl.
Her mother glanced at her father, but the corners of her mouth could not help turning upward.
"What is it?"
Sensing her daughter's gaze, her mother turned her head.
"Nothing."
Soyo let go of the spoon in her mouth and gently shook her head.
"I just feel really happy."
Her father and mother exchanged a look and smiled at the same time.
In this world, everything was perfect.
Her father's career was smooth, and he came home on time every day. His heart was always with his wife and daughter.
Her mother was no longer the strong career woman who exhausted herself every day between drinking parties and meetings in order to maintain a single-parent household.
She had resigned from those positions that required endless social obligations and had become an ordinary mother, whose greatest daily worry was what to cook for Soyo that evening.
As for CRYCHIC, and MyGO!!!!!...
Perhaps even Mori Minami's Shadow had been overwhelmed by the complicated, endlessly tangled relationships among that group of high school girls.
It did not try to sort through that mess. Instead, it chose the simplest and most brutal method.
A clean cut.
In this illusion, the existence of Toyokawa Sakiko, Takamatsu Tomori, Shiina Taki, Chihaya Anon, Kaname Rāna, and the concept of a band itself had all been completely erased.
Actually, this was very reasonable.
Why had Nagasaki Soyo accepted Toyokawa Sakiko's invitation in the first place?
Why had she poured all her emotions into CRYCHIC?
Why had she fallen into an almost obsessive fixation after the band broke up?
In the end, it was all because her original family had broken apart, so she had clung desperately to that new home.
And now, Nagasaki Soyo in this illusion had a happy and complete family. She no longer needed to search outside for a place to belong.
I want this to continue forever, she thought.
But at that moment—
Crack.
Soyo suddenly raised her head, her eyes widening slightly.
Her mother had originally been smiling while picking up food with her chopsticks, but in that instant, the edges of her face blurred into double images. Her features began to stretch and distort.
A crack appeared without warning from the center of her mother's forehead.
A faint glow leaked from within. Like a spiderweb, it rapidly crawled across her brow bone and cheeks, spreading to her jaw before vanishing beneath the collar at her neck.
Mom!
Soyo dropped her spoon and stood up in panic.
The light grew brighter and brighter, and the crack widened with it.
It was not only her mother.
The cracks spread from her mother to the entire space like a plague.
Web-like fissures appeared on the television screen. The laughter of the comedians became stuck on a strange, distorted note. The wallpaper split open, revealing glowing nothingness behind it. The ceiling, wooden floor, and the sofa Soyo had just been sitting on all developed dense cracks across their surfaces.
Her father stood at the kitchen doorway, holding a freshly boiled kettle. He remained frozen in the posture of having just stepped forward with his left foot. The kettle was tilted, and droplets of water hovered suspended in midair.
His entire body had been frozen completely in that single frame.
Glowing cracks covered the surface of his body as well.
"Soyo?"
Her mother tried to call her, but the voice was already severely distorted, turning into some inhuman echo.
The next second—
Boom!
A tremendous shattering sound exploded, deafening.
The entire world broke apart right before Soyo's eyes.
Space became like a gigantic mirror smashed to pieces, splitting into billions of tiny fragments that fell toward a bottomless abyss.
Within each falling fragment, a scene from one second earlier was sealed.
In this one was her mother's gentle smile before she could withdraw it. In that one were the reflected lenses of her father's glasses. There were also the night sky outside the window, the warm yellow light on the wooden floor, and the steaming curry in the pot…
The fragments fell faster and faster, dragging countless dazzling streaks of light through the darkness, like an inverted meteor shower.
Soyo reached out, trying to catch those falling spots of light.
Her fingers passed through her mother's smile, through her father's hand, and touched nothing.
Her fingertips only brushed against cold emptiness.
Then Soyo lowered her head and discovered that her own body had also begun to shatter, piece by piece peeling away and joining that rain of falling fragments.
Soyo's eyes suddenly opened in the dark void.
She had awakened.
The instant her consciousness cleared, all the memories that had been forcibly suppressed returned at once.
She remembered.
Toyokawa Sakiko, Takamatsu Tomori, Taki, Anon, Rāna, Ave Mujica, MyGO!!!!!
And she remembered that they had entered Mori Minami's palace, then her consciousness had been severed without warning, after which she had fallen into that perfect illusion.
The warmth of her father's palm, the sensation of her mother combing her hair, the warm yellow light, the aroma of curry…
Only a few seconds ago, all of it had felt so real she could almost touch it.
Even now that she had awakened, the lingering warmth still remained in her mind, pulling at her heart.
Nagasaki Soyo floated in the void, her eyes lowered, quietly suspended there.
After a long time, Soyo sighed deeply.
It had truly been a wonderful dream.
So wonderful that if her will had been even slightly weaker, she would have gladly drowned in it and never opened her eyes again.
But soon, she raised her head again, and the confusion in her eyes was swept completely away.
If time had been turned back by a few months, she probably really would have sunk into that illusion without hesitation.
But she had already changed.
The home in that illusion had indeed been perfect, but it was false.
Now, she already had a new place to belong, real and undeniable.
Soyo steadied herself and began looking around, trying to confirm her current situation.
In the pitch-black void around her, space was covered in cracks, and countless faintly glowing glass fragments floated everywhere.
On each fragment, clear images flowed like tiny screens, silently playing something in the void.
Soyo focused her attention on one of the fragments.
Buzz.
Soyo's pupils abruptly contracted to pinpoints.
A vast memory that did not belong to her transformed into a stream of information and poured into her brain.
The entire process only occurred in an instant of real time, but to Soyo's consciousness, it felt as though she had personally experienced another person's long and cruel life.
It was Shinobu Kocho's memory.
The first thing that surged in was the heavy stench of blood.
She saw a beautiful woman wearing a butterfly-patterned haori lying in "her" arms, covered in blood.
Blood kept spilling from the woman's mouth, yet she still smiled gently at "her."
That was her older sister, Kanae.
Then, the images began to flash wildly.
A dark night deep in the mountains. Hideous demons with twisted forms tore into human limbs beneath the moonlight.
Severed arms and broken remains lay scattered across muddy ground.
Soyo felt the weight of the blade gripped in "her" hand. The blade was light and thin.
She saw countless bottles of poison in eerie colors.
She saw "herself" sitting alone in the dim Butterfly Mansion with a lamp lit, injecting those lethal wisteria extracts into her own veins, vial after vial, without reserve.
Her blood vessels bulged and turned a terrifying purplish-black, accompanied by pain that sank deep into her bones.
Until the end of the memory.
She joined the chat group and came to this palace.
Shinobu completed her reconstruction amid destruction, formed a hand sign with both hands, and projected her inner world into reality.
Domain Expansion: Feathered Molting Mirror-Splinter Realm.
The memory infusion abruptly ended.
The floating memory fragments around her were the concretization of this domain.
It was Shinobu's domain that had resisted the psychic impact of Mori Minami's palace and shattered the illusion trapping Soyo.
Soyo stood frozen in place.
The amount of information was too great, and the emotions too intense. They pressed on her until she could barely breathe.
She had never imagined that the girl who so often wore a gentle smile, the girl several years younger than herself, carried such a tragic fate.
Soyo's eyes uncontrollably grew hot, and tears overflowed from their corners.
She bit her lower lip, raised the back of her hand, and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with force.
Little Shinobu had already smashed open her cage for her. She did not have time to feel sad here.
Soyo's eyes sharpened.
She turned her gaze toward another cluster of fragments in the area, reflecting different colors.
The person in the images was Toyokawa Sakiko.
Memories surged over her like a tide once more.
This time, she personally experienced Toyokawa Sakiko's life.
The opening scene was bright. It was Sakiko's carefree childhood.
A spacious courtyard, the elegant sound of piano, and parents who cherished her like a treasure.
But soon, the images were stained with shadow.
Her mother's pale face, the beeping of instruments in the hospital room, and finally, the funeral.
Then came the CRYCHIC period.
Everyone sweated together in the practice room. From Sakiko's perspective, those memories were equally precious and shining.
However, all that beauty came to an abrupt end on that day.
She saw Sakiko's father being cast out, and Sakiko dragging simple luggage into that run-down apartment building where even the corridor lights did not work.
When Sakiko had mentioned that past before, she had brushed over it lightly.
But now, through these memory fragments, Soyo truly experienced the helplessness of falling from the clouds into the mud.
She saw Sakiko cast aside her young-lady dignity, soaking both hands in cold dirty water as she wrung out a rag and scrubbed the grime from the corners of the apartment.
She saw Sakiko counting inventory late at night in a convenience store, and apologizing again and again in a customer service center while being cursed at from the other side of the phone.
The memories continued to fast-forward.
Soyo felt Sakiko's resentment and unwillingness beneath the stage at the live house, as she watched MyGO!!!!! perform "Haruhikage."
Then came the formation of Ave Mujica.
That was Sakiko's desperate gamble, driven by an obsession with revenge, wanting to prove herself to the world.
But a massive blow descended again, and Ave Mujica was forced to disband.
After that, Sakiko joined the chat group and awakened her Persona inside her father's palace.
The final image froze on Sakiko at this very moment, locked in a life-and-death struggle against Mori Minami's Shadow.
Soyo opened her eyes and gasped heavily for breath.
She had forgiven Sakiko long ago.
And now, looking at these memories, Soyo only felt her heart aching again and again.
Her heart hurt for that stubborn girl who refused to say what she truly felt and carried every burden on her own shoulders.
"You idiot…"
Soyo cursed softly, but there was no longer even the slightest resentment in her eyes.
She took a deep breath and calmed the turbulence in her chest.
There was one final memory.
Soyo turned her head. Reflected in the fragment was the master of this palace—
Mori Minami.
This time, it was no longer a victim's tragedy, but the perspective of the perpetrator.
Soyo saw how Mori Minami looked down upon her own daughter from above.
She saw Wakaba Mutsumi being manipulated like a puppet on strings.
She heard Mori Minami calculate Wakaba Mutsumi's utility value in her heart, evaluating whether Mutsumi was qualified enough as a supporting foil.
There was not the slightest trace of motherly love.
Only cold utilitarianism and the desire to control.
And also an unconcealable jealousy and fear toward Mutsumi's talent.
Soyo's hand abruptly clenched into a fist, her nails digging deep into the flesh of her palm.
She could endure harm directed at herself, but she could not tolerate someone trampling on the bonds between family.
Especially when it was a mother trampling on her daughter.
Having experienced the fracture of her own original family, Soyo longed for the warmth of family more than anyone.
In her eyes, Mori Minami, who exploited familial love and treated her daughter as a tool, had touched her most unforgivable bottom line.
The anger in her chest was no longer a small flame. In an instant, it gathered into churning magma.
"Mori Minami…"
The name was forced out through Soyo's clenched teeth. Her shoulders trembled slightly from anger she could no longer suppress.
"You are not worthy… of being a mother at all!"
The instant her voice fell, as if responding to the surging emotions inside her, the countless glass fragments around her erupted with dazzling light at the same time.
That light grew more and more blinding, changing from a faint glow into burning daylight, instantly illuminating the dark void completely.
A tremendous shattering sound rang out again, and the entire world broke apart in an instant.
But the fragments carrying memories did not scatter. On the contrary, as though drawn by some force, they began frantically gathering from all directions toward a single central point.
The fragments struck and rubbed against one another, producing a chain of crisp, ethereal sounds, like tens of thousands of bells being shaken at once in a violent wind.
At the center of the light, a pair of enormous wings suddenly spread open, blocking out the sky.
The texture of each wing was pieced together from countless memory fragments refracting brilliant colors.
A body gradually took shape.
It was a crystal-clear butterfly, spreading its wings as if ready to fly.
The light radiating from the crystal butterfly illuminated Nagasaki Soyo's face.
At this moment, the anger in her eyes was no longer concealed at all. It burned without reservation.
Then, in the deepest part of that anger—
Crack.
Something broke.
It was like the roar of heavy metal shackles snapping apart.
As though receiving some kind of revelation, Soyo suddenly raised her head and roared:
"Persona!"
Boom!
Without warning, blue flames surged directly from beneath her feet, instantly enveloping her entire body.
Within that blue blaze, Soyo's everyday clothes rapidly transformed into the MyGO!!!!! performance outfit they had sewn with their own hands.
Immediately afterward, the pillar of flame did not subside. Instead, it erupted even more violently behind her, shooting into the sky.
Within that blue pillar of fire, a massive figure slowly emerged.
It wore a white bridal kimono, the fabric complex and heavy. Beneath the hem, half-hidden and half-revealed, were pure white tabi socks and thick-soled shoes like stilts.
Its waist was tightly bound by a broad sash, and beneath the heavy cloth, the curves of a mature feminine body were outlined—full and graceful, exuding an aura where motherhood and the uncanny intertwined.
In its hands, it steadily gripped an exaggeratedly long naginata. Cold light flowed along the blade, like a streak of solidified moonlight, ready at any moment to cut off an enemy's head.
A huge white bridal hood concealed its face.
However, if one followed that hood and looked inside, one would discover that there was no face beneath it at all—only pure nothingness, as if capable of devouring all light.
The blue flames around Nagasaki Soyo gradually faded.
She slowly turned her head, raised her face, and looked up at the immense being behind her, where terror and sanctity intermingled.
"So this is… my Persona?"
Soyo murmured softly.
The instant her gaze met that patch of nothingness, a name engraved itself deep within her mind.
Hariti.
Join here to read ahead.
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 180)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl 285
"Is this chat group even serious?" 150
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (This matter is completely finished.)
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 255
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 210
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/20
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 305
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer (This matter is completely finished.)
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/40
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 130
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 155
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 120
I Can Copy Unique Skills 120
Summoning an Evil God, but the 75
Supernatural Multiverse 155
My Harem Is Indescribable 105
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 110
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 110
Still playing traditional Honk 96
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 95
What Should I Do After Switchi 51
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 80
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 105
Checking In in Demon Slayer 95
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 105
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 95
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 80
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel (This matter is completely finished.)
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 95
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 90
Why did they assign me to Uma 80
MYGO Beauties 75
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 80
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 100
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 120
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 65
The Uma Musume Who Became 70
I'm Definitely Not the King of 105
After Maxing Out Every Class 110
Honkai: World Modulation Mode 95
I, the Elden Sword Saint 60
Dio Brando Is Challenging FGO 60
No One Knows Pokémon Better 60
I, Sakazuki, Won't Go Down Tha 69
From Trilobites to Titans 57
Chainsaw Man: Contracted with 75
DanMachi: My Party Members Are 86
An Anime Heroine Darkened 60
Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Links 70
Honkai: The Fire Devil 70
Honkai Transformation Cards Volume2/30
Age of Heroes, I'm Just a Back 60
Uma Musume Has No Weird Fan Le 36
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