A Dimensional Journey Begins with the Dragon Clan

"resonance!!"

The next moment, Nobara Kugisaki's steel nail was smashed into the forehead of the real clone.

At the same time, the main body that was fighting with Xuan Hao on the other side was also shocked by the soul.

"What……!?"

The real body in front of Xuan Hao spat out a mouthful of blood, with an expression of disbelief on his face.

“…Kugizaki!?”

Xuan Hao on the opposite side was also surprised when watching this scene. He felt the cursed power of Nobara Kugisaki from the real person, and this cursed power actually came from the air.

Although he was somewhat confused as to what was going on, he still took this opportunity to attack the real person.

Kugisaki's original plan was to use "resonance" to penetrate the real person's body and directly hit his soul.

As a result, the "resonance" passed through the clone and captured the soul of the original body.

Then the blow to the soul that the original body suffered was returned to the clone!

“No way…!!”

The real person's face was full of disbelief.

“No way!!? My world doesn’t just belong to Xuanhao!!! The magic of this woman in front of me can actually strike my soul directly!”

"strangeness."

Nobara Kugisaki was also somewhat confused about what was happening to Mahito.

"Why do I feel like my cursed energy is exploding from a little further away...? Now that I think about it... your cursed energy doesn't feel oppressive. And just now, it should have been enough for you to kill me if you just touched my pancreatic cancer. You're just a clone!!"

Nobara Kugisaki finally realized that the real person in front of her was just a clone, and laughed and sneered, "You can't use the spell at all!?"

"……correct."

The real person's clone pulled out the steel nail from his forehead, licked the blood on his face, and responded with a grin.

  ···········

boom--

the other side.

Taking advantage of the gap created by Nobara Kugisaki, Xuanhao punched the real person against the wall.

"The aftermath of the ritual is too long!!"

The real person's original body was extremely shocked.

"The body cannot move freely yet!!"

"Kugizaki...!! Thank you!!"

Xuanhao thanked Kugisaki in his heart for his unintentional help, and at the same time continued to punch the temporarily unable to move Zhenren.

"I failed to save anyone. And I made everyone's hard work go to waste. But even so, my friends made me realize that I'm not alone. So!! I'm going to kill you right here!!"

The explosive punch left the real person powerless to resist for a moment.

  ···········

the other side.

After knowing that the real person in front of her was not the real body, Nobara Kugisaki felt a lot more relieved.

  Since "resonance" works on him, he shouldn't attack rashly like he did just now, right?

"The real competition begins now."

"...No, I'm leaving now!"

However, the real person's clone seemed to have received an order from the original body at this moment and turned around and ran away.

"……What!?"

Nobara Kugisaki looked at this shameless act in surprise and was speechless, then hurriedly chased after him.

"Stop!"

Although she could also choose to ignore the real person and go directly to the 5th underground floor.

But if we let this guy stay outside, it might cause more trouble.

I saw the real person flying up and jumping down towards the passage leading to the underground.

"!!……underground!!"

Seeing this, Nobara Kugisaki became even more determined to continue the pursuit.

"That's just what I want! After I get rid of this guy, it will be convenient for me to rush to the fifth underground floor!"

  ·············

Meanwhile, on the other side.

The real person's body was torn into pieces by Xuan Hao's fist.

However, it was not because Xuanhao's attack was too fierce, but because this guy dispersed his body and tried to delay time.

“Split!!”

Xuanhao's gaze moved across the many small clones.

"Which one!? There must be a part of his soul inside! If we kill that one, we can inflict fatal damage to him!!"

Soon, Xuan Hao felt a unique fluctuation emanating from one of the clones.

puff--

He kicked it directly, smashing the clone to pieces.

However, the real person was not fatally injured.

"You've been fooled."

A teasing voice came from far behind.

I saw that in the distance behind me, the real person had returned to his original state and fled to a long distance.

“Damn it!! I was misled by the cursed power!!”

A trace of anger flashed across Xuanhao's face, and he quickly accelerated to chase after him.

The two kept chasing each other in the subway station.

The real person was fleeing towards the ground.

  This is to reunite with the clone!

However, at this moment, neither Xuanhao nor Kugisaki Nobara had discovered the real person's plan.

Until the moment the two real people alternated in front of Xuan Hao.

"!! There are two... real people!?"

Xuanhao didn't have time to see Kugisaki Nobara who had not yet appeared in his sight.

"He created clones and they acted separately!? Is he going to merge the two into one and repair the damage!?"

This is all Xuan Hao can think about at the moment.

But until the two real people passed each other, they had no intention of merging into one.

"!?"

Xuan Hao was slightly stunned.

“We passed each other!? Why…”

The next moment, the pursuing Nobara Kugisaki appeared in Xuanhao's sight.

She was not able to see the scene of the real exchange.

"Xuanhao...!!" Kugisaki Nobara was a little surprised to see Xuanhao, and didn't realize the danger was approaching.

  The one approaching her at this moment is no longer a clone, but the real person!

"Run away!!! Kugisaki!!!"

Xuanhao realized what was about to happen and roared a warning.

The original body blocked her view, and Kugisaki didn't know that the original body and the clone had been exchanged. In addition, due to the previous battle with the clone, she relaxed her guard against the real person's palm.

So at that moment when she was stunned, she was touched hard by the real person.

"Hahaha! What an idiot! You got touched so hard!!"

After crossing paths with Nobara Kugisaki, Mahito grinned.

"Get out of the way!!"

Xuan Hao punched away the clone that was blocking him and rushed towards Kugisaki Nobara.

“Kugisaki!!”

But it was too late.

"I encountered the Three-Seven Division Magician once before, but I failed to defeat him... I wonder what will happen this time?"

The real person laughed teasingly, and then activated the technique.

Nobara Kugisaki calmly touched the half of her face that was touched.

A revolving lantern of thoughts began to flash through my mind.

  ···········

2009 years.

“Go to hell! Aaaaaaaah!”

"Ola! Watch out!!"

"You are still too young! Wild Rose~"

I was still in primary school at the time, and I often played games with my family and friends at home during holidays.

"We can't give our opponents a chance to breathe."

"Ah!! Super special move!!"

At that time, Nobara Kugisaki thought that everyone in the village had a problem with their brains.

She was the only one who was normal, and she believed it.

"You have to use this until you graduate from sixth grade. Are you sure?"

When I bought a schoolbag, my mother said that to me. But I still chose a soft light blue schoolbag.

We moved to this village when I was in primary school.

My parents were worried about the inconveniences of living in the country, but what I hated even more was having to part with my friends.

There are 19 students in the school. It's not just one class, it's the whole school.

Everyone was carrying a red or black backpack. She liked red and black very much, but no one seemed to like light blue.

However, she is a wild rose.

"Xiao Wen, take your schoolbag and exchange it with mine."

She took a fancy to my schoolbag.

"……what?"

"Swap with me?"

"……what?"

Although somewhat reluctant, Wild Rose forced her to swap in the end.

I do my own thing, that's the wild rose.

After school that day, she returned the schoolbag to me.

“I don’t like carrying school bags.”

From that day on, Wild Rose came to me often.

Playing Super Smash Bros. with my dad.

Wild Rose doesn't like the people in the village.

"This village is too small. It's much harder to be an outsider than to make friends," she said.

I don't think this is a bad thing.

A few years later, when Grandma Lingju brought her steamed red bean rice to my house, I finally understood the unpleasant feeling that Ye Qiangwei was talking about.

"I found a secret base!!"

Wild roses always take me on adventures.

At the time, I secretly admired Wild Rose's maturity. She didn't speak like a child at all.

“We’ll live there today!”

She suddenly said this.

Now that I think about it, it should be an application of what others said, such as her mother.

"It's right here! Here!!"

"!!"

The secret base that Wild Rose mentioned is actually someone else's home.

"Ah, it's really here."

"Welcome, welcome. It's cold outside, right?"

Her name is Saori, and she moved to the village after me.

Every time when faced with our sudden visit, she never showed any impatience and always greeted us happily.

By the way...Saori always stays at home.

After meeting Saori, Nobara changed.

"That's right, it's true, it's definitely Matsuko's style."

"Xiao Wen, let me practice braiding!"

"You want to practice again?"

Even the tone of his voice became softer.

How should I put it? I felt that her expression began to have a certain temperament.

Although we are both outsiders, the gap between Saori and I is really too big.

Not long after that, things started to become strange at Saori's house.

There was garbage in front of the door, graffiti began to appear, and there was snow that was obviously piled up intentionally by others.

The mansion began to look eerie.

Not long after that, Saori moved away.

Wild Rose and I went to see her off.

But afterwards, neither of us could remember what anyone said that day, and we even completely forgot what the weather was like.

But I remember it clearly, Wild Rose burst into tears and her face was red from crying.

It turns out she can cry too.

Perhaps it was because this incident had such a strong impact on me that I completely downplayed other things that happened that day.

This year, in June, Nobara decided to attend high school in Tokyo.

It seems that he had a quarrel with his grandmother, so he chose to transfer schools at such a mediocre time.

"Well then!! I will never come back here again!! Xiao Wen!! You should leave here as soon as possible!!"

"……Um."

Why didn't you cry when you said goodbye to me?

My thoughts were disturbed by a sarcastic remark that flashed through my mind, and I was speechless.

We never mentioned Saori again after that.

"Xiao Wen, next time we meet, let's go together as three people!!"

It turned out that Wild Rose was just trying not to cry.

And I was crying like rain at this moment.

"……Uh-huh!"

"Um!!"

  ···········

"Saori, can you take a break?"

"No, today is the proofreading deadline... er, should I say yesterday?"

"Today is counted until morning. What are you talking about, you?"

"The situation in Shibuya is really serious. Is it a terrorist attack?"

"Ah... I have a pimple~~~ and it's the kind that can't be squeezed! Although I don't know how to squeeze it."

"Senior, are you married?"

"Why are you asking this all of a sudden?"

"Nothing, I just suddenly felt that this was not the life I wanted."

"When I was in the second year of middle school, my family moved to a very remote village."

"Parents transferred jobs?"

"No, my mom is a believer in 'organic life' and she's superstitious. Anyway, she's very abnormal."

“…I feel it to some extent.”

"There I met two girls, probably 7 years younger than me? One girl named Wild Rose was particularly close to me."

"I'm an only child, so I think Wild Rose is super cute. I really want her to admire me, so I try my best to act like a big sister."

"I also make black tea for them. Black tea for first graders!"

"Haha, they're all pretty cute."

"I didn't exchange contact information with them because I was afraid of the feeling of good friends gradually becoming distant."

"They cried so hard when I left the village. But if they saw me now, who is so ordinary~~, they would be disappointed, right?"

"Wild Rose, are you doing well?"

"Where are you now, and what are you doing?"

  ···········

"Everyone in that village is crazy."

'Of course, that's impossible.'

"Instead, the truly abnormal people shout loudly, convincing themselves that everyone else is abnormal and is wantonly trampling on the lives of others."

"…But it seems that this is not the case."

In the blank space, Nobara Kugisaki looked at the people sitting on the chairs in front of her. They were the people in her memory.

"I'm sorry, Xiaowen. I didn't keep my promise."

"Xuanhao, tell everyone for me. 'It's nice to meet you guys'!!"

As he spoke, the half of Nobara Kugisaki's face that was touched by the real person began to swell.

puff--

Blood splattered and even the eyeballs exploded.

But for Nobara Kugisaki, such an ending does not seem unacceptable.

Because this is the path she chose.

She has no regrets in her life. (End of this chapter)