Chapter 93 If You Don’t Succeed, You’ll Become a God

When Suzuki Sonoko opened her eyes in the darkness, it was unexpectedly bright outside the room. She clutched the front of her clothes and her hands shook unconsciously. She felt like she had had a nightmare for a long time, and even after waking up, she still felt a chill in her heart.

That's not quite right...

Yuanzi wiped the sweat off her face and felt her heart pounding wildly: rather than waking up from a nightmare and realizing it had lasted a long time, this felt more like she was woken up by a nightmare in her life.

It's a pity that she couldn't remember the content of the nightmare - she didn't think there was anything wrong with still feeling anxious and short of breath after waking up. Looking at the calendar pattern on the table, she should still be in the city of Fuyuki. Logically speaking, staying in such a dangerous place and waking up without a bodyguard around her, her body would instinctively start to tense up, which was worthy of the Suzuki family's status.

Before she could panic for long, the outer door suddenly opened as if someone had kicked it open. After a burst of hurried footsteps, the assistant lady walked to the window with a stern expression.

"Are you awake?"

She was in such a hurry that she had no mood to comfort Lord Suzuki any more. She used some skillful force to pull her up and walked out.

As she walked, she reported briefly what happened after she fainted.

If the heroes really started fighting over a disagreement, the fight was relatively restrained, and Feishiyuan also carried out a small-scale evacuation of personnel.

For another example, she actually only slept for less than two hours, and in these short two hours, the Holy Grail War had already been decided (some Heroic Spirits were even killed by the Grim Reaper).

Yuanzi didn't pay much attention to what was said after the topic of "determining the winner".

Although she was originally physically weak, she had been exercising with Xiaolan since she was a child, so she had some energy and could jump around without getting tired. Today, for some reason, she broke out in a cold sweat after walking a few steps. Besides the sound of her own breathing, she even had auditory hallucinations that came one after another, each one more miserable than the last.

The place where she temporarily slept seemed to be a homestay. The closer Yuanzi got to the gate, the more she felt a strange heat. When she completely stepped out of the building with a barrier, Miss Suzuki was stunned on the spot.

A ball of fire suddenly shot up across the street, carrying thick smoke as it roared through the townhouses, as if a monster had come out of it and was rushing around, collapsing half the street in seconds. The sparks flew out, tinkling and dancing around, and were blocked by a barrier three meters in front of her.

“Wow.”

Suzuki Sonoko was surprised reflexively, and then looked up at the sky: the sky was cloudless, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse.

There was a big hole in the sky where there should have been only the moon.

No one knew what the structure of the cave was, but it was filled with flowing magma, which turned into a huge fire when it landed on the ground, and it burned anyone who touched it. Speaking of which, the screams that came one after another might not be her imagination...

Although the environment was warm to the point of being hot, Yuanzi was still shivering. She held her left wrist and was confused: since the shaking was not due to physiological reasons, could it be caused by anger?

After all, the first sales deal in his life has turned into a sea of ​​fire.

But President Shiro Suzuki once taught her: If being angry can make up for the lost money, then you can be angry to death, but if being angry does not help, then why bother getting angry?

Sonoko knew from the beginning that she couldn't beat anyone in Fuyuki, so she simply took the "out of sight, out of mind" approach to the possibility of Fuyuki being destroyed.

Anyway, the King of Gold half-sold and half-gave away this piece of land, so the loss was not that big. She could then start from all walks of life and retaliate in a roundabout way. After all, magicians also need to eat and drink water.

So the garden is really barren—

"Please don't be angry."

The assistant's voice interrupted her self-analysis. The lady took her hand and said urgently, "Please trust Fei Shiyuan's ability to handle this matter. The evacuation of personnel is almost complete, and we promise not to allow the situation to escalate further."

Yuanzi was so excited by her that he was stunned.

She originally wanted to say, "I'm not angry," but the assistant had already lowered her head, turned her trembling left hand over, and gently flattened the five fingers of her clenched fist.

On the white palm, there were four bloody nail marks.

To be honest, Yuanzi doesn't watch TV much, and she especially can't understand the plot in romance dramas where people are so heartbroken that they bite their lips because their lover has left. After all, the heart is already so painful, why should they be so upset with other parts of their body?

How sad must he be that she, who held such an idea, could pinch her palm unconsciously?

Her little finger twitched unconsciously, and the burning pain in her palm brought her thoughts, which had been particularly prone to wandering today, back to reality.

She thought lightly in her mind: Why am I sad?

Accompanied by a barely perceptible sound of wind, the familiar scent of mint shampoo replaced the smoke that penetrated the barrier. Sonoko looked up instinctively. Ichigo Kurosaki, with his orange hair and holding a big sword, rushed into the barrier with great momentum against the backdrop of overwhelming flames.

He looked more like he was about to strike than worried, and the strength in his hands was unpredictable. Sonoko felt as if he had been grabbed by the elbow and lifted up from the spot. After a long moment of deciphering amidst the cacophony, she finally heard the evil-looking Hei Yin-chan repeatedly asking, "How are you? Why are you so pale?"

"Are you scared silly?"

"Headache? Or—"

Before he could even utter the word "still", Suzuki Sonoko suddenly grabbed his sleeve with such force that Kurosaki Ichigo almost suspected that her two white fingers had evolved into pliers.

The little pliers continued to apply more force and muttered to themselves.

"I really don't care..."

She seemed to be asking him, but also seemed to be talking to herself: "I can obviously afford to lose this little money. Besides, the old man said he would compensate me, right? It's not like me to get so angry that my hands are shaking over something insignificant..."

Ichigo Kurosaki didn't care about the pain in his arm anymore. He pushed her into his arms and rubbed his chin against the top of her head.

——Looking at the look on your face right now, you don’t look like you don’t care at all!

The face buried in the boy's shoulder was left with only a trace of outline. Ever since Kurosaki Ichigo boarded the pirate ship, the other two people he encountered were more cheerful than the other. The occasional murderous aura released by Yato during the fight could make him shudder. But considering that the idiot had actually lived for a thousand or eight hundred years, it was normal for him to have some residual issues. But Suzuki Sonoko...

Suzuki Sonoko's life was almost perfect.

She had everything she wanted, as if even the air she breathed had been specially purified, and she didn't even know what bitterness tasted like.

Although Ichigo Kurosaki often threatened to beat her and Yato to death on the spot, he was essentially just one of the many "Purifiers". When he was most angry, he would just pinch her into a ghost face to vent his anger.

And the number of times I actually pinch it is very small, most of the time I can only rely on my imagination to satisfy my craving.

This was the first time he saw such an expression on Suzuki Sonoko's face.

Pale, panicked, and overwhelmed.

It was as if a huge wave was about to drown her, and she was so confused that she didn't even know what the "sea" was.

Ichigo Kurosaki clicked his tongue, pulled out the hydrangeas he had promised to bring her as a local specialty from his sleeve, and carried her on his back with great force.

Without paying attention to what the assistant was shouting, Ichigo Kurosaki lifted her up between leaps and said, "Just tell me what you're afraid of."

As expected, there was no response.

So he naturally turned in a different direction: "If you don't want to talk about it, forget it. I'll take you home now."

Sonoko held the bunch of wilted flowers, her expression blank. When Ichigo moved to the vicinity of the 13th Division's temporary headquarters, Sonoko shivered as she lay on Ichigo's back and asked abruptly, "Did you pick these flowers at the street corner in front?"

Kurosaki Ichigo, who was busy finding his way, didn't hear clearly: "Huh?"

Originally, Ichigo went to Rukia to ask for leave from work. After all, the number of dead bodies on the ground meant that the 13th Division had to extradite that many dead souls. It was reasonable for him to stay and help, so when he saw Captain Ukitake Jushiro for the first time, he inexplicably felt guilty.

It turns out that Captain Ukitake's target wasn't him.

The white-haired man with a severe lung disease had a gloomy expression, his expression tinged with worry and heartache. He raised his hand to touch the forehead of the girl lying on the back of the Shinigami Proxy (his hand stopped just beside Kurosaki Ichigo's ear) and asked, "Aren't you going to choose to become the land god here?"

Yuanzi said, "Ah?"

Ukitake seemed to finally notice Ichigo's discomfort with his current position and slowly lowered his hand, his eyes filled with worry. "The light that surged earlier almost completely covered Fuyuki. It's almost reached the critical point of transformation."

"You almost took over this city, so why did you give up halfway?"

Because Sonoko herself couldn't see the white light, she didn't understand this.

Ichigo Kurosaki, who also arrived late (he arrived after the fire), did not see the white light and did not understand what these words meant.

But he heard the doubt hidden in the words.

——To be honest, she already looks so miserable, what else can she do?

——This guy is not the god of death.

——She was trembling when climbing a ladder to pick up a book. The most important thing is to let her go back to a familiar place to rest, right?

Kurone-chan is not a very experienced person who is good at hiding his emotions. His face shows whatever he thinks. Ukitake saw through his thoughts almost at a glance, but he did not seem angry at all.

He raised his hand again to touch Suzuki Sonoko's head, but the boy with her back to him quickly moved to the side to avoid him. Ukitake put his hand down and sighed. Looking at the abnormally silent girl, he explained, "This is not an accusation, Kurosaki-kun."

"As long as you choose the city you want to protect, all gods can be transformed into land gods."

"The land is the second body of the land god, and the creatures on the land are the second flesh and blood of the land god."

"Since you've already approached the critical point of transformation, then your connection with this land is clearly very deep..."

"Why give up so suddenly?"

Kurosaki Ichigo almost subconsciously wanted to protect her freedom: "If you don't want to do it, then don't do it. If she doesn't want to, don't force her!"

Ukitake Jushiro shook his head and continued to ask Sonoko.

"If you continue to hesitate like this, you will be the one who gets hurt."

"ha?"

Kurosaki Ichigo threw her on his back again: "What do you mean by that?"

Because the main person did not respond for a long time, Ukitake Jushiro was worried that she might lose consciousness due to confusion, so he patiently explained.

The sudden surge of white light almost covered Dongmu, but she chose to give up at the moment she completely transformed into the land god. This means that although she has integrated with the land to a considerable extent, she has not really become the controller of the land.

"Do you know what this means, Kurosaki-kun?"

Although Kurosaki-kun looked fierce, he shook his head honestly.

Ukitake's expression turned a little cold, because [Gods] are essentially very terrifying and pathetic beings.

The prerequisite for them to respond to prayers is to listen to the voices of all believers. If they are ordinary gods, the place of listening is their own shrine, but if they choose to protect a piece of land, then the creatures on that land, as their second flesh and blood, can naturally be "heard" directly by them.

Only after “hearing” the prayer can a response be given.

"But His Highness is unable to respond now."

She is united with the land, so she can "hear".

But because she stopped on the eve of becoming the land god, even though she could hear the prayers of the creatures on this land, she could not give any response or salvation.

"Kurosaki-kun, what kind of sound do you think Fuyuki can 'hear' at this moment?"

Wailing, crying, cursing, screaming.

In short, it's all despair.

In the flames, most of the buildings in the north of the city had collapsed. No matter how efficient the emergency evacuation was, it would be impossible to clear the entire city of people within an hour.

So there are always living people.

Even if it is not people, plants, animals, insects, or even rivers, mountains and sewers.

The more they hurt, the more panicked she became.

Just imagining it made Ichigo Kurosaki's ears tingle.

He first wanted to cover Sonoko's ears with his hands, but then he remembered that this situation had nothing to do with physics. Now he even doubted whether he should take her home directly.

Now that she has a connection with the land here, and is so far away...will she also feel panic?

On the other side, although Suzuki Sonoko was in a state of panic physically, her mind was surprisingly clear and she did not faint.

In fact, she didn't hear many creepy sounds (although there were some), but they were not as mysterious as Captain Ukitake said. She buried her face in the wide collar of Kurone-chan's clothes, inhaling the boy's fresh and warm breath through the stacked fabrics, and almost ignored those inexplicable sounds.

Sonoko suspected that this might be because she really didn't do anything.

The power that Ukitake Jushiro saw was probably the Great Fortune God that Yato mentioned, who had some accident and was temporarily given to her. Because the power of this "blessing" was so strong, she almost remembered some of the memories she had lost in her early years. But just when she was about to succeed, the situation on the Great Fortune God's side seemed to have improved again, so the power transmission was terminated.

It’s not that “she doesn’t want to do it anymore” as Ukitake said, but that she never “can” do it.

She hadn't voluntarily transformed herself into a god, and it wasn't her own will to stop either.

Even though Yato said it was because of love, Sonoko felt disgusted, which was rare (she always hated being forced).

After a long silence, she finally showed some expression. Captain Ukitake, who had been worried that she would be heartbroken (because she had heard too many cries and was powerless to do anything), obviously misunderstood the meaning of her expression.

The white-haired man sighed and said in a gentle voice, "You don't have to care about what those heretics say. You are a very good guardian. Since you feel that this city belongs to you, please do not hesitate and protect it well."

At this point, the man didn't know what he recalled, and he apologized earnestly, saying something like "I hurt you once five hundred years ago, and I have to do it again this time. I'll give you a gift later..." These words couldn't make out the consequences of the situation at all.

She naturally made a key point in her mind.

This city is yours

Yuanzi felt that this sentence was very familiar, and then a light bulb went off in her head: it seemed that the assistant had explained it to her.

In order to completely eradicate the energy system that sustains the Holy Grail War from this land, Yuzhu Tower's plan is to go all out and directly destroy all the spiritual veins under Fuyuki City.

Afterwards, the land god sent by Takama-ga-hara (presumably Yato) will take action to sort out the miasma produced by the broken spiritual vein. Relying on his divine power, it will take ten to eight years (possibly longer) to slowly restore the land to normal.

During the next ten or eight years when only the remnants of the old spiritual vein remained and the new spiritual vein had not yet been born, the spiritual energy field in Fuyuki City would be in an extremely unstable state. To put it simply, the feng shui was extremely bad.

——It’s so bad that whoever lives here will be unlucky, and whoever dares to invest money will go bankrupt.

——The only exception is probably the Suzuki family, which is favored by money.

Although the Golden King had never taken action, even if Emiya Kiritsugu had not chosen this time to cause a big explosion, the matter of "destroying the Holy Grail War" would have been written on the "To-Do Schedule" of the Pillar Tower.

For this reason, Kunijoji Daijue has been observing the Suzuki family for at least ten years.

Since he was going to assign such a task to the Suzuki family, he would not allow the Suzuki family to refuse, but at the same time, he would also give the Suzuki Group some other preferential treatments as a reward for asking them to carry a city for ten years.

When the eldest daughter of the Suzuki family unexpectedly came to the door, the remuneration and privileges agreed upon a few years ago were exchanged several times and became the piece of land that she seemed to want very much.

The terms of exchange for the Mizushira Tower changed from [allowing the Suzuki Group to take over the economy of Fuyuki City] to [allowing the Suzuki Group to own the city of Fuyuki in a sense].

Because of the compensation issue, the period of "ownership" will be almost twice as long as the "ten or eight years".

At first, Suzuki Sonoko's mind was full of oysters, and she was determined to buy offshore mudflats and estuary docks. After she finally got the upper hand in the Imperial Pillar Tower and spent several days eating and waiting to die, she suddenly realized that—

——Although she is still obsessed with raising oysters, the entire Fuyuki City, except for government departments and historic family properties, even public places such as the city center park (and the souvenir shops therein), have quietly taken her surname.

At that time, the assistant sister told her that she didn't need to feel awkward, as it was part of the deal.

"This city is all yours."

Otherwise, why did Yuanzi say that she didn't feel bad about the things that were half-sold or half-given away?

But legally speaking, this statement is correct.

Suzuki Sonoko squinted her eyes, and her hazy vision was filled with warm red flames. She thought: I paid for the goods, the seller took the initiative to give me a discount, and I bought Fuyuki according to the price on the label, so it should be mine.

Her room, her studio, her safe where she kept a bunch of inexplicable things.

Even if the female thief thought she was crazy for putting photos of Xiaolan's first-grade karate practice match in the safe, the safe was custom-made by her and installed in her bedroom, so she could put whatever she wanted in it.

Yuanzi just stood there, it was hard to say whether he was reminiscing about the past or daydreaming. No one knew how much he thought in those few short seconds. Finally, a black light flashed in his mind and fixed on the disrespectful face of his uncle, Mr. Suzuki Jirokichi.

This self-proclaimed collector who spends money like water laughed heartily and said, "I won't touch anything that's not mine, but since I paid for it, it should be whatever I want it to be!"

"I won't touch anything that's not mine, but since I spent money to buy it, it should be what I want it to be..."

A sudden breeze flashed among the heat currents.

Ukitake Jushiro turned his head in surprise and looked at the girl who seemed to be unconscious, while Kurosaki Ichigo twitched his nostrils sensitively. Amid the noise of clanging, he seemed to hear what Sonoko said.

Before he could carefully determine whether the man had woken up, Rukia, holding up half of her sleeves, called out "Captain" from a distance.

"There's something wrong with this flame and magma. The death rate is too high. As long as the fire isn't extinguished, the manpower will never be able to keep up with the number of dead souls!"

Having said that, she frowned with some worry. The flames were not important, but the black mud was a bit weird. If the god of death came into contact with it, he would suffer a lot.

Ukitake Jushiro's eyes moved slightly as he looked at the silent Suzuki Sonoko, and then at the white light that had been covered by the red light of the fire and had originally been silent but suddenly regained some activity.

Suddenly he murmured softly, "It's almost over."

Rukia: "Huh?"

On the other side, Suzuki Sonoko was lying in front of Kurone-chan's sorrow, her fingers curled up in her sleeves, pinching the hydrangea that Ichigo had handed her before. With a series of strange changes in perspective, she seemed to be able to feel the flower tree at the intersection not far away through the bouquet of flowers, and then through the senses of the flower tree, she sensed that there was a raging fire climbing up her own roots.

As the pain from the roots continued to spread, the flames grew bigger and bigger and burned onto the vehicle parked under the tree. Then, with a burst of sparks, the vehicle suddenly exploded.

The airflow and sound produced by the explosion were like exploding directly in her brain. The real Sonoko shuddered. Ichigo was really a little bit at a loss. Every time at this time, he really wanted to drag out the experienced but extremely unreliable Lord God and step on him a few times!

When Sonoko shuddered, the active male high school student was really panicked and at a loss as to what to do.

Ichigo put her down and hugged her from the front. The next second he saw her tears, his hair stood on end. "What's so sad about you?"

"Did you hear a scary sound? Or did you hear Ran Maori's voice? I heard those rabbits say the fire in the east of the city was small... Did you hear her getting hurt?"

After thinking about this, Ichigo suddenly felt that he had solved the case.

"Wait here for a moment," he said, seemingly impatient but surprisingly gentle. "Which direction did you hear the sound from? Tell me, and I'll go find her now. I'll definitely get her out safely."

Suzuki Sonoko thought to herself that this guardian artifact of our family was really worth the money. He is so considerate that I almost fall in love with him!

But she still didn't have the courage to say that she was crying because she was blinded by the bright light when she looked directly at the explosion through the trees.

Yuanzi raised her hand to touch him, but said distressedly: "It's okay now."

Kurosaki Ichigo: "..."

Kurosaki Ichigo: "How do you look okay?"

Sonoko was hit hard on the head, but surprisingly, she didn't bite. She forced herself to stand up with her weak legs, rushed over without a care in the world, hugged Kurosaki Ichigo in her arms, and rubbed him with her body up and down (?).

"Hei Yin-chan ran quite far carrying me on her back..."

"Shut up."

"Even though you despised me all the way, Hei Yin-chan still wanted to take me home."

"Shut up!"

"I often feel like I'm a worthless fighter, but this is so great..."

The girl's fluffy hair rubbed against the boy's cheek: "Hei Yin-chan doesn't mind me being a burden, nor does she think it's a bother that I fainted halfway."

"Shut up!"

"I have one last thing to say before you shut up, okay?"

Suzuki Sonoko said with true feeling: "I love you, Kurone-chan."

Ten seconds later.

Sonoko moved her head and said, "Hei Yin-chan, I've already said what I wanted to say. You could have just shouted 'shut up'."

Ichigo Kurosaki slapped her on the back of the head.

"You... just shut up!"

Ichigo Kurosaki was so happy that he forgot about Ran Mouri who had just appeared in his reasoning route.

The garden was not forgotten.

However, she hugged the boy's straight waist and yawned lightly: But she didn't need to trouble others.

——I can take Xiaolan back by myself.

【Xiaolan】.

Far on the other side of the city, the people in the outskirts had almost been evacuated. The people in the police station devoted themselves to earthquake relief and became the last wave to leave. So although the hotel had been evacuated long ago, Kogoro Mouri, Inspector Megure and others were still staying in the danger zone.

If he doesn't leave, Conan will naturally not leave either: compared to the uncle who smokes and drinks and is weak, his fighting power (after adding football, if you don't believe it, you can rewatch the Conan movie) is more than enough to kill fifty policemen in seconds.

He looks like a child, but is an adopted child. When she found out that he was missing, Mao Lilan naturally came back to look for him.

The area was densely populated, and the houses that collapsed due to the flames caused bursts of loud noises.

Mao Lilan seemed to hear someone calling her. She took two steps to the left, kicked the half-collapsed wooden frame of the door with her leg, and quickly pulled two children, one big and one small, out of the sea of ​​fire.

Seeing that they were about to be rescued, the children who were trapped also stimulated their potential. Unfortunately, their feet were crushed and bleeding too much. Seeing that the children had not yet climbed out, the second-floor wall, which had lost its support, began to peel off with a crisp sound. Seeing that the collapsed concrete fragments were about to hit people, Mao Lilan's mind froze, and she rushed forward to block the children's heads.

Conan saw this scene from a distance and didn't even have time to draw the football: "Xiaolan!"

[Move aside]

The next second, the large concrete wall mixed with steel bars seemed to be blown away lightly by an invisible giant hand, and collapsed into a pile of ashes amidst a series of shattering sounds. And because of this large-scale pressure, even the flames that were originally burning vigorously on the left and right seemed to gradually go out.

Xiaolan held the younger child in her arms and felt something was wrong. Kogoro Mouri, wearing a helmet, quickly ran over and pulled her to a wider area.

"What are you daydreaming about?" the detective scolded him with great force. "You're just a child yourself. Why are you trying to be brave and save someone?"

Xiaolan was not afraid of him, but just shook her head thoughtfully.

"I don't know if it's an illusion," she looked up at the sky not far away, "I just... seemed to hear Yuanzi's voice."

The author has something to say: Update after ten days...

The setting of the land god is based on the novel "There is a Fox Fairy in My House". Shimomo, as the proxy puppet created by the land god Liupiao, can use words on the land (that is, he can say "open the door" to any family on his land, and the door will open automatically regardless of whether there is anyone at home. He has strong control).

In the next chapter, Yato returns and the plot of FATE is finally polished off. The original plot cannot be rewritten, but the ending is the same, and those who survive are the same people who survived in the original.

Finally, let me say good night. There will be no update tomorrow, but there may be one the day after tomorrow.

Also, I have deleted all the cars in my posts and changed the ones on Weibo to be visible to myself. The news has been a bit strange recently, so I won’t take the risk. Please forgive me.