When Fang Zheng woke up, it was already the next morning.

"Um……"

Fang Zheng narrowed his eyes and stroked the kitten in his arms. He vaguely remembered that he seemed to have had a dream last night, but Fang Zheng could not remember the dream clearly.

Never mind, I guess it’s not a big deal.

Fang Zheng took a deep breath, picked up the kitten and put it beside him, then got up and washed up. Just as Fang Zheng walked out of the room, he saw Homura Akemi walking over. Seeing Homura Akemi, Fang Zheng hurriedly called out to her.

"Xiao Yan, you came just in time."

"What's the matter, Mr. Founder?"

"That's right. Go and inform everyone in the library to get ready. I have an experiment to do."

"experiment?"

"That's right."

In response to Homura Akemi's question, Fang Zheng nodded.

"I may have found a way to change the nature of magical girls in this world, but... I need to conduct experiments to prove it."

"real?!"

Hearing this, Homura Akemi also became excited, and she turned around and wanted to leave, but at this moment, Homura Akemi suddenly stopped. She looked around, and after making sure that there was no one around, Homura Akemi looked at Fang Zheng again.

"Mr. Fang Zheng, um... I mean, it would be best if it succeeds, but what if it fails?"

"If it fails, then we will have to try again."

Fang Zheng gave a very bland answer.

"Nothing can be achieved overnight. Where there is success, there will be failure. I also hope that I can succeed at once, but unfortunately, many things are not the way we want them to be."

“…”

After hearing Fang Zheng's answer, Homura Akemi's expression was a little confused. She lowered her head and asked with some doubt.

"This time...can we really defeat Witch Night?"

However, Fang Zheng did not answer Homura Akemi's question immediately. Instead, he just crossed his arms and stared at the girl in front of him with narrowed eyes.

"Why? If you think you can't win, then you'll want to run away and try again?"

“——!!”

Fang Zheng's tone was neither fierce nor serious, and could even be said to be very calm, but Homura Akemi felt as if she had been hit on the head with a stick, knocking her dizzy.

"No, I..."

"I understand the idea of ​​wanting to reload the game and start over when you feel like you can't win."

Fang Zheng shrugged and looked at Homura Akemi in front of him.

"But if you just keep running away, then you are just weak. Let me tell you a story."

For some reason, the image of Rika Furute suddenly appeared in Fang Zheng's mind.

"I have been to another world before. In that world, there was a girl with the same ability as you. She also suffered hardships. There was a mysterious epidemic in the village where she lived. And this girl was said to be the 'mother' of this epidemic and was secretly studied. This village has a festival called the Cotton Flow Festival. Every year during this festival, one person in the village will die, and that child is one of them. She lost her parents and lived in the village with another child. Then in June of that year, she, her friends, and even the entire village, will die."

"Why?"

Hearing this, Homura Akemi widened her eyes in surprise.

“Dead…?”

"That's right. The girl's ability is that every time she dies, she will be resurrected and go back to the time before June. It's very similar to your ability, right? But she is different from you. She doesn't have the ability to manipulate time. Apart from being able to resurrect after death, she doesn't have any other powers. She is just an ordinary eleven or twelve-year-old girl who is powerless."

As he spoke, Fang Zheng sighed.

"She also hoped to escape this cycle, to survive this endless June, to live happily with her friends and the entire village and grow up, but she tried so many times, but to no avail. She didn't even know who killed her or the entire village. All kinds of false information and rumors made it impossible for this twelve-year-old child to learn the truth. She tried to investigate again and again to get the answer, but failed again and again and was killed."

Having said that, Fang Zheng looked at Homura Akemi again.

"Can you imagine the pain?"

“…”

Of course, Homura Akemi could imagine that if she had not become a magical girl, she would actually be similar to that girl.

"And in the end? Did the child succeed?"

"Of course, we found the mastermind and successfully disrupted their plan. Now the child is enjoying a happy time with her friends in her own world."

Fang Zheng reached out and patted Homura Akemi's shoulder.

"I understand your thoughts. Without 100% certainty, any final boss battle may fail. But Xiaoyan, you have to know that there is no such thing as 100% certainty in this world. All we can do is to do everything we can to the best of our ability, and then... leave the rest to fate."

"Fate...?"

"Yes, there is a saying in my hometown that goes, 'Man proposes, God disposes.' But think about it the other way around. If you have done everything you can, shouldn't you get a good result?"

Fang Zheng reached out and held down Homura Akemi's body, forcing her to look at him.

"Look up and look at me, Xiaoyan. You are very powerful, but when you encounter difficulties, you immediately escape. This is your bad habit. No matter how you escape, you will have to face it in the end! If you continue to maintain this mentality, even if you reincarnate a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times, you still can't win!"

"I……"

Faced with Fang Zheng's words, Homura Akemi was stunned and completely speechless for a moment.

"Isn't that right? You told me before that no one believed you, so you kept silent and never relied on anyone again, just fighting on your own. Isn't that just running away?! Huh? In this reincarnation, others won't believe you, so are you so sure that they won't believe you in other reincarnations? Why don't you try every possible way to prove this to them so that they can become your friends and companions. Why don't you just tell Madoka about QB's situation and warn her not to sign the contract, but just stay by her side silently? If you reincarnate a hundred times and try every time, then won't there be a time when Madoka will believe you?"

Having said that, Fang Zheng stared at Homura Akemi coldly.

"Humura... do you really want to change your fate? Isn't everything you do actually making yourself forever trapped in this cycle? You are tired of failure, you are afraid of failure, you want to escape from failure, but it is still here! It will not disappear with every reincarnation you make, open your eyes and take a look! How many times have you reincarnated? The Witch Night is still in front of you, do you still want to continue to escape?!"

“Stop talking…”

"You are just avoiding it. You think it is troublesome to convince others. They won't believe you anyway. You think Xiaoyuan won't believe you either. No one will believe you, so you give up. You think everything is up to you. But do you really think you are an omniscient and omnipotent God? You have failed so many times. Don't you see the reality clearly? Why did you fail? Don't you really know?"

“Stop talking!!”

This time, Homura Akemi finally couldn't bear it anymore and screamed. Then she struggled to break free from Fang Zheng and disappeared in front of him in an instant.

"teacher……?"

At this moment, Fate poked his head out from the side and looked at him with some uneasiness.

"Are you okay?"

"Fate, did you hear everything?"

"Yes……"

Hearing Fang Zheng's question, Fate nodded obediently, then she spoke hesitantly.

"Um... Teacher, isn't that a bit too strict for Sister Homura?"

"She needs someone to wake her up, otherwise, she will still be addicted to the decadence of being alone and unable to extricate herself."

Fang Zheng shook his head, sighed, and looked at Fate.

"To be honest, sometimes I want Nanoha to give her a shot. Maybe that will calm that girl down."

“Ahahahaha…”

Hearing this, Fate showed a complicated smile on his face, and didn't know what to say for a moment.

"Forget it, I was just joking. By the way, go and notify everyone to gather after breakfast. Tell them that I have something important to say."

"Yes, teacher."