Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume5 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 11===

They heard a deep rumbling and felt a slight floating sensation.

But while Karuta and Aine looked out the thick, double-pane window, they could tell just how fast they were moving. It had taken them less than a minute to arrive above the clouds.

The transparent outer layer that resembled a smokestack only covered the first 30 thousand meters.

The first.

Yet that was already more than three times the height of Everest.

Since there was very little dust, dirt, or even ''air'' past that point, the elevator car was left directly exposed to the atmosphere. They continued on and on, guided by the carbon nanotube wire.

The higher they went, the farther until the horizon and the more they could see. They saw the lights of the city on the coast and a cluster of lights on the ocean with some other smaller clusters gathered around it.

Those were Second Grimnoah and its guard ships.

“…”

Was the debate about how to save them still ongoing on that ship? Or had the others noticed their escape and begun pursuit? But it was too late. Once they were in outer space, Crystal Magic could not catch up to them.

Natalena and the others could not reach them now.

“Ooh, they were generous. The fridge is packed. Is this dry-cured ham? Ah ha ha. There’s even caviar!”

Meanwhile, Marika was more interested in the contents of the elevator car, so she was exploring the kitchen area. She had focused on the ingredients rather than the microwave and oven bolted to shelves, so she was bent over with her butt sticking out his way while searching the fridge.

“Dry-cured ham? Caviar? Isn’t that all space food made to be eaten in zero-g?”

“Don’t ask me. It’s all packed in thick plastic. It looks like you cut open the mouth of the bag, stick that in your mouth, and squeeze the contents out with her hand.”

That explanation only made it sound like a jelly drink made by throwing the ingredients in a juicer and creating a cold goop, but that was just how Marika talked since she was halfway to being a gyaru. The food was probably fine. Space food these days was supposed to be good enough to sell at souvenir shops.

Unlike in a rocket, they weren’t strapped into their seats with sturdy belts. They didn’t need puffy spacesuits or helmets either. The president was still wearing her uniform and she moved around in her wheelchair to grab a magazine. However, the car was tall and you were meant to reach the different levels with a ladder. She would need some help when she needed to reach the shower or bed.

“I’ll be fine,” said Kyouka, flipping through the magazine. Apparently that capable upperclassman girl was still interested in the summer fashions even though she would never return to the surface again. “The gravity will be gone soon and the concepts of up and down will lose all meaning. I should be able to swim through the air by propelling myself with my hands on the walls.”

Karuta was mildly impressed she had thought it through this far.

He decided he needed to give those issues more thought himself. He didn’t want to carelessly remove a drink lid in zero-g and have the liquid floating all around. How did the shower, bathroom, and laundry work? It might seem silly with the bigger issue facing them but he was worried about all of the plumbing.

Their three-day journey would take them to the geosynchronous satellite at an altitude of 36 thousand kilometers. That meant their first day would bring them more than 10 thousand kilometers up. The international space station was about 400km up, so they would be in a complete vacuum by then.

The fact that the first day included so many changes may have been a blessing.

The psychological pressure would be much greater during the 2nd and 3rd days when they traveled through nothingness the entire time.

“How long ago was that ‘the Earth is blue’ quote again?”

Marika joined Karuta by the window.

That modern high school girl loved to snap photos of everything from today’s meal to beautiful scenery, but she didn’t have her phone with her now. Probably because she didn’t want to see the message alerts. And it was unclear how long it would still receive a signal anyway. Would it lose a connection quickly, or would they keep a connection the whole time thanks to a satellite signal or the elevator’s wire itself acting as a communication cable?

“It’s night right now, so the ocean and sky are both black. But will it look blue once we get high enough?”

“No, it will remain black as long as it isn’t facing the sun.”

“You mean we won’t get to see the blue Earth? After launching ourselves into space?”

“The trip takes 3 days, so the Earth’s rotation is going to take us into the sun eventually, won’t it?”

But that meant the 100km space elevator was constantly rotating around with the Earth. That was a strange thought when they were currently traveling up that line. Would the centrifugal force not cause it to snap?

Marika pressed her hands against the thick double-pane window made to block radiation.

“The temperature in space varies a lot based on the presence of sunlight, right? Are carbon nanotubes resistant to heat? I mean, it’s 100 thousand kilometers long in all. And they say the metal rails on railroad tracks change length between summer and winter.”

“Don’t ask me. Maybe they wind it up with a reel to keep it tight.”

There were some specks of light on the otherwise dark surface of the Earth. They gathered to form cities, thick highways connected those cities, and lots of lots were traveling between them. Some trends were noticeable from this distance. People really did settle along the oceans instead of in the treacherous inland mountains and then they connected their settlements with thick roads. The lines of lights located more inland were probably large rivers. It was incredible to think how each one of those lights – whether they belonged to a house or a vehicle – had a person inside.

There were also some red lights. Those were not neon signs. Maybe they were slash-and-burn farming in the Southeast Asian forests, or maybe there was some other reason, but they had to be manmade fires.

“Marika, can you still use Crystal Magic?”

“What, fallen head-over-heels for your mature childhood friend’s cute battle mode?”

Marika casually shattered the Crystal Blossom on her chest to power it up and pulled a rapier Device out of thin air.

Then Karuta turned toward the crystal girl who was always standing by his side.

“?”

Aine tilted her head in response.

If it was true that Crystal Magic only functioned on Earth, he had expected Aine to withdraw into him at some point, but that hadn’t happened. Had that theory been mistaken, or was there something in this space that was allowing Crystal Magic to function? If this would only lengthen Aine’s fear and suffering, he felt kind of bad about doing this to her.

“We should see some shooting stars soon,” said Kyouka.

Come to think of it, didn’t that president girl have an interest in astronomy?

“Tens of thousands of small debris and meteor pieces enter the thermosphere, the top layer of the atmosphere, every single day. The lights are too small to see from the ground, but we are close enough to see them now. A meteor shower pales in comparison to the spectacle we should get to see.”

“Really? So like pouring rain? Or like overturning a bucket?”

“In a way, they kind of are pouring down from space.”

“Karuta-kun? Aine-chan? You two should really learn how to not make it sound so banal.”

Would seeing this make the trip to space worthwhile?

Would it be enough to believe they really did want to keep the Threat away from that planet full of so many beautiful people and things?

“Marika…”

“What do you want?”

Karuta spoke to the childhood friend looking out the same double-pane window.

He said the words none of them had been able to bring themselves to say.

“No one’s watching anymore, so you can cry if you want.”

Those words felt forbidden.

There were no further words. He couldn’t remember what Marika had said while clinging to his chest. He had a vague memory of her unfairly hitting him a few times while she cried. He didn’t remember what he had done either. He knew he must have shouted something. Her tears were contagious, so he knew he must have cried too. They had all cried. None of them tried to stop it. Even Omotesandou Kyouka had transparent tears in the corners of her eyes and yelled something that hadn’t made sense.

They were too far away.

Their voices couldn’t reach anyone.

It would have been the same for the past world’s strongests.

Anastasia’s group had feared this more than anything.

Crystal Girl Aine was the sole exception, only tilting her head with no apparent expression.

The skirt of her white combat dress silently floated up in an unnatural way.

“Hey, Aine? Fix your-”

“Hmph!!”

Marika jabbed her fist into his side with a definite anger that hadn’t been there before. But it was still a light blow for the world’s strongest. Unnaturally so. In fact, Marika was propelled slowly backwards after the hit.

Gravity was gone.

They had moved too far away from the gravity’s source: Earth.

Marika grew red in the face and shouted while holding down her short skirt with both hands and slowly spinning in the air.

“You just had to interrupt that emotional scene by focusing on the little girl panties created from yourself, didn’t you!? Give me back my pure, youthful tears!!!”

“I-I don’t see how this is my fault.”

“My, my,” said Kyouka. “I wonder what the past world’s strongests did here. Is this a trial all of the strongests have passed in secret?”

“And you need to do a much better job of covering up those surprisingly cute ones!!”

“Sacri-sama, you have not given me an oral command. What am I supposed to do?”

“Stop tilting your head and start covering up your underwear!! Aine, you don’t have to be completely naked for human shame to kick in!!!”