Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume3 Phase04 (section)

===Part 1===

His consciousness faded in and out.

He wasn’t even sure if he was alive or dead, but Ayato Criminaltrophy eventually heard something. He could tell his hazy senses were gradually recovering and focusing in one reality.

“Hey, his cheek is twitching. Teleria, keep it up. Your recovery magic is working!!”

“Coach!!”

The return of reality brought stabbing pain with it.

This was no miraculous survival. His survival began with an explosion of pain so bad it made him arch his back.

“Ah, g-g-g-g-gahhhh, ah, ah, ah, ah!?”

“I’ve patched up everything that had ruptured, but his blood pressure still hasn’t stabilized. Someone please stick something in his mouth so he won’t bite his tongue. Hurry!!”

No one was listening to his complaints. Once Mamilis stuck a rolled-up handkerchief in his mouth, any words he might have used were muffled. Henrietta used her great strength to hold down his flailing arms. Even dentists these days would ask you to raise your hand if it hurt, so this was taking brute force too far.

“Argh, how does a half-dead boy have this much strength left!? He was better when I was carrying him on my back!!”

Shockingly, the medical device was a grenade.

Teleria pulled the pin with it pressed against the boy’s head while he was restrained in bed.

Grenades were single-use sorcery guns with their magic boosted.

''Which meant they could be used for healing too.

“Secondary Ex Tuner!!”

An explosion of blue light sent blue lines running along all the blood vessels and nerves in Ayato’s body. The blood flow had been unnaturally stronger in some places and weaker in others, but this evened it out. He gradually regained control of his muscles which had been running wild from signals being sent out against his will.

Henrietta released his arms and Ayato pulled the handkerchief from his mouth so he could cough.

“Bwah!!”

He opened his eyes wide but still couldn’t get up. He dizzily observed his surroundings and found he was in an Academy Towers infirmary.

“C-coach, are you alright?”

“Hello again, Miss Mamilis. I have returned from my trip to heaven.”

He managed to get that much out while groaning.

The Striker in the armor and tight skirt put a hand on her hips.

“What happened to the…President? Or whatever that group’s leader was called.”

“''I killed him.''”

Teleria’s throat gave an unnatural twitch.

“''I stabbed him in the chest and knocked him off the roof of the 101-floor tower.''”

“O-oh.”

“''So, Miss Teleria, I don’t know what he had on you, nor do I care to find out.''”

He made sure to say that even if he couldn’t even get out of bed.

With a slight smile on his lips.

“''So don’t worry. It’s all over now.''”

“Wahhhh!! Ahhhhhhhhh!!”

She clung to him.

She wept, burying her face in his chest, and making a muffled confession between her sobs.

Yes.

Ayato had once been manipulated into shooting her stepbrother, but he had done everything he could to protect her during that incident.

He was supposed to be perfect, but he could leave that path of perfection for a single girl.

He could pull the trigger and stab with his sword.

“I’m sorry!! I’m sorry!! I’m sorry!! If…if I…if I had done things differently, you wouldn’t have had to bloody your hands! I…sob…I…!?”

Ayato didn’t say anything.

He only rubbed her hand with a hand while she continued.

Dark Elf Mamilis softly sighed.

She knew about Teleria’s secret and now she thought back on how unusually the girl had been acting recently. That was enough to make a decent guess what had happened. That President guy had bound the helpless blonde girl with invisible chains, forced her to betray the friends who were relying on her, and loved every second of it. That made her think he deserved to die, but did that mean she was viewing this as a demon who lived outside of human society?

She nodded to herself with a very childish idea in mind.

“(That settles it. If the humans say they won’t forgive coach for what he did, then I’ll take him to the demon forest.)”

Meanwhile, Henrietta, the human representative of the group, awkwardly scratched the back of her head.

“I am a Striker. It is my duty to preserve law and order, so I cannot overlook any crime you commit – no matter your reasons.”

“I know.”

This exchange made the (coolheaded-looking) dark elf puff out her cheeks.

But Henrietta continued before she could begin his demon forest tour.

“But I have a question first, dangerous individual. Did you actually see the President’s body?”

“…”

Time froze.

The President had fallen from a height of 1000 esoule<ref>Approximately 1200 meters.</ref>, so Ayato hadn’t had any way of checking while he passed out up on the roof.

But something did bother him.

''Why had Sibell Wildcat thrown that grenade at the very end?

Ayato did not like this line of reasoning.

“I don’t see how it could be possible. Miss Henrietta, please tell me you are only kidding.”

“I doubt you will find a clear answer here.”

“''Are you saying his body wasn’t found after he fell''!?”

The honest Striker did not shake her head.

Come to think of it, she had asked him what happened to the President. That meant the girls had lost track off him while Ayato was unconscious.

Was there some way of falling from the roof and surviving?

Yes…there was.

He could have set it up in advance. For one, the parachute bags Ayato had given to the girls had come from the Student Council Office. And Umihiko had sorcery hacked one of the serpent sorcery devices that moved along the outside of the tower.

Henrietta continued the conversation as if to confirm Ayato’s fears.

“We found the Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary on the gem tower roof where you were passed out and we arrested them. They were alive, if barely. The Health Committee was in tears when we left those three with them, but the fate of the last one – the President – remains unknown. He was not on the roof. I thought he might have fallen to the ground when I noticed traces of explosions on the roof, but I did not find a body there.”

Only Teleria breathed a sigh of relief at that, since it meant she didn’t have to feel any excess guilt about this. Ayato honestly felt like he had screwed up. He felt it would have been a hundred times better if he had killed Umihiko there and ended this once and for all.

But on the verge of death, Sibell had focused on the President’s escape over her own. So she had used the grenade to hit Umihiko with the magical blast. She had thought knocking him from the roof so he could escape would change something for the entire Council.

Ayato could not forget that the President was the ultimate Sorcery Hacker.

He would have no trouble doctoring evidence and documentation and he could even open physical cell doors. So it didn’t matter to the Council if they were arrested for the time being. Maybe Sibell believed the Council members would never remain under arrest for long since he could shake up the entire Academy Towers.

There was something more here.

Umihiko still had something in reserve.

And it was bound to make Teleria suffer again.

Ayato felt a dangerous burning sensation in his temple.

“Coach,” interrupted Mamilis.

She held out her hand to show several items clinking together in her palm.

“Um, we found all four keys, so what now? Do we still want to open the sofa in the Student Council Office?”

Ayato recalled that some things had fallen away from the President when the Linkage Plug sword stabbed him in the chest. The sword must have broken the thin chain around the boy’s neck, so the key fell to the floor along with some blood and a uniform button. Mamilis and the others had then collected it.

“Right…”

“Ayato, you can’t get up yet!!”

Against the advice of the girl who knew how to use recovery magic better than anyone, Ayato got out of the bed. His right half still felt weird, but he could at least move the hand. She must have gotten all the broken bones and torn muscles mended. He couldn’t ask for anything more.

“I still can’t tell what Umihiko is after. He could still have some kind of scheme at play.”

He swallowed his pain and grimaced.

“But since he had the whole Council gang up on me to end this, I doubt he ever planned for me to get these four keys. We can damage him by opening the sofa and taking a look inside. It’s high time we settled things with that goddamn Council.”