Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume5 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 2===

Subcategory gym teacher Kiyosawa Hadome sighed.

He hadn’t needed to try to overhear those two’s conversation. It may have even been audible off the ship and in the port where the resupplying was still underway.

And he didn’t need to think very hard about this one.

Chrisbart Firenze.

Sophia’s uncle had paid for Kiyosawa Hadome’s tuition. Not everything had to be about the fate of the world or exacting justice. Your reasons could be a lot more personal. And what if someone you cared deeply about was making a terrible mistake? There was only one answer: stop that plan even if it meant marching up to the man and decking him.

Also.

He could never accept a choice that meant trapping those four children with grand reasons like “the future of the Earth” and “protecting humankind” and then throwing them out into space.

That only meant physically keeping so many lives from being lost, but that was not the same thing as saving the world.

Kiyosawa Hadome scratched his head with a big hand and muttered to himself.

There was only ever one path for him here.

“Stop being so stupid, you little brats.”



Letnahe Kurent, the silver-haired, brown-skinned teacher in a white military uniform, used her thumb to operate a special mobile device for operating with military secrets. Anyone with the proper knowledge would have known her uniform said she was a commander in the navy.

She was an Indian naval officer, a temporary teacher at Second Grimnoah, and part of the human string pullers.

She was also a sinful woman who was a mother of two and had yet to get over the pain of her first love.

(Now, then.)

She looked up from the small screen and turned her eyes to the many city lights shining in the night.

(Today is a Port Day. Most of the students will be on the island and will fail to notice what is happening. How can I make this announcement? Natalena-san and Sophia-sensei may think they can gather enough people by running around and shouting, but that won’t be nearly enough.)

The best option was to use the internet.

Second Grimnoah was full of secrets regarding Crystal Magic, but they could not keep people from talking. Letnahe was aware the students had a few unofficial communities set up online. By spreading information on a few of those groups, it would spread to the students in the city.

“And that sounds like a job for me. Leaving it unclear who is betraying who is just how I do things.”

She was a sinful woman who would do anything to achieve her goal, so she had a habit of reminding herself of the core reasons behind her actions. She knew better than anyone that without that core, she would become no more than a disaster shaped like a woman.

Kiyosawa Hadome had decided to do this, so she would support him in secret.

For that, she was willing to betray the human string pullers.

Yamane Deiri nervously peeked down a narrow street filled with toxic neon lights (while carelessly still in his uniform), but he realized something just before deciding to take the next step toward adulthood. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

“Yo, Hirosuke.”

“Wh-what? I’m trying to check out all the must-see sights. Like that beach there was the model for the swimsuit episode of Cluster Wars. Yeah, that was the legendary episode where, not only did it give you little girls frolicking on the beach in their swimsuits, but it also put a lot of care into the discrepancy between their swimsuits and their tan lines.”

“What I find impressive is how they can stick a swimsuit episode into a robot anime where they’re always battling out across the solar system and it somehow doesn’t feel out of place. Anyway, Hirosuke, what did you think this Port Day was all about?”

“Eh? ''A morale boost before the final battle with the Threat?''”

“''Right?''”

Yamane Deiri waved his phone in a skeptical fashion and let his awful friend see the small screen.

“But check this out. That bastard Karuta has decided to do something stupid even though we’re all ready to fight alongside them.”

“You mean he’s fighting to save the world singlehandedly so he can become the idol of every little girl not just on the planet but in the entire solar system? He’s just like that dense Cluster Wars protagonist and his victory harem. K-Karuta, I’m not letting you hog all the little girls to yourself!!”

The Four Living Gods had apparently been searching for an option other than being ejected into space. Deiri and Hirosuke exchanged a nod and turned back toward the port. They saw two other people in school uniforms running in the same direction.

Those two were Matsuda Imi and Hashizaki Tayori, the popular girls from their class.

“Oh, you too?”

“You bet!! I’ll protect you, little girls!!!”

“Take back that ‘you bet’ until you’ve learned how to actually communicate. …So, Yamane, Nekoumi’s complete inability to hold a human conversation has me worried, but, um, the two of us still live in the same spacetime or dimension or whatever, don’t we? We’re not from completely different worlds that just so happen to exist in the same location?”

“Matsuda, where did you pull that fantasy worldbuilding from? You have nothing to worry about. The only hearts I’ll be winning are those of every young woman in the world.”

“Ugh,” groaned Matsuda Imi, giving up.

Gyaru-ish (but motherly) Tayori gave her staggering friend some support and took over the conversation.

“We can’t let Marika go through with this. And this isn’t even about the Four Living Gods. The three of us only just mended our friendship, so it isn’t fair for Marika to leave us again so soon.”

“What she said. …Damn, Tayori stole all the good lines from me.”

Imi sounded like she was teasing her gyaru-ish friend, but she was probably serious.

People generally assumed everything would work out. Since everything had been fine yesterday, they assumed the same would apply to tomorrow. But their past battles had told these students that wasn’t true at all.

But that also meant that, if you took action and put together some kind of plan for dealing with the problem, you could change things.

“God, the problem with those world’s strongests is they’re ''so strong it makes them fragile''.”

“Oh? That’s awfully insightful for you, Yamane-kun.”

“Don’t worry. I’m ready to deal with this. I-it’s time to save Karuta-kun and win the adoration of all the little girls that fawn over him. Like Aine-chan and ''Jane Ignition''-san.”

“Is that all you ever think about, Nekoumi?”

But they had established an important definition here.

The Four Living Gods were a single group of four.

If they were going to save that group and pour all their efforts into that attempt, they needed to count Crystal Girl Aine as part of that group and do everything they could to save her too.

Yamane Deiri, Nekoumi Hirosuke, Matsuda Imi, and Hashizaki Tayori exchanged a silent nod.

She wasn’t just a type of Crystal Magic.

They didn’t even need to get Karuta’s opinion on the matter. Aine herself might define herself that way, but the students who had shared a classroom with her knew better.

Then the student council’s redheaded bob cut girl spoke to them.

“You four.”

She too had to have someone she wanted to protect. Like that student council president who always seemed so perfect because she never let anyone see her vulnerabilities.

It didn’t have to be someone who had shared a classroom with them.

There was an entire world of interconnected people out there.

“It doesn’t really matter, but do you think everyone returning to Second Grimnoah right now is thinking the same thing? I suspect the entire student body agrees with us. I don’t know where whoever started this intends to hold their strategy meeting, but don’t you think that place will end up overcrowded?”

“Are you kidding? So the final battle is going to require a lottery or numbered tickets? Hurry, hurry! We’re already running late!! We can’t give that bastard Karuta any more reason to abandon us than he already has!!!”



The Subcategory and Main Category reacted exactly the same.

Even the teachers joined them for the same reason.

They walked at first, then some of them began running impatiently, and finally some began flying from the city with their Crystal Magic presets, forcing the public morals committee and teachers to blow their warning whistles.

Everyone was already gathering together.

Gathering together and approaching Second Grimnoah.