Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume3 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 3===

“The Indian Space Force can only input the nuclear launch codes after reaching an ‘independent determination’ that Grimnoah has lost to the Threat. Once that happens, everyone dies. Including my family and the first love you never could forget.” Omotesandou Kyouka reviewed the situation in the floating general airport’s control tower. “They want to launch that nuke no matter what, but they still need it to make some minimal level of sense. So if they lose their ability to gather information, they will be unable to reach a determination and their plan grinds to a halt.”

“How exactly do we do that?” asked the redheaded buns Secretary.

Kyouka softly sighed.

“We can disguise it as military satellite trouble. Figure out how many satellites are passing by directly overhead and jam them. Oh, but make sure it looks like the Threat did it. We saw some sea urchins covered in antennas, remember? You can’t let anyone know the jamming signal is coming from this control tower.”

Letnahe Kurent sighed when she heard that.

They had hit their limit.

She glanced down at her left hand. The ring and watch there were both important to her and she could not betray either one.

(I doubt the official list of satellites is all of them. There will be countless unregistered ones. Even the 30 generator satellites used to power the Pinaka III are officially registered as civilian communication satellites.)

She doubted getting Grimnoah’s plan from Omotesandou Kyouka and correcting its mistakes would be enough to stop the nuclear attack.

The silver-haired and brown-skinned soldier slipped out of the control tower, descended the crude stairs, and pulled out her phone. It was a military model not available in the general marketplace, but she attached another device she pulled from the hem of her tight skirt. She attached it to a completely separate radio with a cable.

Needless to say, she was a member of the Indian Navy.

But allowing something that would benefit the Indian military was meaningless if it also brought great chaos to international society as a whole. Yes, making a nuclear attack on the Threat was acceptable, but she could not let them set a precedent that it was acceptable to make a nuclear attack on other humans just because it accomplished some other goal. Do that and India would be unable to criticize others for aiming nuclear weapons at them.

Someone who killed a person that someone else cared deeply for would earn hatred and mistrust from all the other people who did not want to lose their loved ones. She could not allow death to become an accepted outcome.

So.

(Hadome-kun. Honey!!)

Since ''two'' faces came to mind in this crisis, she could not deny her infidelity, but this was the only way she knew how to live. She clicked her tongue and opened the metal door. She pressed her back against the concrete wall while the artificial rain poured down. She manually dialed a memorized number into the phone that was unnaturally connected to a radio.

At this point, she donned a different mask. There was no way to stop the nuclear attack from within the Indian military’s chain of command, so she would have to restrain them with an even greater power.

“…”

She held the electronic device to her ear and waited as it rang five times. She knew the process that would play out. She would be connected to a small online shopping company no one had ever heard of, but by ignoring the voice instructions and entering a secret code, she would reach the true rulers of the world.

However.

The automated female voice did not stop even after she entered the number with her brown finger.

She was not connected to them.

“Your selection could not be found. Please try again from the beginning.”

There was no trying it again.

That had been a secret message from a list she had been given in advance. It meant the following:

''This call is being intercepted. Immediately destroy this device and go undercover. We will send you a new method of contacting us wherever you might be.

She heard a slight metallic creaking, so she slowly turned around and then grimaced.

“How?”

“Using the elevator. And yes, I know that isn’t what you meant.”

Omotesandou Kyouka was grinning up at her. She was toying with a mobile router in her empty hand. No, that was an illicit device known as a Quicksand that gathered and analyzed all forms of wireless signal.

The girl had used that to intercept Letnahe’s line to the deepest parts of the world.

(Quicksand.)

It was true that Letnahe’s group had great power. She knew other powers both large and small were trying to discover its identity. She knew that, but…

(That thing can pick up even the frequencies not detectable with the control tower equipment. And if it’s set up to automatically analyze all forms of encryption, then she must not have even needed my help. Was that entire request a bluff meant to draw me in, create a sense of camaraderie, and bring down my guard!?)

“Why now? Whoever I might work for, I assisted you!! I was trying to use their power to stop the Indian Space Force’s nuclear strike so I could save this country!” She was trembling. Not even a child lost at an amusement park would have looked so distraught. “If this fails, you lose everything. This is not the time to be working against each other!! I revealed my secret about Hadome-kun and you talked about your family. You had accepted a woman like me… Whoever we might work for in the end, we both knew we needed to work together right now. So why do this!?”

“''Why?''” The President was smiling and did not stop smiling. “''The greatest threat to us has always been your group since you can take everything from us at any time. What has the Threat actually done to us? Even the Indian military hasn’t done anything to us ''yet''. But who was it that permanently scarred our lives while stifling a yawn and then tried to avoid responsibility for that? This could not be simpler. It is a matter of revenge.''”

“…”

Pure nothingness.

Letnahe’s mind went entirely blank. At the same time, tears welled up in her eyes and her mobile watch was beeping warnings related to her breathing and heartrate.

“Then all that about your family still being in Kyoto wasn’t even true?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” The President coolly brushed her long hair from her shoulder. “You propped up the world’s strongest magicians so you could control them and you used a 12-year-old girl’s grief for her sister to set up her as a convenient avenger, so do you really think I would let you know anything you could use against me? Why would I tell you anything other than a mix of truth and lies you can never untangle?”

There was not even hatred on her face.

“Thinking back, your stance was always full of unknowns.” Kyouka produced a metallic sound as she spoke, but it did not come from her wheelchair. “Letnahe Kurent, do you work for the Indian military, for the coalition force, or for the string-pullers toying with all those nations? You acted like you were willing to let a nuclear blast hit Grimnoah, but you were secretly working to fix our plans so the Indian Space Force could not act. You were constantly switching between the professional and the private, but why was that?”

It was a bow and arrow. A very mechanical Western type.

It was not quite enough to call a weapon, but wielding it as a weapon here made it very clear that Second Grimnoah’s Student Council President had no intention of making friends.

And who or what was she aiming it at?

“You made it look like we had gotten to know each other while you shared that embarrassing love story and you made it look like some camaraderie had formed after we recognized each other’s skill, ''but we both know that was never going to happen''. From the moment I heard your name from Natlena Blast, I knew you were one of the utter trash who leaked secrets to a 12-year-old girl to set her up as an avenger and who hoped to drive the four world’s strongests to self-destruction by using that inexperienced avenger as a wedge between us. But Natlena-san failed as a Trojan horse and then you were sent in. That means you had made a second move. ''Before all that with Kiyomasa Hadome.'' So what exactly was it?”

Her desire to save Kiyosawa Hadome was convincing at first glance, but the string-pullers as a whole had to have a plan here as well. Letnahe had been trying to save Hadome without defying them. She had not cared what happened to Grimnoah or the Crystal Magicians.

“Your methods have remained the same from the beginning.”

Letnahe clenched her teeth, but the President continued nonetheless.

“You did not expect Natlena-san to succeed when you sent her in. You had hoped the four strongests would fight amongst ourselves over how to deal with her. So this nuclear strike is the same. Is it acceptable to use nukes against the Threat? You wanted to use that issue to create a rift between us that would reduce our power, didn’t you?”

“…”

“It’s easy enough to imagine Grimnoah coming to a temporary stop if you show off that nuclear card you might just play. Did you think we would prioritize a nuclear weapon above the Threat? If that worked, you would be able to place Crystal Magic within the framework of the military and let the adults control the fight against the Threat. …But that is not what happened. We continued to focus on the Threat and you found yourself unable to stop the nuclear strike that was meant to only be a show of force for the adults. Isn’t that right?”

The silver-haired brown-skinned soldier had stopped responding. Everything the girl said worked to tear down her stronghold. She needed to move one step ahead and prepare for the next move instead of figuring out how to recover from the last move. Like taking a shortcut to the side instead of chasing after a fleeing opponent from behind. The bespectacled soldier toyed with the switches in her mind. Her breathing, heartrate, blood pressure, brainwaves, and other values monitored by her mobile watch grew as placid as a subterranean lake.

She switched over to her killing mode.

“In other words, the entire scenario of Letnahe Kurent stopping the nuclear attack out of concern for Kiyosawa Hadome was in accordance with your organization’s wishes.”

Kyouka briefly fell silent there.

She slowly took a breath.

And then she continued.

“Your entire deal is manipulating the current era’s strongest to reap the benefits, so you can’t have all of the strongests wiped out by some silly mistake, can you? So ''you needed to stop the nuclear strike you had begun.'' Am I wrong?”

It was a decisive statement.

Letnahe focused even stronger on the switch inside herself.

“You and your organization prioritized your own safety over retaking Second Grimnoah or the Kobe region from the Threat.” The President’s accusation was calm but biting. “You wouldn’t die if we lost here. And you were more afraid that I would gain the clue I needed. ''So you let it happen.'' You were willing to accept a loss here.”

Just as all expression vanished from Letnahe Kurent’s face, a thin smile appeared on Omotesandou Kyouka’s.

It could all be summed up as despicable. The group that had taken command of everything to fight by their own rules had never intended on protecting anyone.

“So you were sent in to get close to us by making a show of understanding Japan’s climate and how Crystal Magic works and then intentionally showing off that watch to give a hint of your school days.”

That smile had to be a show of her resolve.

“You thought revealing that untold secret of yours would convince me you had no further secrets. All so you could get us to trip each other up instead of fighting the Threat. That way you could ''weaken the strongest'' just enough to tame us.”

That had been the plan from the beginning. Letnahe Kurent had wanted to grab the reins of the Crystal Magicians who were a thorn in her organization’s side because they were so hard to control. Even if people’s lives hung in the balance, she had been willing to make every effort to accomplish that.

“Come to think of it, you talked an awful lot about your illicit love, but I never saw you actually speak with Kiyosawa-sensei. Even though you ostensibly came here to rescue him from the Threat and the nuclear strike.” Kyouka smiled as she pointed this out. “And you expect me to believe you’re placing your private life above your professional duties?”

“…”

“Well, from the moment you realized you could ''use'' that old connection, you have proven yourself to be as wicked as me.”

The girl designated as Letnahe’s top priority target smiled.

She bared her counterattacking fangs to get something out of the woman.

“''Hello, human string-pullers. It’s a pleasure to meet you.''”

Several strange metallic sounds came from Letnahe’s hand.

Her weapon was a parashu.

It used the legend of the axe given by God of Destruction Shiva, but the magic only used the name and was not ''actually'' the legendary axe. In her case, it used the rumble of Shiva’s thunder to destabilize the vibration, strike it from within, and either alter the axe’s path or provide extreme acceleration or deceleration.

A head-on attack from a Gatling gun was no threat to her. And once her target was within the axe’s range, she could use its rapid acceleration to slice through even a bank vault’s door.

Or so she thought.

And yet…

“Gah!?”

It was she who ended up groaning.

This made no sense. Kyouka was smiling in front of her, but a long metal arrow had flown in from the side to hit her in the back of her right hand. There were no hidden attackers around, so it did not add up.

The military flashlight attached to the bottom of the axe’s handle had shattered and the axe itself had fallen to the floor. Needless to say, this opponent was not foolish enough to give her time to crouch down and pick it up.

Then she figured it out.

“Oh, so that’s it.”

“The trick is simple enough, but preconceptions are a difficult thing to shake.”

This voice came from the side as well. She held her injured right hand and moved just her eyes to glare in that direction.

The illusion in front of her had already vanished without a sound.

The President was seated in her wheelchair calmly aiming her bow.

She had chosen not to aim for the left hand wearing the ring and mobile watch, but not for any strategic reasons.

“As you can plainly see, I am in a wheelchair. I can only wield a mere 1% of the power I once had, but even a weak dimensional leap allows me to slow the arrival time of light and sound.”

“The only Regulation 3…”

It was the same as the stars in the night sky. The light you saw twinkling there now had actually been emitted many years in the past. But that was not something the people living on the face of the earth could ever truly experience. They might intellectually understand the concept of a light year, but the light they saw would still ''feel'' like the present to them.

Just like people still had a general fear of a school at night in the modern age.

“I can pull off a number of tricks without actually sending my own body through.”

“You distorted the world itself for an illusion lasting only a few seconds? There had to have been other ways of doing that!!”

“Oh? I hear Anastasia did far worse with her God Worshiping Magic.”

There was a hint of sadness in Kyouka’s voice. This was only the dregs of the power she had once been able to use. She had altered the arrival time of light with her mind, but that was only the dregs.

(The reports say she wielded an undulating flamberge back in her prime, but I guess this genius can also master the use of a bow or whatever else she needs!!)

“So what will it be? Spill the beans on the string-pullers and this can be over much sooner.”

“Kh.”

Kyouka smiled in an even more toxic way than before.

“''Or would you prefer I tied you to a chair and called Hadome-sensei in to interrogate you''?”

“Gaahhh!!”

Natlena roared to upset the timing of the enemy in front of her.

Her brown face was colored more by embarrassment than pain or fear.

She used that moment to kick up the axe lying at her feet and grabbed at it with her left hand. But she was not given time to grasp the shortened grip or pull out a spare flashlight. A second arrow struck the parashu’s thick blade, knocking it from her hand.

“So you would rather die than have that happen? You’re such a wonderful person.”

The President smiled.

She understood how Letnahe felt, which was why she would not let it happen.

Ending this nonlethally showed the absolute skill gap between them.

Letnahe knew the details of the Problem Solver battles fought in secret. There was unconfirmed data saying this girl had used a special handgun in one of those. This genius would not stop just because she had been broken once. She was more than just multitalented or a jack of all trades. Her talent let her add anything to her skillset whenever she sensed she was lacking something. Nothing was quite as frightening as a genius who did not fear failure, did not let their pride get in the way, and would put in endless effort when they deemed it necessary.

“What are you asking me to do?” Letnahe squeezed out her voice while holding her skewered right hand and doubled over in pain. “Criticize me all you like, but you’re not doing anything about the Threat or the preparations for the nuclear strike! You haven’t told anyone about this and you haven’t even let any confusion set in. What gives you the right to put the world at risk at your own discretion like that!?”

“''Yes, I am even more wicked than you.'' And what I am asking you to do is quite simple: tell me everything about the world’s string-pullers you belong to. You want to protect your family and your first love, don’t you? Then you should know which of your loyalties to turn your back on.”

“But…”

“Besides, you don’t even know why I can’t use Crystal Magic anymore, do you? Or rather, ''why I am still placing a limiter on my abilities.'' That would mean you’re a low-level member. The agent who visited Karuta-kun before seemed to have some idea about my secret.”

“?”

Letnahe truly looked puzzled by that and she did not even realize that her confusion signaled something to Kyouka.

“Now, then.”

Kyouka crossed her outstretched legs.

Her ankle swayed like a pendulum and Letnahe should have already learned what that sign meant.

“Are you saying I can protect everything I care about even if I betray them here?”

“I am not a good person,” said the demon in the wheelchair. “''Which is why'' I can assure you that I will not take away those precious treasures of yours. For someone as wicked as me, they make the perfect guarantee you will do what I ask, don’t they?”

Letnahe bit her lip.

[[Image:ApocalypseWitch_v03_11.jpg|thumb]]

She realized there was no way to turn this around or even to escape. Which left only one option. She put off treating her injured right hand and slowly took a different action.

She kneeled in front of the President to change her socks.

That was the moment of submission.

The girl who had tamed a wicked woman whispered sweetly with an even larger smile on her face.

“At this point, the two of us are nothing but villains.”