Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume5 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 3===

All students looked forward to school being let out.

It felt like freedom.

But that feeling was especially strong on Port Days like today. The excitement may have been similar to a field trip.

“No leaving the ship until the approach and mooring process are complete and the gangway has been lowered. That means no flying off the ship with your flight preset, you stupid kids!! Do you want to be ordered to stay in your room after coming all this way!?”

“Um, we will be in the city too. We will catch you if you get too rowdy, so do be careful!!”

It was unclear how much good Subcategory teachers Kiyosawa Hadome and Sophia Firenze’s warnings would do.

Karuta and Aine were gathered on the orange-dyed deck along with everyone else.

“Sacri-sama, what will we do today?”

“We can figure that out after disembarking. We can carefully plan everything out when that’s necessary. There’s no real need to put that much effort into our everyday life.”

From here, they could see several anchors being lowered and mooring ropes being thrown from the ship. The long, skinny gangway was slowly lowered from the side deck, but that wasn’t enough to handle the nearly 1000 people disembarking Second Grimnoah. In the end, most of the students would jump down from the railing using their flight. That might sound simple enough, but there was a drop of more than 9m from the side deck to the concrete bank below. Without Crystal Magic, that was enough to break a bone if you were lucky and die if you weren’t
Aine expressionlessly spread her arms a little by his side.

Then she clenched and unclenched her fists.

“Sacri-sama.”

“Isn’t there any other way you can carry me? I’m serious.”

His complaints fell on deaf ears.

Aine swiftly swept his feet out from under him with her skinny leg and caught him in a princess carry. He could not use flight, so she had to carry him at times like this.

They landed so softly it was like gravity didn’t affect them.

“I do not see any problem with carrying you like this forevermore.”

“Please just put me down now.”

Southeast Asian port cities could look very different from each other, but this island had a lot of signs in English and Chinese. Karuta couldn’t read all of them, but he saw some familiar logos on the ads for phones and cars. He even saw a familiar face on one of the big billboards. It depicted Omotesandou Kyouka playing with the latest in aerial photography drones. Being the world’s strongest was a lot of work. It kind of depressed him thinking there were probably billboards with him on them somewhere out in the world. He just had to pray the kids of that region weren’t drawing a third eye on his forehead.

He noticed the redheaded bob cut girl from the student council staring lovingly at the billboard.

“We’ll get dinner out here tonight. Anything you want to eat, Aine?”

“Pure-”

“No gold. Hey, stop drooling in front of that duty-free store’s window. The clerk inside is terrified.”

“Then I will let you choose.”

“Let me choose and you’ll be stuck eating Manmaru udon. They have restaurants overseas too, after all.”

“I see. I have heard that some countries and regions put ketchup on lukewarm udon, so ordering some because you are homesick for some Japanese food while overseas can lead to a very unpleasant surprise.”

They chatted as they left the port and arrived downtown. The tourist port was directly connected to the city, so there were a lot of duty-free stores with their “tax free” signs in the window. Was that Sophia Firenze running around with a bunch of brand-name boxes in her arms?

“I need one of these, and one of these, ooh, I need to buy these pumps while I have the chance!!”

“Wasn’t she supposed to be out monitoring the students’ behavior?”

She seemed dazzled by the words “tax free” and he was honestly worried. Wasn’t her financial situation so dire that a somewhat expensive cup noodle option was a luxury?

Karuta honestly had no real objective.

He only wanted to leave the ship for a change of pace. And Aine never really thought about anything other than following him around.

In that sense, he had to smile bitterly at sharing the evening coastline view together.

“This isn’t that much different from being on the ship. Not too surprising when everyone’s wearing the same uniforms.”

“Based on my observations, a lot of people have paired off into couples, not counting the teachers on patrol.”

Maybe so.

But did the crystal girl walking next to him understand the implications of that? There were some people putting an arm around their partner’s shoulder and – wow – some were even kissing out in public.

The title of world’s strongest could be a nuisance at times. Since this was a tourist area, there would have been a lot of people out trying to get customers regardless, but it felt like Karuta and Aine gathered more attention than most. They had no objective, but they were invited into a wide variety of shops just walking around aimlessly.

“Eh, why not.”

“Sacri-sama. Shouldn’t we be more careful?”

“Whatever the truth of the matter, we’re officially considered to be half of the Four Living Gods. If someone tried to scam us here, I would honestly praise their audacity.”

The title was like a curse, but when it came in handy, he would make use of it. He didn’t have to worry about any direct harm from extortionists except for the ones who attacked so they could pretend to be helpless victims when you retaliated.

The afterschool evening had only just begun.

It was still too early for dinner, so he decided to visit some kind of store.

“Hm, a clothing store.”

“It appears to be a legitimate boutique and not a counterfeit seller.”

Aine expressionlessly tilted her head while taking a look around the store.

“But based on the lineup, this appears to exclusively sell women’s clothing. I was not aware you had developed an interest in dressing that way.”

“Why would we be here for me? I just have to dress you up in the clothes.”

His exasperated response increased the angle of her head tilt.

“Clothes for me?” asked the still-head-tilting crystal girl.

“That’s probably what the clerk is hoping for too.”

They were both the world’s strongest, but advertising that Karuta shopped there and that Aine shopped there would have very different meanings. Of course, the store just wanted to advertise that one of the Four Living Gods shopped there, so the clerk might just insist the two of them take some souvenirs without asking for any payment.

Aine looked down at her white clothing.

“This is light, sturdy, formfitting enough to prevent an enemy from grabbing it, and contains slits to preserve my range of motion. I have no functional complaints with my current clothing.”

“Probably not. But now that I think about it, you wear those white clothes year-round. How do you wash them? I don’t remember ever washing your underwear.”

“––––”

“Aine, your growth is astounding. You never could have given me that ‘have you no tact?’ look back when we first met.”

Karuta couldn’t stand the pressure of her glare and that small triangle of a mouth, so he looked away and gave that simple comment.

Everything from the tip of her sword to her heart was a part of her, but she must have been taking care of her own laundry. She appeared to have some knowledge there since she had recognized the smell of fabric softener from his sports towel once. If she only had that one pair, it was possible she spent every night naked until the washing and drying process was complete, which kind of scared him. But if she had multiple pairs, it was possible the others were strewn about inside him (which was becoming something of a second home for her), a possibility which disturbed him even more. He could only pray that his stomach hadn’t become the crystal girl’s messy room.

Anyway.

The two of them entered the women’s boutique, but they couldn’t exactly stand blankly in a corner the whole time. The fitting room was free to use, so he could have Aine use that.

(The money I’ve made with the unwanted world’s strongest title does come in handy sometimes.)

“Trying things on is free, Aine, so point out anything you like.”

“I have no requests. You choose something you like.”

“I hope they have things in your size.”

“I can recognize when I am being mocked for no good reason.”

She really had grown, he realized. She could express a wider range of feelings than in the Crystal Beach hotel when she had stripped naked in the room with him to change into her swimsuit.

At some point, she had turned into an ordinary girl.

Maybe Karuta was the only one who hadn’t grown.

“Ooh, how about this?”

“I see. This one casual selection helps bring into focus what it is you want from me.”

He really wished she wouldn’t lay on the pressure after he had already chosen.

He had selected a white sundress and a large hat. He had thought it was a safe choice since it fit his image of her choosing to wear a white dress (even if that one was for combat).

However…

“Ouch.”

“?”

He heard an odd voice from beyond the fitting room’s curtain.

“Ow, ow, ow. An unexpected problem has arisen.”

“Hey, Aine, what’s going on in there?”

That dress was so thin you would be able to see her silhouette through it with any light shining behind her, so he was unsure what she could be doing with it to cause pain. Was her skin extremely sensitive so she couldn’t wear any kind of synthetic material?

Eventually, the curtain parted and Aine poked just her head out.

Karuta realized the problem right away.

The wide-brimmed hat was sitting at an odd angle. In fact, the hat was floating up above her head. He knew why that would be.

“Can’t you do something about those mysterious horns?”

“What are you expecting me to do? If you ask me, the solution should come from the boutique. Like putting a pair of slits at the top of the hat so my horns could stick through.”

“Let’s not get hasty, okay!? You’re only trying it on, so we haven’t bought it yet!!”

The expressionless girl pulled her sword out of thin air, so Karuta had to frantically grab her through the curtain to stop her.

“So do your horns really hurt when something touches them? And that was only a hat.”

“(I wouldn’t really say they hurt, but they react very sensitively to unexpected touching.)”

“?”

Aine lowered her head and muttered something under her breath, but Karuta just accepted that hats, hoods, and anything else that covered the head were off limits when coordinating her outfit. She hadn’t said a word when Susannia of the Problem Solvers cut her arm, so this had to be pretty bad.

In that case…

“Let’s go in the other direction this time. What about something boyish? Even if you don’t seem like the type to choose sportswear.”

“I save your life on a regular basis and you have the nerve to label me unathletic?”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

He pushed a colorful tank top and bike shorts made of synthetic materials into her arms. This was more like something dance and rhythm lovers like Letnahe and Pendet would wear. Aine tilted her head, but pulled back behind the fitting room curtain.

It was hard to judge her preferences when she was always so expressionless, so Karuta’s plan was to try several different extreme options to work out the extent of what she was willing to wear. From there, he could narrow things down toward something she would really like.

(First a classy dress and now sportswear. What should I use to narrow things down further? I could check her reaction to something more feminine like a knit dress.)

He saw this like the game where you took turns trying to guess each other’s number.

“All done.”

Aine opened the curtain.

She was like a snow fairy and looked so fragile she would break if you held her too tight, so the summery, midriff-baring sportwear didn’t suit her. But that mismatch did make for an interesting combination. It was surprising just to look at.

However.

“Um, Aine.”

“Yes?”

“Why am I seeing ''that''?”

“?”

Her head tilt meant she hadn’t noticed. He was honestly afraid to spell it out for her. Which was why he had kept it vague using “that”.

He could see two little bumps.

A pair of protrusions other than her horns were pushing out the formfitting tank top that stretched tightly across her skin like rubber.

(Wh-wh-where’s her bra? E-even 12-year-old Natalena wears one, so why isn’t she!?)

Thinking back, when that pure white outfit was soaked by the rain, he recalled seeing various things showing through. She had been embarrassed, but she must not have actually enacted any kind of solution.

“A-anyway, let’s get you back in your original clothes, Aine. Hurry!”

“Why are you acting like I am causing you problems? You were the one who chose this outfit.”

“Can you not express your anger by putting your hands on your hips and pushing out your chest!?”

“???”

Aine showed an obvious question mark on her expressionless face as he shoved her back into the fitting room.

He asked a question through the curtain while hearing her move around inside.

“You’ve tried on a few things now, but have you seen anything that stands out to you? I can’t choose everything for you.”

“You want me to choose something?”

“Give me any feedback you have, like what you don’t like or what you want to see more of. The smallest thing can help show me what you want.”

“In that case,” she said while the curtain shook.

She poked her head out, so she must not have been done changing. Her bare shoulders stuck out with her head and she expressionlessly pointed at Karuta.

“That is the only thing I am interested in wearing.”

“?”

“Second Grimnoah’s uniform. I would be lying if I said I have never wanted to wear one.”