Editing Failing Witch:Volume2 Episode1 (section)

===Part 3===

The following day, Myousou Yagoro was walking through Temple School City in the early morning, moving out of the way of the witch exam students dressed in revealing Halloween costumes and the kids from the squatter’s district dressed in rags. Going anywhere was a pain in a city full of so many stairs, but the children were full of energy this morning.

Yagoro had developed a habit of reaching for the top of his head while in crowded areas. Even though he couldn’t actually tell if his hair was still dyed blond by touch.

(Why do they think human black hair is a dye for the most powerful curses? You would think the existence of real magic would keep people from being superstitious, but nope.)

The exam students were not the only people in Temple School City. There were plenty of people trying to make money off of the prospective witches, including prep school teachers. Yagoro was one of those. He walked by the street stalls hawking their wares so early in the morning and passed by a woman who was probably an instructor at a flight gym or training ground. She looked like a shortcake in her pointy white hat and wedding dress. The extreme slit up the right side of the dress gave glimpses of a white garter belt. Was that unique to this Halloween costume world? He didn’t know where she taught, but he occasionally saw her at ''the usual used bookstore''. Her curvy and sexy body lines told him she was probably a self-taught witch. Although that same assumption had failed miserably with the bookseller.

The tutor boy arrived at Carraway Cs prep school.

He entered the structure building’s Cauldron classroom and sat casually next to his student Viocia. The gyaru-style instructor Schanze Dwelling appeared very motivated this morning.

“Three months!!”

With her voluminous blonde hair, tanned skin, black leather vest, and tight skirt, Schanze had a Mont Blanc look. She raised her voice from the very first word once her students had gathered.

“It has now totally been three months since you arrived at this prep school after your first failure! It’s time you moved on from the Witch’s Chimney indoor training ground and began flying in the open sky. I’ll be guiding you, so the restriction over flying above the city will be totally lifted!! This only applies to our lesson time, but you can now fly high in the sky!!!”

The girls’ cheers shook the lecture room, which resembled a large garage.

The difference between a compulsory education teacher and a prep school instructor became evident here. There was an element of entertainment here – a skilled instructor made sure to research how to grab the students’ attention. Stimulating the students’ desires and self-importance like this would be a challenge for the straitlaced government workers who taught compulsory education.

And so everyone made their way to the roof of the neighboring practical building.

While Schanze led the way up the stairs, Viocia was swinging Formula Broom – Wittenberg around in her hands. She was extremely excited.

“It’s happening, it’s actually happening. Our classes finally sound like something a flying witch would actually take!”

“Hmph. It’s not like this is the first time we’ve flown above the city,” chimed in Melehe Superlative.

She was a girl with silver hair and dark skin. The talented girl had earned Rank A on an official practice exam and she wore miniskirt outfit that looked like a mix between a black military uniform and a sky pirate’s outfit, giving her a chocolate parfait look.

Tall Dorothea shrank down as she spoke.

“But if they’re letting us fly outside, it means we’ll be doing something we couldn’t in the indoor training ground, doesn’t it? <span style="font-size:75%">Wh-what could that be? Eep.</span>”

“Anything’s fine as long it’s useful for the exam.”

All was normal here. Melehe was extremely eager and greedy while Dorothea tended to be passive and cautious in all things. By adding in the (needlessly cheerful) life of the party that was Viocia, they struck a nice balance. Of course, they were rivals when it came to the exam, so Yagoro did wish he saw more cutthroat competition between them.

Once they arrived on the practical building’s rooftop, the view opened up.

A mass of wind struck them from head on.

“Wah!”

“Viocia, your skirt!”

Dorothea frantically held down Viocia’s long skirt from behind.

They could see several giant red-painted elevators shaped like scales.

Temple School City was a diamond-shaped city given a chessboard coloration by all the marble and obsidian. The sectors were arranged in tiers like a reverse pyramid and there was a massive circular lake in the center. Past the pure white diamond dust hovering over the lake, the silhouette of Maleficium was visible at the center of the lake.

“Okay, we’ve arrived. And be careful.”

Schanze stood tall and tapped the flat rooftop with the end of her Formula Broom’s handle. She dressed gaudily, but she could take on the teacher’s role when lives were on the line.

“You will now totally be playing a game called Elbow.”

“What’s that, teacher?”

The idiot’s ability to immediately raise her hand and ask the question was one of the few advantages she had.

Schanze nodded toward Viocia and explained.

“After accelerating to full speed along a set distance, you totally make a 180-degree turn around a fixed corner☆ Whoever’s turn radius is shortest will totally be the winner. So it comes down to who can fly fastest and turn sharpest.”

Something slipped out from Schanze’s shoulder.

It looked like a skinny squid measuring 30cm long, but it was actually her domestic familiar. It floated around like gravity didn’t affect it and then stopped directly above the park. Its tube-like belly(?) faintly glowed from within, making it visible even from a distance.

Familiars were generally artificial. First, the witch would picture the completed form as they put together the skeleton like a jigsaw puzzle. Then magically-summoned artificial muscle and fat were attached to give it shape. The completed familiar would obey its witch’s commands and assist with a variety of jobs: physical labor like construction or cargo transportation and intellectual work like calculations and paperwork.

“That right there is totally your target buoy. After accelerating for 5000m, you need to totally turn around the fixed buoy as sharp as you can. You’ll totally be scored on speed and turning radius.”

As simple as it sounded, setting up the course was a challenge with so many prep schools.

Dragons and griffons the size of Earth bombers were flying leisurely through the sky above, but those were lifeforms created in Maleficium that had escaped and turned wild. Natural monsters were rare these days. And at their altitude, they were unlikely to affect the witches’ game.

“Okay, Viocia, what’s the most important thing in this totally cool game?”

“Overwhelming speed! I’ll blow past everyone else with my super acceleration!!”

“Idiot, then you won’t be able to complete the turn and fly off in the wrong direction.”

That was all Melehe had to say with a snort that gave it a nuance of exasperation more than contempt.

The sky pirate girl looked to Schanze.

“This isn’t like compulsory education. If we have a plan already, can we start flying?”

“If you totally want to☆”

Melehe snapped her fingers and something dropped from the sky like lightning, stabbing sharply into the rooftop. That was Formula Broom – Mount Parnassus, her broom. The thick seat had luggage carriers on either side, handlebars that spread out in a wide Y-shape, and plenty more custom parts reminiscent of a large American motorcycle. That was proof that she had already flown the sky enough times to test all those things out through trial and error.

“Orpheus, did you hear all that?”

“Yes, we have been tasked with a solo drive, which is your specialty, Melehe.”

Melehe didn’t bother jumping from the edge of the roof. She floated up on the spot. That vertical takeoff was a challenging move that only an elite like her could pull off.

“Let’s do this, Orpheus!!”

Her powerful acceleration compressed the wind.

And it didn’t end there. After approaching dangerously close to the squid familiar glowing faintly in the distance, she cut a sharp clockwise curve. Her speed didn’t grab hold of her and throw her off course. After turning, she immediately resumed her powerful acceleration.

(Accelerate, decelerate, and accelerate again, hm?)

This reminded Yagoro of the real aircraft exercises he had done with the Force back on Earth. The key to aircraft maneuverability was to accelerate on the straightaways and rapidly decelerate before turning. That way your turn wouldn’t swing wide and you could keep your turn tight. ...Of course, in actual dogfights, you had to focus on the more biological issues or the enemy would be on your tail in no time, so there weren’t many chances to stick to the basics like that.

Schanze whistled.

“Whew. Did our very first attempt totally bring her turning radius down to less than 3m?”

Formula Brooms were extraordinary vehicles that allowed for bicycle-level maneuverability at supersonic speed, but Melehe’s record was still quite something.

A disastrous first attempt would have made the rest nervous, but too successful a first attempt had the same result. Regardless, any witch who would waste such a valuable opportunity for practice because of nerves would never pass the entrance exam.

And Tutor Myousou Yagoro was of course a pro at making sure Viocia would pass.

(Now, then.)

“Viocia.”

“H-hweh? Don’t talk to me, teacher. I’m trying to focus!”

So did she actually have the guts to volunteer to go immediately after such an impressive model answer? That, at least, was praiseworthy. As a tutor, he only had to make sure his student’s motivation gave her a real chance of success.

“You haven’t applied your ointment set yet, have you? Do you have one based on long pepper and turmeric?”

“For additional fuel? That’s one you rub on the broom.”

Now, using special chemicals to fly was not just a witch thing. For example, in the other world of Earth, there were specialized supersonic combat psychotropic drugs developed to increase military pilots’ focus and reaction speed during missions. (Although the Force Yagoro had spent time with had chosen not to develop them.) But the supply of these drugs would be cut off once the pilots retired, so they were doomed to a tragic elderly life plagued with withdrawal symptoms.

Also…

“Lend me your ear. I’ll tell you how you can beat Melehe.”

“?”

“You need to…”