Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume2 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 4===

Natalena Blast returned to her classes that afternoon.

She had to go by Jane Ignition there, which could be confusing.

“Geh. Cooking class immediately after lunch? Who thought that was a good idea?”

“Right, right? Whey not put it before lunch!?”

“Or they could at least make it something that has to sit, so we can eat it for dinner or a late-night snack.”

In the cooking classroom, the other 1st-year middle school girls were pouting their lips and booing while wearing bandannas on their heads and aprons over their uniforms. At that age, they were growing girls and their diet was directly linked to the figure they would develop as they grew up, but they put more effort into reducing their stomach value than into the possibility of increasing their chest value.

If Karuta’s memory served him, the woman with semi-long flaxen hair and a cheap tight skirt suit was Sophia Firenze. That nervous, theory-focused teacher stood in front of the large cooking surface that doubled as a teacher’s desk, but she must have known she would not be able to handle this because she had called Karuta in as a Temporary Substitute Teacher’s Assistant(?). Because he had experience and he was known as the world’s strongest.

He was not a teacher himself, so he should have been sitting in a corner like he was merely observing the class, but everyone was focused on him.

That was hard on his heart even over in the corner.

He had never wanted to be a Class Rep.

But right now, he had to hide the part of him that was worrying about screwing up and embarrassing himself.

He shined a laser pointer on the text already written on the blackboard.

“Okay, regeneration is one of Crystal Magic’s Presets, but it isn’t all-powerful. Alice, Riho, Sanae, everyone else, please pay attention. To the blackboard, not me.”

That track suit teacher must have happened by in the hallway because he sent a bitter look inside the classroom before walking off. For some bizarre reason, someone without a teaching license was teaching in their own personal style. Who could say what kind of false information and personal bad habits he would transfer to the listeners? Karuta could not agree more. He was as puzzled as anyone why he was doing this, but his concerns did not seem to reach the nervous female teacher.

The boy respected that teacher out in the hall, so he surreptitiously nodded back while sending the laser pointer along the blackboard text. That act was a lot like using a highlighter in a textbook. It helped deepen the students’ understanding, but he could not have explained anything without Sophia-sensei there to provide the accurate information in the first place.

“The regeneration is powerful enough to put any doctor to shame by healing any wound or illness in thirty seconds. It is fantastically effective on wounds received from an external source, but it has trouble with anything you are already missing. For example, oxygen, nutrients, or water. The regeneration can ''only'' heal non-lethal wounds. So if you starve to death, the healing process is skipped and you are immediately crystallized.”

That explanation was enough to eliminate the scattered discussions among the students and draw all their focus on the blackboard and him in the corner. His combat experience meant a lot here. Although he did wish the nervous female teacher would not look up to him like that, since she was the one with the accurate information.

He sighed.

Those noisy middle school girls required as delicate a touch as if he were working in an ammo dump full of static electricity, but if he thought back to when he was analyzing the Problem Solvers, he managed to calm himself some. After all, failing here would not mean losing his own or someone else’s life.

(Well, all this took was a bit of observation. It’s obvious those three are the center of the class, so I was right to single them out at the start. I think I deserve a bonus for this. By which I mean a dessert.)

Natalena was clearly uncomfortable here.

He could hardly blame her when she was being taught about the powers that took her sister’s life.

He could not tailor this class to everyone here, unfortunately. This was all very bad for his heart, but he managed to keep going without finding himself at a loss for words. He was over in a corner and the text on the blackboard had been written by a real teacher, so he figured he could not go wrong here. He had to remind himself he was not standing up on the gallows.

He could do this. He had kept his mind from going blank so far.

He knew what he had to say. And what order to say it in.

“In that sense, knowing how to acquire ingredients and how to cook them into an edible form are no laughing matter. You will be fighting against the Threat eventually and you never know what will happen on the battlefield. Do not assume you will always be supported by a strong supply line and transportation of goods like the textbooks so often assume. When isolated on the battlefield, you need the survival skills to get by on your own. If you have trouble in a kitchen with gas and electricity, you can never hope to cook outdoors.”

“Heh heh hehh.”

One of the main trio of girls laughed in a nasty way.

This signaled one of her unpleasant adlibs was coming, so he had to be on his guard.

Thus spoke the 13-year-old girl with tanned skin and silver hair who liked to stand out (and was quickly growing into a delinquent).

“Then I take it you’re confident in your own skills, Senpai?”

“Of course I am, Riho.”

He winked.

He was of course terrified of the expectant way this younger girl was testing him, but he could not let that show.

“Whichever group gets me is lucky. I have a habit of making my own lunches for a change of pace.”

“Wow! Well, I hope you’re not all talk. We can be picky when it comes to food, after all.”

That impressed-sounding comment came from Alice, a girl with a blonde ponytail. But when she looked that surprised, it made him feel like she was actually mocking him.

They were not being assigned a specific dish to fix. Instead, they were given a list of numbers indicating the calories and necessary nutrients. Grimnoah’s cooking classes had you provide those numbers in 5 dishes or less. There were many different types of cooking. If you wanted to make it as simple as possible, you would have to check out the online recipes and nutritional science books yourself.

“Okay.”

“?”

He noticed something odd about Sanae, a nervous-looking girl with glasses and with her black hair tied back into two tails. The tails began at the bottom of her head, so they apparently did not qualify as twintails. Anyway, she was dissolving a teaspoon of salt into a bottle of water, but that did not seem related to their cooking in any way.

Riho, from her team, smiled bitterly.

“Sanae, I’m pretty sure we’re fine since it’s the middle of class.”

“Ha, ah ha ha. But Utagai-senpai is here today, so I’m nervous enough to want my good luck charm.”

He could not figure out what they would be “fine” from or what kind of good luck charm that was. After some thought…

“Did you register your Crystal Magic with Bastet?”

“That isn’t one of those water bottles used to keep cats away. And if that was her god, why would she want to keep it away?”

When Riho refuted his thought that quickly, there was nothing he could do. Unfortunately, he did not know of any jinxes that used water bottles.

Meanwhile.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

“Do not mind me. Now, let’s make some delicious food together.”

Natalena was being extra cautious and Crystal Girl Aine responded to the girl’s concern with her usual lack of expression. Surprisingly, Aine was wearing an apron. She was gathering confused attention since she was not part of the class, but being one of the world’s strongest may have been enough for them to accept this oddity without question.

Yes, Aine was also one of the Four Living Gods. When the person who barged in unannounced was a well-known athlete or actor, it apparently made for a pleasant surprise.

Natalena must have had some cooking experience because she began by disinfecting her knife and cutting board instead of getting right to chopping the vegetables and meat. But she was still focused on that crystal girl visible out of the corner of her eye.

“Wow, Senpai-san! You actually know how to remove the eyes of the potato!?”

“Are your compliments set to super easy mode, Sanae!? Were you a slave elf in some other world during your past life or something!?”

Utagai Karuta prepared the vegetables while chatting with the trio of girls at the center of the class. Natalena had been set free for now, but she could still have her revenge if she killed him. She had a knife, blunt objects, fire, and heated objects here. The kitchen was a cornucopia of weapons.

(Maybe he’ll let his guard down.)

If she was willing to accept mutual destruction – if she did not care what happened to herself – she could make an attack at close range here. He was not the only world’s strongest and this method would make things more difficult with the others, but she could at least take down one of them. She tightly gripped the knife in her small hand so no one else would notice.

(I just have to send him to hell before he can use his real power!!)

“Miss Natalena, that is not how you do that.”

“Mgyuh!?”

She was hit by a sudden “attack” from behind.

Crystal Girl Aine placed her arms around the girl from behind and grabbed both her wrists.

“It seems to me a peeler would be faster with something as small as a carrot, but if you do want to use a knife, you do it like this. Be very careful you do not cut your fingers.”

“Ghghghgh?”

It may have looked like a very hands-on lesson, but this was far more than that. Natalena was pushing so hard it made her red in the face, but Aine’s arms would not budge. It was like being made into a puppet or having your powered suit hijacked from the outside. She was powerless to stop it as Aine moved the girl’s arms to peel an incredibly thin layer of the carrot’s skin. Natalena’s resistance did not even cause her to cut her finger.

It was more like being held by a vise than handcuffs. It was so strong she feared that fighting too hard would smash her wrist bones.

“Oh? What’s this? Looks like those two are really good friends.”

“Um, Riho-chan? Are you sure they’re just friends? I think that biting of the earlobe is crossing the line into something else.”

“Jane-san’s blushing, so I think she’s into it.”

Natalena shook her head to deny it, but it did not look like that misunderstanding was going away.

Aine whispered in her ear so no one else could hear.

“Now for the finishing touch: a maid café’s secret ingredient. Let’s do it together, okay? Delicious Spell: Love Love Kaboom.”

“Stop, stop, stop, stoooop!! Um, uh, I’ll do it right, I swear!!”