Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume2 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 5===

The sunset had to be artificial.

Sunsets and sunrises worked different from normal in the Artic. At around June, they would experience the midnight sun where the sun never set throughout the night, but the beginnings of that effect should have been showing themselves now.

Also, all of the Crystal Beach’s facilities were covered by domes of varying size. They looked clear at first glance, but even the earth’s atmosphere bent the sunlight to create the blue of the midday sky and the orange of sunset. If the sunlight could be adjusted using electronic polarization technology, the sky of morning, noon, and twilight could all be reproduced. You could even program astronomical events that did not exist in nature.

Amaashi Marika’s strawberry blonde hair swayed as she killed time at a beachside open-air restaurant. It was a lot like a larger version of a gazebo since it had no walls on any sides to allow the wind through. She wore what looked like a racing swimsuit, except it had a large hole in the stomach area. Some might have thought it looked a lot like she was wearing only black belts.

Couples were common here, so not even Karuta wanted to approach her without Aine with him.

“Sorry. I got held up.”

“I could tell. I’ve been waiting here forever.”

Karuta apologized while sitting down at the next counter seat and she responded while boredly sipping at the straw in her bright green mixed juice made from melon, kiwi, and more.

And…

“Uhh.”

“Hm? What’s wrong, Aine-chan? Not that you talk much normally.”

Aine was refusing to look Marika in the eye. The childhood friend tried to peer up at the crystal girl’s face from below, but she hid behind Karuta. Finally, she spoke up in a vanishingly quiet voice.

“Miss Marika, why are you showing off so much skin? Is it for venting heat or cutaneous respiration?”

“You’re wearing a swimsuit too, Aine-chan. Wait, why won’t you look at me either, Karuta?”

“Well, um, that…doesn’t leave much to the imagination when viewed from the side.”

“Of course it doesn’t. This is an overseas trip, so we’ve got to make the most of it. Oh? What’s this? Feeling a little overexcited about your childhood friend’s unexpected growth, Karuta-kun? Wah hah hah!”

[[Image:ApocalypseWitch_v02_08.png|thumb]]

Meanwhile, the crystal girl thought for a bit and asked a question.

“Are you saying I too am wearing something embarrassing?”

Karuta and Marika exchanged a glance.

This was odd. Aine of all people was feeling ''embarrassed''? Karuta recalled that he himself had said being naked was embarrassing back on the elevator.

Was she learning?

That inhuman dummy had never shown any sign of doing that before, but was that an option now!?

A bright light pierced vertically through Utagai Karuta’s body. He could guide her down a path different from that overly open Marika and different from Kyouka who was willing to show some skin in order to tease the boy in front of her.

He grabbed Aine’s small hands and held them between his own.

“You don’t have to be like that nudist childhood friend or that mature devil of a Student Council President!! You can be an honest, modest, and above all sensible girl! Aine!!”

The shameless curly twintails girl smiled and whispered her own message to the crystal girl.

“Aine-chan, Aine-chan. Don’t let him trick you. Try sleeping in the nude once and I promise you you’ll never go back.”

“No, don’t you drag her into your world!! I have a responsibility to raise her right! She needs to be a proper lady with a sense of shame!!”

During the childhood friends’ strange discussion, Aine circled behind Karuta to use him as a shield against the overly exposed girl. Then she “stored” herself inside his back without a word.

“Oh, she ran away.”

“That’s far better than you giving her some weird habit of stripping. Anyway, let’s get down to business.”

Karuta ordered a soda and some fries.

“So how’d it go?” he asked.

“Did you expect anything to happen? Even the ocean is enclosed in this artificial beach, so it’s not like Hawaii or Guam where man-eating sharks can be lurking around.”

His childhood friend pointed at a small figure with her chin: Natalena Blast.

She rested her head in her hand.

“Are you sure you should have left her alone? She seemed pretty reliant on you. All she’s been doing all day is collecting shells and kicking at the waves. You could have at least sent Aine-chan in to tease her or something.”

“This was necessary.”

“You’re not very nice.”

That was not a very nice thing for her to say. When pushing didn’t work, wasn’t it the Japanese tradition to try pulling, based on the legend of Amaterasu?

“To make things very clear, I do not want that girl to die. No matter what. I don’t care if she can resent me as long as she’s alive.”

“…”

“But I also know that you and Omotesandou-san can only accept so much. I mean, she’s said herself she wants revenge against us, so it’s natural to not want that threat around. So I want to get her to open up as quickly as possible. I said no matter what, right? So I’ll do whatever it takes. Playing dirty is my specialty.”

“I am aware of that.” Marika re-crossed her legs in an irritated way. “Since staying by her side didn’t change anything, you’re trying to make her feel lonely so she’ll realize she needs you, right? And once that balloon is full to bursting, you’ll approach her again. Once a slight prod of a sharp needle can make it pop, you can keep the costs to a minimum.”

She made him sound like a con artist, but they had no real requirement to bring Natalena to their side.

If it was too much trouble, there was always Marika’s murder plan and Kyouka’s torture plan.

That might not tell them anything about the accomplice who had given the young girl information on Anastasia’s death and arranged a false identity she could use to take revenge, but they would at least eliminate the immediate assassin.

But he would not let that happen.

Maybe it was cheap and maybe it was a dirty job, but he was struggling to make a connection with Natalena.

He had said himself that she could resent him as long as she remained alive.

“You’re too soft.”

“Sorry.”

“No need to apologize. I’ve accepted that you’re just the kind of person who won’t kill for no reason. I mean, even ''back then'' you weren’t willing to harm anyone unrelated to our revenge and you even showed signs of trying to save the Problem Solvers.”

“I…”

“Again, this isn’t criticism. I’m just confirming what I already know.” She took a sip through her straw and she asked what sounded like a pure question. “So tell me this: is it really possible to take the weapon away from someone intent on revenge? I mean, ''it sure as hell wasn’t possible when it was me''. Same for Aine-chan and the President. Once we got started, you were the only one who was shaken at all.”

That may have been why she was asking.

She peered into his eyes as if hoping he could provide the answer since she could not figure it out herself. It was actually a very pure look.

“Well? You would be hard pressed to find more obvious villains than those five, but if they had used some kind of idealistic argument to get you to stop your inconvenient revenge, would you have agreed even though you had a legitimate reason for revenge?”

If he said no, it raised questions about the effectiveness of his efforts here and now.

But if he said yes, it raised questions about how they had seen their revenge through to the end and killed those five. If they could have given up, then none of it had needed to happen.

“That’s a tricky question.”

“I’ll give that answer 50 points.” Marika was blunt but smiling. “But that’s not a failing score. I would’ve punched you if you gave an immediate yes or no.”