Editing Failing Witch:Volume2 Episode4 (section)

===Part 5===

“Listen up, everyone. For today’s practical lesson, you’ll totally be doing the Drop Marker☆”

Schanze gathered the students’ attention with ease.

Her gentle, practiced motions were reminiscent of an amusement park instructor on Earth.

They were up on the flat roof of the structure building.

“Drop Marker is totally what it sounds like: it’s a cool game where a flying witch drops a sandbag called a marker onto targets on the ground, competing to be the most accurate. Targets 1-3 have been set up in parks across the city, so check your maps. You can zigzag if you want, but the shortest path should totally be obvious. …This city is shaped like a reverse pyramid, but you totally can’t cross the central lake since Maleficium is there, right?”

Schanze then twirled her broom in her hand.

The end of the broom caught a melon-sized object at her feet, lifting it up to face height.

“This is totally one of the markers. It’s a sandbag weighing a kilogram. Tie them to your hips with ribbon and then totally untie the ribbon when you want to drop it. Each of you gets three markers, so you can only drop one per park. If you miss the target or if a rival’s marker hits yours and knocks it away, you don’t get a redo. So be careful.”

(Ugh, this reminds me too much of bomber flight training.)

Melehe frowned after listening to the rules.

“Wait, we can knock other people’s markers away?”

“Um, eep, b-but that means dropping your marker later gives you an advantage in what is supposed to be a contest of speed.”

“Okay, okay☆ It sounds like those of you who aren’t idiots have totally caught on.”

Viocia tended to ''not think about'' the rules when she first heard them and learn what they meant in practice, so she was left tilting her head here.

“So I also need to tell you about the blocks. That would be these bags. You will each totally have nine of them.”

Schanze poked at a different bag with her broom.

It may have been full of cotton or sawdust. It appeared to be a lot lighter than the sandbag.

“Dropping these won’t earn you any points. They’re entirely meant to block your rivals. If they accidentally hit one of these with a marker and knock it away, the area occupied by the block will be worth negative points, so totally be careful.”

Did they use ribbons to trigger the drop as a reference to the garters used for the witch silencing ritual based on the unnatural strangling deaths of the prisoners John Stuart and John Reed in their cells? But explaining all that at once would only overwhelm Viocia. Lunch was up next, so Yagoro made a mental note to pass on that knowledge while they ate.

Each of the three targets was worth a maximum of 25 points.

The acceleration bonus was worth another 25 points, for a total of 100 points.

“This requires a lot more distance and time than the Elbow we did before, so we’d totally run out of class time if you each did it one at a time. Life is never easy, is it?☆ That’s why it’ll work like a race with ten of you going at once. So now you all totally need to draw lots!”

The result had three girls exchange a glance while lined up on the edge of the roof acting as the start line.

“Ready?”

“<span style="font-size:75%">Eep.</span>”

<span style="font-size:150%">“Hmph.”</span>

It was unusual for Viocia, Dorothea, and Melehe to all be competing together like this. Yagoro hoped this would teach Viocia that the other students here were her rivals.

“Okay, totally on your marks, get set…”

Schanze Dwelling flicked a coin up with her thumb.

The instant it audibly hit the rooftop at her feet…

The girls at the start line shot out into empty air.

Melehe had hoped to pour on the speed right away and gain an early lead, but her face tensed a bit. Viocia was right there alongside her.

“Tch!!”

“Ah ha ha! No one can beat my super acceleration!”

Dorothea was not with them. The bandage zombie girl had a bisA Formula Broom, meaning it was specialized for ground attack. Her top speed in aerial combat was a step behind the other two.

“Heh heh. What now? I was only just upgraded to the rare, all-purpose bisMR type, so you have no excuse for letting an unmodified standard model keep up with you, my cute Melehe.”

<span style="font-size:150%">“Shut up! Whose side are you on!?”</span>

But Melehe didn’t have time for tearful yelling. Viocia wasn’t her only rival.

The open sky was clear in all directions, but with everyone aiming for the same target, there was a best line they could take.

Whoever flew fastest could take that line and drop their marker in the best spot, but that speed would of course make aiming the drop more difficult. However, slowing down and aiming for a less optimal line wouldn’t result in a great score even if they took their time.

So in this case, which was the better option?

“See you later.”

The thoughtless idiot used her “super acceleration” to move out ahead.

Melehe was goaded into speeding up to.

Things were getting unnecessarily competitive.

“So does it come down to a test of speed regardless!?”

They had a single objective.

Viocia and Melehe pursued each other, their paths intertwining, as they fought for the shortest route toward a small park in Temple School City.

“I see it. That’s the first target.”

“You must have good eyes, wild girl!!”

A neon yellow sheet was laid out in the center of the park. It had be more than 10m across, but it looked like a speck from up in the sky.

The sheet had stump-like concentric rings drawn on it, like an archery target.

Viocia reached a hand to the side of her hip.

It was too late to untie the ribbon and let the sandbag drop once they were directly above the park. The two of them were still tearing through the air at supersonic speed. If they didn’t act well before reaching the park, the curving path of the dropping sandbag would not reach the center of the target.

(I have the best line. That means I get the first shot at the best drop course!)

“The first target is mine!” exclaimed Viocia.

If she looked back after dropping the sandbag, she would be gone before she could see where it landed, so she circled the park with the first target to see her result.

It landed right in centermost circle, worth the full 25 points.

“I did-”

Immediately, another sandbag dropped.

It slid in from the side and hit Viocia’s, knocking it out of the 25-point circle.

“Nooo!?”

“Heh heh. Don’t forget we can tactically knock another marker away.”

The game might best be compared to the Earth game of curling. This was why Drop Marker was more than just a competition of speed.

With the ability to knock other markers away, going later was actually an advantage.

They did each have nine blocks to prevent that, but Viocia had been entirely focused on her super acceleration and had failed to use any.

“The first target goes to me.”

“Tch. But the second target will be mine!”

With a sound of splitting air, Viocia suddenly vanished.

No, she had sharply lifted the tip of her broom to rapidly decelerate with a cobra maneuver and then twisted herself around and pointed herself diagonally down in a slice turn. She had sharply changed direction toward the second target.

She had pulled off two challenging maneuvers back to back.

That was not something you were meant to do on a whim while pouting your lips. Most likely, Viocia hadn’t even noticed her increased skill that let her shake free of people’s eyes and expectations.

“That stupid acceleration freak. She’s always a natural at this kind of thing!!”

“Heh heh. Not often you’re jealous of someone’s skill other than your mother, Melehe.”

That girl couldn’t be underestimated just because she alone had come away from the Goddess’s Spring without a bis broom.

She had used only her own skill to obtain a unique flight style no one else could accomplish.

Did this mean the one thing she lacked was the imagination to come up with better ideas?

Melehe realized this wasn’t Viocia’s accomplishment alone. Her teacher had given her the confidence to go for it without fearing failure. And her efforts had earned her a new technique.

“Argh!!”

Melehe, who had her hands full executing a single maneuver, grew red in the face and pursued the dunce who had gone off ahead like it was nothing.

Viocia was already preparing for the next drop.

“Heh heh. I can turn this misfortune into fortune. I still have plenty of blocks left, so I’ll scatter them all around!”

As announced, she scattered six blocks at once, creating a wall within the concentric rings.

That made it look nearly impossible to aim for the concentric rings at all, much less the centermost 25-point ring. But…

“Whoops.”

“!? Melehe is flying higher!?”

Instead of flying straight ahead while dropping the heavy sandbag, it was better to alter the path of the sandbag by lifting the tip of the broom a bit before releasing it.

And by giving the sandbag a path that dropped straight down from above, it could fly over the block formation and land inside. Without sliding or rolling.

For the second target, Viocia got in the 15 point ring (because she was so focused on dropping her blocks she neglected to aim her actual marker very well) and Melehe got in the 20 point ring.

It might sound like Melehe had the advantage after winning the first target too, but they could earn a maximum of 25 points from the acceleration bonus. It was still unknown what their final scores would be.

“I’ll settle this with the third target!!” shouted Melehe.

“Yeah. And this time I swear I’ll beat you!” responded Viocia.

The park with the third target was all the way on the other side of the giant lake in the center of the city, but they couldn’t fly the direct route there.

Only top-rate witches who had passed the entrance exam could reach Maleficium protected by its pure white diamond dust. If an unauthorized novice attempted it, they would ice over and end up crashing into the lake.

“…”

“…”

Viocia and Melehe briefly fell silent as they stared at the massive dark structure towering up beyond the white screen. Maleficium was their goal. Although the two of them may have been seeing ''completely different shapes.

The next moment, they both resumed soaring through the air at top speed.

Viocia had the superior top speed.

So she flew high to take straight lines through the open blue sky, but Melehe took a different tack.

In Drop Marker, flying lower increased accuracy because it shortened the distance needed for the marker to fall, but flying too low increased the risk of colliding with the city’s many buildings.

At the same time, flying as high as Viocia hurt their chances because the drop distance was so long.

Taking the optimal altitude for yourself was part of the strategy.

Melehe chose the airspace with only pointy bell towers and scales elevators to avoid. She could weave her way in between them easily enough.

She wasn’t far from the third target now.

(I can’t match Viocia’s top speed, so I need to earn 25 points for this final target. It might be pushing it, but I need to make a rapid descent to get as small a drop distance as-)

“Whoa!?”

Her thoughts were interrupted and she uttered a panicked cry unbefitting of the prep school’s ace.

Far below her, something cut through the city at high speed.

The witch flying below the stone overpasses with great speed and accuracy was Dorothea Rockpool.

Her altitude was 100cm.

The tiered city was full of ups and downs, but she zoomed through the park’s fancy gate at supersonic speed and released her sandbag from so close it was impossible to miss, accurately taking the 25 point ring. She also arranged some blocks to prevent anyone else from knocking her marker out of the ring.

Several glowing squid familiars flew through the sky drawing out specific signs in red and blue light. When Viocia read the light signals, she spoke up half in awe and half in exasperation.

“Let’s see. First…place…is… Wow! Dorothea got 25 points from all three targets. And she even avoided all the blocks.”

“Kh!!”

“And with her acceleration bonus added to those 75 points, she got a total of 92 points. She was first place by a lot.”

Top speed wasn’t everything in Drop Marker. Coming in later and earning 25 points from each target was more than enough to aim for the top.

Dorothea Rockpool’s BisA broom was specialized for ground attack, giving her an overwhelming advantage.

As Dorothea ascended to the same altitude as the others, she was speaking with her broom, which had a ship’s helm attached.

“Statement: this was entirely due to your Formula Broom’s specs. A true witch doesn’t rely on her tools. Warning: you know what’ll happen if you get overconfident and neglect your studies, don’t you?”

“Right. Eep. I-I’ll try my best to keep up with you!”

In truth, Dorothea was far behind Viocia and Melehe in the other games like Elbow which were purely aerial. If she was fully reliant on her broom’s specialization for ground attacks, she would never be able to overcome that wall.

And if she really wanted to get into Maleficium, avoiding something because it wasn’t your strong suit wasn’t an option.

Discovering the next hurdle you had to clear was another necessary skill for exam students.

“Heh heh. She kept her modesty even after coming in first and she’s even eagerly searching out her next task. She didn’t just beat your score – she’s surpassed you as a human too, Melehe.”

<span style="font-size:150%">“Why is my own broom attacking me?”</span>



Schanze was watching from the structure building’s roof using binoculars made from wooden tubes and crystal, but she was a little disturbed.

“I’m not sure even I could beat her.”