Editing Failing Witch:Volume3 Episode2 (section)

===Part 5===

The day had arrived.

Myousou Yagoro awoke from one of the power naps he had learned to take in the Force.

Out the window, he could see evening shifting into night.

“Now, then.”

He used his HEA house to create an electric toothbrush and completed the bare minimum of grooming. He stuck a butter roll in his mouth, gently shook a mug full of hot milk, equipped his parchment armor under his clothes, and attached his collapsible baton at his hip.

He grabbed the white mask and then left his stone apartment.

The mock battle was being held at the lakeside, so he began descending the long, long stairway there.

The laws of physics had only a loose grip on that ''deadly region'', so it could distort into just about anything. That trait was apparently being used to recreate a portion of the Maleficium school building out here.

The exam students and Maleficium students would be engaging in a mock battle within.

“…”

Lately, Yagoro had been spending a lot of time in the squatter’s district back behind his apartment. He seemed to be subconsciously trying to calm himself down with detailed work. He wasn’t sure how effective that really was, but he had still borrowed the space. He wanted to bring a gift for Raynold and Roslynica later on.



He was going to the Maleficium Trial Class.

To play the role of an aggressor.



He felt bad going up against Viocia and the others without letting them know first, but at the same time this felt like a good opportunity to measure their strength. Summer was a major crossroads. How well those three could keep up with him would alter his policy going forward.

(It’ll be fine.)

He was walking to the battlefield where he would be sending his students to hell, but he took a positive view.

With no guarantee it really would be fine.

(I’ve done what I can. Dorothea and Melehe are both Rank B. And even Viocia managed to scramble up to Rank C. She’s making steady progress. All three are well in range of reaching the A Rank they’ll need to pass the exam. They still have six months. That’s a full half of a year. And who knows, they may do more than just keep up with me today. Knowing those three, they might even find a way to injure me here, don’tcha think?)

He wouldn’t go easy on them.

He couldn’t measure their strength properly if he did.

So if they showed an opening, he wouldn’t hesitate to crush them. But if they had been putting in the daily work, he was certain they could overcome this challenge.

And just as he was thinking this…



Something grew out from his side.

A thumb-thick rapier had stabbed into his back and out from his side.



“Agh!?”

He didn’t understand.

But he didn’t have time for confusion.

The clock was still ticking.

What he wanted most was information. The sword in his side kept him from twisting around, but he managed to view the scene behind him in the reflection of a nearby window.

He saw long black hair and pale skin reminiscent of an icy moon witch. Her curvy body was contained in a chic navy blue blazer, but the light pink apron worn over that clashed with the rest of her appearance. However, that apron was meant to keep her victim’s blood off her clothing, not for use in the kitchen.

The clashing colors were like a strange health food that had made no effort to provide an appealing taste or appearance.

And she held a broom in her hand.

A rapier had been sharply drawn from the sheath bolted alongside the broom handle and that rapier was currently piercing Yagoro’s side.

“That was too easy, Yagoro.”

She had used Wise Fencing.

And.

That could only mean…

“President…Ulrike!?”

Why?

What was going on?

This was no time for that discussion.

Student Council President Ulrike only provided a few fragmentary comments, but he could analyze them later. For now, he just had to memorize them and think up a way to survive.

“Class 1 L-FS – Strange Picking. A power so much more horrifying than the boy who carries it. You would be beneath my notice if not for that power that could easily steal control of this world away from me.”

“?”

“Oh? Yagoro, were you unaware of your own talent? Letting something that powerful go to waste is just plain laughable.”

She chuckled.

Her tone had gone so icy this no longer sounded like a game.

“Class 1 C-FS -  Enemy Debug: activate. …It’s time you learned that you are not the one the goddess loves, Yagoro.”

“What are you even talking about!? Leave me alone!!” spat Yagoro as he took action.

First, he suddenly threw himself forward. He couldn’t move to the either side with the rapier sticking into his back. He had to get it out of him, no matter how much that widened the wound.

(!!!)

His bleeding increased.

He felt dizzy.

Still, he grimaced, quickly put distance between them, and turned to face his enemy.

She wore an apron stained red.

Witches had their origins in everyday household items like brooms and cauldrons, but her bloody smile was far too sinister for this combination.

Her sweet lips spoke.

“''Formula Broom – Wittenberg.'' Complete your function, Goethe.”

A freezing chill fell upon Yagoro’s body.

Even the pain from his wounded side seemed to fade away.

Why had she used that name?

No, that wasn’t it. The bigger question was why that dunce Viocia used an extraordinary broom with an estimated rank of S<sup>3</sup>.

“But if I were to go all out, you wouldn’t even have a chance to resist. So I will give up the options of ‘cutting’, ‘sweeping’, and ‘slashing’. I will limit myself to only ‘stabbing’. Does that give you some small hope?”

He wouldn’t dignify her nonsense with a response. Instead, he was working his mind to rapidly put together the Three Aspects for some witchcraft.

(Underestimate me at your peril!!)

An explosion erupted out.

But the flames only managed to suck in oxygen.

He heard a voice from behind.

“Minus 1 point.”

“!?”

He felt scorching heat. He twisted around to keep it from hitting the center of his back, but his left shoulder was still stabbed. She kept her word about only stabbing. With a horizontal slash, she could have sliced him through even with his evasive action.

“I can directly manipulate space, so you’ll have to use more brains than that.”

Yagoro had offered his own hair – the ultimate cursed dye – as sacrifice to create a deadly blast, but by then the President hadn’t been there anymore. It had only taken her an instant. Even though they were more than 10m apart.

If she had teleported her clothing and rapier along with her, they would usually end up embedded in her body, but she must have used her sense of touch to keep a perfect grasp of their position in relation to her skin.

“Are you underestimating what I mean by ‘space’, Yagoro? I have complete control over it in the physical and geometric senses, both at close range and remotely. I truly do rule over space itself in every meaning of the word!”

In every meaning of the word.

Did that include how the moon changed size depending on the angle used to look up at it? If so, her control over “space” would include physical, mathematical, and even philosophical aspects.

But something else caught Yagoro’s attention more than that.

“Remotely?

That was a physical term. Close range could be thought of like a domino effect. A phenomenon caused by A would influence nearby things until ultimately having an influence on distant B. Heating a bath and electricity traveling along a wire would both count as close range effects. A remote effect would be for A to instantly influence B no matter how much distance or space separated them.

The physics of the other world of Earth could explain the Coulomb force and universal gravitation with close range effects. Most seemingly remote effects had other explanations.

But was that not the case when it came to magic?

If she really could accomplish that, then using her rapier to stab someone from a distance would be possible.

And if she had mastered that…

“''Is that how you know?''”

“Hee hee. No one must reach the farthest reaches of this world.”

Black-haired President Ulrike laughed.

The witch who now had everything didn’t seem interested in sharing what she had seen at the ends of her studies. But Myousou Yagoro had obtained the possibility of violating that taboo. Apparently that was all it took.

Yes, that was all it took for her to execute him, take his life, and remove him from Maleficium.

Precisely 2cm were cut from the bottom of the President’s black hair. It scattered in the air and turned to sparkles just before reaching the ground.

She had sacrificed her black hair, the ultimate cursed dye.

Her bewitching lips uttered a single phrase.

“''Thousand needles.''”

The space all around Yagoro tore open, revealing countless blade tips. There was no gap between them, much less room to dodge. He was unable to do anything at all as they stabbed into him from all directions.