Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume1 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 5===

Once he left the RV, the biting cold struck Utagai Karuta’s entire body.

His breaths were white and the snow crunched below his feet.

Instead of in a city, they were on a pure white mountain covered with conifer trees, so the road and the slope were nearly indistinguishable.

“It’s hard to believe that there’s this much snow during April,” said strawberry blonde Marika while breathing into her hands.

They knew where the Problem Solvers’ base was, but they could not exactly drive the RV right up to it. They had to walk from a few kilometers away. Kyouka’s wheelchair could not travel through the deep snow, so she was forced to remain in the RV. If Susannia or Anastasia’s magic was anything like the light spear, flying would be suicide. Drawing attention to themselves would get them shot down.

“But when you get down to it, what is even left?”

“?”

Karuta frowned at that odd phrasing, so his childhood friend explained while walking alongside him.

“They’re all the world’s strongest, so they must stand at the top of different categories, right? For example, a dinosaur inferior to Elicia’s would not have a spot in that group.” She thought for a moment. “The dinosaur, the light spears, and the giant sword. If you rule those out, what kind of ‘strongest’ is left? They were all so insane it’s easy to focus too much on the specific power and lose sight of what genre it belongs to.”

Karuta had not considered looking at it like that.

Those strongest five all had some kind of magic they had all accepted as the strongest in some way. After thinking some himself, he decided to list off whatever random ideas came to mind.

“What about mind control?”

“We definitely haven’t seen that one. Maybe they could choose a target and weaken them?”

“Or travel through time. Like go back to before their target was born and change history.”

“You’re getting pretty out there now. So how about creating parallel worlds?”

“A super-adaptive lifeform that keeps evolving from one second to the next would be pretty scary.”

They had been joking with each other at first, but a weight gradually built in their stomachs and they began talking less. If any of their guesses happened to be right, that was the enemy they would have to face. It was not the most enjoyable topic of discussion.

After walking a while, they spotted what looked like a log cabin next to a frozen lake.

If the information Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka had found was accurate, that would be the Problem Solvers’ hideout. There were no other obvious buildings in the area.

The first three Problem Solvers had provided garbage disposal, power, and production, but they apparently knew how to use low-tech solutions as well. While so much of the global infrastructure was collapsing, this isolated log house seemed to be doing just fine.

It may have beewn similar to Karuta’s group in that RV that was not registered to any city or country.

“…”

Back at Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah, he had brought a blanket, a music player, and a cooler into the space directly below the flat heliport to skip class and goof off. Marika had gotten after him for stuff like that, so it had primarily become a secret base he shared with Gekiha and Aine. He remembered the oddly liberating feeling of being cut off from the flow of time while everyone else was in class like they were supposed to be.

What had this log cabin been for those five?

How comfortable had they found that white villa cut off from the rest of the world?

“There’s a car parked next to it,” he quietly noted while viewing it from afar. “And the snow is piled up on the windshield. At least 3cm thick.”

“I picked up the recent weather data,” said Kyouka from back in the RV. “There have been a lot of on-and-off flurries recently, but not heavy snowfall. I doubt that car has been there for even a full day.”

Karuta and Marika exchanged a glance.

If that car did not belong to a maintenance company that made periodic visits to perform upkeep on the building, then they had already drawn one of the two cards they wanted. Was Susannia Evans or Anastasia Blast visiting? Or were they both here?

To be careful, they checked the license plate and sent that information back to Kyouka, but she did not have much luck with a search.

“No matches. I suppose that’s the Problem Solvers for you. They must have enough influence with the world’s governments to keep their information secret.”

The tension increased because this was clearly no normal car.

They still had no real answers as they were forced to charge blindly into likely death.

“Power up.”

Crystal Girl Aine slipped out from Karuta’s back.

She silently tilted her head with her special crystal sword in hand.

“Sacri-sama, if you wish to acquire information to increase your odds of success, you could always send me in first.”

“No, I can’t. Did you forget that we’re catching the Problem Solvers by surprise? They’re only gathering here because it’s a safe hideout. If we make any kind of attack and they grow more cautious, they’ll never come back. Then they can hide anywhere in the world and we’ll be forced to search them out from among the full 5.5 billion population. That clearly isn’t going to work even if we have 100 years to work with. So…”

So what did that mean?

They had to end it with this first attack. They had to kill whoever it was with their own hands.

Was that what he wanted to say? Proudly and with head held high?

“…”

He felt like his curly twintails childhood friend was giving him an appraising look.

“Anyway, we have to go do this, don’t we?” she said.

“Yeah, we do.”

They cautiously walked toward the lakeside log cabin.

There was no one in the car. They circled the building, but they could not see inside because all the windows had the curtains shut. In addition to the car, they found some firewood and mortar materials haphazardly piled up.

“Look.”

But Marika pointed at one window.

“The window is fogged up and it looks like there’s smoke coming from the chimney. It’s warm inside.”

That would never happen with a deserted log cabin. This was like a more old-fashioned version of determining if anyone lived there by seeing if the power meter was turning.

So someone was there.

At least one member of the Problem Solvers was inside. A great pressure weighed on his stomach. Was that person watching them from the crack in the curtains even now? Was it possible they could slice right through the log wall to attack? Or was his group already caught in some kind of spell? All sorts of speculation swirled through his mind.

“Kh.”

He shook his head.

That was like a toxin of his own creation. He would wear himself down before the fight even began.

“Let’s compare the fog on the windows. That should tell us which part of the cabin is warmest. If someone is here, that’s where they’ll be. Whether they’re using firewood in the fireplace or an air conditioner running on a generator, they won’t want to waste their fuel this deep in the mountains.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama. I can break through any window or door here.”

“That’s nice to know.” He smiled. “But if we’re doing this, let’s try to be cleverer about it. Everyone will be cautious of what they consider to be the possible entrances, so if we break through a wall, we might be able to catch them in a psychological blind spot.”

Marika activated her Crystal Blossom armor and worked with Crystal Girl Aine to blow through the outside wall.

They no longer needed to be careful about footprints and otherwise hide their presence. In fact, it all came down to what they could accomplish in this few seconds of confusion and uncertainty. The three of them stormed inside.

It was a large space that looked like a combined dining room and kitchen. Pieces of the wall and window were scattered across the wooden flooring, but it must have been a pristine space to begin with. A fire danced in the fireplace at the wall, but that was it. The TV and audio system were powered off and silence hung over the place like in a classroom at night. They did not see, hear, smell, or otherwise sense someone there.

“They aren’t here?”

“We just have to keep looking!”

They were up against one of the Problem Solvers. Every second counted, but splitting up here would be the height of folly. They stuck together while cautiously moving through the cabin. They threw open the many doors.

They found a bathroom with a bathtub, a large drying room for clothing wet with snow, and a food storage room piled high with cardboard boxes. There was no staircase and the flat log cabin did not have individual bedrooms. It was less like a villa for the wealthy and more like a nicer version of a mountain climber’s cabin. And despite their tension, there was no one there.

Marika kept her Crystal Blossom armor out and gently spun the rapier in her hand.

She also frowned.

“Did they notice us approaching and run off? There weren’t any footprints in the snow when we circled the cabin, but they might be able to fly like I can.”

“You think one of the Problem Solvers fled without firing a shot? I’ll admit it’s hard to say since we don’t know what kind of world’s strongest they are, but that’s hard to imagine.”

“But, Sacri-sama, there was a car parked out front and there is a fire in the fireplace. Plus, this cabin seems too primitive to be remotely controlled.”

There had clearly been someone here.

Yet it had not simply been a meeting for the Problem Solvers to reach a consensus.

So why was no one here now?

And why would they leave signs of their presence like the car and the fireplace?

“Oh, no.”

“Karuta?”

“Oh, no!!”

He finally looked up and ran toward the closest window while ignoring his confused-looking childhood friend and the crystal girl. He threw open the curtain and checked outside.

There should have been a frozen lake out there.

But when he saw something else filling his vision instead, he reflexively swore.

“Goddammit.”