Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume3 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 6===

“Nh, kh,” groaned a voice back on the floating general airport about 30km south of the frontline.

More specifically, it was inside a flight attendant locker room.

Amaashi Marika tried to suppress her voice, but she could still feel it escaping through her nose. She made one final effort while feeling her entire body squeezed tight from the outside.

“Nhhhhh!!!!!!”

“Yes, yes. There aren’t any teenage boys around to excite, so you can stop making all that noise. Look, all done.”

She had cleared the final barrier with the help of her more mature classmate Hashizaki Tayori. A special synthetic material less than a millimeter thick now covered her all the way up to her shoulders.

She blushed when she saw herself in the large mirror.

[[Image:ApocalypseWitch_v03_06.jpg|thumb]]

The skintight, waterproof, and heat insulating material covered her arms, legs, and torso equally, leaving only her head exposed. It was apparently a cutting-edge silent diving suit, but the shape of her breasts, butt, collarbones, and even navel showed through.

She twisted around to get a look at her back in the mirror.

“Yikes. I knew this would show off my figure, but not this much.”

“You always sleep in the nude, so why does this bother you so much? Anyway, if you’re done, then help me out.”

“Sure thing, Imi.”

Cutting-edge or not, Marika thought there was something wrong with a suit so tight you could not get it on by yourself. Matsuda Imi had managed to get it on her legs by herself, so Marika and Tayori stood on either side of her and worked together to tug the thin material up over the girl’s shoulders. It felt a lot like struggling with a thick rubber panel stuck to the ground.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!!”

“Bear with it.”

“I…I think it’s kinda caught on my boobs! Ow! I-it’s rubbing!”

“You’re imagining it. It’s perfectly smooth on the inside.”

With a solid snap, Imi was dressed.

“So now the oxygen tanks and our luggage?” asked Tayori who had gotten into hers first.

“Ugh, will this thing really work? I feel like the crotch is going to rip as soon as I spread my legs a little.”

“If you’re worried, then why not test it out? Do some gymnastic stretches, Marika.”

That was a good point, so Marika cautiously moved her body while Tayori supported her. She knew it was designed to allow this kind of movement, but she was still scared since she found that hard to believe.

“First, lower your hips like normal.”

“Okay.”

Tayori placed her hands on Marika’s shoulders while standing in front of her. The two of them bent their knees to lower their hips.

“Once your butt is on the floor, keep your knees bent and slowly spread your legs to the sides.”

“Nh, like this?”

“And with your legs still spread, I just have to flip you over and lift your butt up high. Tah dah! Now you’ve mastered that embarrassing pose they do in porn all the time!”

“Bffhhh!!!??? What is wrong with you, Tayori!?”

“It didn’t tear, did it?”

Marika blushed and struggled (while flipped upside down) and Tayori laughed while still holding the girl’s legs in place.

Meanwhile, Matsuda Imi was restlessly rubbing her thighs together.

“Um, uh.”

“What, is it tighter than you expected and you’ve taken a liking to it? Y’know, like a bike seat?”

“It’s not that…ahh, I can’t take it. I’m so nervous it’s about to leak out on its own. Marika, Tayori, help me get this thing off! I need to use the restroom.”

“What a pain. We just got it on you!!”

Marika complained while stripping the teenage girl bare. Once she was naked again, Imi left the room, but this was actually a problem that fighter pilots and astronauts had yet to fully solve. The best solution was to avoid drinking very much fluids while on standby, just like a small child afraid of wetting the bed.

(It’s going to be cold in the water, so we need to look after our health on this mission.)

The other two sensitive teenage girls kept that thought on their minds as they awaited their friend’s return.

Yes.

Marika grabbed some thick goggles and used her other hand to flick the Crystal Blossom on the chest of her suit.

“Okay, Omotesandou-san. We’re about to leave.”

“Understood. Once you’re in the ocean, avoid any communications other than short-range ones with your team. Long-distance communications are off limits both with your Crystal Blossom and your phone.”

“Do you really think the Threat can intercept those? Not even research lab quantum computers have been able to analyze how Crystal Blossom communications work. And the Threat might not even understand the concepts of encryption and transmissions.”

“The trick to survival is to always assume the worst when you aren’t confident about something. And do you remember the observation reports of a sea urchin Threat covered in moving rods that looked an awful lot like TV antennas? Plus…”

“Plus?”

“This is more of a jinx than anything with real data to back it up, but they swear the manned high-altitude spy planes that don’t send out any signals last longer than the unmanned spy drones that are constantly sending signals back to their base. The Sparkle’s anti-air lasers supposedly fire more often with the latter. Of course, the altitude, speed, material, size, and shape are all different, so it’s hard to say if the signals are really what’s causing it.”

Last longer.

That meant the manned and unmanned ones were both shot down in the end. Even the professional soldiers had thrown in the towel without finding a workable strategy. The apocalypse had arrived at the Port of Kobe – most people were just not aware of it yet.

Kyouka continued like they were only having a casual chat.

“By the way, Karuta-kun and the others seem to be having a harder time than expected as they make their attack on the surface. He says they’re going to withdraw and bring back their raw data and experiences.”

“What is he doing?”

“We had a feeling this might happen, didn’t we? ''Which is why you need to do your part down there in the ocean. That is our real attack, after all.''”

Imi returned naked and with a bashful smile, so it was time to get that annoyance of a skintight suit back on her.

“I bet that President says the same thing to everyone,” commented gyaru-ish Tayori while they worked at Imi’s suit.

“Really? She seems surprisingly naïve deep down to me.”

Tayori and Marika were of split opinions on this, but that was not a problem.

The three girls grabbed some metal tanks that felt heavy out of the water and placed them over their backs. They grabbed some waterproof bags before moving outside. Even with the special suits on, the rain still felt unpleasant. They walked across the flat megafloat to the straight-line edge.

Imi put on some large goggles and looked down toward the water.

“Wow, I didn’t realize we were so high up. Is that about three meters?”

“Less talking, more jumping.”

“Hey, don’t push on my butt, Tayori…gyaaahhh!?”

Imi was shoved off into the ocean by a hand on her butt (that had avoided the tank on her back) and then Marika and Tayori jumped into the water dyed orange by the light.

With their cutting-edge silent diving suits, they could ignore the water temperature and pressure and the slight bumps on the surface reduced the noise of their movement through the water as much as possible. Supposedly anyway. They had no way of knowing if any of that was really happening.

“Ugh, I hear a lot of bubbling when I breath out. Are you sure this thing’s working?”

“Quite complaining, Imi. We need to follow the fiber optic cable on the ocean floor to reach the Port of Kobe.”

“If only things were still going as planned. I really wish Karuta had actually done his job as a diversion and drawn their attention more.”

The girls spoke using the short-range communications of their Crystal Blossoms while they began to move just off the ocean floor. Since they could swim straight there and ignore the land route, it was about 30km north from the floating general airport to the Port of Kobe. That would eat away their stamina more than a full marathon if they swam like normal, so they would be too exhausted to fight once they arrived. That was why they needed to surround themselves in crystal armor and take advantage of the flight that provided.

Yes, they could use Crystal Magic underwater.

This was a nonstandard usage, though, so there were a few things they had to watch out for.

“Power up. …Imi, Tayori, don’t move too quickly. The water creates a lot of resistance, so you would only crush yourself with your own speed.”

“And with the goggles and mouthpiece on. I’m afraid of hurting my teeth by flying with this thing in my mouth.”

“The tank is dangerous too, but we still need it. If the wall of water causes our preset barrier to activate, all our luggage will be deflected away from us.”

However, the points of the crystal armor rendered the silent diving suits mostly useless as far as water resistance was concerned.

And of course, this required some level of caution. They were approaching the Metal-Derived Autonomous-Origin Higher Lifeform Combat Weapons commonly known as the Threat. No one knew if they were biological or mechanical. If they did not need oxygen or had gills, they would be able to move through the water just fine.

And in fact…

“Be careful,” said Marika while they advanced through the ocean.

There was a large mass up ahead. A hemispherical umbrella of black metal was floating in the seawater. Perhaps it was meant to look like a jellyfish. The 2m object was attached to the ocean floor with a thick chain and had long tentacles thinner than hairs flowing freely in the current. It looked more like a sea mine meant to obstruct travel through the ocean than it did a predator with a mind of its own.

That jellyfish Threat slowly wobbled side to side in the orange ocean, but it was not alone. When looking off into the distance, red lights could be seen slowly flashing like the lights on top of skyscrapers at night.

“Mines? They have red lights, but they don’t seem to have eyes.”

“How can you tell, Tayori?”

“If they could locate us with lenses, they would have surrounded us by now. Hey, Imi, can you think of any reason for the Threat to spare a human? And these real ones attacked Second Grimnoah for some reason. That suggests they know the value of Crystal Magic.”

The girls made sure to avoid touching the long tentacles as they swam past the black jellyfish along the ocean floor. Luckily, none of them suddenly opened a large mouth or exploded as they passed by.

“What do we call those?” asked Imi while looking back a few times. “Does the discoverer get to name them???”

“Don’t use your long-range communications to ask the President. The Threat would notice and surround us immediately.”

But Marika was not ready to celebrate having successfully avoided them.

“It isn’t just the Port of Kobe. The Threat has spread over a much wider area of ocean. How far has their contamination spread?”

“We can only pray they don’t already have the entire Japanese Archipelago surrounded.”

The fact that no one could laugh at Tayori’s melancholic statement showed just how bad the situation was.

For one thing, the Threat had supposedly come from the bottom of the ocean when they attacked Second Grimnoah, so the girls could not let their guard down.

They kept their speed low so as not to be crushed between their own speed and the water resistance as they followed the underwater fiber optic cable to the Port of Kobe. Even with the water resistance reducing their speed, it only took them 45 minutes to cover the 30km.

They saw a few oddities other than the jellyfish at the bottom of the bay.

Giant red flowers were blossoming on the ocean floor.

“What are those?” asked Imi. “Sea urchins? No, these look softer.”

“They might be sea anemones,” said Tayori.

The smaller ones had a diameter of 10m and the larger ones had a diameter of more than 100m. Countless tentacles were spread out in a circle, almost like a sunflower. The tentacles looked too soft to be made of metal as they expanded and contracted to envelop their fellow Threats that dropped down from the ocean.

(Why are they so jiggly? Are they a liquid despite being made of hard metal? No, maybe they’re a collection of small hard pieces, like a beanbag cushion.)

Most of the sea anemones were glowing red, but some were emitting a green light instead. Those ones were spreading their tentacle flowers wide and sending out the tadpole Threats contained within them. And those tadpoles were the size of a large truck.

Imi’s eyes widened behind her thick goggles.

“Their tentacles are stabbing into the other ones.”

The red light would then turn green.

That reminded Marika of something. Even if it was not accurate.

“Are they charging the others up???”

“They do seem to be throbbing in places. But that’s making an awful lot of noise for transporting a liquid. It may be some kind of solid, like a jelly or blocks of something. Whether you would call it fuel or food would depend on the exact mechanism they use, but I bet they are securing some kind of power source.”

Destroying those underwater gas stations may have dealt a blow to the Threat, but Marika stopped that line of thinking. The jellyfish and sea anemone Threats may not have had eyes and ears, but the ones on the surface would. Vision in the seawater was not great, but they would still be noticed if they moved too close. Plus, they had no data on how many of these gas stations existed in the ocean. If they were everywhere, then destroying just what they could see here would not be enough to stop the Threat as a whole.

They would be needlessly revealing their presence with no guarantee of any real effect.

In that case, it was not worth changing their plan for.

Marika shook her head to shake off the temptation.

“Let’s go, Imi, Tayori. That isn’t our target.”

“Understood.”

They knew those red and green glowing sea anemone gas stations were carrying other Threats, so they made sure they did not run into any other Threats moving to and from the ocean’s surface as they swam upwards.

Their heads silently emerged from the orange surface of the ocean.

“Pwah.”

Imi lifted her goggles to her forehead and removed the oxygen tank’s mouthpiece from her mouth while salty-smelling water dripped from her bangs.

“We’re back, Second Grimnoah. My phone contract is still in my dorm room, so I can’t have you kicking me out. I’ve already forgotten the PIN I was given in case I had any trouble.”

A giant wall towered up before them.

The wall of laminated material had an angle of more than 90 degrees, so it was leaning out toward them. Needless to say, that was the hull of the Second Grimnoah academy ship’s special three hull structure.

Tayori stared into the distance instead of at their objective. There was some obvious black smoke there.

“The ship has drifted away from shore. The port is all the way over there.”

“There’s an oil fire on the ocean near the port, so we’re actually lucky it’s drifted away.”

Marika looked up from the water. They could not fly up on top of the ship since it had to be crawling with Threats of all shapes and sizes, but that was not what she was interested in.

“Where’s that laser one?”

“The Sparkle was up on the flat roof, so it shouldn’t be able to see us unless it intentionally looks out over the edge. And as an anti-air weapon, it’s probably more interested in what’s at a distance than at its own feet.”

The Threat would find them if they carelessly flew into the sky, so Marika put her mouthpiece back in and gestured downwards.

She added more with her Crystal Blossom’s short-range communications.

“We can move freely in the water, so let’s dive back down. They’ll have a harder time finding us there.”

“Eh? Is there even an entrance below the water level? Wouldn’t the ship sink with a hole there???”

“Imi, a ship of this size doesn’t move around with just the rudder and propeller on the back. It’s bound to have side thrusters.”

Side thrusters were propellers that pushed seawater out of holes on the sides of the ship. They were used when leaving port or to spin the ship like a turntable by sending water out of the front right side and the rear left side or vice versa.

The motionless propeller was twice as tall as Marika.

After using their oxygen tanks to swim into the tunnel, they entered the ship through a maintenance airlock that used a pressurized pump. It felt a lot like opening a manhole cover and crawling out onto the street.

“Pwah! That was…the worst!!”

Marika spat out her mouthpiece, pulled up her goggles, and shook her head.

The weight of the thick tank weighed down on her again now that the water’s support was gone.

She was also worried about her hair. It was even more soaked with salty seawater than she had expected.

She saw metal pipes, stairs, and strange machinery. There were of course no windows. The place looked more like a workshop than a school. Second Grimnoah looked very different belowdecks than abovedeck.

This was her school and the dorm where she lived, but she did not at all feel the relief of coming home. The pressure squeezing at her heart may have been even greater than in the blizzard at the Crystal Beach. This was an extreme battlefield crawling with the true Threat. They could not be spoken to and the war treaties did not apply. If they were cornered in a dead end and raised their hands to surrender, they would only be swarmed and slaughtered. The tension was on a much greater level.

Now, why had the girls taken such a great risk to sneak into enemy territory with just the three of them?

They had already mentioned the answer.

Marika brushed up her wet bangs and looked to the heavy ceiling.

“That anti-air laser one is on the roof, right? I just hope it hasn’t moved from there.”

“The Sparkle can’t see us in here.”

“Just to be sure, let’s climb up from within the school building. If we can just take out the Sparkle in a surprise attack, the others can fight their way here. We’ll have our school back in no time.”

Of course, this plan fell apart if the Threat found them before that surprise attack succeeded. They understood the power and accuracy of that green laser all too well. They wanted to approach from a blind spot and finish it off in a single attack, not allowing it any attacks of its own.

The middle school building was directly above them.

Gyaru-ish Tayori put a hand on her hip.

“Do we take the stairs like normal?”

“I’m betting they’re watching all the ordinary routes.”

They still did not know why the Threat had attacked Second Grimnoah and occupied it instead of sinking it, but they knew there were some Threats inside here.

Something large and round was slowly rolling near a distant bulkhead.

“Shh!”

Imi immediately reached for her Crystal Blossom, so Marika quickly grabbed at her slender wrist and dragged her behind cover. Tayori slipped behind a different piece of machinery.

Marika held her friend in her arms while silently checking on whatever that was. It had a nearly spherical body with something like TV antennas sticking out in every direction. Each of those wriggled independently from the rest to push its body forward. It was maybe 2m tall if you counted out to the ends of the spines.

Was it…a slate pencil urchin?

Those lived among the tropical fish and coral reefs of the tropical seas, so Marika had often seen them on the first ship.

Of course, this only resembled one and behaved nothing like them.

The power of this Threat was unknown. Would it crush them with its giant body, would it shoot those spines like spears, or would it roast them with invisible EM waves? And even if they could defeat it, how many more Threats would rush in afterwards? They would gain nothing from trying to fight here.

“Gah. Marika, your boobs are too big.”

“How is that my fault?”

“What is that thing, anyway? One of the sea urchins they were talking about at the airport???” Imi tilted her head while not looking all that upset about drowning in her friend’s chest. “It’s pretty small compared to the tadpoles and that lion. And isn’t this the engine room – well, sub engine room. We’re right in the heart of their fortress.”

“Maybe the bigger ones simply can’t move around in the ship very well,” suggested Tayori.

Marika listened to those two while silently expanding her pointed crystal armor again.

But not to fight.

She could fly using Crystal Magic. She floated up from the floor using a thick pipe as a shield and slipped inside an emergency smoke vent near the ceiling. They did not need to follow the map or blueprint of the ship. And they did not have to worry about being shot down by the Sparkle’s high-power lasers while inside the ship.

“Wait, Marika, how did you fit inside there? My armor’s catching on the entrance.”

“Put your armor away. I know it’s a pain to power it up every time you need it, but just do it.”

This smoke vent was for emergencies, so it was rarely if ever used and thus nice and clean inside. Using this, they could easily reach the school building or dorm up above the deck.

Except…

“Argh, this suit is clinging to my skin. And the tank and goggles are in the way!”

Marika clicked her tongue at herself for only noticing that now, but she could not change inside the cramped smoke vent. After arriving in an area above the deck, she removed the metal grate on the ceiling and looked down into the hallway.

She gasped.

They were already in the middle school building. A tingling fear crawled up from her fingers now instead of when they had entered the ship. It was like being forced to stick your hand into a drain that was not just covered in sticky goop but coated with small unidentified bugs.

The school was awfully dark.

But not just because tons of Threats were covering the windows. Something like metal panels had been pasted onto the outside with some kind of adhesive. Those had apparently been taken from Second Grimnoah’s repair materials and deck-top equipment. The girls could hear claws scratching at the other side.

“Are they making nests? Do they have a bagworm type?”

(How lived-in this place looks makes it so much worse.)

That thought came to Marika’s mind as she hung upside down from the ceiling. Finding yourself in a strange forest at night would be a disaster, but finding yourself in a familiar hospital or amusement park at night would become a test of courage. This was the same.

The school looked entirely different now.

Marika gulped, but the fear remained below her throat.

Unlike a famous suicide spot, the darkness here could be swept away. She forced herself to focus on that fact. If they only got rid of the Threat, the usual Second Grimnoah would be back. She knew what was causing the problem, so she knew where to go. She would at least not be wasting her time.

Which meant…

(Hm.)

The classroom windows were covered with scrap material too, so they were full of scratching noises from outside. Was the metal over the windows meant to give the Threats footholds, not to provide armor?

“Now’s our chance to get changed.”

“In there? In what world, Marika? Could you sleep soundly in a mortuary freezer just because it’s about the same size as a sleeping bag?”

Imi’s eyes widened in shock, but this was enemy territory – there was no such thing as a safe zone here. With that metal covering the windows and thus blocking the inside of the room from view, this was as close to safe as they were going to get. In fact, building a sturdy but conspicuous shelter would only draw attention and get them surrounded.

First, Marika dropped down from the ceiling into the hallway and then she supported Imi from below while the girl’s legs flailed.

Once inside the empty classroom, Marika silently lowered the oxygen tank from her back and pulled her usual school uniform from the waterproof bag she had been carrying. The silent diving suit was useful in the water, but it would only get in the way while trying to fight on the ship. And if the Threat was intelligent enough to notice unnatural drops of water on the floor and investigate, the wet diving suits would get them tracked. The three girls balled up their used suits and stuffed them in their bags before sticking the bags, oxygen tanks, and goggles in the cleaning supply lockers lined up by the wall.

They lacked the guts to use a loud dryer, but wiping down their wet hair with a towel helped a lot. Marika tied her uniform’s tie with practiced hand.

“Note where this empty classroom is. If we screw up and have to withdraw, we’ll need to retrieve our equipment.”

“I’d rather not think about that possibility.”

They were keeping their tone light to avoid being swallowed up by fear, but one of the girls remained silent.

Marika and Tayori looked over in confusion.

“Imi?”

“…”

The girl did not respond even as they called her name.

She had not even finished changing. The salty water was dripping from her bangs and her short skirt remained haphazardly caught on her hips because she had not zipped it up as she stared at something. Whatever it was, it was not in the classroom. Her eyes were on the glimpse of the hallway visible through the not-quite-closed sliding door.

There was something there.

A slender hand beckoned at them through that gap in the door.

It eerily drew the attention of whoever that looked at it.

“Wait, Imi!?”

Imi started to stagger toward the classroom door with her underwear and soft skin still not fully covered. This was strange. Something was not right. Marika and Tayori grabbed at her shoulders to stop her, but they were dragged out of the classroom too.

Immediately, their eyes met those of a naked girl.

The younger girl’s long blue hair fluttered behind her despite the lack of wind. Her skin was so bright it was almost painful to look at, but something really was not right about this. The Threat had occupied this ship and Marika’s group should have been the only three who had snuck onboard.

Then whatever this was, it should not be categorized as human.

It may have been a lure like an anglerfish’s luminescent organ. In fact, the blue-haired girl lacked feet, just like a ghost. Instead of ankles, her legs extended down and attached to the hallway floor.

The thing that looked like a blue-haired girl never stopped smiling.

They did not have time to regret it.

(Oh, no.)

The camouflage was removed from the walls, floor, and ceiling and sea anemone tentacles blossomed out in all directions. The many tentacles rushed in toward the prey that had been lured into the center of its territory.