Editing Failing Witch:Volume1 Episode4 (section)

===6===

He always felt like he had been too successful.

It kept happening. He had been lifted up as a genius boy, but he had known that had earned him grudges from so many people. He should have only taken a one-man trip into space, but something must have gone wrong and he ended up here instead.

Was this Earth’s afterlife, or had he somehow been sent somewhere else altogether? Either way, he thought he might not have a place on Earth anymore since he was considered dead there. Someone was obviously hindering his attempts to return, but it was possible that was only someone taking pity on him after seeing him attempting the impossible.

He had no proof of any of it, but the possibility still made him tremble with fear.

But that fear was overpowered by his worry for the people he had left on Earth.

His mother. His sister.

The last thing he wanted to do was leave them hanging. Over and over, he had regretted leaving behind so many questions about his fate. If he had definitively died, they wouldn’t have hesitated to get a new start on life.

So he wanted to provide closure.

He wasn’t trying to return to Earth. Because there was ''something'' blocking the way between the two worlds. But he might be able to send a message. After all, Formula Brooms managed to sneak Earth knowledge past the goddess’s watchful eye and store it here. But what kind of message could he send? If he told them to stop waiting for him, wouldn’t that only make them more impatient for his return?

He never did find an answer there.

But if his current situation really was an abnormality, then couldn’t he break free of that halfway position by dying for real in this world? The end result would be no different from if he had died in that accident back at Earth. Then his family could start on a new life.

He pondered that idea.

He could see his life flashing before his eyes.

Meeting a glorious end while protecting his student seemed like a good use of this unnatural continuation of his life. The idea sorely tempted him.

He stood on the precipice of death.

He could sense it so clearly.

“But this isn’t over yet.”

“!?” “!?” “!?”

He rejected it.

He clenched his teeth and shook free of the deceptively sweet resignation.

If he evaded the attack with a sidestep, he would be putting his student at risk. Dedicating part of his willpower to defense magic would only hurt his chances.

He took the attack straight to the center of his back while covering for his student.

The high-pressure shot of poison felt as heavy as a bowling ball. The cracking of pressure damage came from his torso.

The sweet release of death rushed in.

But he still refused to take that easy way out.

Yagoro stood and faced the harsh reality once more.

He thought only of offense. He needed to eliminate the threat as soon as possible to save those future witches.

He knew he couldn’t return home and sending a message wouldn’t help. He was doomed to forever worry and trouble his loved ones.

But that was why he had to do this.

If he was going to repay those people for worrying about him, he had to find happiness in this world. He was only an empty shell or the dregs of his former self, but that girl seriously believed he could give her a future, so he couldn’t abandon his tutoring job before it was complete.

Which meant he couldn’t die yet.

He refused to die here.

“Lampans, pass the Voland my way.”

The witch trio weaved their midair courses together and then one of them shot out ahead.

The red waitress uniform meant the Voland was in Arbamini right now.

“Quit trying to act tough. You’re wearing some kind of armor below that sailor uniform, aren’t you?”

She was right. But armor made by combining parchment like a book wouldn’t even come close to protecting him here.

A line of red blood dripped from the corner of Yagoro’s mouth.

“But ''that’s all you have.'' You stopped the burns? Maybe, but it still hurt you. Macbeth’s witches can make all sorts of potions, so we have an intimate knowledge of how the human body works. You can’t even stay on your feet much longer, can you? …This next one will finish it. Because we’ll hit you with a rapid barrage.”

Yagoro smiled a little at the icy voice that contrasted the previous mockery.

Apparently Arbamini was finally taking this seriously.

Now, could he put the magic together quick enough? Viocia still had her broom. With that…

“Viocia…”

“Teacher?”

“Listen, you three weren’t wrong. ATU 0510a, Cinderella, was the right choice, so don’t beat yourself up over that. You just didn’t quite land on the right way to use it.”

He was a tutor, so he had to teach her this.

Drawing on all your knowledge and wielding magic to protect a friend had not been a failure or a mistake. It was a praiseworthy act that only a good witch was capable of.

The trio scoffed.

They had reduced themselves to ugly, despicable witches who could do nothing else.

“How stupid are you? You’re her tutor? If you’d only thrown out your silly feelings, you could’ve played dead and maybe survived this.”

“Right? Now, pass it here. I’ll finish them off, so could you give me the Voland?”

“Nope. It’s scarier for them if they don’t know who the finishing blow is coming from.”

Light blossomed wildly. It seemed at first like they had used invisibility magic, but they were only moving too fast to be seen by the naked eye. The trio soared and looped through the air. They spiraled around the pair like part of the Witch’s Sabbath dance. Both Dorothea and Melehe had failed to avoid that surefire dance.

What did he have to work with? What could he construct with it? The tutor boy knew the answers. So he forced his limp and bloody hand to move and grasp the baton that had fallen nearby. He planted his feet solidly on the floor littered with glass shards.

He couldn’t move anymore, so Viocia propped him up. He would protect that student no matter what might happen. He poured all his focus onto that situation.

He would not deny his desires. Myousou Yagoro moved his bloody lips to speak with his willpower behind the words.

“ATU 0510a, Cinderella…”

“Ah ha ha!! Weren’t you listening!? You can’t use the ball-ending bell anymore!!!”

A trio of distorted voices danced around him.

They surrounded him, weaved together, and then charged him at the same moment.

He could ignore all that.

“'''+1 point. We don’t need the ending bell. We need the (___)'''”

“?”

Viocia gulped in that moment.

The glass shards underfoot were so hot he could feel the heat through the soles of his shoes.

Yagoro twirled his baton and roared one last thing.

“I activate the (glass slipper)!! ''After the ball is over,'' the bullying stepmother and stepsisters tried to lie about their importance but had their selfishness revealed by that one item!!”

That was all. The illusionary power vanished, the trio lost control in midair, and they all crashed into the wall or the floor.