Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume5 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 8===

“Hello, hello! Welcome to the global broadcast!! This is Delane!! It’s time for Gold Medalist, the super popular show where I have intense interviews with all those winners in life! Man, wouldn’t it be great if it was me, Cinderella Queen, being interviewed on this show one day!? Anyway, this here is today’s guest. Say it with me everyone: Peeendet Denpasarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!”

Things on TV were as lively as ever.

Two familiar faces were currently displayed on screen. One was Cinderella Queen, the edgy(?) child star who had done commentary for the Catastrophe. The other was a girl of 16 or 17 seated on the one-person sofa across from the younger girl. She had gorgeous blonde ringlets that clashed with her outfit of a tank top and baggy dance pants. She wore thick basketball shoes on her feet. That was Pendet Denpasar, Karuta’s opponent in the final match of the Catastrophe tournament.

That made her the current #2 in the world.

In other words, she was the next bullet to be loaded as the world’s strongest.

Curly twintailed Marika actually laughed bitterly while lying on the student council room sofa.

“An interview, huh? I bet she’s confused. Ah ha ha. Look at those tears in her eyes. She’s like a scared little mouse. She couldn’t look more uncomfortable on that little sofa☆ God, she’d have looked a lot cuter heading out to the tournament looking like that.”

“She can’t help it. She has no idea why she’s suddenly getting all this attention. She’s probably realized someone has set this up, but as disturbing as it is, she doesn’t know how to fix it. Just like it was for us,” said Karuta, restlessly spinning the modified military flashlight in his hand.

The human string pullers were serious.

They were setting up the next world’s strongest before these four had even chosen death. This TV show was meant to build up Pendet’s image.

Omotesandou Kyouka, the master of this student council room, sighed softly.

Karuta didn’t even need to move behind her large desk and check the computer screen. The adults were clearly delaying their responses to the emails she had sent out. They never would have done that with a world’s strongest before. Everything from Karuta’s group was probably being drowned out by all the requests and reports sent by the many adults.

The center of the world was already shifting.

Karuta’s group was the soon-to-be-abandoned kings, just like the Problem Solvers had been.

Anastasia’s group had seen the writing on the wall, fought against it, and become monsters.

Not even the human string pullers had been able to control that, which was why the human population had fallen to 5.5 billion.

“Thinking back, the Problem Solvers managed to hold onto their position as world’s strongest for nearly a decade.”

“That’s a record. And by a lot,” said Omotesandou Kyouka. She must have seen the actual records and numbers. “Before them, a strongest would last an average of 3 years before being replaced. No strongest was ever meant to last longer than that.”

“And then there’s us.”

“The Problem Solvers died before they could fulfill their role, so we’re being used up right away to pay back their debt.”

The Problem Solvers had attacked the first ship because they had thought they wouldn’t be disposed of if there was no next candidate. Stooping that low to cling to life may have shown a sort of talent. At the very least, Karuta knew he couldn’t do it.

The next strongest would be Pendet Denpasar. How could he kill her and wipe out the magic system at the source of her power for no reason but that?”

“Sacri-sama.”

“Yeah…”

Aine was standing in the corner like a potted plant and she was likely reminding him of the time. Chrisbart Firenze of the human string pullers had demanded a response at precisely midnight.

They only had three hours left.

“Marika. Omotesandou-san too. I’m stepping out for a bit.”

“''Feel free to just not come back,''” said Marika, lying on the sofa and watching TV.

Her tone was light, but it didn’t sound like a joke.

She didn’t even look his way as she continued.

“''That might be one way of saving yourself, right?'' We know the 300 million Threats are interested in the world’s strongest humans, so they’ll chase after us if we’re ejected into space. That much is certain. But ''it may not have to be all four of us.'' Karuta and Aine-chan could make a romantic getaway.”

Karuta waved a hand dismissively as he stepped out into the dark hallway.

On the inside, he was mildly surprised to find that was Amaashi Marika’s theory.

The crystal girl silently followed him like always. Even on this final night.

“Sacri-sama, I will obey whatever decision you make.”

“Yeah.”

“With that in mind, couldn’t you give that option to Miss Marika or Miss Kyouka?”

Karuta laughed quietly at that.

Aine expressionlessly tilted her head while matching his speed to walk alongside him.

“What was so funny?”

“Nothing really. I was just noticing how much we’ve grown.”

If this had happened a few months ago, he felt like they might have fought each other to determine who got to live. But here they were trying to push survival onto each other. Even Crystal Girl Aine, the least human of them, was doing it.

Karuta considered that kind result.

“''We can’t do that.''”

“Why not?”

“300 million Threats are after the Four Living Gods. If even one of us remains on Earth, the Threat swarm might ignore the group in space and crash down to the surface. That invalidates the choices both groups made.”

Marika probably wasn’t seriously suggesting it.

In fact, if that out-of-control childhood friend was seriously considering something, she wouldn’t suggest it out loud like that. She would increase the odds of success as much as possible by saying nothing, forcibly restraining Karuta and Aine, and preventing them from doing anything else. This was the girl who would burn away her childhood friend’s limb and cover the wound with molten metal to prevent the regeneration.

Karuta’s mild surprise wasn’t with Marika’s idea itself. He was surprised that extremely emotional but harshly realistic girl would indulge in an empty fantasy she knew wasn’t a real possibility.

Death was frightening.

Maybe you couldn’t avoid it, but you still wanted something to save you psychologically.

It wasn’t a surprising turn of events. But he felt like he was getting a glimpse of the vulnerability she had always worked so hard to keep hidden.

What about Omotesandou Kyouka?

Her behavior didn’t seem as obviously out of the ordinary as Marika’s.

“Then again, continuing to check her work emails at this point is unusual.”

“Sacri-sama?”

Tomorrow would never arrive for them, so there was no point in checking on her work.

Supposedly, anyway.

At this point, they should have been writing their wills and purifying their bodies. Or if they were going to die anyway, they could try drinking or smoking just once before the end. But Kyouka’s behavior seemed ''too ordinary''. She may have been preserving her usual routine because she wanted to believe it wasn’t too late.

Anyone would be scared given the circumstances.

And an extreme fear of death was like a giant mirror reflecting your true nature back at you. Utagai Karuta walking through the halls like this was part of that too. He was descending to the bottom level of the central hull that linked Second Grimnoah’s three hull shape together.

The crystal statues that had once been the teachers and students of the first ship were gathered here.

He checked the numbers to locate the correct door and opened it. he slowly pulled out the sliding bed within.

No change.

If it was only going to end like this, maybe it would have been easier to die sooner.

“Hi, Gekiha,” said Utagai Karuta.

No one was listening and there was no response. The greeting was entirely meaningless, but Aine didn’t say anything while standing alongside him. She did not even tilt her expressionless head.

“It turns out humanity can’t defeat the Threat. It’s not about trying harder or anything like that. It was set up that way from the start. Ha ha. Makes me wonder why we even bothered taking revenge on the Problem Solvers. It was going to happen sooner or later. Even if no one had stopped us and we had all graduated from the first ship, we would have been killed as the new world’s strongests anyway. Funny, right?”

He was surrounded by silence.

He looked down at his former friend and spoke all on his own.

“But we’re still going to protect the world.”

Protect.

Perhaps it was arrogant to use that word here.

He already knew that not all the Threat were bad. They had already slaughtered the Armored Warrior and the tadpole Threats who had only wanted to try out studying at a human school. Was he trying to imply the Threat had no reason to kill them?

But he was still afraid to die, so if someone was threatening his life, he would view them as evil no matter the circumstances.

They had done the same thing themselves. They had so strongly denounced the Problem Solvers when they were
only acting out of fear as well, so he had set up a double standard for himself.

Was that the ugly and vivid truth of human nature?

After a self-deprecating smile, he went ahead and said it anyway.

“You’re supposed to wake up after about 7000 years, right? I’ll make sure there isn’t a Threat to be seen when you open your eyes. I hope you can accept that as a compromise, Gekiha.”

That ugly nature was something the world had acquired after they had taken revenge and become the Four Living Gods.

Kazamuki Gekiha had died before all that, so he hoped he would be purer than that.

“Sacri-sama.”

“…I know.”

Karuta gave a small nod when Aine called out to him.

They still had some time until midnight.

But…

“We need to act soon to avoid any further trouble. ''If we wait until midnight, we might run into Deiri, Natalena, and the others.''”

Second Grimnoah was a fortress built to make efficient use of the Four Living Gods. Of course they would be aware of everything going on there. They knew all about the meeting Natalena, Letnahe, and so many others were holding in the gym.

And not even the Four Living Gods were confident they could win in a group battle against more than 1000 teachers and students who could use Crystal Magic.

He appreciated the thought.

But he couldn’t have them interfering at this point.

More than 300 million Threats could start pouring down on Earth at any moment. The human string pullers had given a concrete time limit. A single day of hesitation could mean the beginning of an unstoppable invasion of the entire planet and the 5.5 billion people who lived there. And there was no turning back time. Once that happened, it was too late for Karuta’s group to feel regrets.

The Four Living Gods could not survive whether they remained on Earth or were launched into space. That much was certain.

So which was the better choice?

The answer couldn’t have been more obvious.

If they succumbed to that pleasant kindness, they wouldn’t just lose their lives – they would lose everything.

“…”

Utagai Karuta returned his friend to the storage container, shut the door, and walked to the exit. He looked back from the door and quietly bowed. After spending more than 10 seconds like that, he raised his head and slowly walked up the stairs. Aine silently followed him.

“Aine.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama?”

“Sorry for getting you involved in a fight we never could win.”

“I am not sure what you mean.”

They climbed step after step after step.

Once out on the side deck, they found the childhood friend and president waiting.

Those two smiled bitterly.

“I thought I told you to run away.”

“You could’ve run away too, Marika.”

Everyone else would still be fiercely debating what to do in the gym. They were taking this very seriously in order to save the four gathered here. That made Karuta so happy he was afraid he might start crying, but he knew he could not rely on that.

“Karuta-kun, did you not write a will?”

“I decided not to. I’d be embarrassed if I left something behind and people started deifying me.”

“You could have at least written something for your family.”

“You’ve seen how many old authors and Bakumatsu period samurai have their private letters – even love letters – shown off in museums. Besides, anything I wrote would end up being nothing but complaining. I don’t want everyone seeing that.”

“Kee hee hee. But did you use a special tool to wipe your secret hard drive? What about your online storage and browser history? Deleting it the normal way isn’t good enough.”

“Bff!?”

His childhood friend’s teasing laughter made him do a spit take.

Was that really something for a girl to bring up?

The president elegantly placed a hand on her cheek.

“My, my, Karuta-kun. Hee hee. You should have come to your intellectual upperclassman who knows all about computers. Don’t worry. I will permanently delete it all without peeking☆”

“I know better than to trust that smile, you schemer. Plus, that’s more embarrassing than asking for a baby bottle, so no one would ever take you up on that offer!”

The crystal girl didn’t seem to understand (which Karuta’s idealistic view of girls told him was how it should be), so she expressionlessly tilted her head.

“Sacri-sama?”

“It’s nothing. I can handle this myself, so you don’t need to worry about it!”

Marika cackled and held her sides. It was possible those two had planned this to break through the gloomy mood.

But the time had come regardless. They were reluctant to leave, but they also didn’t want to wait too long and have their friends gather around.

“So are you ready?”

“Yes.”

Two of them could not use the flight preset, so Aine picked up Karuta and Marika picked up Kyouka, wheelchair and all. Then the Four Living Gods jumped over the railing.

They flew toward the dark silhouette of the space elevator stretching up toward heaven.

This was the first step on their journey into death.