Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume1 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 11===

Pain exploded from his body like he had been sprayed with boiling water.

“Ah, ahhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

He could tell his body was covered with distorted crystals.

His weak barrier was no use at all. He rolled and writhed on the roof. He forced himself to think of the pain as a good thing since it meant he was still alive. This pain was caused by vaporized Yukino Arakawa. He had been burned by the steam that had been her flesh.

More than half his body was covered by pointy crystals.

He was hit by the stench of human flesh being cooked.

Yukino’s last form of resistance clung to him with a feeling like melted cheese. He desperately tried to tear it away, but his dominant hand’s elbow and shoulder would not move. They were completely locked by the crystals.

He could only wait until the preset effect had healed his full-body burns. An intense feeling of disgust caused the core of his body to stir like an active volcano, but forcing himself to move during the healing process would be like opening a chrysalis or cocoon from the outside. If he carelessly ruptured it, he might never return to normal again.

He moved just his left arm as much as he could to wipe off his face and body and rid himself of the source of the pain.

It felt like being bitten by the corpse of the person he thought he had killed.

After thirty seconds, the crystals that provided him new skin fell away.

“Pant, pant, gasp.”

He rolled over, tried to catch his breath, and rubbed his eyes.

It happened again.

They had died again. They had disappeared before his eyes. Yukino had chosen death herself instead of one of his partners dirtying their hands, but the death still stung in his heart.

At any rate, this was two down.

The danger of the light spear was gone too. The people of London no longer had to suffer and the city would not be wiped off the map to cover up the evidence.

“Hey.”

A girl’s voice reached his ears while he thought about all that.

It belonged to Marika, his childhood friend with the curly twintails dyed strawberry blonde. She had activated her Crystal Blossom unit and descended onto the rooftop from the night sky.

“Were you trying to save her like last time?” she continued.

“…”

“Your decision to act as a diversion had nothing to do with revenge either. You were throwing away your own life to ‘go the other way’ and save the rioters who got caught in this mess, weren’t you?”

He gasped and looked up.

There were tears in Marika’s eyes as she bit her lip.

“No fair.”

She threw aside her crystal rapier and gently got down on her knees.

She lay down on top of the boy while he lay collapsed on his back and she pressed her small face against his chest.

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“No fair!! We said we were going to fight together to protect everyone, we said we were going to take revenge on the Problem Solvers for that, and we gathered everything we needed to do it! So why do you keep going back and forth on this? We thought for ourselves and figured out a way to hunt down the Problem Solvers, so why do you keep giving yourself an out as insurance? Don’t leave us behind like that… Don’t leave us behind here!!”

“Sorry.”

Still lying face up, he wrapped his arms around her back, held her close, and rubbed her head.

“I’m sorry, Marika.”

“You won’t leave me behind again? You won’t leave me all alone in this dark world?”

“No.”

He slowly inhaled and exhaled before continuing.

“I’ll join you in hell.”