Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume2 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 1===

“She registered as Jane Ignition, but her real name is Natalena Blast. Age: 12. Sex: Female. Nationality: American. As her family name suggests, she is Anastasia Blast’s younger sister. Even if there is a large gap between their ages.”

They had gathered in the Student Council Room of the giant ship’s high school.

There was no better place for Karuta and the rest of the world’s strongest to speak in private.

Omotesandou Kyouka was operating a computer while seated in her wheelchair. The computer and the room looked downgraded from before, but the devices here had top administrative access to all the data in the ship’s server. They had higher priority than the machines in the headmaster’s office which was mostly just for show (even though Karuta’s group had not wanted it that way). Karuta and Marika’s arrival meant the actual Student Council members had to leave, so they gave the two intruders quite a glare.

Natalena was asleep in the ship’s infirmary.

Sleeping with her limbs and torso strapped down with thick belts could not be comfortable, but she would not notice. Until they made a decision, they had confiscated her Crystal Blossom and put her on a light anesthetic to keep her asleep. Anesthetics were convenient, but they were also medical goods. A drug like that did have a lethal dose, side effects, lasting effects, and allergies to worry about and, just like any other medicine, there was no guarantee it would work.

But that was about the only way to restrain someone who could use magic.

“Why didn’t we notice this until now?”

“So many people ''claimed'' to be Anastasia’s relatives, friends, or acquaintances that it probably hid the presence of this sister. The social networks for socialites were especially bad. Makes me glad I wasn’t one of the Problem Solvers.”

Anastasia may have been fine with it since it hid her actual family which functioned as her Achilles heel. It was like creating an artificial forest to hide a single real tree.

The identity of the suspect had been found by comparing her facial and skeletal data to video records from around the world. Since that was enough to blow her cover, Natalena may have been planning to end it quick. She had not prepared herself a way out in her nearly suicidal pursuit of revenge.

Karuta frowned.

“Does that mean Anastasia was an American citizen too? We did hear she had a lot of influence in North America.”

They had hated that woman enough that they were willing to destroy the world if it meant defeating her. But thinking back, they had not even known what part of the world she was from. This peek at her ordinary life now came as a slight shock to Karuta.

''He could not hide this.

That was the honest answer he found for himself. And if he tried and failed to hide it, it would only make matters worse. He had to be honest here and then make the following suggestion: This girl may be here for revenge, but her inexperienced blade failed to take anyone’s life. This is over now, so we shouldn’t kill her.

He wanted their trust, so hiding things would work against him.

Was this really the right thing to do? He was of course worried about that, but now that he had chosen to do this, he had to stick with it as best he could. He could not stop once he started.

“…”

Amaashi Marika gave him a dangerous look while leaning against the wall with arms crossed. What he had seen during the previous incident told him all he needed to know about her stance. She made a strict division between enemy and ally. She would do anything to protect the people she had decided were on her side. That was obvious enough from the laser sniper shot she had used to kill Elicia after the defenseless woman had surrendered and maybe even could have been brought to their side.

If taking in a new ally would disturb the perfected harmony they already had, she was not interested in taking them in.

That was Marika’s stance.

She was reliable as a childhood friend. Karuta had known her for so long that he was unconditionally placed on the allies list. But this was different. If he could not convince her here, she would kill Natalena without mercy. Even while the girl was unconscious and unable to defend herself.

And if he just let it happen, it would happen again.

''The world’s strongest could get away with killing anyone who opposed them.

''Even a 12-year-old girl.

He could not let that become the standard. That would only lead them past the point of no return on the same path Anastasia’s group had taken. If they were not the strongest, they would be found guilty and thrown in prison, so they would have no choice but to cling to the title of strongest no matter what. The concept of strongest would bind them.

“Omotesandou-san.”

“Yes?”

“Does Natalena have any kind of combat experience?”

“Based on the records I have found, she has almost none, including training. She seems to have attended a local karate school for a while, but she quit after about 6 months. That sort of conflict may not have been her thing.”

“Then how did she manage to fake her name and identity?”

Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah was a crucial organization for combating the Threat which put the world in danger. Even with 1000 new personnel brought in, their backgrounds would all have been thoroughly checked.

There were a few options for slipping past that – rewriting the trackable electronic data, corrupting an examiner with a bribe or honey trap, and purchasing or stealing someone else’s personal information – but a 12-year-old girl who lived an ordinary life could not pull off those spy movie tricks on her own. For that matter, when had she learned about her Crystal Magic aptitude that gave her a chance at this revenge? That was not something she would have been tested for at middle school. And where had she learned about Anubis? If Anastasia had been hiding her true identity from her family, she never would have told them anything about her God Worshiping Magic.

None of it made sense.

Utagai Karuta spoke a frank conclusion.

“Someone else is pulling the strings. Probably from some safe place away from this ship.”

“I see.”

“They gave the necessary information to someone connected to Anastasia to remake them into an assassin. But did they really think an amateur like Natalena could kill the four of us? What if ''they were betting we would turn on each other over how to deal with Natalena after we defeated her?''”

He had no evidence for any of this.

In fact, he did not particularly care if he was wrong.

He was only interested in redirecting their focus (especially that of hyper-aggressive Marika) toward someone other than Natalena. A nameless and faceless string-puller was perfect for that. While they tried to pursue that shadowy figure who might not even exist, they would not think about attacking someone within arm’s reach.

“In that case, we should not kill Natalena. We need whatever information we can get on this string-puller. If we let them get away with this, we might find Elicia’s parents or Yukino’s worshipers attacking us next. Also, we don’t know for sure that Natalena was working alone here. If she has ''a team'' hidden on Grimnoah, we need to locate them and get rid of them. Right?”

“You have a point,” readily admitted Omotesandou Kyouka. However. “In that case, wouldn’t it be in our best interest to keep Natalena Blast tied up while we torture her or use a truth serum on her? Would she really tell us the truth if we played at police and interrogated her? We are combat experts, not investigative experts.”

“Kh.”

There were no positive or negative emotions in her voice. She sounded entirely dry and efficient.

First, he had to worry about them killing her.

Now he also had to worry about torture and truth serum.

This was insane, but even with more than 1000 students on Grimnoah and even with enough adult teachers to manage and teach them, no one was likely to oppose Marika or Kyouka if they made a decision. Not even that muscular gym(?) teacher named Kiyosawa Hadome.

Once the scales tilted in that direction, there would be no stopping it.

That was how powerful they were as individuals.

In fact, this second ship ''had been built for them''.

“I certainly take issue with how Marika-san jumps right to ‘kill her’, but I take issue with your stance as well, Karuta-kun. Why are you so intent on siding with Natalena Blast? Where did this empathy come from? Thinking back, you might find it was artificially injected into you by Natalena herself.”

She had a point.

Now that she mentioned it, he could see it.

He knew nothing about Natalena, but the way she had cowered down like a small animal and used lots of ums and uhs when speaking had clearly been a way of putting him off his guard. Deciding to protect her based on that would indeed be the height of folly. Or did he feel guilty because he had killed Anastasia? If so, why? They had been in the right to seek vengeance and they had been given no other choice. Protecting her sister as a form of atonement would deny the very foundation of what they had done.

He thought about it.

And he gave his honest response.

“I can’t do that again.”

“Do what?”

“Kill someone. We have no reason this time and killing people is supposed to be wrong by default! Last time, we had to kill them because the world was broken and that was the only way to fix it. But not this time!! Like it or not, we’re the strongest, so we should be able to use that position to show leniency and settle this without killing her. Instead of killing her because we have no reason not to, why can’t we not kill her because we have no reason to!? Isn’t that how the world is supposed to work!?”

“Then you do that, Karuta.”

Marika finally spoke.

As expected, she viewed things in very simple terms when it came to combat.

“''But I will kill her. That way you don’t have to dirty your hands.''”

“Th-that’s not-!!”

That was not what he meant. He wanted to protect everyone, including Marika and Kyouka, but if Marika refused, that was that. Her life was hers to live. Her thought process was simple and violent, but she was facing the crux of the issue.

If they did not all agree here, they would only do Natalena harm individually.

That was meaningless.

People only had one life, so if any of them played the “kill her” card on a whim, Natalena was dead. And that single mistake would drag all of them down. Just like it had with Anastasia’s group!!

“Ah ha ha. Looks like she outplayed you there, Karuta-kun.” Kyouka laughed innocently and winked. “Now, I think what you’re saying is right, but being right does not mean everyone will accept what you’re saying. If you fail to negotiate and you use simple emotion to force your view through, all you’ve done is reject our own feelings.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

“Well, we could draw lots to make sure it’s fair. Could you grab that notepad and red pen from the desk there?”

Omotesandou Kyouka tore off a blank sheet of paper, tore that into four quarters, and drew a red dot at the center of one piece. She tossed the four pieces into an empty box with a round hole on the top. The new Student Council probably used that when allotting jobs.

There was no way of calculating the right answer here. This suggestion looked hopeless at first glance, but then the boy realized what the Student Council President had done. She really was the adult in the room.

How many pieces of paper had she thrown in that box?

With enough for every member of the new world’s strongest, he had another option.

“Power up! Come on out, Aine!!”

“Yes, Sacri-sama.”

The pale-skinned crystal girl slipped out from Karuta’s stomach.

She awaited orders with a tilt of her expressionless head and her presence changed everything.

“We don’t both need to win. You take my side here!”

“If you say so.”

That response made it hard to believe someone’s life was on the line. She made it sound like he had decided they would be eating gyudon for lunch at the school cafeteria.

Marika was unsure how, but she guessed things were changing for her.

“Wait! You think you have better odds if you have Aine-chan drawing for you too, but there are no absolutes in matters of luck!”

“Then what are you so worried about? C’mon, everyone, let’s stick our hands in there. Ready, go!”

Yes, ''Karuta was guaranteed a win'' with this method.

“Ah!”

“…”

Marika gave a shout and Kyouka smiled in a conspiratorial way, but it was already over.

Karuta pulled his hand from the box first.

“There’s the red dot. I win. We will protect Natalena. Marika, no complaining, okay!?”

“~ ~ ~!!”

Red in the face, Marika spun fiercely toward Kyouka, but the Student Council President only shrugged.

“It sucks, but we can’t blame Karuta-kun in a game of chance, can we? We can only curse or own rotten luck.”

“You planned this from the start.”

“What ever are you talking about?”

That was the end of it. The door slammed open and shut with a sound like a bombing. Marika was so disgusted with them she had stormed out. But since she had agreed to the terms, she would not go and kill Natalena without telling them. If she did, Grimnoah would fall apart, starting from the four figures at its center – Karuta, Aine, Marika, and Kyouka. Since Marika’s focus was on ''protecting those on her side'' above all else, doing that would be counterproductive.

Karuta sighed while watching the door through which Marika had left.

“I’m amazed you came up with that on the spot.”

“Oh? I’m amazed you saw through it so quickly, Karuta-kun.”

All four of them had stuck their hands in the box at once.

But Karuta would win as long as either he or Aine drew the winning paper. So as long as Aine pushed Marika and Kyouka’s hands to the edge of the box, he could take his time feeling for the correct paper.

Kyouka had torn up a single piece of notebook paper and then drew a big red dot on it with pen. Only one of them had that, so he could recognize it by touch.

“Thank you so much, Omotesandou-san. I honestly couldn’t have done it without you.”

“To be clear, I wasn’t trying to be kind. ''Unlike Marika-san.'' I’m only helping you for the time being because we can’t get any information out of Natalena if we kill her now. As long as she remains alive, she can be tortured at any time. So if we can’t get enough information your way, I will suggest we make another choice. Between protecting her and torturing her.”

“…”

“And I will not help you like that next time. The rules are entirely different when you’re on your own. So, Karuta-kun, do you really think you can outdo me in a pure debate?”

“We both know I can’t.”

Kyouka was the master of trickery. If he had holed up in a room and thought for hours on end, he might have managed the same result, but she had won it in a split-second decision. Her idea had been excellent and she had proposed it at the best possible time, so Karuta and Marika both had let it happen without realizing anything had changed. If that cunning and that speed were turned against him, he would be cornered and torn to shreds before he could even think through his own position.

The schemer in the wheelchair laughed.

“Then give this everything you’ve got. I only care about getting results; the method used is irrelevant. If you can earn her trust and get the information out of her your way, then it is sure to provide a much brighter future for Natalena Blast.”

Of course, this did not mean Omotesandou Kyouka was fully and unconditionally taking his side.

“But if you fail, things will be different. Professional torture is not a pretty sight. The physical scars can be healed with magic, but the psychological ones are a different story.”