Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume2 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 2===

Being known as the world’s strongest was fine and all, but what kind of world’s strongest did you want to be? That had to be where Utagai Karuta and Amaashi Marika’s opinions differed.

When someone was about to face tragedy, one of them wanted to reach out a helping hand before they fell.

When someone near and dear to them was in danger, one of them was willing to destroy everything else in the world to protect them.

They were both strong and just, but they were both selfish and willful.

That was what made them the strongest.

And they had a power great enough to push all else aside and stay true to their personal beliefs.

“Ohhhhhh!!!!!!”

“Ohhhhhh!!!!!!”

The two high schoolers roared at almost the same time.

That was enough for Natalena Blast to stare, forgetting that her own life was at risk here.

This was on an entirely different level.

She used her own Crystal Magic correctly since she had absorbed everything the teacher’s told her, even if only as a way of making sure no one suspected her true motives. But correct was all it was. She only had the skills necessary to score well on the tests, which was something else entirely from what was needed to overwhelm an opponent in actual combat.

Karuta and Marika’s battle was from another world altogether.

Their powers had been honed for the sole purpose of killing, so as inappropriate as it might be, their clash was more beautiful than anything. Just as newly-developed weapons were given an aesthetic beauty in addition to simple functionality and durability, since they had to represent the nation that used them.

That was what it meant to be the strongest.

Just like the largest warship and the fastest stealth fighter gave off an aura all their own, people gained various accolades as they rose to those heights.

Or perhaps being the strongest gave you the power to distort the world around you to accept what you were as beautiful. That was the greatest attraction found only in the world’s strongest. It was a devilish charm that could only be obtained by being #1. They both used Crystal Magic, but there was something fundamentally different between Natalena and Karuta.

That crown was once worn by Anastasia Blast, but it had been stolen by Utagai Karuta.

And.

“…!!”

There were two things that Karuta had to stop.

The first was Amaashi Marika’s flight. He could not fly, so he wanted to avoid being unilaterally bombed from above. The second was the powerful laser sniping with her rapier-like unit. It attacked at the speed of light, so it was nearly impossible for Aine’s sword to block it. Marika’s target was Natalena, so she would not be aiming that at Karuta or Aine. If a laser slipped between the two of them and put a hole between Natalena’s eyes, Karuta would lose.

So…

“I rush her!!”

He swallowed his fear and clenched his teeth while forcing himself toward the girl.

He was willing to use his Preset regeneration. He would move in and lock weapons with her even if it meant a severed arm. That was his only way of keeping her from acting freely.

Marika smiled while readying her rapier.

It was a belligerent smile.

They had known each other a long time and had overcome deadly battles together, so they knew each other’s smallest tendencies.

“Heh.”

“Hm? Sacri-sama!!”

Aine’s voice sounded distorted even though she was right next to him.

Of course it did.

It felt like an explosion, but it was not.

He had attacked with his modified military flashlight and Aine with her sword, but Marika caught those things on her rapier and mercilessly activated the translucent armor that enhanced her strength. That led to a great eruption. Aine flipped sideways in a tailspin to let the vector safely escape her, but Karuta could not do the same and he was launched straight upwards. The pain was so great he thought his arms were going to pull out of his shoulders as he flew 100m up. His ears throbbed painfully from the rapid pressure change.

“!!!???”

“Y’know.”

A voice whispered in his ear. After launching him, Amaashi Marika had used the full strength of her armor to easily leap up higher even than him.

“You’re really ''weak'' for a Crystal Magician.”

“Mari-!!”

He shouted her name on reflex yet still adjusted his grip on the flashlight, but he immediately realized that was a mistake. Only he cared about settling things with her. His childhood friend’s top priority target was not him.

In other words, she was going to bomb Natalena Blast who stood in a daze back on the ground.

He immediately revised his plan and shouted into the Crystal Blossom on his chest.

His own safety was of secondary importance.

“Aine!! Watch out for a laser bombing!! Us the snow below your feet!!”

Light flashed.

The lag was less than a second, but Aine was faster. She used the jitte-like laser bayonet on the back of her sword to perform a horizontal sweep across the artificial land. The point was to evaporate the thick layer of snow on top.

White steam erupted upwards and that makeshift smokescreen hid Aine and Natalena from view.

Marika’s rapier fired a powerful laser beam down, but…

“The bombing has been diverted. Shall we play dead?”

“Don’t ask that when she’s close enough to overhear, you moron!!”

Yes, a laser was incredibly hard to dodge since it flew at the speed of light, but it did have its weaknesses. It would be weakened by any impurities in the air, like sand or moisture, and it could be bent or diverted by the temperature differences and other factors that caused mirages.

But if Marika continued to fire, she would eventually score a clean hit.

She was in the sky and that was the first thing that had to be changed.

“I’m stronger than you, so did you really think you could win? When you have no wings or engine to use?”

“Kh!! Aine, take care of this!!”

With an explosive sound, Marika began a roundhouse kick motion, but Karuta was hit from below. The ocean of white steam was instantly blown away, revealing countless destroyed Threats on the surface. Aine had stuck her hand in the destroyed armor of a black scorpion one and launched the anti-air explosion created from the combination of a pellet and laser.

She had reduced the power a lot, but the blast still hit him hard, causing him to bounce unnaturally up in defiance of gravity.

The upward movement let him dodge the girl’s roundhouse kick and he also spun his body around like a figure skater. He of course still held the flashlight in his hand.

He had no wings or engine.

But he still accurately targeted that aerial queen’s temple with the blunt weapon in his hand.

“You’re mine!!”

“''Should I have given you a free hit''?”

Her voice was already distorting.

He had no idea what had happened. All of a sudden, defenseless Marika’s body dissolved into flowing lines and a heavy blow stabbed into his spine from an impossible blind spot.

That was probably the rapier’s pommel.

“Even if you had hit, the Barrier’s spatial vibration field would have kept any damage from reaching me.”

“Kh, ahh!?”

Crystal Magic flight was not reliant on lift. How was he supposed to keep up with that? His breath was knocked from his lungs and his mind flashed in and out, preventing him from keeping his balance. He entered a wild tailspin high up in the sky.

“O-one…more!!”

He worked his oxygen-deprived lungs to let out a shout like he was coughing up blood.

Another explosion erupted on the surface.

He fell from a height of 100m, but he bounced in midair like an invisible cushion had caught him. That converted the potential energy to the equivalent of falling about 20m.

Still, 20m was the same as falling from the 5th or 6th floor of a building. After his unnatural bounce, he flew along a curving path Marika had not expected before plummeting down toward the ground.

The white ground spread out before his eyes.

But this was ice, not snow. He was above the frozen sea.

(I just have to avoid hitting with my head!!)

He had no control over his flight, but he swung his left arm just before impact to intentionally unbalance himself. Instead of falling on his head, he crashed into the ice with his shoulder.

He broke through the 80cm layer of ice and into the ocean below.

He thought his entire body was going to break apart.

His shoulder was entirely crushed and he could tell the thick bone had ended up deep inside his torso.

The pain was so great he actually could not pass out.

A fall from 20m created enough force to break right through ice thick enough for a 300kg polar bear to walk around on. A normal person would have died if they were submerged with a wound that bad.

But Utagai Karuta was not normal.

No matter how gruesome the wound, Crystal Magic would regenerate it in 30 seconds as long as it was not fatal.

Marika must have realized that.

Several lines of light broke through the ice above to attack.

“…!!”

He held his breath to continue hiding below the thick ice. The laser sniping had poor aim, most likely due to the oceanwater between them. It was the same as experiments run by passing light through a tank of water, and this water had waves.

He was submerged in the frigid ocean with his clothes still on. And even if he was righthanded, nearly his entire left half was covered in distorted crystal. It was much like the lesson he had given the kids back at Grimnoah. He had to focus on balancing himself to avoid spinning in the water.

Also, escaping to the surface would not help with an 80cm roof overhead. Crystal Magic regeneration could heal most any wound, but it could not provide him with oxygen.

He needed to figure something out himself.

Fortunately, this was not enough to interfere with the transmission from his Crystal Blossom.

He heard a cracking sound as the crystal covering half his body broke away, meaning he could move his arm again. That was convenient, but it also meant he had spent 30s in this frigid water. He barely had any air left in his mouth.

(I’ve been stuck relying on Aine this whole time!)

Marika wore her translucent armor, so he did not need to feel bad for making use of his own equipment, but he still clenched his teeth. He needed to open his mouth to speak, so he could not afford to fail here. He took action by releasing his remaining oxygen into the sea.

“Aine! Begin anti-air fire on Marika. Use metal shells this time!! 20-30mm autocannon class ones. You need quantity, not detailed calculations!!”

“That will have no effect on her.”

“I don’t want it to. Your nonlethal mode is still in effect. Now fire!!”

He heard muffled explosions through the water.

An ordinary assault rifle would be stopped by the spatial vibration field, but this had to be more than that. When Marika deflected them with her rapier or something, they would crash down into the thick ice, cracking and breaking it.

Shells poured down on the ocean.

(With just the one hole, she could aim there and fire once I surfaced, but with cracks everywhere, she won’t know where to expect me!!)

“Bwah!!”

His head burst above the water and he took in a lungful of oxygen.

But he did not feel much in the way of relief.

The moment he touched the open air, his hair and eyelashes rapidly froze. It could be easy to forget while underwater, but this was an icy hell of -15 degrees.

“…!!!???”

Was it Student Council President Kyouka who had said he could lose an ear?

He would not last long.

This needed to be a short battle. He moved his trembling fingers to grab at the jagged edge of the white ice floating in the ocean. It was only 50-60cm up from the ocean surface, but if the different pieces of ice happened to pinch together while they rocked in the waves, he would be crushed.

It was a risky climb.

And once he crawled back up onto the icy land, he found his childhood friend smiling and crouched on the edge.

“Checkmate☆”

“Goddammit!”

One of her icy hands grabbed at his throat and she stood up, as if stretching out her folded-up legs. He was dangling from her grip like a bluefin tuna on the fishing rod. He clutched at the hand on his neck and kicked at her thighs to knock her off balance, but she would not budge.

“Like I said: you’re weak.”

He had no way of arguing with that. She did not even need to strangle him or apply just a bit of force to snap his neck. If she kept things like this, he would freeze to death in the icy wind after just a few minutes.

“If you could send Aine-chan in on her own, you would be stronger than anyone. But since your command range is limited and you have to be on the battlefield with her, you have no defense if the enemy focuses on you. Especially when Aine-chan can only do what she’s ordered to do. It scares me to think what she would be like if she had those specs and could act autonomously with a mind like the President’s.”

“Kh, ah!!”

“You’re unique as a Crystal Magician, but ''special doesn’t necessarily mean better.'' Straying from the standard path is an inherently risky choice.”

He heard something like cracking plastic.

His purple blazer uniform was freezing, starting from the outermost edges. At this rate, it would freeze to his skin and he would develop severe frostbite.

But then…

“Please.”

He heard another voice.

His vision darkened with despair.

The person standing there should not have been there. Natalena Blast was trembling and had tears in her eyes. Where had Aine gone? What could Natalena do against Marika with just her crystal armor and Anubis’s scales of judgment to work with?

“Please stop this!!”

The air roared as it was torn apart, but this was not Natalena’s doing.

Well before her ski-like scales could split apart into crane arms and thin wires, Marika’s rapier accurately pierced her crystal weapon. The scream of shattering glass may have been the sound of the special vibration field breaking. Cracks also ran through her cold armor and it began to shatter, but Marika did not wait around. She broke and shattered every last one of the translucent weapons resembling spider legs.

She seemed to be doing it as an afterthought.

Natalena could grab solids, liquids, gasses, and plasma, but not even she could reach Marika’s level.

It seemed to demonstrate the divide between a strongest and just another part of the group.

Marika did not even glance in Natalena’s direction. She still held Karuta’s neck in her hand while she spun her rapier around in the other hand and made short work of Natalena’s weapons.

“Don’t worry.” She spoke coldly to this person who was not her childhood friend. “And make no mistake. I held your life in my hands from the beginning. Nothing you do here can influence whether or not you survive this.”

“Gggh, ahhhhhh!!”

She was desperate now.

Young Natalena was not stopped by her shattered armor. She charged right at Marika. She was struck by the rapier’s guard, pummeled by the bottom of the grip, and knocked to the snow over and over. The point was aimed her way and she was stabbed in the shoulder or side, but she still kept at it. Seeing it was enough to squeeze at Karuta’s heart.

Natalena Blast was battered and beaten, but she would not stop.

She clenched her teeth, suppressed the fear, and kept getting back to her feet. He felt certain she would have done the same even without the Crystal Magic regeneration.

But she was not doing any of it to protect herself.

“Let go!! Let go of Utagai Karuta! If you want to kill me, then just do it! He was already forgiven! My sister’s Anubis forgave him! We clenched our teeth and stopped the chain of violence. So what are you doing!? Call yourself the strongest or whatever else, but there’s no more reason to make anyone suffer! So why!?”

She had forgiven her enemy and given up on revenge.

In fact, she was even risking her life and shedding tears for the person she had so hated.

That was something Karuta’s group had never managed to do.

“Are you…”

She held his throat tight enough for him to suffocate or even to snap his neck, but when he got out a groaning voice, his focus was not on himself.

“Are you still going to kill Natalena? She isn’t like us. She has far more humanity left. What right do we have to judge her when we couldn’t stop ourselves from reaching the end!!”

“I will if necessary.”

That was all Marika said.

She did not waver in the slightest.

He could not allow her to veer off course like this. If she killed Natalena based on her own personal rules, it truly was ''over'' for her. It might be hypocritical after what they had done, but he had to teach her that no one here had the right to judge someone like that, no matter how much they had suffered.

(I…have to end this.)

Marika had descended from the air and he assumed that was to avoid any more largescale anti-air attacks using the remains of the decoy Threats.

But this was the last chance to fight back against her.

Because…

(If she takes flight again and buys time up there, I’m done for. There will be nothing I can do to protect Natalena, so I have to end it here!!)

“I can imagine you want to end this here, but how exactly do you plan to do that?” The girl who knew him better than anyone said something horrifying. “There is no end in a battle between Crystal Magicians. Blow off some limbs or tear into their side and they’ll just regenerate it all in less than 30 seconds. So the only way to end this is to provide a fatal blow. It’s the only way.”

“…”

“I win as long as I kill Natalena Blast, but what about you? I won’t stop no matter what you do, so are you willing to deliver a fatal blow to stop me?”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

He had been fundamentally mistaken here.

He knew this was psychological warfare meant to break his spirit, but he could not just ignore what she said.

Marika had a concrete win condition, but he did not.

He could not possibly kill his childhood friend, which was why he had ordered Aine to remain in nonlethal mode. He wanted to save Natalena, but he could not offer up someone else’s life instead. And Marika was endlessly coldhearted about this. She was willing to earn his hatred as long as she could protect him. She would even take herself hostage.

He was trapped.

He never had had a path to victory here.

“Let’s end this silly game,” spat out his childhood friend with a look colder than ice. She was no longer even looking at Natalena while the girl cried and grabbed at her. As if she did not even consider the girl a fellow human being. “Karuta, I kind of like how open to change you are, but that’s exactly why someone has to protect you or you could never survive in this world. We didn’t ask for this, but now that we’re at the top, we have to live here.”

He had to think.

He desperately worked his oxygen-deprived mind while she held him up by the neck.

He had to correct things from here. How could he turn this into a win? This battle would never end unless one or the other of them had received a fatal wound. How could he save both Marika and Natalena under those rules?

Revenge was a fruitless act.

For the avenger, for the target, and for everyone else.

What condition did he need to bring an end to that chain of violence!?

“Natalena Blast isn’t the world’s strongest, but anyone who isn’t has the right to challenge and defeat us,” said Marika. “So I will show no mercy here. No matter how powerless the challenger, I will destroy any and all who try to tear apart our world.”

How was that any different from what the Problem Solvers had done when they decided Crystal Magic was unnecessary and decided to nip it in the bud.

No matter what anyone said, Marika was his childhood friend.

He could not allow her to go down that path. And the strongest who was always with him had already told him how he could turn this around and win. His eyes were squarely on Amaashi Marika who sent a cold look back at him.

Why had she started talking at all?

If executing Natalena Blast was her top priority, she should have ignored him as he crawled half-dead from the ocean and she should have used that time to slice the 12-year-old girl to pieces. Even now, Natalena was thoughtlessly clinging to her in an explosion of emotion, so a single jab of her rapier would skewer the girl and give Marika what she wanted. So why?

The answer was obvious.

He just had to think back on what she had said. Something was missing there.

“Ai…ne.”

“Why drag this out when you know you won’t kill me? Delay too long out in this cold and you’ll freeze to death.”

Yes.

''That'' was why Marika was doing this.

Nothing she had said was a lie. But she had avoided mentioning her own Achilles’ heel. Killing Natalena was her win condition, but what was her lose condition? Failing to kill Natalena ''was not the answer.

To break Karuta’s spirit, she could not allow him to figure this out.

So he only had to shout at the crystal girl who could operate separate from him.

“Aine, cut right through my neck to cut off Marika’s arm!!”

There was a distorted breath, like someone’s throat had convulsed.

Bu it did not come from Karuta, who had given the order, or Aine, who had received it.

It did not even come from astonished Natalena who was desperately trying to stop the twintails girl.

There was only one person left.

Marika had the upper hand while lifting the boy up by his throat, but she had the look of someone who had just been run through with a sharp blade.

“You wouldn’t!!”

“I would, Marika. This was never about you hating Natalena Blast,” he roared with a grin.

Yes, she had used herself as a hostage and he had learned just how effective a tactic that could be.

“You want to ''eliminate'' anything that threatens ''those you care about''. That is what drives you! So without me, you lose any reason to kill Natalena. Marika, you’re smart, but trying to hide that lose condition only accentuated the fear behind it!!”

“You can’t do it.”

She was nearly laughing.

No, she had tried to laugh and failed. She could not suppress the emotion she wanted to hide behind the laughter. She had even forgotten about Natalena grabbing at her hips.

Yes, ''because this issue was far more important than her target.

“You can’t possibly do it!! Is this textbook righteousness? Or do you feel guilty about what you did to Anastasia? You only met Natalena a few days ago! It’s wrong to throw away your life for someone you barely know!!”

That childhood friend valued the length of a relationship above all else, so this had to be truly unbelievable for her.

However…

“If you really believe that, then why did you hide your lose condition?”

“Kh.”

“''You knew that old softy Utagai Karuta might do it''. That subconscious fear led you to hide that worst possibility. So that’s exactly what I’ll do. Listen, Marika. It isn’t just Natalena Blast I’m trying to protect. I want to protect you from this blood on your hands!! We hated the Problem Solvers so much we went around killing every last one of them, so we can’t afford to be led astray!! We have to bring happiness to the world we created. We stand at the top, so we have to get along with Natalena and the others who couldn’t stand at the top!! If we force people to go without happiness or trample on people’s happiness, then we aren’t any better than the Problem Solvers!!!!!!”

For that, he was willing to offer up his life. He did not care what happened to him.

He gathered his last ounce of strength to put on a smile with his neck still in her grasp. Marika’s smile had grown twisted as she tried to hide her fear, but his was a pure and kind smile.

“No, Senpai.”

Natalena was trembling and clinging to Marika’s hips for a different reason than before. She seemed to be staring at ''something'' that would pay them a silent visit in the near future.

“You can’t do that!! Amaashi-senpai, um, isn’t there anything you can do!?”

Something was indeed approaching from behind Marika.

His weapon approached with a crystal sword in hand.

“I win,” he said.

“No…”

“Cry and wail all you like, but don’t expect human emotion or standards to reach Aine. You yourself said all she can do is follow my orders and only I can call her off. So, Marika, ''the only way to cancel Aine’s execution command is to kill me.''”

“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!???”

The crystal armor, the Preset regeneration, and the rest of Marika’s magic would generally only protect her. Even the barrier was not perfect. If Aine attacked with all her might, Marika might be able to defeat her. But Karuta would die if the crystal girl got even one attack in before then.

He thought of her as a kind girl.

She could say and do some extreme things, but she generally only ever thought about others. He would protect her no matter what. She only looked so frightening because her blade was directed at him. She provided the greatest sense of comfort when she was using that to protect him.

This parched world could use a hero like that.

But if she was going to stay true to herself, he would not hesitate to do the same.

Just as she was the strongest in her own way, he could be the strongest in his own way.

His idea of the strongest was not to slaughter all else and stand tall in a giant pool of blood.

It was to stop all hopeless conflict no matter what toll it took on him.

“Marika.”

Would she do nothing and watch as Aine killed the boy, or would she kill Karuta to remove that execution command? Both options ended the same way. That ultimate sadist brought tears to the eyes of the kind girl who had been by his side as far back as he could remember. And that absolute scum said one last thing with a smile on his face.

“This is goodbye.”

There was nothing she could do.

Aine’s sword swung down at max speed and severed Marika’s arm at the wrist, translucent armor and all.

Yes.

The deadly blade mercilessly and silently passed right through Utagai Karuta’s neck.