Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume1 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 2===

It was 2PM in London.

However, the mysterious solar eclipse meant it was as dark as midnight.

“Hmph.”

“Now, I would like to get down to business.”

“You need to apologize first! Apologize for everything!!”

“What are you so upset about!? And what am I even apologizing for!? What did I do wrong in that situation!?”

Curly twintails Marika had been collapsed on the sofa bed for a while, but now she threw her hands in the air and shouted back at him.

“Ughh, ahhhh! You need to apologize for having such bad karma!!”

“This is getting awfully dark awfully fast! Besides, that Student Council President set me up!”

This may have been a lot like their noisy days back at the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy. Karuta himself sensed something nostalgic in this storm he was caught in.

But things had changed.

They now had a sexy eye of the storm.

“Oh, how could you, Karuta-kun? After everything we did while they were gone, you’re trying to place all the blame on the girl?”

“Hey, don’t blush and place your hands on your cheeks like that. Was a thermobaric weapon not enough for you?”

Karuta asked this of the Student Council President who was wearing the dress shirt she used as pajamas. Crystal Girl Aine was standing expressionlessly in a corner of the RV, but she was simply awaiting further orders. She must not have understood the danger here because she silently tilted her head.

Karuta got straight to the point as coldly as a bank teller just before closing time.

“Okay, okay, that’s enough of that! Let’s get back on topic!!”

“Hmph!”

“(Oh, dear. Yet she’s the one who sleeps in the nude. How hypocritical of her.)”

However, the Student Council President was mature enough to keep those personal thoughts to herself as she got down to business.

“Our top priority target this time is Yukino Arakawa.”

She used the projector to cover the wall with photos taken from news sites or online articles.

“Unlike Elicia and her dinosaur, this woman did not directly board the ship. That makes it hard to say anything for certain, but she is almost certainly the one who sank the escort ships with the light spears. I saw her giving instructions from the open cargo door of their tiltrotor craft and, while it is unconfirmed, she is well-known for ‘bringing an eclipse’ wherever she goes. So she is likely in London right now. Of course, we do not know what the Threat itself is, so who knows how reliable any of this information is,” added the wet-haired Student Council President. “Every member of the Problem Solvers is a monster, but Yukino’s light spear is one I want to get rid of as early as possible. Both because of how destructive it is and because of its wide range. We should assume she controls everything within the range of that unnatural eclipse. That means there is no real safe zone on the surface of the earth. If she knows where you are, you are dead. The longer this fight drags on, the more information on us will become available, so I want to take care of her before she can narrow things down too far.”

Take care of.

Get rid of.

In other words, they were going to kill her just like they did Elicia.

This was very different from their classes where they had planned to face the Threat but had no concrete image of what that would entail.

Karuta was having trouble deciding if he could call that “growth” or not.

“But what even is that light spear?” he asked as if to distract himself from that issue.

Curly twintails Marika waved a hand dismissively while still puffing out her cheeks.

“Who knows, but it looked like laser beams from the sky.”

“I doubt she is using bombers because the attack came from much higher. I imagine she has something in satellite orbit, but I cannot say much more than that.” The Student Council President placed a finger on her lips. “Still, we do know the Problem Solvers were in charge of defending that space elevator that was thought to be useless junk, so what if there is a connection there?”

“You mean it might be solar power generators or interception satellites?”

“I have heard some rumors,” began Omotesandou Kyouka with a sigh. “It was never completed, but there was something known as the Sunny Side Up Project. It was said to be history’s largest planetary expansion project.”

“A fried egg?” asked strawberry blonde Marika while frowning on the sofa bed.

“Only fried on one side if you want to get technical,” responded Crystal Girl Aine while still tilting her head.

Kyouka sighed softly before continuing.

“The identity of the Threat is unknown, but it is known it does not leave the atmosphere. This plan intended to bring the ordinary citizenry outside the atmosphere and transform the blue planet into nothing more than farmlands and a cage for the Threat. The base of the elevator is supposed to be quite sturdy, so the combat personnel and the maintenance team for the unmanned farms would have been stationed underground there. There were blueprints showing a network of station houses surrounding the planet in a sphere one size bigger, so it was apparently more about expanding the surface of the planet instead of traveling out into space. Hence why it was known as a planetary expansion project.”

“Ugh…”

When looking at a cross-section, was the earth seen as the yolk and the outer shell seen as the white?

If you were going to slice it apart, a boiled egg or Scotch egg seemed more accurate, but whoever named it had probably let their personal egg preference dictate the choice.

“Its primary material was supposed to be a solid foam that is harder and more heat-resistant than steel and can also swell out to fill a large space with only a small amount of the original material. The presentation said the living space and the farming zone would be kept entirely separate so human-made contaminants would not find their way back into nature…but it was a little over the top even for an endeavor meant to support 5.5 billion people. The earth’s rotation differs between latitudes, so it seems like their network would fall apart if they did not find some way to match their relative speeds.”

The earth was already surrounded.

Sunny Side Up played two roles.

First, it allowed environmental adjustments on a global scale. By efficiently increasing the amount of natural land, there would be more food for the human population “temporarily” living in satellite orbit.

“So the light spears use their immense heat to stir up the air and create winds and rainclouds.”

And second, it would eliminate the Threat lurking on the surface.

“And at the same time, they are a weapon meant to literally shoot down the Threat?” asked Karuta.

Kyouka nodded.

He looked awed but also exasperated by the large scale of it all.

“Even if one shot is not enough, they must have thought they could wear the Threat down by continually firing from outside the atmosphere. Or maybe it was only meant to distract the Threat if it got too close to the farmlands. It is unclear how permanently it was meant to ‘eliminate’ the Threat.”

But it was more than enough when used against human beings.

Karuta and the others had learned all too well how powerful it was when it sunk those escort ships one after another.

“Since it has not been demolished, I imagine it is benefiting the world through its production facilities and power generation. Even without a largescale microwave or laser power transmission system, that remnant of an older age may still be in use to transfer the power.”

“The space elevator.”

“If it can carry a payload to the ‘outer shell’ for less than 1% the cost of using a rocket or shuttle, then it could be used to transfer batteries the size of cargo containers back and forth. That could provide just enough of a reason to not demolish that elevator. Yukino’s strength in the global business world is said to be in Eurasia, but everything from Europe to China is a little much, don’t you think? She would need some kind of product that can cover half the planet.”

It was meant to be a warning for the Threat and to save the entire world.

But who was it that had converted it into no more than a rusty old tower?

Did the blame lie with Crystal Magicians like Karuta whose methods turned out to be cheaper?

“The eclipse might not be the result of some massive object appearing overhead. It could be the sky was already covered and the holes of the ‘net’ close up when Yukino prepares for combat.” The Student Council President tapped her wheelchair’s armrest with a finger. “Of course, chemistry and physics are not enough to explain a system like this. Like I said, the earth’s gravity and rotation would tear it apart if they do not match the relative speed of the entire network, but constantly using thrusters to preserve that would drain all the energy they had hoped to generate. That means God-Worshiping Magic must play a role. I believe Yukino’s specialty is the Celtic light god Lugh. He is a war god also known as ‘the god of the long arm’. Yes, that would be perfect for energy production and projectile attacks.”

If the connection between the space elevator and the Problem Solvers was closer than officially recognized, then they might not have been pleased with the Crystal Magicians who rejoiced at the elevator’s failure. (Mostly because Crystal Magic only worked on the surface, so moving onto that “outer shell” would be a problem for them.)

But more than that, the Problem Solvers used the God-Worshipping Magic of the previous era instead of Crystal Magic. Had the rise of Crystal Blossoms looked like a threat to them?

(No, there are too many unanswered questions about them.)

“Anyway, that was very bold of you, Karuta-kun,” began Kyouka with a sigh. “One of the Problem Solvers is gone. The world might not want to accept it, but the other four will know. And then you send them an anonymous message.”

She operated the projector to display the message in question.

Marika spoke up in a mixture of exasperation and awe.

“ ‘One of you is gone now, but I happen to know where you can find someone even stronger than Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg. I would like to meet you for an interview, so what would be a convenient date?’ ” Once the curly twintails girl finished reading it aloud, she put on a mischievous smile. “You could take that as letter of responsibility, you know? You are aware of Elicia’s death despite it being covered up, you say you know where to find someone even stronger, and then you say you want to meet them.”

“But they can’t ignore it, can they?” bluntly asked Karuta. “They know Elicia is dead, but they won’t know who did it. They won’t want someone like that to slip away and disappear. It doesn’t matter to them if the author of the letter is that person or not. They just want to crush anyone it might be. And they just have to keep it up until the problem has stopped.”

Crystal Girl Aine kept her head tilted throughout and she spoke while her silver hair shook.

“So they will rush in despite knowing it is a trap?”

“It may be more accurate to say we’re getting them to set up a trap and wait for us,” spat out Karuta. “The Problem Solvers are international society’s most prized possessions, so they have to be held in reserve. We are pursuing them as much as they are pursuing us. We can’t let them go into hiding. Our top priority is Yukino Arakawa. That is the bare minimum here. We have to take her out first, but then we need to take out as many other Problem Solvers as we can while we’re at it. After all, we know they’ve all been summoned to London for the G21 summit.”

They would take out the Problem Solvers.

He could say it so easily, but only because they had already done it once with Elicia “Saurus” Luxverg. He knew they could be defeated. Proving that did wonders on the psychological front.

And with that in mind, he ran right into the problem he had been trying not to think about.

Yes.

“Okay, then that’s our next target,” said Marika.

“Yukino Arakawa,” said Kyouka. “This sounds like a worthy challenge. I have no complaints about holding a fight to the death against her.”

Karuta could not immediately say the same.

A bitter feeling had been building up in his gut throughout the planning, but Aine spoke to him while standing in a corner of the RV.

“Do not worry, Sacri-sama.”

“About what?”

“No one will steal your kill this time. Let’s make sure we kill her ourselves.”

If she was not shaped like a cute girl, he might have punched her on reflex.