Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume1 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 5===

Utagai Karuta was curled up on a corner of the sidewalk with his back to the road.

The police were no longer here. They had probably withdrawn to the barricade. The sidewalk and road were both filled with men and women. It was like a flood of human flesh. They carried makeshift torches made by wrapping bandages or old rags around metal bats and lighting them and they shouted angrily as they smashed the windshields of cars parked on the road and of store windows that did not have their shutters down.

(Elicia managed the world’s garbage disposal facilities, so her defeat has apparently drastically reduced the price of first-generation resources like iron and aluminum that used to be as valuable as gold or platinum. So did they lose their jobs or something?)

That was Karuta’s analysis, but he was wrong.

This is what they were shouting:

“How are we supposed to get over our fear when we don’t know what the Threat even is!?”

“The government is only keeping it a secret to spread fear and confusion so they can increase the defense budget. You’re making a mockery of our tax money!!”

“Release the information! The real information!! We have a right to know!!”

Youths were setting fire to the piles of trash bags and entering the buildings through broken windows. Cash registers were thrown out onto the streets and boxy ATMs were dragged out and pried open with crowbars. Sweat, perfume, smoke, rotting garbage, and what was that? Many different smells mixed together and raw anger blotted out all else.

Karuta contacted Marika and Kyouka in annoyance.

“They claim to want information on the Threat, but I think they’re mostly here for the looting or to blow off some steam. ''Maybe'' a tenth of the people here seem to be protesting out of legitimate outrage. I bet a lot of people had their savings go down the drain after Elicia’s defeat. Omotesandou-san, was there no sign of this coming!?”

“In hindsight, there was. The Problem Solvers will never announce that one of them was defeated, not even to the ordinary police officers. Because it would damage their reputation as the strongest. I thought security was oddly strict, but I guess there were some suspicious activities besides our own.”

“There are a ton of people here too,” said Marika. “I’m just thankful they still haven’t reached the point of dragging people out and beating them up.”

“Marika, you’re a girl, so watch yourself among all those rioters.”

“Oh, you’re worried about me? …Kyah!?”

“Marika!”

“Just kidding. Ah ha ha!”

She was laughing innocently, but his heart had skipped a beat. He doubted any of these people would know they were responsible, but if they really had lost their savings due to the collapse in the iron and aluminum markets, then they might want to attack Karuta’s group for causing that. Sweat soaked his brow while his carefree curled twintails childhood friend whispered in a conspiratorial tone.

“But doesn’t this seem like the perfect opportunity? The rioters are taking out all the cameras with their bats and spray paint. With the usual surveillance network not working, we might be able to get close to the Palace of Westminster where that Problem Solver waits.”

“I doubt it will be that simple.”

Karuta was still concerned, so Marika argued her case.

“It would damage the G21’s reputation if they called off their international summit over some simple rioting, so they’ll stay there and so will the Problem Solvers guarding them. Yukino can’t escape right now. See, it’s the perfect opportunity.”

“…”

He too had considered it in a corner of his mind.

Could they take a shortcut while the police and the surveillance network were focused on the rioters? Or could they guide the rioters toward the Palace of Westminster? He was sick of this cheap idea of justice that was more of an excuse than anything. Almost everyone he knew had been crystallized and shattered before his eyes and his body seemed to burn with a desire for vengeance, so he found that kind of justice was more distasteful than wax food samples.

But could they really control it?

And what would happen if they could not?

“We have to do it,” said Student Council President Omotesandou Kyouka. “Our feelings about this are too strong to restrain just because we ran into some unexpected trouble, right?”

“Right.”

He slowly exhaled and stood up from his curled-up position. He was unsure if he should follow or fight the flow of rioters, but he decided to take a different route to the Palace of Westminster while the police were focused on those rioters. Of course, he was using them either way.

With that thought, he nonchalantly slipped off of the frenzied major road and into a small alleyway.

That was when it happened.

A light spear fell from the sky.

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

He had no idea what this meant.

It had hit on the next major road over, a mere 20m away from him.

It was more sudden than a lightning strike and brighter than a spotlight.

A cascade of people filled the sidewalks and street there and one section of them was mercilessly vaporized. Human bodies were instantly converted into a spray that splattered over the surrounding road, walls, and survivors, creating a living hell of intense heat and pain as if boiling water had been thrown around.

This attack had been powerful enough to split the school’s escort ships in two.

A diameter of ten meters was torn away and the twenty meters around that was covered in a scorching hell. The unbelievable heat melted the asphalt and the stone walls of the centuries-old buildings glowed red like an oven.

Screams erupted from all around.

The many garbage bags flew through the air like popping popcorn and the heat robbed them of their shape as bags before they hit the ground. Crushed candy boxes and toilet paper tubes burned as they spread out through the air. So many trailing light sources fell on the city like the burning arrows pouring down upon a besieged castle.

No one would have known what happened and would not have known where to run. It devolved into a panicked shoving match that caused a dominos-like chain reaction spreading out from the landing points.

“What…?”

Karuta dizzily pressed his back against the alley wall.

“What in the hell!?” he roared before his confused mind finally remembered how to feel pain.

His entire body was covered by an itching pain as if he were being pricked by thousands upon thousands of needles.

He looked down to see his clothing was unnaturally swelling out from within. He touched his face to find it felt oddly rough. Was that a problem with his cheeks or with his fingertips? Whatever the case, his entire body had been injured and the crystallization was healing him. This had broken right through his weakened preset barrier.

If something else hit him now, it was all over.

If his body parts were torn away along with the healing crystals, he would lose them forever.

He would lose any chance at recovering.

“Pant, pant!!”

He lost control of his breathing at the thought.

And during that hellishly-long 30 seconds, it happened again.

The night was swept away.

The attack lasted ten full seconds, but it was further away this time. He could take a more objective view of how strange that light and heat was. It was like viewing the sun stretched out like a sugar sculpture.

“I saw it too!” said Marika with a fair bit of panic in her voice. “Yukino is using her light spears on London!! All to silence the rioters!!”

“The rioters are bringing down their defenses and preventing her from locating her real targets: us,” said Kyouka. “She must intend to annihilate them along with us if they insist on getting in her way.”

The crystal fragments fell from Karuta’s body with a dry cracking sound.

His limbs and face were fine.

They were all healed up.

“But how…how can she get away with this? This is the site of the G21 summit, so there’s a ton of reporters around! Not to mention the normal people can take videos with their phones and upload them! Is Yukino Arakawa committing social suicide for this!?”

“She may be playing the villain.” He was not sure what the Student Council President meant by that. “And since the Problem Solvers regularly battle the Threat, they can just say London was annihilated in an attack by the Threat. They can claim to have done their best to rescue the people of London but ultimately failed to save everyone.”

“But…but that’s absurd…”

“She can get away with it. Remember that no one knows what the Threat is or any details about the God Worshiping Magic used by the Problem Solvers. People are only aware of the end result: cities and countries erased overnight. So in the worst case, can’t they just lie about who was firing those light spears?”

“…”

He was truly speechless.

What did this mean? Did it not matter at all to Yukino Arakawa if there were witnesses of her committing mass murder? Could she escape all responsibility by calmly saying the Threat did it, she had nothing to do with it, and it was a shame what happened to London? How convenient a world did those strongests live in!?

“Sacri-sama, this could be an opportunity.”

“?”

“Yukino attacking the rioters is proof that she does not know where we are. That means we can safely approach the Palace of Westminster and catch her off guard.”

“But!!”

“Nothing else we do can stop her from firing those light spears. If your goal is to reduce the total number of deaths, then I recommend taking the shortest route to defeating Yukino.”

Even now, the world was intermittently switching between night and day.

The heat would last anywhere from a few seconds to a few dozen seconds, so how many lives were being lost each time?

He clenched his teeth so hard he thought they would break.

But he could not come up with anything cleverer than Aine’s cold answer.

“Dammit!!”

He pressed his back against a wall near the alleyway entrance and scratched at his bangs with a hand. He started to turn away from the main road filled with screams of fear and anger.

But he stopped.

A lot of people had fallen in that pandemonium of light, heat, and shoving, so the survivors were desperately trying to remain in that category by crawling below or climbing over the others.

He saw someone there among the rioters who had been demanding information on the Threat be released.

A small girl was sitting on the ground with a handmade sign. She must have come here with a parent or older sibling.

Utagai Karuta had crossed those piles of shattered crystal statues. While the other students wearing the same uniform had fallen, he had pathetically crawled behind those statues to escape the dinosaur. This was not his first time doing this, so he should have been able to do it again no matter how painful it was.

Except he had seen the messy writing painted on that handmade sign: “Tell us what happened to my big brother and the others at Grimnoah!”

He slammed his forehead against the alleyway wall.

His barrier meant he felt almost no pain, but memories of the Ocean Crystal Magic Academy returned vividly to his mind.

He could taste the fish and chips he had made late at night in the kitchen with some help from an exchange student in order to learn if British food was as bad as they said.

He could not do it.

He had hit his limit.

“Aine. And Marika too. Change of plans.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama. What should I do?”

“You two take the shortest route to defeat Yukino Arakawa. Stop her from firing those light spears as soon as possible to keep the damage to a minimum.”

“I’ll do that, but what about you?” asked Marika.

“I…”

He pulled the modified military flashlight from his blazer pocket and took a deep breath.

“I will draw her attention. Yukino has completely snapped, but if she knows where her target is, she won’t have a reason to indiscriminately attack the rioters. If I keep her focused on me, fewer of the ordinary people will die, so I’ll approach her in as noticeable a way as I can manage!”

“Sacri-…”

“This isn’t a debate, Aine. Just do it!!”

That last command was not just directed at the others.

And there was one other thing he had to do before he got started.

“Hey!”

He shouted from the entrance of the alleyway and the girl’s shoulders jumped. He did not care if he scared her and he did not need her trust, so he simply told her what she needed to do.

“Get inside immediately! Any sturdy building will do!!”

It looked more like she was running from him in fear than heeding his warning. She made sure to take the sign with her as she frantically stood up and ran toward a shop made of stone and metal.

She would be safer there than in the open outdoors.

But their fate still counted on what Karuta himself would do next.

He would not let them be targeted. No matter what.

(Okay.)

He once more turned away from the main road and ran further into the back alley. However, he was not abandoning the people who had come here to protest. Quite the opposite. If he was going to draw the attacks toward himself, he needed to stay away from them. Getting them caught in the attack too would be meaningless.

Gathering Yukino Arakawa’s attention from a distance was easy.

She was using the city’s security network to search for her target’s location.

Which meant…

(I just have to start taking out every camera I come across!!)

He reached into one of the scattered garbage bags and pulled out a half-full drink bottle that’s contents had turned to sludge. Then he only had to splatter that across the lenses peering down at him. While he did that three or four times, he felt a great pressure bearing down on his stomach.

The oddity would be reported immediately and an area with the security down would likely be seen as dangerous.

Focus would shift from that horrific main road to this back alley.

(I’m just getting started!!)