Editing Failing Witch:Volume1 Episode1 (section)

===2===

Green District, Block R.

Quite a few witches studied at Caraway Cs Preparatory School and it had a lot of practical lessons.

The boxy building stood 10 stories tall. It looked as generic as the nearby apartment buildings, but keep in mind that it was only “normal” by the standards of Temple School City, where everything was flashy. Much like a government building or courthouse in America, the front entrance was lined with several decorative columns. Not that anyone in this world would know what an American courthouse looks like.

“It’s weird how the letters in the prep school names change sometimes.”

“That’s because climate change changes the region and climate conditions where the herbs grow on Earth.”

Viocia tilted her head at Yagoro’s answer.

Viocia, Dorothea, and so many other girls gathered in a large garage-like space. That was Cauldron classroom. The layout brought back some old memories for Yagoro. Large work tables were lined up at even intervals to give each team plenty of space to work in. It was a lot like a workshop or cooking classroom. The witches formed teams of three where one created, one used, and one spoke. They would each handle one of the Three Aspects when using Cauldron classroom.

As a witch prep school, all the students were girls, so the atmosphere seemed somehow sweet. In fact…

“(Hey, Viocia. You’re sneaking snacks during class again, aren’tcha!?)”

“(I-I’m studying. I’m experimenting by testing new recipes.)”

Myousou Yagoro was not a student here.

He was only sneaking in to support Viocia’s studies. Since he was only 17, he didn’t stand out too much in the school.

“(I still think they’d get mad at you if they realized you were here, teacher.)”

“(I’m not the only one. There are tutors, fortune tellers, and other outsiders mixed in. While classes are fixed for the year in compulsory education, this is a prep school. I doubt anyone really knows everyone they’re sharing a classroom with.)”

That wasn’t the only reason, though.

There was one crucial difference between a prep school and a normal school.

“Okay, before your practical lesson, I need all of you to totally open up your Formula Brooms. I need you to remember this part. Long ago, men who used magic with their own power were called wizards and women who used magic by borrowing power from nature or others were called witches. Witch powers were, like, really powerful, but they were a real pain in the ass if the witch lost control. Those failures were blown way out of proportion and witches were totally seen as walking disasters at one time.”

Schanze Dwelling.

The instructor standing at the lectern and guiding the students through the interior maintenance work was a woman in her 20s.

“But things totally changed after all knowledge of this world’s magic was lost. That’s why all new magic is based on the knowledge, like, dragged out of another world called Earth. That means it can only be used by borrowing someone else’s power. In other words, the only magic that can for real be used anymore is the female witch magic. But remember – the risk of losing control is totally still there, so you need to be careful. Everyone takes Formula Brooms for granted, but they’re not just super convenient witchcraft devices.”

Her brown skin tone likely wasn’t its natural color. She had thoroughly tanned it all using Sunlight Seals, a type of talisman infused with the power of sunshine. Her long blonde hair was wrapped several times atop her head, giving it a lot of body. Her large chest was covered by a black vest and a leopard-print show-off bra, she wore a scrunchie on her wrist, and her hips were surrounded by a tight ultra-miniskirt. She also wore a necktie, fishnet stockings held up by a garter belt, and bright red stilettos. A blouse was not erroneously omitted from that description – she really wasn’t wearing one. That meant her smooth shoulders and oblong navel were uncovered and what should have been a teacher-like suit ended up making her look more like a casino dealer. Altogether, the gyaru-style instructor had Mont Blanc colors.

“(Ugh, I’ll totally do any job as long as it pays, but I’m a self-taught witch who never graduated from Maleficium, so what the hell am I doing teaching kids how to pass the entrance exam?)”

“We can hear you say that, you know?” whispered Myousou Yagoro.

Yes. Self-taught witches could still use magic even if they hadn’t gotten into Maleficium.

All they needed was a Formula Broom, whether it was bought at a store or inherited as a family heirloom. And once it was hers, she could take it apart and perform some level of maintenance and adjustments.

But Maleficium witches could go a step further and ''remodel'' their Formula Broom.

That was a taboo that went beyond simple maintenance, which only ensured it was safe to use, or even minor adjustments, which were used to optimize it and fully harness its original specs. By crossing that line and altering the core, they could draw out power well above the design specs and even change the element and nature of the broom. But the core was considered off limits for good reason. Opening it up created the risk of the broom losing all power.

Only the witches who passed the entrance exam could cross that line.

Would you rely on borrowed power, or would you push that world of magic to new heights?

Getting into Maleficium greatly expanded a witch’s options.

“I totally don’t care as long as I get my money. So pay me please. Anyway, let’s start by reviewing the basics of a witch and her broom. These days, the Formula Broom is totally the standard partner for a witch, but there are old stories of some crazy witches who flew around on a fencepost, a giant mortar, or even a pig.”

This was one clear difference between compulsory education and a prep school. At a prep school, the student paid to be taught how to pass the exam. ''None of the teachers here were thoughtful educators who cared at all about instilling healthy ways of thinking into their students or teaching them communication skills instead of just cramming the lessons into their minds''.

So as long as it didn’t interfere with their pay, the instructors here wouldn’t question or kick out an outsider like Yagoro. Sadly, the teachers at Carraway Cs Preparatory School weren’t going to put themselves at risk to protect their students from trouble.

Whispered voices could be heard in Cauldron classroom, which used the gentle lighting of Moonlight Seals to avoid damaging all the old books and antiques inside. The boy mixed in with them was being observed from a distance.

“(That’s the famous Navigate Exam.)”

“(I hear any student who signs a tutoring contract with that sailor is guaranteed to get into Maleficium.)”

He really wished they would stop spreading those rumors. He only wore the white sailor uniform to fit into a world with naked cloak vampires and bandaged zombie girls walking around. And he had never asked anyone to use that silly nickname.

“(So he’s the Prince Charming who helps you pass the exam, huh?)”

(Wait, a prince now!? I know I'm dressed in white, but since when did I become royalty? And where did the charming come from!?)

Myousou Yagoro shuddered, but…

“(But is it really true? His name isn’t on any of the prep school lists of successful students, so he must be self-taught.)”

“(Forget self-taught – he’s a boy. He can’t be a witch at all, so he can’t be a graduate. It’s all a bluff.)”

He finally laughed at that one.

Blending into the background to support Viocia was no easy task, but it was easier when the other people around thought he was just a liar. Unlike a sports tournament, the entrance exams were a highly anonymous competition. With the exception of referrals and non-academic admissions, a famous name was more of a hindrance than anything.

And the oblivious girl was already resting her head on her desk and pouting her lips.

“Hmph. Who cares about all this boring theoretical stuff. I want to awaken to unmatched magic power and go zooming off into the night sky.”

“Viocia.”

Had she really taken the exam once already?

Yagoro needed to correct this mistake since it made her sound more like a dreaming 5-year-old than anything.

“''As convenient as it would be, the human body does not contain any magic power.'' All we have is our willpower, so we need the appropriate knowledge to reach into another world and draw out the power we want to wield. That’s a common misconception, so do be careful.”

“Hweh?”

“Witches in particular borrow all their power. That’s subtly different from using or controlling your power. No matter how powerful your results, you will never grow any further if you lose sight of that fact, don’tcha think? So if you don’t want to be one of the witches who dies plummeting from the sky, make sure you never forget that.”

This was a good opportunity, so the blond tutor spoke to Viocia who was passing folded parchment notes (“Stop that!”) with Zombie Girl Dorothea seated at a different work desk.

“Viocia, how do you view your classmates here?”

“Eh? Well, since we ended up in the same class, we might as well help each other study, right? I wish everyone in Carraway Cs could all pass the exam together.”

“No, that’s not going to cut it.” Yagoro bluntly rejected her interpretation. He kept his voice low but his tone was firm. “Prep schools are not like compulsory education. Everyone paid the hefty price for the same basic textbooks, but everyone has different supplementary materials. Some people don’t have the money and others don’t have the time or focus to read all of the books they bought. And whoever doesn’t have that extra help will lose. That’s how the entrance exam works.”

“But that gives the people with lots of time and money an unfair advantage.”

“And you chose to rely on a tutor yourself, right? You have me this year. That’s a special trump card only you have access to. At the very least, I know I’m not helping anyone else study.”

Viocia groaned awkwardly.

But that she felt guilty about it showed she still had the wrong mindset. If he didn’t correct this soon, it would mentally trip her up down the road. This was even more of a threat than if she let the results of each and every practice exam influence her too much.

“With entrance exams, it simply isn’t possible for everyone to pass. You aren’t in the last place group in a marathon. You need to be secretly doing more than everyone else around you to give you the leg up to win.”

The girl still didn’t look convinced.

Yagoro thought her way of thinking was virtuous, but she needed to learn that wasn’t enough to win here.

“You can’t just be first in this prep school when there are countless prep schools across the city. And there are plenty of students who don’t rely on a prep school after their first failure. Not to mention the students aiming to pass the exam on their first try, even if that’s basically unheard of. Viocia, you need to think of this as competing against every last one of them and aiming for the top spot. More than 99.9999% of hopeful witches fail the exam, so getting into Maleficium isn’t going to be a cakewalk, don’tcha think?”

That was where studying came in. Before flight training with her Formula Broom, she needed to perform maintenance in Cauldron classroom which was lined with shop tools. She also needed to learn about the interior structure of the broom, so this killed two birds with one stone for the prep school.

All the students began to work within their teams, filling the room with the buzz of chattering voices.

A surprised voice rang across the entire classroom.

Sadly, it was Yagoro’s dunce focusing on someone in another team altogether.

“Ehh!? D-Dorothea, your Formula Broom can talk!?”

“Eep? Um, yes. M-my Formula Broom – Lyceum can talk. I-I think everyone’s can?”

“I do indeed speak human language. Question: why do you ask, little girl?”

A somewhat awkward but sullen male voice came from Dorothea’s broom. Was it in a bad mood, or was it always like this?

[[Image:Failing_Witch_v01_BW02.jpg|thumb]]

Viocia’s eyes widened and she tapped at the handle of her own Formula Broom. It of course did not respond.

“Uhhh, Mephistopheles…”

She tearfully rubbed her cheek against it, but the broom she had acquired at a concerningly low price still showed no sign of responding. Even though witches who relied too heavily on their tools usually met an unfortunate fate.

Formula Brooms tended to be named after magical locations in the other world called Earth.

Or more accurately, after the people of this world lost their magic, they had used special lights and vibrations to probe different parts of their world to detect alternate terrain on “the other side”. It sounded a lot like nondestructive testing to Yagoro. The distance between this world and Earth could not be measured in meters. There was some uncertainty what exactly “the other side” even meant, but that vagueness had been used to ''treat it as if'' it were close by and gather a vast amount of knowledge from it.

So magical knowledge was based on terrain and thus the magical locations of Earth. It may have been a more expansive version of the counseling technique that viewed someone’s miniature garden to assess their psychology. This meant each Formula Broom could access more than just magical knowledge. They could also access people’s “thoughts” and the “atmosphere” of the location itself. However, no one here considered this creepy. The brooms were treasured as the guides who allowed witches to easily search through massive and inscrutable collections of knowledge.

“You’re so lucky, Dorothea.”

“Um, I think yours is more impressive, Viocia. I mean, how do you even, eep, work with a Formula Broom that won’t communicate with you?”

Viocia pouted her lips and booed while poking at the Formula Broom that had its tip held firmly in place by a giant clip attached to a movable arm installed on the work table.

And she spoke a simple phrase.

“''Break the seal.''”

The broom’s thick handle immediately ''unraveled''.

Like a book’s pages or a scroll, but more accurately like a three blade propeller, it unraveled in a spiraling circle. Each individual page was a map of an area on Earth. Tablets covered in orderly squares of symbols, sigils, and letters were included in places. This was the massive and complex guidepost drawn out by a witch viewing her destination. Since she used the map and not the terrain itself, she could customize it by adding various things to it.

And witches flew through the sky by surpassing the boundaries found on the map.

It was a technique – a miracle – that let them freely and instantly fly across the terrain and borders drawn on the map.

It was the insolence to easily soar over the head of the king who ruled an entire kingdom.

Now, a map of the entire United Kingdom, a map of England, a map of London, and a map of Blythe Road were all treated the same. The scale of the map used had no bearing on the strength or level of the magic. Each map did something different and a witch could not wield all forms of magic by using a full world map. Just like a world map that omitted all the details was no help when treasure hunting in a local field.

(The Flying Scroll, huh?)

Myousou Yagoro wondered just how much of their knowledge and concepts they had imported from Earth. The scary part was how some of it had lost its original meaning, like in a game of telephone.

“Admiration, Antiquity, and Amorality,” continued the gyaru-style prep school instructor named Schanze.

She stepped away from the lectern and slowly walked around each team’s work table.

“A witch’s broom is, like, an invisible whirlpool creating all three of the Three Aspects. That rotational power produces some crazy propulsion that totally harms the world as it pushes the broom forward. So generally speaking, a witch’s broom is constantly moving forward. Making it hover in place or move vertically is totally not possible, so watch out for that.”

“('''Trick Question Alert: That’s not quite accurate, don’tcha think? Just because it’s hard doesn’t make it impossible.''' This could be used as a trap on a practice exam, so be careful, Viocia.)”

“Hweh?”

The dunce’s focus had faded before the trap could even affect her.

It was true a witch’s broom almost always continued forward for stability, just like a paper airplane, but there were some witches who excelled at hovering in place like a helicopter or skimming across the surface like a ground-effect craft. But instead of being seen as a rare skill, they were more seen as acrobats or weirdos.

“Hm, hm♪ Mephistopheles is cool, but I bet it would feel great to fly around on a big dragon or griffin.”

“Yeah, that’s not possible.”

She must not have expected a response. Viocia just about jumped out of her skin and was answered by a wink from Schanze while she checked on each of the teams.

“None of the monsters you see nowadays are natural. They’re totally all Maleficium creations that went wild, which means they were super unfriendly and found a way to run off. There’s no way you could tame one of them☆”

And…

“Huh? Um, th-this is supposed to go…what? Eep.”

Yagoro heard the damp voice of someone on the verge of tears.

It was the glasses zombie girl named Dorothea Rockpool. Unlike Viocia, her broom had a ship’s wheel on the end of the handle. She had gotten Formula Broom – Lyceum’s handle opened like a propeller, but she hadn’t reached the point of tuning her map.

“Aristotle’s philosophy tried to, like, explain all things in the world using only four elements. And that totally led to modern witchcraft and alchemy.”

Schanze spoke smoothly while slowly walking around Culdron classroom, but that was all she did. She spoke on and on like a record, but she did not give specific advice for individual students (although she would tease the students who had captured her interest). Prep schools were not compulsory education. In the world of the entrance exam, it was assumed the failures simply hadn’t been paying attention.

Yagoro was a tutor. He had only snuck into the prep school to watch over Viocia’s studies.

But.

But.

But.

(Ugh, fine.)

“The Lyceum was a Greek garden surrounded by castle walls. So is your guide Aristotle?”

“Eep! Eh? Eh?”

“But that ''alone'' isn’t what matters. A tool is only a tool. Don’t let the name and the reputation trick you. When you focus your mind using a broom, there’s always a risk of getting confused. Witch flight requires focusing on the Three Aspects to ignore time and distance and soar above the terrain. How are you handling the other two Aspects? That is, the textual Admiration and the Amorality that takes advantage of biased assumptions.”

“Um, uh, C-Cinderella and a crop failure curse.”

“So including Aristotle’s four elements, is the central formula you’re using ‘transformation’? And the animal acting as the core linking the Three Aspects would be a rat. Check through the text again and you should figure out what parts need maintenance, don’tcha think?”

“Wow,” she said like she had just opened a present.

She drew out just the right symbol on her map to link everything together, so she must have solved her problem.

“Th-thank you, eep, Mr. Tutor!”

She innocently bowed, but Yagoro wasn’t so sure what to think.

In fact, he was kicking himself for this.

Why would he help out another student? Helping one of Viocia’s rivals get a better score would only reduce his student’s odds of passing!