Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume3 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 1===

“Okay.”

The sun had already set and the artificial rain was still pouring down.

Yamane Deiri muttered to himself while activating his pointed and translucent crystal armor.

He was at an altitude of about 100m.

He was not moving and standing perfectly upright, but anyone who had read an aircraft manual would know how difficult it was to come to a complete stop in midair. Airplanes, airships, hot-air balloons, gliders, helicopters, and even VTOL craft could not come to a “complete” stop.

This was truly magic.

Natlena Blast shouted up a warning from about half that height.

“Um, it’s dangerous up there. You need to descend some. Do you want to be shot down by the Sparkle!?”

“Hey, no fair!” cut in a voice over the radio. “If flying that high gets a middle school girl to worry over you, I’m going up there too!!”

“What is wrong with you!? And, um, didn’t we receive a report that using long-range communications would increase the frequency of anti-air lasers!?”

Natlena was not sure what to do about these boys. Water droplets were scattering from her blonde hair while she realized just how much Utagai Karuta must have worked to create a positive image of an older upperclassman when she was trying to take revenge on him.

“You say that,” said Yamane Deiri. “But I wouldn’t be much of a diversion if I wasn’t up here.”

“That’s true, but still.”

“Oh, crap! Here it comes!!”

With a flash of light similar to lightning striking nearby, a green beam capable of breaking through their Crystal Magic barriers shot up from the deadly black and orange horizon at a shallow angle.

That was an anti-air laser beam from the true Threat occupying Second Grimnoah.

It of course moved too quickly to do anything about once you saw it. By the time the girl blinked at the flash of light brighter than a welding torch, a straight-line afterimage had been burned into space itself.

It had apparently been aimed at Yamane Deiri who was flying up above the others, but he had rapidly flown downwards just beforehand. That drop had dodged the brutal laser flying at a diagonal angle.

“I knew it.”

Yamane grinned wildly while once more coming to a complete stop at the same altitude as before.

He only used his physical voice here. Either because Natlena was close enough to hear him or because he wanted to avoid drawing the Sparkle’s anti-air lasers toward his middle school underclassman.

(Do all grownups try to show off all the time? Like Karuta-senpai and Onee-chan.)

“Ah ha ha! It really does provide cover!!”

“Um?”

“Because the earth is round. Well, it’s technically not perfectly spherical since the gravitational differences distort it, but that isn’t what matters. Laser beams are made of light, right? Light travels in a straight line, so it can’t circle around the curve of the earth to attack. So I only have to move up and down a little to use the ground itself as cover. Just like peeping on the women’s bath from over the fence! Ha ha!”

He was using the earth itself as a shield. The distance to the horizon depended on the height from which you were looking. It was about 5km from the surface, but you could see a few dozen kilometers away from a broadcast tower’s viewing deck.

Yamane Deiri’s analogy could not have been worse, but his survival meant that method was effective.

But Natlena’s question was not about that.

“H-how did you predict when it would fire just now? It moves at the speed of light, so you can’t start dodging after you see it coming. And we can’t see over the horizon either, so you can’t base it on the Threat’s actions.”

“I felt a tingle.”

Natlena thought he must have been using a special fortunetelling effect of his Japanese god named Kagutsuchi, but apparently not. That rough upperclassman placed his index finger against his temple.

“You know how pressure changes can give you a headache? Like when you ride an elevator? I don’t think that laser is ''just'' a laser. Maybe it’s when it boosts the energy level and maybe it’s to protect against radiation, but it does something that gives me an invisible sign the laser is about to be fired.”

“Oh, no. If you’re only relying on wild instincts, it doesn’t do me any good!!”

While the normal person cried out in despair, Yamane shook the lawnmower-like weapon he held at his hip. That embodiment of fire acted as a rotating blade at close range, a flamethrower at mid range, and a launched flammable tank at long range.

“Crystal Magic is similar though, right? We use our magic by reading the invisible occult high and low pressure fronts, setting up our sails, and letting the wind carry us. So we know ''it'' exists. The question is how to perceive it. Maybe it gives you a headache, maybe an old wound aches, maybe you aren’t very hungry today, or maybe you feel really horny and turn into the carnivorous sort of girl. It’s different for everyone, so just accept the change, no matter how embarrassing it might be.”

“Wh-wh-why are you assuming my sensor would be something embarrassing!?”

Their role was not to directly attack Second Grimnoah about 30km away.

They were the decoys meant to draw the anti-air laser lion’s attention to keep Karuta and his team safe while they actually made their way to the ship.

“Hey, word of warning: your clothes are getting pretty see-through in this rain.”

“I’m bothered by the pitying look you’re giving me, but, um, I changed into some thick sports innerwear before heading out. It’s the same as a yoga tank top. Heh heh.”

“Oh, well, that’s no fun.”

“(Also, I made sure to put on bandaids below that. I actually thought this through.)”

“M-more details please!!” cut in the second boy over their communications, but she ignored him.

“Anyway, I’m glad,” said Yamane.

“Um, about what?”

“It was Karuta’s analysis saying the Sparkle’s laser didn’t bend, right? I was worried it might use the ionosphere or a mirage or something, so I’m glad he was right. Now we can act as decoys all we want without the city behind us getting blown away.”

“…”

“This is called an inland sea since it’s surrounded by Osaka, Hyogo, and Awaji Island. On a flat map, any position we could take would send the lasers toward land. So in that sense, we’re lucky that the lasers can ''escape'' into the night sky.”

She had thought he was being careless, but he had actually given this some thought.

It could be hard to tell since the initial trigger tended to be instinct rather than reason, but Yamane Deiri ultimately acted on (his own brand of) logic.

“Now Karuta-chan won’t have to worry so much.”

“I guess.”

“I’ve always thought that idiot overthinks everything. The real Threat is right there, so we can’t let anything distract us for a second if we want to survive. Being the world’s strongest doesn’t mean you have to take the brunt of the damage yourself to ensure everyone else comes back alive. He’s really starting to piss me off. Leaving us in reserve just because he’s the world’s strongest is pathetic. He should really take better care of himself!!”