Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume3 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 1===

The low thrum of motors filled one section of Second Grimnoah.

But not because some bizarre new weapon had been powered up. Large washing machines were lined up within a laundry room. They were pay models that could be operated by holding your phone up to them.

The academy ship had become a deadly labyrinth crawling with the Threat, but it was also Karuta, Marika, and the others’ home. Their classrooms and dorms were here. So were their cafeterias and shower rooms.

They could use any part of the school infrastructure they wanted.

That only seemed so twisted because the Threat had taken over.

“Ugh, this is just awful,” said Amaashi Marika.

Karuta and Aine were standing watch outside. Only the three girls remained inside, but she, Matsuda Imi, and Hashizaki Tayori had stripped off all of their clothes. All of the machines were open for use, so they separated their underwear, blouses, blazers, skirts, etc. and put them in separate machines on different settings for the true luxury experience.

Gyaru-ish Tayori looked up at the ceiling (while naked).

“Those are making a lot of noise. Won’t the Threat notice?”

“It’s a pretty big ship and there are mechanical noises coming from all over the place.”

Why were they doing this anyway?

“I have detected a chemical very similar to diallyl disulfide within the Threat liquid found all over Miss Marika’s group. It is not on Sacri-sama or myself, so it may be used to assist them when they attack.” Aine explained from the other side of the thin door. “That is normally used in crow repellants, but it can also be used as a marker to track down a target when combined with a hound or another animal with an excellent nose. It is colorless and, when watered down, it does not have a strong enough odor for humans to detect. The best solution would be to remove all of your clothing and shave off all of your body hair, but if you are opposed to continuing the mission in the nude, I would recommend thoroughly washing your clothing with a chemical detergent. Immediately.”

Tayori tilted her head.

“Why can she detect smells that humans can’t?”

“Aine-chan’s senses are the same as a human’s, but she apparently stores things in her mind differently. If she licks salt, she doesn’t sense it as ‘salty’ – she senses which of the six tastes it stimulated. So she would probably overlook something if the magnitude was too low, but I guess she can still classify things if they’re simply mixed with other smells.”

That crystal girl was not shy about letting people know pure gold was her favorite food, so she had a very different idea about what was mouthwatering.

At any rate, they were forced to strip off even their underwear and throw it all in the washing machines despite the danger. They had avoided any laundry rooms with windows covered in Threats, but all the noise was still unnerving.

The girls also had to dump detergent over their heads no matter how bad for their skin it was. Gyaru-ish Tayori must have been confident in her looks compared to Marika because she made no attempt to cover up as she let down her wet hair and dried it off with a towel.

“He cut that thing down, didn’t he?” she said.

“Yes…” replied Marika with a thoughtful look.

What had created the difference between her group and him when they were trapped by the Gestalt’s illusion?

Marika tried to find an answer as Tayori’s calm voice reached her ears.

“We had seen jellyfish ones and the tadpole ones could count as frogs, ''so it was possible there would be a Threat that used color or camouflage.'' …It makes sense in hindsight, but Utagai Karuta predicted it in advance. It’s like he has a more active imagination, or like he’s extra cautious. Then again, that really saved our butts.”

That boy prepared himself based on the assumption that he would step right into any trap awaiting him, his opponent would always be trying to deceive him, and there would be an opening somewhere he could use.

Marika sighed at Tayori’s comments.

“Yes, but there is a downside. His way of thinking can easily lead to paranoia if he isn’t careful. And that’s all well and good for him if he can keep things in balance, but how can we ever tell if he’s doing that when his only explanation is ‘he has a feeling’?”

Everything felt unpredictable, but they did know the Threat could be defeated. That was some hope at least.

Tayori glanced over at the washing machines.

“Also, you didn’t put any fabric softener in with our uniforms, did you? Based on the tag, that’ll cause them to fade like crazy. Although it might be like how lab coats are made to stain easily so you’ll notice anything toxic you got on there.”

“Oh? You’re surprisingly knowledgeable about this stuff.”

“Was that ‘surprisingly’ really necessary?”

And….

“Eek, eek, eek, eek.”

An odd breathing sound came from one point in the room.

Marika and Tayori looked over to see Matsuda Imi curled up in a corner of the laundry room. There were benches available, but she still had her bare butt directly on the tile floor wet with puddles of seawater. She had her back against the wall and her hands on her head.

She was acting strange.

She had not stopped trembling ever since they defeated the giant Gestalt sea anemone. She had always been an innocent and active girl. She would often teasingly hug you while changing for gym, but now she was trying to reject everything about the world and run away.

Her bright and extroverted personality may have left her unequipped to retreat inward at times like this.

She had not even removed her clothes herself. Marika had watched as Tayori was forced to help her out of them like a parent would do to a small child. ''After what happened,'' her age may indeed have regressed.

They did not know what the Gestalt’s camouflage had shown her, but she may have grown attached to it.

Karuta’s voice reached them through the door.

“Hey.”

“No, it isn’t about that.”

Tayori casually rejected that idea while grabbing the dryer.

Yes, Marika also knew why this had happened to her friend. Now was not the time to retreat to ridiculous ideas like her growing attached to the camouflage.

Imi’s fearful eyes were not directed at the thin door that Karuta and Aine stood on the other side of. No, those eyes were directed squarely at Amaashi Marika. At the friend she had gotten along with and had always hung around with.

“No…”

Her voice was quiet, but the intonation was unnatural.

It contained the tension of someone who had discovered unexploded ordnance that could go off at any moment.

“No. I’m going back to the others.”

“What is…”

Karuta started to ask something through the door, but Marika only quietly shook her head. And after realizing he could not see that, she spoke aloud.

Still naked, she pressed her back against the door.

“Leave her be.”

Marika’s group had experienced their own drama. A different sort of drama that Karuta and Aine could not hope to imagine. The three girls had not survived “just because”. If you did not create your own reason for survival, anyone would die in this world.

The next one to speak was Tayori in her mature gyaru-ish way.

Once her hair was dry, she held her hair tie in her mouth and reached back to do up her long hair in a complex fashion.

“Hey, Utagai-kun. Did you see a leg somewhere on your way here?”

“Y-yes.”

“That was Imi’s.”

They heard an obvious gasp from beyond the door.

Soft and honest Karuta may have assumed the fear and pain had broken Imi and he may have felt that was the proper reaction for a normal person. Being functionally able to fight was not the same thing as being emotionally able to fight. The regeneration preset did not eliminate the fear. To continue fighting was to face that fear and pain head on. So allies who always pushed you onward could become an indirect source of fear.

But he had the wrong idea.

After using the hair tie to keep her hair in place, Tayori confessed the real answer.

“The attack tore right through the barrier and took her leg off at the base of the thigh. Just like the blood vessels in your wrist, the femoral artery is pretty thick, so bandaging it up wouldn’t be enough to stop the blood normally. That would be fatal.”

“Eh?”

There was more confusion than pain in Karuta’s muffled voice because Matsuda Imi was in fact alive right now. A fatal wound should have crystallized her entire body along with her clothing instead of healing her after just 30 seconds.

“''So.''” Marika slowly explained the proper action she had taken. “''I used my laser to cauterize the wound, buying her enough time for the regeneration to complete. That was the only way to save her.''”

“Eek. Eeeeek!!!???”

Imi trembled even harder while curled up in a corner of the laundry room. That classmate had always had a bright smile on her face, but now she was holding her head while her legs (one newly regenerated) squirmed awkwardly below her. Even with only other girls here, she would normally have done a little more to cover up.

Tayori moved up next to her and gave her a hug while she wept.

“I can’t take it anymore! I just want to crawl in bed forever!! This isn’t right. I thought it was the Threat that did these awful things to people, so why are other people doing that now!?”

Karuta’s mental anguish seemed to seep through the door.

Marika breathed a heavy sigh.

She had saved her dying friend’s life. That was an undeniable fact.

But pursuing a mystery and learning the truth did not always solve everything. They had sensed this ugly feeling during their revenge against the Problem Solvers and while fighting the decoy Threat at the Crystal Beach. Karuta had to be experiencing it again here.

And.

Aine’s emotionless voice spoke from beyond the door.

“Sacri-sama, does Miss Imi wish she had died instead?”

“Aine.”

“Based on that report, I do not see any other way she could have survived, so it is unfair to view Miss Marika negatively over it.”

Marika shook her head in response, scattering some water droplets from her hair, but then she clicked her tongue at that habit.

She had to speak aloud right now. She had stripped bare, but that did not mean they could read her thoughts.

“Stop. Please.”

People did not always like what was right and dislike what was wrong.

Everyone felt differently about things.

Most children knew intellectually that vaccinations and dental fillings were necessary, but could they use that knowledge to erase the fear they felt rising from deep in their body when they saw the syringe or heard the motor grinding at their tooth? Could they remain smiling throughout?

Tayori had crouched down and hugged her friend while gently stroking her trembling back like she was soothing a small child.

“Imi can’t go on,” she said.

“…”

“But no matter how much she wants to leave, flying out of the ship will only get her swarmed with and devoured by the Threat. I doubt even changing back into the silent diving suit hidden at the bottom levels and diving into the ocean would work anymore.”

“Probably not,” agreed Karuta through the door.

Plenty of the jellyfish Threats had burst from the ocean when he had flown in just off the ocean surface in Aine’s arms.

He had already explained that to the others.

And inside the ship, they had defeated the sea anemone one that Marika’s group had named the Gestalt. After disturbing the Threat inside and outside the ship, the Threat was bound to have changed their formation. They had to assume what had worked a moment before might no longer work.

After a while, Karuta managed to say more.

“We have to continue on and kill the lion on the roof to make the sky safe for flight. Then we can call in everyone from Grimnoah. Restarting Second Grimnoah doesn’t require any of us as individuals. We’ll have achieved our goal as long as we defeat the Sparkle. Anyone who wants to leave can withdraw back to the airport during all the confusion.”

“That probably is best. Imi will only be a burden now that she’s lost the will to fight, but let’s carry her with us for a while longer.”

“Sure.”

He was saying that was fine with him.

They had already seen the lion and the sea anemone, so they knew there was more to the Threat than being tough and violent. Second Grimnoah was crawling with types they had never seen before, so there was no safe zone here. Marika was more exasperated than impressed that he could state that with such confidence. He could not leave behind that classmate who could not face the fear on her own. There was no benefit to that, but he still could not bear to leave her here.

But Tayori looked puzzled even though she had made the suggestion.

“I’m surprised.”

“Why?”

“Three of the four world’s strongest are here, so I didn’t expect you to accept ''someone else''’s opinion so readily. I thought the bar would have been raised and I would be shut out for not making the cut.”

Karuta fell silent on the other side of the door for a bit.

Marika knew what that meant. He was smiling bitterly.

That would have been how it worked with the Problem Solvers. Which was the entire point.

Marika knew exactly how that soft childhood friend would respond and she was proven right soon thereafter.

“I’m working to not be that kind of strongest. So is Marika.”

Tayori shrugged a little. The short silence must have told Karuta that she was not panicking like Imi, so he asked another question.

“What about you? Do you want to quit?”

“I’ll follow whoever’s right,” dryly said Hashizaki Tayori. Her voice was different again from Aine who did not understand human emotion. “I don’t choose based on what I like or don’t like the way this girl does. But don’t let that put you at ease. If you ever stop doing the right thing, I’ll be disappointed in you and drop out, so keep that in mind.”

“…”

It took him 0.5 seconds before he said he understood.

''That’s pretty harsh,'' thought Marika in the nude.

Marika understood that Karuta was thinking about the survivors of the first ship. He did not need to explain it to her. He was putting the still living students and teachers of the second ship in danger to save his dead friends from the first ship. He was clearly weighing their lives differently and he had to have noticed the contradiction there.

Even though it would be easier if he just went and did it.

Marika would use her full power as the world’s strongest to protect those she cared about, but Karuta lived a much more awkward life. If he used the watering can to water the flower pot, the flower would blossom, but he instead tried to water the entire desert with it.

(So…)

They heard a beeping as the large washing machines stopped spinning. They had finished the draining and drying phase.

(So I need to protect him. No matter what it takes.)

She let out a soft breath and reached for the drum’s lid.

She had not gotten there in time for Imi.

But she had managed to save that girl’s life. And life gave her the right to hate Marika for it.

That was thousands of times better than whitewashing death and letting her friend die.

That was her decision, no matter how harsh it was. And this was not just a whimpered excuse she made to herself – she could actually do it. That may have been what made her who she was.

“Now, all our preparations are complete,” cheerfully said the active girl. “So let’s take another peek into the depths of hell.”