Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume3 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 4===

Aine produced a soft sound by hugging Marika from the front. She buried her face in the girl’s large chest and sniffed.

“Hm, acceptable.”

“Th-thanks?”

“Now we need not worry about the Threat tracking us using your scent. Sniiiiiff.”

“W-wait, um, Aine-chan, th-th-th-that’s embarrassing!”

Was more people a good thing or a bad thing?

It probably depended on the situation. In a traditional battle where both sides rushed at each other to fight, greater numbers provided an absolute advantage. But for a sniping or infiltration mission where you could not afford to be noticed, more people only increased the risk of detection.

But Karuta came to understand something now that he experienced it for himself.

Greater numbers did at least help reduce the psychological burden. Just like the grammatical terms of first person, second person, and third person, gathering three or more people may have helped provide more objectivity. He was able to keep his cool while observing and understanding his surroundings a lot better than when he had been nearly crushed by the paranoia-like pressure before. (Although part of that was because he could not share the burden with Aine since she was not even human.) The increased objectivity gave them an urge to actively share the thoughts in their heads.

In other words, it made them talkative. Dangerously so.

“Come to think of it, why did the real Threat come here at all?” asked Karuta.

He was currently crouching below the hallway windows and moving slowly along the wall. The Threat had covered these windows with metal panels and other materials just like elsewhere, but they were still concerning.

The scratching of claws on the outside had not changed, so they must not have been noticed. The Threat on the other side of the metal panels could not hear the noises from the hallway. And if those were the wharf roach and tadpole ones, they may not have been anatomically structured to “look down” even if the metal panels had not been in the way.

This seemed to confirm it.

“This means I was right about the wharf roach and tadpole ones using their red lenses to visually locate targets. Heh heh,” said Aine.

“Yes, yes. I’ll buy you a pacifier and some baby formula later, so just be quiet.”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………Stare.”

“D-don’t silently stare at me like that, Aine. It’s scary.”

“Criticizing me for obeying your orders is unfair.”

She puffed out her cheeks while only 10cm away from him, so he was unsure what to do about her.

For now, he glanced toward a window.

“Anyway, why are they still clinging to the outside like that? They should be able to break through the glass easily enough and they even reinforced the windows with those metal panels and other junk.”

“It certainly doesn’t seem like they want to get in but can’t,” agreed Marika.

The slate pencil urchin and the Gestalt sea anemone were confirmation enough that the Threat was already active within Second Grimnoah. They had no problem getting inside, yet there was clearly one group that did so and one group that did not.

The curly twintails childhood friend crouched below the windows as she snuck down the hallway.

“So do they have some kind of division of roles? Hmm, like maybe the ones covering the outside are meant to hide what’s going on inside the ship.”

“You’re assuming the inside is more important and the outside is just armor, but that’s a human way of thinking. They might just want to eat the paint and barnacles attached to the ship. We don’t know anything about the Threat’s biology or how they think.”

“We’re not just talking about the ones on the outside of the ship,” sighed gyaru-ish Hashizaki Tayori. “We saw an alert network of jellyfish and sea anemone ones surrounding the ship on the ocean floor. They were spread out so far it’s hard to think those are what really matter. I think Second Grimnoah really is their central point.”

If the ones spread across the ocean were the most important, then the academy ship would be an intruder and it would be odd for the all-destroying Threat to not eliminate it. In that case…

“Does the Threat have some reason for occupying Second Grimnoah instead of sinking it? It doesn’t look like they just want to destroy our mobile base.”

“But, Karuta, Second Grimnoah is just a floating school, right? Did we have any special materials onboard?”

The ship itself had been made by buying and fully remodeling a cruise ship. It may have been unusual when compared to an ordinary life, but cruise ships could be found all over the world. There was no real reason to target Second Grimnoah specifically.

“What are you talking about?” Pale-faced Matsuda Imi’s lips moved. She let out a depressing groan of a voice while her teeth chattered even though it was not cold. “Of course there’s something special on this ship. It’s the only place in the world where you can find ''dead and crystallized magicians''.”

“…”

“She has a point, Sacri-sama. If they are preparing to fight Crystal Magicians, they would most want to test the limits of your preset regeneration. How far must they go to defeat one? How much of a risk is there of a defeated one returning to the fight? It is reasonable to assume the Threat would want to investigate such things.”

Crystal Magicians were not immortal like Susannia Evans of the Problem Solvers, but someone who did not know how their regeneration worked might see them as zombies who kept getting back up no matter what.

Killing them was not enough to relax.

So the Threat would want to know how far they had to take it before they could relax.

(It does make sense!!)

Karuta himself had checked through the corpse(?) of a decoy Threat at the Crystal Beach to figure out how they worked, so if he were in the Threat’s position, that was exactly what he would do.

On the other hand, it would be wrong to suggest they go check on Gekiha and the others.

They were kept at the very bottom level of the three-hull ship’s central hull. But to defeat the Sparkle lion so their Grimnoah allies could fly here, they had to climb to the roof of the middle school building. Those were opposite directions and illogically making a U-turn now might destroy any trust Imi and Tayori had in him.

He wanted to avoid creating a rift between them here.

This had nothing to do with who was stronger than who. Traveling through Second Grimnoah was a risky thing. If Imi finally hit her limit and screamed, broke through a nearby window, or called for help using her Crystal Blossom, the Threat would notice. And then none of them would survive.

(And either way…)

He came to a stop and shut his eyes.

He clenched his teeth and dragged up the despicable part found deep inside him.

He forced himself to think it.

(Either way, the Threat has been occupying Second Grimnoah for a while now. If they really are here to investigate those crystal statues, Gekiha and the others won’t have escaped unharmed. With this much time, I have to assume the Threat has already done something with them!!)

“Aine…the rest of you too. We’re headed to the roof.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama.”

“We need to slaughter these pieces of shit no matter what and step one is neutralizing the lion’s anti-air lasers on the roof. So…”

Just as he squeezed those words out, he and Aine jumped behind a pillar sticking out from the wall, Marika got down and slipped into the narrow space below a water fountain, and Tayori dragged Imi into an empty classroom to hide.

Something large had come down from the stairs.

It was a slate pencil urchin, suggesting there were more than one of them in the ship. But it must not have noticed them while moving around because it wandered for a bit near the entrance to the stairs and then rolled back through that entrance. They could not tell if it had gone up or down, but it was probably moving between each floor every so often.

It was on a patrol.

“Looks like we can’t use the stairs,” whispered Marika from below the water fountain. “Should we find another route? There are probably small elevators for the kitchen carts.”

Since they could fly, they did not need to follow the ordinary routes. Marika had suggested an elevator, but that did not require them to press the button and move the car like normal. They could just fly up the shaft like it was a chimney.

(But where can we actually find a usable shortcut?)

If they spent too long in the hallway, another Threat might just find them, so they moved to a nearby sliding door, slid it open a crack, checked to make sure the windows were covered by metal panels and other materials, and then hid inside.

The room was two or three times the size of an ordinary classroom. In the darkness, their eyes were drawn to the electric jigsaws, drills, and the vises attached to the thick work tables. Karuta did not have the middle schools’ layout memorized (despite helping out with some of their classes), but he could guess this was the shop classroom.

Imi had to be the most sensitive to fear because she clung to her gyaru-ish friend and spoke with legs trembling.

“Wh-what do we do now? We’re done for if we can’t get up to the roof.”

“Sacri-sama.” Aine pointed her crystal sword up toward a rectangular grated cover on the wall near the ceiling. “If necessary, we could use that.”

“The air duct?” asked Marika while looking up.

Karuta felt just as skeptical.

“Can we really fit through such a narrow space?”

“We are in no position to eliminate possibilities based on speculation. We cannot know for sure without checking first.”

“Fine, then.”

It was true none of them had any better ideas. The duct was on the shop classroom’s rear wall, so they could reach it by standing on the hip-high tables lined up there.

For some reason, Childhood Friend Marika put her hands on her hips and puffed her cheeks out.

“Why is it you’ll do almost anything if Aine-chan asks you?”

“Because she doesn’t ask for pointless things like you do.”

But…

“Oof…damn, I can only barely reach it while on my tiptoes. Getting inside would be difficult.”

“Sacri-sama, lift me on your shoulders.”

He just about agreed on reflex, but then he stopped.

“You’re a girl in a skirt.”

“Yes, and?”

She only tilted her head while standing on the same table as him with her bright thighs exposed.

The crystal girl really did have no issue with being touched despite not liking having her skin seen. She still had some learning to do.

Her white dress had a large slit on both sides, presumably so it did not hinder her movements. That made it more revealing than a China dress but less revealing than a kunoichi outfit.

It bothered him.

It bothered him so much, but then she placed her small hands on his shoulders and pushed down. She was convinced he had to be on the bottom.

“Hold on, hey, this is embarrassing! Do I really have to stick my head into this tunnel!?”

“Sacri-sama, struggle too much on the desk and you will fall off.”

“Ah, ahhh…I’m inside it…”

He looked like he had just caught a glimpse of a new world, but he had to focus on his knees and hips as he felt something warm and soft squeezing against his cheeks. He slowly stood up on the unsteady table and then Aine began to squirm on top of him. She was apparently removing the duct cover with both hands.

“Hmm, I got the cover off, but I am still not quite high enough. I cannot see inside.”

He tried to look up, but the inside of her skirt covered his entire face. It gave off a faint warmth and a sweet scent.

“Pwah, A-Aine, what are you doing up-”

“I can gain a little more height if I use my flight.”

Her thighs lifted upwards while still squeezing at his head.

The thigh heaven quickly became a hanging. Karuta flailed his legs that could no longer reach the table below.

“Agwgggghhhh!?”

“What is this?”

“I’m dying!? M-my head’s gonna pop off! Bgweh, Aine, I’m sorry! I’m sorry there was a part of me that thought I was lucky to do this!! Bweh!!”

“Ah ha ha. This is what we call karma, Karuta.”

For some reason, Marika triumphantly put her hands on her hips.

It could not have lasted more than 10 seconds, but it was a terrifying 10 seconds due more to the pain of his neck bone feeling it was going to pop out than due to suffocation. Pain you were not used to feeling could be a very different experience, like skinning your knee or cutting your finger with a knife.

“W-wait, if you could just use your flight, why get on my shoulders at all?”

Aine slowly descended and freed the boy’s head, but she was still seated on his shoulders as she tilted her head.

“Traveling through here would be difficult.”

“Is it too small?” asked Tayori from below.

“No.” Aine shook her head. “It is filled with something similar to spiderwebs.”

“Spiderwebs?”

“Something similar to. There may be a spiderlike Threat variety. These are probably simple metal wires with a current running through them. I estimate them to be weaker than paper, so if you carelessly touch one, it will break and they will immediately detect your presence. Given the density, traveling through here without being detected would be effectively impossible.”

“There wasn’t anything like that in the smoke vent.”

If the Threat had something like that, why was it not laid out all through the hallways and classrooms? Karuta had his questions, but Aine did not have all the answers. Maybe the Threat only had so many materials to work with, or maybe they decided it would be inefficient in the ordinary passageways where other Threats were traveling.

Karuta crouched down on the table to lower the thigh girl.

“We might be able to use that.”

“Are you going to ignore my warning and use that route anyway?” asked Aine.

“No, so don’t get upset. If we can’t find any other route, we can break the threads with some kind of timed device to draw the Threat’s attention. If that slate pencil urchin leaves the stairs, we can use them ourselves, right?”

That would be a last resort, of course. The risk of running across the Threat was higher if they were off their usual patrol route. If you absolutely had to approach a hornet’s nest, you would prefer to tiptoe around. Very few people would want to throw a stone and rile up the hornets before sneaking in.

(How are things over there?)

Karuta crouched in front of the classroom door and slid it open a crack to peek outside.

The stairs were silent.

Just as he started to lean out more, he quickly pulled his head back inside. He stuck a plastic ruler out as a mirror and confirmed that the slate pencil urchin was indeed there.

It made regular patrols, leaving no openings for them.

Marika leaned over him to peek out into the hallway herself. She may have thought she was only placing her head on top of his like two dango on a skewer, but she was actually placing ''something else'' on top of his head. What was it? A pair of weights. And she seemed entirely unaware how perfectly they were resting on his head.

“Yeah, there’s no getting through there. We could probably run down the hallway while it’s away, but we would run right into it if we tried to climb the stairs to the roof.”

“Y-yes. That’s probably more or less it. Maybe.”

“Why are you being so noncommittal???”

He was too distracted to give a clear answer, but then something occurred to him.

“Hold on.”

“?”

Marika could not initially tell what he was focused on.

“I hear something,” said the boy. “It’s coming from down this hallway. I think that’s where the gym is. We could pass through there, couldn’t we?”

“That might work if we just want a way to the roof to attack the Sparkle.” Tayori slid open the empty classroom’s door a bit and nodded. “The gym uses space from multiple floors to give it more height, so we could fly right up to the roof from there. And unlike a cramped and restrictive elevator shaft, we might be able to escape if the Threat has laid an ambush for us.”

They all nodded.

After the Threat patrolling the stairs appeared again and moved back up the stairs, they made their move. The route took them near the stairway in question, but they ignored it. The Threat was gone for now, but they could not blindly rush up the stairs when they could run across it at any point.

Instead, they made their way to the double doors at the far end of the hallway. Those led to the gym.

After approaching and pressing against the door, Karuta groaned. He was focused on the crack between the double doors.

“(I can see light through the door. They have the lights on in there.)”

“(That doesn’t sound good.)”

Marika sounded cautious, but she was actually raring to go. This was different from anything they had seen before, so she may have thought they would find some crucial hint about the Threat inside.

“(The Threat has some level of intelligence.)” Aine was more pessimistic. “(Based on the tentatively-named Gestalt, they are at least intelligent enough to deceive humans for an easy victory. Nowhere else has had the lights on, but it could easily be a trap, similar to a military tablet being ‘abandoned’ on top of a landmine on the battlefield.)”

They both had a point.

Karuta crouched down, pressed his hands against the double doors, and shut his eyes.

He clenched his teeth, reopened his eyes, and spoke.

He had made his decision.

“Let’s go. We have business with that lion on the rooftop regardless.”

“We must have been cursed…”

Imi’s gaze wandered diagonally up through empty space while Tayori held her close. It was unclear who she was trying to talk to.

Karuta gathered strength in his hands and pushed. The door slowly and silently opened.

The light pierced his eyes.

It felt as bright as a car’s headlights. Had the gym’s lights always been so bright?

Eventually, his senses returned to him.

They had entered on the second floor of the gym instead of the large flat area used to play basketball or volleyball. Specifically, they were in the far back.

He raised his head while still crouched down to see an orderly arrangement of steel beams and halogen lights. The roof where the lion awaited was just above those.

However…

“(I knew something wasn’t right.)”

He was focused more on the floor below than their destination above.

This rear second floor space was meant for spectators, but since it had a railing-like wall set up to prevent people from falling, they could hide from anything below by crouching. The wall was only about hip height, but they had no way of seeing what was happening while hidden there.

Yes.

“(Something’s happening in here. But what is this sound???)”

Still crouched, he approached the railing-like wall. Taking a detour from their objective would only needlessly delay the mission and put everyone’s lives at greater risk. And in this case, “everyone” was more than just him, Marika, and the others here. It also included Natlena and that group. He knew that, but he could not resist the urge.

It took him more than two minutes to reach the wall.

Curled up behind the hip-height wall, he focused his ears on the disconcerting noise he could hear.

(What is this?)

He was no longer speaking with anyone.

The confusion only grew in his mind as he slowly gathered strength in his knees. He hesitantly rose up from his crouch to peer over the low wall.

And.

He saw it.