Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume4 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 6===

Isekai Dancer Amaashi Marika put her hands on her hips and stared at him like he was a bug carcass.

“You’re scum.”

“Yeah, I know!!”

The boy’s shout echoed down the deserted hallway.

With two of the world’s strongests exchanging harsh words, even the festive hallway was deathly silent. Everyone else had rushed into the closest classroom (aka restaurant).

“Do you really? She was thrown into a sticky situation where no one would believe anything she said and then the one person who would stand up for her gently pats her head and tells her to prove her innocence by cutting off his head. …You were basically telling her to join the group of bullies and let them ostracize you instead of her. Of course she’d rather die than do that! Don’t underestimate a girl’s pride!!”

Karuta looked up at the ceiling with a hand on his forehead.

Committing seppuku wasn’t enough to kill Aine. It wasn’t even clear if she had a beating heart that circulated blood through her body. So for her, it may have just been one of the options available to her.

But.

The anger boiling within Utagai Karuta did not come from anything so logical.

She couldn’t screw up her face to express herself, but a clear liquid had spilled from the corners of those eyes more inhuman than any machine. She had refused the command to decapitate him and instead publicly committed seppuku while apologizing. And as contradictory as it sounded, Karuta himself had pushed her to that worst possible result.

She hadn’t done anything wrong, but she had chosen to die before his eyes with an apology on her lips.

It had felt like seeing Kazamuki Gekiha torn apart by that dinosaur after ignoring his warnings all over again. He might be known as the new world’s strongest, but deep down, he was the same person he always had been.

Were the Threat and the human string pullers really the ugliest ones out there?

How long would he continue to be at the mercy of his own weakness and doubts?

(How long has this been happening?)

Had it started with the battle against the armored warrior when the Threat had occupied Second Grimnoah near the Port of Kobe?

Thinking back, Aine had been acting a little strange ever since then.

And this did not prove her innocence. All they knew was that she could not kill him. They had no way of knowing if that was due to some humanity developing inside her or if Machibula was intervening since she could not have him dying outside the ring.

She had started teasing him and had seemed excited, even if it didn’t show on her face.

She had been eager to fight by his side and win the champion’s trophy for him.

But now all of that had been replaced with doubts about bugs and hacking.

“Go to hell.”

Aine was not here.

After Karuta retracted his command, she had gone alone to the student counseling room on the same floor. That room was too fragile to act as a cell. Her sword could easily slice through the door or the walls. Plus, the windows and door only locked from the inside.

But if she took a step outside of there, she really would lose all trust. That was the lock that kept her inside that cell.

That cell was meant to isolate the one member of the group deemed to be dangerous. And the suspect’s obedience did nothing to determine her guilt or innocence.

Either she hadn’t betrayed them yet or she had already betrayed them.

Those were the only possible conclusions.

It wasn’t even a yes or no question at this point. What looked like it mattered was really just a no or another no – the only difference was how exactly she would be ostracized from the group. Nothing she could do and no argument she could make would eliminate their suspicion. All those basic rights were stripped away while she was placed in that cell as a spectacle.

Karuta understood this physical “ritual” had been needed to move the discussion along.

But he would not forget how small she had looked trudging through that gate of shame without even treating her stomach wound.

He would never forget how weak, foolish, and ugly he was for finding nothing he could do for her there.

He did not hesitate to slam his forehead against a nearby wall.

Breaking his own thin barrier acted as a ritual to reboot himself.

Amaashi Marika sounded utterly exasperated.

“You can be awfully hot-blooded for being such a twig.”

“This wound will heal itself in 30 seconds, so what is even the point?”

The damage to Aine was far greater.

That girl had coldly and emotionlessly observed humans, made some sort of decision, and hesitantly decided to approach them. And what had Karuta had her do? Instead of giving her a real chance to clear her name, he had rejected all other options based on a hunch or a feeling with no real evidence behind it. He had left her trembling and apologizing in public with no way to express herself other than to kneel and slice open her own gut.

What century did he think it was?

Her pain and humiliation had already been pushed past the limit.

(But who did this? And what did they do?)

Utagai Karuta touched the crystal blossom pinned to his summer uniform’s chest.

(I want to trust Aine, but I need to pursue the possibility of her being controlled if I truly want to reject it.)

He couldn’t run from his doubts. He had to harden his heart specifically because he trusted her.

If he didn’t set the hurdles up himself, he couldn’t eliminate each doubt in turn.

He listed off the possibilities he could think of.

(First of all, crystal magic is like an occult weather forecast that reads the fluctuating energy from the collision of the power pouring down from space and the power coming from the Original Crystal Embryo in the center of the earth. So if you manipulated that energy’s transmission media – either using the atmospheric pressure or using powerful magnetism on the earth’s magma and plates – could you maybe influence the path of that great current?)

(Second, I need to consider the possibility that it’s me being controlled, not Aine. I’m her only controller in the world, but could someone be externally influencing my thoughts through flashing lights or a volatile drug?)

(And third, Aine herself is a silicon lifeform. What if someone inserted electrodes or tubes into her body to directly control her? She might not be transferring oxygen, nutrients, and electricity with blood vessels and nerves like a human does. Could she be transferring information in a simpler method, like radio waves or the acid in a lemon battery?)

There could always be more. There could be loopholes Karuta himself couldn’t think of.

But aside from that…

(I can’t know anything for certain just by listing off theories. Aine is a rare independent version of crystal magic and we have no other samples of that. We know more about this field than anyone else, so how could an outsider like Machibula have found something we missed? Could she have had help from someone else? Wait, that kind of information is so rare I might be able to narrow down the suspects and find a way to counterattack. And then…)

The curly twintails girl sighed while watching Karuta fall deep into thought.

“Okay, we all get that you’re scum and a threat to women everywhere, but how exactly do you plan to come back from this? You aren’t just going to raise the white flag after pushing Aine-chan that far, are you?”

Karuta’s mouth flapped wordlessly.

She was using the same tone she had inside the super-spicy curry shop. Getting the usual childhood friend treatment here actually scared him.

“Um, M-Marika?”

“Yes?”

“Do you already believe Aine’s innocent? Why!? I would love to think that decisiveness came from her, but we can’t be certain of that! That seppuku could have been a demonstration to earn our trust!! So why!?”

“It’s simple. ''If she were guilty, she would have done something much nastier already.''”

“…”

“I mean, she spends every night in your room. She could have poisoned your breakfast or sabotaged you in any number of ways. We might heal any injury in 30 seconds, but we’re still vulnerable to poison because it triggers an endless cycle of damage and regeneration inside us. She could have used a radioactive material, a biological weapon, or even gradually increased the flavor of the food to trigger a placebo effect. Machibula would have plenty of options for giving herself an easier time of it, but Aine-chan hasn’t done any of that.”

His mind couldn’t keep up.

He had wanted an ally like this – someone who would unconditionally trust in Aine’s innocence. But it felt too easy. Greedy Karuta ended up searching for a rebuttal.

Almost like he was tapping at the stone bridge ahead of him to make sure it would hold his weight.

Was he so afraid of betrayal because he had betrayed someone in the past?

He couldn’t believe how selfish he was. He was the one who had pushed Aine off that bridge when she approached him out of trust.

“Um, but Machibula would be the one controlling Aine and she might not know about crystal magic’s weakness to poisons or a placebo effect.”

“If she really had used some nasty method to take control of Aine-chan, don’t you think that would be her very first command? ''Tell me everything you know about crystal magic, especially any weaknesses it has.'' We use it like it’s nothing, but outside of Second Grimnoah, no one knows crystal magic’s true specs. Do you really think she would be satisfied listening in on the lecture given to the visiting children? Don’t you think she would get scared after seeing the students’ acrobatic flying? When people lack information, they crave it more than anything else. Especially when their life is on the line.” Marika shrugged. She kept the look of the challenging avenger in her eyes. “How could she relax with all of your cards still lying face down? It’s like that game where you search the grid for mines. This is the same strategy we learned to use when were up against the Problem Solvers and their god-worshiping magic. If she was in a position to give any command she wanted, that trash could never resist the temptation to escape that great pressure. Whatever the reality might be, we’re known as the world’s strongest and she’s here to challenge us. She’s buckling under that pressure, no matter how confident she might look.”

“Damn,” groaned Karuta. He couldn’t help but yell. “Then what is happening? Someone that looks an awful lot like Aine fired a laser there. We can’t argue that point no matter how bad it looks for us. Is she controlling the atmospheric pressure or magma to influence the collision of powers from space and the Original Crystal Embryo? Is she somehow controlling me since I’m the only controller? Or is she using microwaves or acid or something to send information through Aine’s silicon body? I have so many ideas, but nothing I can prove or disprove right away! And I’m not ready to believe this was some absurd performance where she created an exact lookalike with special makeup. Again, the cameras showed someone that looks an awful lot like Aine firing a laser when the incident occurred. I don’t believe that was some spy or phantom thief with seven mysterious tools, so what actually happened!?”

After a brief pause, he was given an answer.

“''They faked the footage,''” said Amaashi Marika.

The exasperated high school girl waved her gaudily decorated phone in his face.

Utagai Karuta’s mind froze.

There was no advanced trickery here. Gambling was a pastime for the aristocracy who had money to spare. When failure was not an option, people tended to rely on the boring straightforward methods instead of trying to get fancy.

“Security camera footage is nothing but a collection of digital data these days. And that online news site was airing phone camera footage a viewer submitted. Modifying photos and videos is so simple anyone from an elementary schooler to an old granny of over 100 can do it. Remember, we live in an age when people do livestreams while ‘wearing’ a 3D character like a costume. And Aine-chan is as famous as us, so there’s plenty of footage someone could use to get material for all 360 degrees. They’ve even put out a photobook of her in the name of military journalism. Special makeup? Why even bring up that analog antique that no one bothers with anymore? Anyone would just alter the footage with basic VFX software.”

“…”

Karuta himself had added cat ears to Aine’s photo for fun. Whether you just wanted to doodle on a photo or do time lapse photography, specialized apps were easy to find these days.

Marika displayed the online news story on her phone.

“Look at Aine-chan’s hair. With her fine hair spread out like that in the bright sun, the light should be diffracting between the hairs. There should be a pale rainbow-like halation that you need to adjust the image yourself to even notice. But that isn’t present here. That means this footage is fake.” Marika stuck out her tongue a bit. “Although to be fair, I only know this as an amateur way to see if an action movie stunt was legit or done digitally.”

They didn’t need an eccentric detective or a forensics team.

A normal high school girl was enough to see through to the truth.

“A laser attack? That ''edgy'' announcer only pushed that story because she thought it was more entertaining. Have you already forgotten how Yukino Arakawa attacked us from orbit in London? Magic can indeed fire lasers, but that isn’t exclusive to crystal magic.”

He felt defeated.

[[Image:ApocalypseWitch_v04_bw5.png|thumb]]

She had argued him into silence.

“Maybe you’ve forgotten.”

Amaashi Marika brushed back one curly twintail and looked away before continuing.

The look on her face said repeating something so obvious was weirdly embarrassing.

“But Aine-chan is one of our group that struck back at the Problem Solvers. I don’t want to lose her any more than I do you or the president. So a little thing like this isn’t going to shake my trust.”

She was perfect.

She acted on pure emotion and that had brought her to the correct answer so much faster and accurately than Karuta who suppressed his anger and used logic as an excuse for his actions.

“So let me ask this again: what are you going to do after screwing this up so badly?”

“The fake video idea seems the most likely to me, but we have no proof it was Machibula’s people who sent Delane’s online show the phone footage. Questioning Delane about it wouldn’t accomplish anything since searching the data isn’t going to find the culprit’s name imprinted somewhere.”

“So what, you’re done trying? I didn’t realize the guy who pursued the Problem Solvers so relentlessly would give up at the drop of a hat.”

He hadn’t given this any thought since the idea hadn’t occurred to him.

But this new viewpoint did reveal some different conditions.

What device had they filmed it with, what app or software had they used to edit it, and what process had they used to upload the video to Cinderella Queen’s server? He doubted any of those questions would lead to new evidence. This wasn’t a bomb threat sent from an internet café. Security would be a lot easier if it was that easy to trace a signal or analyze the data.

But this method did have its own Achilles’ heel.

Namely…

“''Aine’s data.''”

“Continue.”

Karuta had started down a new mental pathway and Marika was following him.

“Marika, you said they could get material on Aine from all 360 degrees since she’s famous, right? But could you really get ''everything'' just from the photos and videos available through a search engine? I’m sure it depends on how you search, but if you just type in ‘Eiffel Tower’, you’ll get tons of photos, but will you really get data from all 360 degrees? Won’t ''almost all the tourists take their photos from pretty much the same place''?”

“You mean like how bird watchers and train obsessives will gather in a single spot and ready their cameras as a group? Well, even with selfies, everyone will probably end up with a similar location and angle if they can freely choose the best angle and timing for their shot.”

There were apparently photobooks of Aine and Marika as a kind of military journalism, but those would be the same. The more the pros were searching for the most photogenic angle, the fewer variations they would end up with based on the light source and golden ratio and whatnot.

“Those same restrictions would apply with Aine. If they really wanted their trap to work, they wouldn’t try to search out what they wanted on the vast internet. They would create their own material to make sure they had what they needed. For example…”

A buzzing like an electric razor passed by outside the window.

Karuta himself had used one of those in the first round.

Those drones were remote controlled by people on the other side of the globe who had bought viewer tickets.

“This empty area of ocean has an EM density as great as New York, right? Controlling those would require specialized antennas and servers. We’re out on the equator with no land nearby, so all the communications are reliant on the ship infrastructure. If they hacked the ship servers where all the drone footage and control data is gathered, they could spy on all the data from every single user. There are well over a million cameras flying around out there, so they don’t have to worry about getting the right angle or location. Combining all that data would easily give them 360-degree footage of Aine!”

There were no doors aboard Second Grimnoah that the Four Living Gods could not open.

They entered the off-limits room that was kept at 20 below. Large servers were linked in parallel there.

The culprit may have tried to hide all trace of their tampering, but one of the machines had white frost on it. The ethanol chemical they had used to eliminate any biological traces like fingerprints or spittle had frozen and left a trace of its own. There was also some small damage to the keyhole for the cover.

“Someone picked the lock. The actual key wouldn’t damage it like this.”

“You mean?” whispered Marika and Karuta nodded.

They wouldn’t need a key either. Using the process the phone-hating president had taught them, they pulled a flatscreen operating monitor from the large machine.

“We want to know where the hacked server is sending the data. They would need to receive all that data to set Aine up. If we know who it was going to, we’ll know who did it!!”

S19D15.

He checked the register to see who was staying in that room.

Guest Occupant: Machibula Delphi.

“Bingo.”

“It was probably actually Orpheus’s Orchestra staying with her, but she’s still guilty for letting them do it.”

“That’s not the real question. What are you going to do now? For Aine-chan’s sake, I mean.”

Marika winked and tapped the crystal blossom pinned to the chest of her isekai dancer costume.

She was already dangerously suggesting she would lend him her blade if need be.

But.

Karuta remained calm as he answered.

“Machibula Delphi is a tournament contestant. No matter what she has done, we can’t kill her outside the ring. Especially when we’re the ones in charge of the tournament.”

Those were the most basic assumptions here.

Those tournament rules could not be overturned or everything else fell apart.

If they gave into their emotions and broke those rules, it would only make Aine suffer more.

This event was meant to eliminate the people’ growing unease regarding crystal magic. They had proof of falsified evidence, but they had not yet rid the public of their suspicions that Aine had worked behind the scenes to determine Karuta’s opponent in the third round. If Karuta and Marika then broke the tournament rules to defeat Machibula in a surprise attack, those suspicions would only grow.

So Utagai Karuta’s suggestion was entirely in accordance with those rules.

“But the same can’t be said of her followers. ''Orpheus’s Orchestra isn’t registered as contestants.'' We can eliminate that priestess’s aides, leaving her all alone and defenseless.”

He could deliver the finishing blow afterwards.

It was his job to settle things with her in the ring.