Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume4 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 6===

Screams of terror erupted from the audience with a rhythm very different from the cheers of excitement.

“Wait…”

At first, Cinderella Queen simply stared from her gondola suspended from a crane.

She may not have wanted to accept what she was seeing. For as edgy as she claimed to be, she may have been a good person deep down because she could not handle watching blood and death like this.

“Is, um, something else happening here!? Oh, god, what is that red stuff!? Eh? Eh? Blood? There’s blood in the stands!?”

Terror and anger.

As the spectators tried to run for their lives, they ended up knocking each other over like dominos.

And red blood and gore rained mercilessly upon them.

In their fear and confusion, they forgot all about any money they had bet on the match.

Utagai Karuta also forgot about the damage to his body as he shouted at his opponent.

“Pendet!!!!!!”

“Barong, Rangda.”

The blonde ringlets dancer put the large headphones over her ears again.

She withdrew into her own world.

“How boring. Tear through those spoilsports. They’re getting in the way of my dance.”

“Spoilsports?”

Something dropped down from the sky above.

It was a thick man’s arm still holding some kind of specialized firearm.

That arm belonged to a sniper. Had he been hiding among the crowd? But if Pendet was with the human string pullers, she would have no reason to reveal and slaughter their perfectly hidden troops.

(Does that mean…?)

“''Are you not actually with the human string pullers''?”

“''Why would I have anything to do with them?''”

She had withdrawn to her own world of music using the large headphones, so she could not actually hear him. She must have only been speaking to herself.

But her complaints continued.

She had the look of a nervous performer whose first street corner performance was interrupted by a rude drunk.

“My Balinese Hindu dance has my body represent the structure and harmony of the world. I can see every part of the world just by moving my body. And that includes the wounds and disease afflicting the world. The human string pullers? Do they really think they can hide from the Rwa Bhineda that incorporates all things with no waste? Nothing in this world can hide its presence as long as it exists.”

“Wait! Then you…?”

She was not listening.

Pendet Denpasar charged straight toward him. Meanwhile, he felt a scraping sensation inside his gut. His wound had not been fatal and the regeneration process had begun, but if he took another blow to the gut, he would lose that body part permanently. Even if it was an internal organ.

“!!”

He recalled what Letnahe Kurent had taught him. He needed to focus more on his enemy’s means of defense than his own attacks. People could only use one form of defense at a time, so if he had two methods of attacks prepared, he had nothing to fear.

But he didn’t have time for that.

He could ignore the fast but light scratching of her nails. But the following kick required him to sacrifice his right arm to protect his gut. His paper-thin barrier was torn right through. He glanced down to make it look like he was aiming for her support leg before swinging his forehead toward her nose instead.

He found her sharp nails waiting for him.

She didn’t even need to do anything. The force of Karuta’s own headbutt gouged out his right eye.

Eye pain was a unique thing and gritting his teeth wasn’t enough to endure it. The bizarre sense of loss was more powerful than the actual pain.

“Gyaaaaaaahhhh!!!???”

He was not acting when he fell to the floor and rolled around holding his bloody eye socket with his left hand.

Which was why it made for such good camouflage. Still on the floor, he used his leg to slam his foot into the shin of her support leg.

“Not all truths can be shared verbally.”

She grimaced, but she did not stop.

It was easy to cause agonizing pain at the shin, but it had a very simple bone structure. That made it strong. Attacking there would not knock someone out or immobilize them.

“If you want a real conversation, why have you stopped moving? I have yet to tell you anything. …Barong, Rangda. Play. Close the circle for 360-degree surround sound.”

A whirlwind whipped up.

Barong and Rangda kicked at the floor with their mop handle legs. This was not the Saturn’s rings arrangement used to protect the dancer. It was much wider. They started by forming a massive circle and began gradually narrowing it down to trap Karuta and ultimately kill him.

The deadly bearhug was closing in.

Meanwhile, he heard some high-pitched cracking sounds.

They came from his own ruptured organ, his sacrificed right arm, and his eye socket. His serious injuries were regenerating.

Of course, a direct hit from Barong and Rangda would kill him instantly even if he was fully healed.

He had to end this before the circle could fully close in on him.

Pendet Denpasar had rewritten the rules to that effect. And that did not necessarily work in her favor. The slightest graze could be devastating for her as well.

“Pendet.”

She was not working with the human string pullers, so how did she know about that secret side of the world? She had divined the knowledge from the shape of her dance. Because if she did not provoke him into taking the fight seriously, the accuracy of that divination would fall. That was her only reason.

There was no hidden side to Pendet Denpasar.

What was it that dancer had said before they fought?

“Ohhh!!”

“Ohhh!!”

''“Get up here. Only so much of the truth can be conveyed verbally.”

Karuta charged toward her.

She only had to twist her body to easily avoid his obvious punch. She smoothly converted that twisting into a roundhouse kick, but he stomped on her supporting foot before it could land. Just as he thought he had her pinned in place, her nails slashed across his face. The primitive pain pushed fear into his heart and his stomping foot lifted just a bit.

''“If you want to know any more, then at least clench your fists.”

To her, a fight to the death was no more than a divine dance.

It was a ritual offered to a god in order to receive something in return.

What future did she want to see badly enough to fight the boy known as the world’s strongest? What scene required going to such lengths to even glimpse? Utagai Karuta had no way of knowing that.

''“The world should be overrun with answers that you can’t reach even after giving it your very best effort, don’t you think?”

They clashed a few more times.

Benevolent Beast Barong and Wicked Witch Rangda continued closing in while circling them, so that deadly tornado had nearly reached his back.

But for some reason, ''Utagai Karuta was smiling thinly.

This was an undeniably deadly battle. A moment’s inattention would get some part of his body obliterated. The tension was so great it seemed to alter his perception of time.

However.

This battle was not a gloomy revenge story. It had none of that crushing pressure, tearing fear, or boiling rage. Utagai Karuta and Pendet Denpasar were sending out their limbs, spinning their bodies, and tearing at each other’s flesh and blood, but that was all it was.

(Yeah.)

Maybe it was inappropriate to think this way.

Maybe it was wrong to abandon his own safety and put someone else’s life at risk when he didn’t have a motive burning at his soul to demand action.

But.

(Yeah, I’ll admit it. How could I even deny it at this point?)

“''This is fun,''” he said.

She still had the large headphones on, so she may have read his lips. Because the blonde dancer’s lips loosened into a smile.

“Yes, yes! Is this what pure battle feels like when you’re not dragging around any extra motives!?”

They observed their opponent, read their next movement, sent out their fists, and conversed through deadly combat.

Two forms of magic that considered themselves the strongest duked it out to see who was right.

Sweat flew and bodies danced.

The wild and rough ritual of adrenaline melted away the stress and frustration caught in his chest and converted it into pure catharsis.

If only all that vengeance had never gotten in the way.

If only the Problem Solvers hadn’t sunk the first ship. If only the human string pullers hadn’t set up their conspiracy.

He wished it could have always been like this.

He wished he could have fought against Aine, Marika, and even Kazamuki Gekiha like this. He also wished he could have engaged in pure magical combat with Elicia and Anastasia without needing to think so hard or fear he was about to die.

That was the kind of thrilling magical school life he had dreamed of when he first arrived at Grimnoah.

(Honestly.)

If things had been just a little bit different, could he have lived a wild but endlessly entertaining youth with all the others?

Pendet beckoned him toward her with her index finger. But this wasn’t a provocation and there was no malice behind it. She was inviting him to share her rhythm and beat while they danced as one.

(Funny that I was never any good in dance class and ended up looking like a cursed doll!)

“Ohhhh!!”

“Ohhhh!!”

Karuta’s fist and Pendet’s nails flew at the same moment.

They both had a belligerent smile on their lips. No, the girl was enjoying it more than him. She had the smile of someone seeing a drop of rain after a seemingly endless drought. Or the smile of someone having her prayers answered after sleeplessly dancing for her god.

After they knocked down each other’s attacks, Pendet tried to spin herself like she was breakdancing, but Karuta charged in to tackle her before she could get that started.

He did not hit her.

Once his weight was on her, she rolled backwards, pressing her back against the mat and lifting one leg high. And his gut happened to be pressed against the bottom of that foot.

It was similar to a tomoe nage.

Karuta’s own momentum was used to flip him upside down and throw him through the air.

With Barong and Rangda’s deadly encirclement already about to reach him.