Apocalypse Witch:Volume3 Chapter3

Status: Incomplete

2/6 parts completed

   

Chapter 3

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.”

Part 2

They were back in the floating general airport’s control tower.

“No, like I said in my report, we need to majorly rethink the risk presented by the Threat and- no, that is not what I am saying. If you would just look at Document #4495 I uploaded, you will see we must be cautious about using the Pinaka III because…”

Letnahe repeated her explanation again and again over her military smartphone.

President Omotesandou Kyouka shrugged and waited until the call was over.

Meanwhile, the redheaded buns Secretary whispered in her ear.

“Thank you for working such long hours for us. How about I use this time to change your socks?”

“Why? My feet are not swollen yet.”

“It is crucial that you give your feet some rest before you begin to feel it.”

The redheaded buns girl knelt on the floor without waiting for a response.

Kyouka smiled bitterly and lifted one ankle with her long legs still crossed. She could move them to an extent, but she still had difficulty with shoes and socks. This was not a normal Secretary duty, but she was still glad to have a subordinate who went above and beyond in looking after her.

She had not asked for it, but the girl gave her a massage while removing her leather shoes and socks. Her big toe and second toe clenched and unclenched in response to the stimulation to the sole of her foot, but then she heard a heavy sigh. Letnahe must have finished her call because she stuck her phone in her pocket.

The silver-haired brown-skinned wife turned toward Kyouka.

“It’s no use. They insist a special envoy is only supposed to convey their opinion, not present an opinion of her own.”

“I imagine so.”

“How can you just accept this?” Letnahe wrapped her left hand in her right hand and spoke with some barbs in her voice. “You’re the one that said we can’t expect a nuclear attack to work against the Threat.”

“Well, Letnahe-san. You don’t mind if I use your first name as a sign of affection for someone else who knows the truth, do you?” The President smiled while her kneeling subordinate put new socks on her feet. “I said I ‘imagine so’ because I know your higher ups aren’t going to change their plans just because they’ve been given new information. They had decided from the beginning they were going to make a nuclear attack. They would input the launch codes no matter the situation. They could always find some excuse or another: maybe you failed to contact them or maybe there was a mechanical malfunction.”

“But why?”

Letnahe blinked behind her glasses as she did a double take.

A nuclear attack was a big deal. If it succeeded, they might just defeat the Threat at the cost of a great many lives. But if it failed, they would only lose those lives and possibly more. It was a high risk, high return gamble, so surely the Indian Space Force would carefully recalculate everything if the situation changed, right?

Kyouka sighed before answering.

“Because they don’t mind if it fails.”

“Eh?”

“They have a plan ready for if they launch the nuclear attack and it fails. They have the rails set up so they can benefit even then. So they won’t recalculate anything. But they would have a much harder time if it got out beforehand that the attack would fail, right?”

“B-but that doesn’t make any sense! The entire country doesn’t want to commit diplomatic suicide, so why would they choose a path of failure from the very beginning!?”

“Strange, isn’t it?” The President tilted her head like a child. “But the fact remains that the coalition force has continued to take actions that clearly have no chance of success. Even you have noticed how unnatural it looks, haven’t you? The Indian Space Force is not incompetent, yet they are rejecting a plan that makes perfect sense if you think about it for two seconds. Why is that?”

“…”

“Do you want to know the answer? But your curiosity is strange as well,” smoothly continued Kyouka. “You’re an outsider here, so you could wait until you’re safely out of Japan before you puzzle over all of this. Are you worried about your Asian neighbors as a member of the Indian military? Or do you feel responsible as part of the coalition force? But this area is crawling with the real Threat and your allies could launch a nuclear weapon at any moment. To be honest, I doubt all those PR niceties really apply in a situation like this.”

“Well…”

“Do you have some reason why you can’t leave the country and think over it all while sipping at some tea? Hee hee. Yes, sorry. I know you could never do that.”

Letnahe looked up with a gasp.

The demon in a wheelchair smiled up at her like a child and did not hesitate to present the answer.

“Your left hand”

Her tone was innocent and thus precise.

She immediately attacked straight at the woman’s weak point.

“The ring is sensible enough, but that mobile watch makes no sense. It’s cheap and just not your style. In fact, it’s a men’s watch.”

Kyouka had mentioned earlier that it was an old model.

It was an antique from over a decade ago and the company had long since stopped supporting it.

Continuing to use it because you liked it did not work in this case. When the company stopped supporting an internet-connected device, it ceased to function. Plus, the military was strict about data management, so a soldier could not just sync something like that with their own phone. In fact, the phone she was carrying was a military model not available to the general public.

Yet she had made it all work.

If she had kept the mobile device functioning without the company’s support and manually solved any security problems that cropped up, then she had to be extremely attached to it. She would not have done that all this time if she simply liked its color or shape.

“Wearing someone else’s gift on the same hand as your wedding ring is rather impure, don’t you think? But you have a solid reason for doing so.”

There had been some hints scattered around.

For example, her age.

She had been familiar with the humidity and air quality in Japan in a way that suggested personal experience.

It was also curious that she had followed the President without needing any additional explanations when they discussed Crystal Magic.

Not to mention how she placed such emphasis on breathing.

She had a habit of holding her left hand in her right when feeling nervous, but she did not clutch at her ring when she did so. Her protective charm was something else that she had treated as a valuable and kept on even when she showered.

The President could deduce some things from all that.

“Your loyalty to the Indian military never really mattered to you.”

“Stop.”

“If you had remained in your comfortable home surrounded by your lovely husband and adorable children, you never would have been exposed to the danger of the Threat and a nuclear attack. What happens to Japan is irrelevant to someone living in India, right? Yet you traveled all the way here. To accomplish some other goal.”

“Please stop!!”

The enigma of Letnahe was all summed up by her left hand. She wore a ring on the ring finger and a mobile watch on her wrist. That unfaithful hand carried gifts from two different people.

The demon stated her conclusion to the other demon.

“Was Kiyosawa Hadome a friend from your school days? Someone you couldn’t forget even after marrying someone else? And now you wanted to get him away from this deadly place. That is your true purpose here, isn’t it?”

Letnahe Kurent’s knees gave out like she had taken a shot directly to the heart. A light beeping sounded from her mobile watch. It was a warning about her breathing and heartrate.

“You wanted to stop it from the beginning.”

The silver-haired brown-skinned soldier who had gone to such lengths to externally manage her internal organs had abandoned all of that.

Only Kyouka’s words filled the room.

“You wanted to stop the Indian Space Force’s nuclear attack. Why was it you tried to get a report on our plan? Were you hoping to use your viewpoint as a professional soldier to secretly correct all of our mistakes so you could convince them it was not yet time to launch the nuke?”

The military was the ultimate system of hierarchy where everything progressed according to a complete flowchart of yes or no questions. But that meant a soldier who knew what those questions were could prepare the data like a chess problem in order to keep the nuke from being launched no matter what.

She could prevent it from happening no matter how much the unseen string-puller wanted to hit the launch button based on emotion.

The President sighed softly.

“I don’t think you did anything wrong.”

“…”

“I’m almost jealous of you for living a fulfilling enough life to have to choose between your marriage and your first love. Knowing your desires is a form of guarantee. I know I can trust the current Letnahe Kurent who abandoned her military orders and comfortable family to protect an old memory.”

“How…”

This was not to protect someone or to defeat the Threat.

The soldier got out what little voice she could after having everything revealed and shattered by this teenage girl.

“How can you trust someone as despicable as me?”

“I can trust the purity that brought you this far, biting your lip all the way. Goodness and purity are not always one and the same. And I am much fonder of you for approaching possible death while biting your lip than I am of the powerful who can give a public apology like it is nothing. No matter how terrible a person you might be, I know you will never lie when it comes to Kiyosawa Hadome. Isn’t that right?”

She fell silent.

Letnahe Kurent sat blankly on the floor while covering her face with her hands.

Omotesandou Kyouka knew this soldier was part of the string-pullers. She was the wicked woman who had approached Natlena, set her up as an avenger, and given her a false identity to send her to Second Grimnoah.

But what had she thought when she realized Kiyosawa Hadome was on that ship? How about when she learned he was being attacked by the decoy Threat at that artificial resort in Iceland, or when she learned he was at risk of being killed by the real Threat or a nuclear attack here in Japan?

What if she was one of the string-pullers, but only one of their agents. What if she was not in a position where she could protest such a major decision?

Kyouka placed a hand on her cheek.

“Couldn’t you have taken just Kiyosawa-sensei away with you? Either by knocking him out or drugging him?”

“I couldn’t.” Letnahe sounded like she was casting a curse with her hands still over her face. “I just couldn’t. Taking only Hadome-kun to safety wouldn’t actually save him. I know him. It would utterly destroy him to know so many students had died on his watch. He could never be like us. It would break his heart.”

This anguish was something she had been unable to share with anyone in the military or in her family.

But another wicked woman could help ease the pain as her heart was being crushed by the goodness remaining there.

“Lieutenant Colonel Letnahe Kurent,” whispered Kyouka. “This is a question that can never be answered by sending it to your higher ups and waiting for an answer like normal. But you can find an answer if you take a bit of a detour.”

With both her shoes back on, Kyouka rotated her wheelchair around.

She grabbed the headset from some control equipment.

“All sorts of transmissions are flying around here and I can intercept them with this. But the random number table needed to decrypt them is another matter. Letnahe-san, you would have that table thanks to your position deep in the Indian Navy, wouldn’t you?”

The hands lowered from her face.

The soldier spoke not so much with resentment as with the tone of a sulking child.

“Are you insane? That might save the world, but it would make me a traitor.”

“It would. Which is why this is a request, not a command or a suggestion,” said the President. “But there is a decision you can make that will protect the person you came here to protect. You took the risk of visiting the target of a planned nuclear attack, right? All so you could stop that attack from occurring.”

“Couldn’t you attack me and take it? Maybe you can’t use Crystal Magic anymore, but you have plenty of hounds you could sic on me.”

Still seated on the floor, Letnahe looked over at the redheaded buns girl who was slowly standing up. She was a Grimnoah Crystal Magician and the President had made sure to keep her around during this conversation.

But Kyouka shook her head.

“That might be easier, but I won’t do it.”

“Why not!?”

“Because we are both the type to work from the shadows and we have shared our secrets here. So I will not attack you and make just one of us the villain. If you wish to do this, you must accept just as much responsibility as me.”

The soldier squeezed her eyes shut behind her glasses.

She clenched her teeth and looked up at the ceiling. She looked about ready to stomp her feet in frustration.

“Can you not do it now that your momentum has been stopped?” whispered the President. “Then leave Japan right this instant and leave your old regrets here. The Threat is here and a nuclear attack will soon be launched, so Japan is no place to hang around for no good reason.”

“I am the special envoy sent to provide a message from the coalition force as a whole.”

A quiet jangling sound came from her neck.

But this was not her dog tags. When she removed a thin chain from her neck, flash memory smaller than a tube of lipstick was pulled from her large chest. She displayed her resolve as the wicked woman who wore both a ring and wristwatch on her left hand. She tossed the flash memory to Kyouka while trying to shake free of her doubts by speaking.

“Whatever the Indian military might be planning, a nuclear launch is unlikely to benefit the coalition as a whole, so I must reassess some information.”

“Hee hee. You’re willing to go this far for the first love you couldn’t bring yourself to forget even after getting married and having children?”

Kyouka held a hand to her mouth as she laughed and she did not hesitate to continue from there.

“If this is discovered and the Indian military kicks you out, come to us. Second Grimnoah will hire you. At the very least, you will be closer to the center of the world here than with that coalition force.”

The two wicked women shook hands.

Letnahe knew she could never tell anyone about this and she could never again walk with her head held high.

Nevertheless, there was something in this world she wanted to protect.

Part 6

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