Failing Witch:Volume1 Episode4

Episode 4: Save a Definite Friend

1

“Eh?”

It began with a confused voice.

Viocia was still slumped down on the floor, not looking his way. She had gone limp as she simply stared at the utterly destroyed Moloch.

But it wasn’t over yet.

Myousou Yagoro refused to accept this ending. For one thing, he was a witch tutor. He had traveled all the way to a world full of magic, so why should he have to give up here?

That spring, he had seen a girl standing in shock after seeing her failure on the exam result board.

But instead of crying or lashing out when faced with that harsh reality, that lonely girl bit her lip, suppressed the tears, and chose to face the next gloomy year head on.

That was when he decided to choose her.

Yagoro had his own objective.

But more than that, he knew he couldn’t bear for that girl, who had something he didn’t, to be worn down by reality before she managed to get back on her feet.

“Hee ha ha!! Why are you getting all worked up over that scrap heap? Moloch’s completely broken and you still think you can ‘save’ the thing? Don’t make me laugh!!!”

“That’s it, don’tcha think?”

Arbamini cackled, but the blond boy snapped his fingers.

He couldn’t avert his eyes. They could never escape this crisis if they shut out crucial information just because it was painful to hear.

In fact, he needed to thank that witch for her wickedness and cackling. It was time to turn this around in a single blow.

It was time to prove that anything was possible with witchcraft.

“Moloch is broken. He’s a bipedal bronze statue, so you can smash up his body as much as you want – he won’t die. Now, which parts are broken? If we open him up, determine the source of the problem, and fix or replace the broken parts, he’ll be as good as new!!”

“S-so what?”

“R-right? In case you forgot, Moloch’s under our control because it ate the pomegranate seeds.”

“Hee hee. Fixing it will only give us another pawn, so that’s fine by us. We’ll make that ugly thing kill itself hundreds or even thousands of times if you make us!!”

“Again, that’s it, don’tcha think?”

The trio looked taken aback by his repeated response.

This time, they had no idea what he could be getting at.

“Anyone who eats the fruit of the underworld is bound to the world of the dead and can no longer leave. You’re right about that. But that only applies to ordinary humans like us.” Yagoro grinned. “But like I said, Moloch is a bipedal bronze statue. You say he ate a special fruit? But what does ‘eat’ even mean? If you put something in a box or pot, would you call that eating? Metal Moloch doesn’t eat in the sense of absorbing nutrients through a stomach and intestines!! No bronze statue can do that!!!”

Being different from others wasn’t necessarily a negative thing.

If you accepted it as part of what makes you unique, it could open new paths for you.

In this case, bronze Moloch could be saved when an ordinary person would have died.

That was undeniable.

Those differences were a blessing that should be greeted with applause and utilized to their fullest!!

“Don’t give up.”

Which meant hope was not yet lost. They could still repel this tragedy.

A single thin thread of light remained.

If they replaced his broken parts and removed the pomegranate caught in his joints, they really could save him this time.

“Didn’t you want to be his friend, Viocia!?”

Checking on every little thing was a pain.

He didn’t need to question it. He could make the call himself at this point.

A tutor’s job was to supply his student with all the necessary knowledge. He knew that. But before even that, he had sworn to himself he would show his student the way when she was unsure of herself!!

“It doesn’t matter if he’s alive or not or even if he never was alive. He still believed he had something inside him he couldn’t bear to have insulted, didn’t he, Viocia!? So don’t let it end here. Who do you think you are giving up on a friend’s possibilities like this? You decided you wanted to be his friend, so don’t give up on that just because it’s a little harder than you thought!!”

Someone audibly gnashed their teeth.

It was Arbamini in the red waitress uniform.

“That thing’s fine if he’s broken cause its bronze? The pomegranate curse wasn’t perfect? S-saying it doesn’t make it true.”

“The magic I teach my students isn’t so cheap. I didn’t teach you witchcraft so you could give up on something. I mean, didn’t you come to Temple School City to learn how to make the impossible possible? Isn’t that why you want to go to Maleficium!? Then use all the power you have. Viocia, what kind of witch do you want to be? Do you want to learn the kind of fashionable and clever magic that lets you skillfully avoid dealing with anything hard, abandon people in need to die, and live a happy life all on your own!? Like hell you do!!!”

A dull thud rang out.

That was the response Yagoro was waiting for.

Viocia still had her head lowered, but she worked her trembling legs to stand back up. She pressed the end of her Formula Broom against the floor to prop herself up like a cane.

And she raised her head.

When she was looking at what truly needed protecting, the girl stopped being a dunce.

“Teacher. If that’s true – if we can still save Moloch – then I’m through hesitating. In fact, I’ll do this even if you tell me not to.”

“You think you can beat us? Don’t be stupid, you failing witch!! You won’t even earn any real points on this practice exam after spending all this time dealing with Moloch. You talk big for a failure who isn’t on our list of people to sabotage or recruit!!” shouted Arbamini, red in the face, but Yagoro simply shook his head.

That wasn’t how witchcraft worked.

People didn’t have any convenient magic power inside them. All they had was their willpower. So no one was born a genius at witchcraft and no one was granted all the necessary abilities by a goddess. There was no easy mode for the witch entrance exam, allowing you to pass on your first try.

Furthermore, witchcraft was not so cheap that it could be wielded based only on exam scores.

What you needed was…

(The right situation.)

That wasn’t limited to magic. For example, how many people who passed a proficiency test in gardening or mental arithmetic could hold onto those skills forever? Wouldn’t a lot of people only remember it long enough to get through the special “situation” that was the test?

A professional always kept themselves in an appropriate situation and made sure to complete daily training to continually hone their skills.

And on a more emotional side, there were people whose skills could be temporarily heightened by the right situation. Like someone who could only play a video game at a certain level when trying to help out their struggling friend.

There was nothing wrong with being average.

Not as long as you ha the strong willpower to attempt the exam despite not having the skill.

Viocia’s broom demanded an estimated rank of S³.

So what?

Don’t arrogantly assume witchcraft can truly be analyzed as nothing more than arithmetic. Magic gives people dreams, so it isn’t that simple.

When she said she could still save Dorothea, she was relying on the fact that her tutor was there to help if she failed. But that wasn’t an option here. Which created an extreme “situation” where she had to act now or lose this friend forever.

Witches did not reject the desires that could instead drive them.

In a situation where you wanted to obtain something no matter what, harnessing that desire transformed it into the greatest fuel.

Not everyone who wanted to be a top-level witch had been an extraordinary genius from birth.

But everyone had moments when they could push past their standard specs and become a genius.

The girl could pull it off if she had the willpower.

(Now if only she could maintain this kind of focus.)

“Moloch, don’t worry. I won’t let anyone trample on your wish. I won’t let anyone laugh at you. I won’t let them make fun of you. …And please, my broom, lend me the strength I need to keep my word.”

Someone moved past Myousou Yagoro. It was Melehe Superlative who had gotten back up despite her injuries.

She was joined by another girl who was trembling but had never let go of her Formula Broom. Dorothea Rockpool. The two stood side by side and exchanged a quick fist bump. This had nothing to do with the entrance exam. Pouring their heart and soul into this wouldn’t earn them even one extra point. But it was written plain on their faces that they didn’t care.

In fact, the same thing may have been written on Yagoro’s face.

Viocia raised her head and her voice.

They refused to leave her alone when she was willing to say this with no hesitation whatsoever.

They were all with her.

“Formula Broom – Wittenberg!! Help me with my task!!!”

The pitch black broom roared and golden light slipped across the surface of its handle.

Even mysterious Mephistopheles, who had kept his silence until now, had responded.

Protect that feeling. Maybe he isn’t human and maybe he isn’t alive.

But, witch, save your suffering friend using awesome magic that is linked to all things.

2

The room was lined with metal tanks that may have been larger than carriages.

The place may have originally been meant to cook enough stew or porridge at once to feed hundreds of people.

The room was even larger than a tennis court. The broken ceiling gave it vertical space as well, but it would still be difficult to fly around on brooms.

For a normal witch, anyway.

The chocolate parfait of a sky pirate girl shot straight up without even an approach run. One of the techniques she had mastered in order to teach the witches of Private Striga was a vertical takeoff that lacked the usual approach run.

“Grab on!!”

She reached out a hand and grabbed someone’s hand, taking Dorothe and Viocia in with a chain of linked hands. Then she pushed her broom forward and accelerated. As seen with taking off from the diving board, no approach run was necessary when already in midair, even if they were just barely off the ground.

Viocia and Dorothea got their brooms flying too. Formula Brooms could instantly break the sound barrier but still turn as sharply as a bicycle.

“Convert the seven notes to nine and intoxicate the world here, Orpheus!!”

“Will do, milady. Yes, there is no greater music than helping those in need. And a clear goal is a wonderful thing!”

Melehe created whistle-like spaces with her left hand’s fingers and shouted when the water pump burst. The water that sprayed forth defied gravity as it formed several spears and shot out toward Arbamini specifically.

Blue Holibre and green Lampans intervened.

“Stay put, Arbamini! Holibre and I will intercept them! Don’t let her provoke you into flying!!”

“Right? Do they really think they can beat us when it comes to attack magic? This thoughtlessly launched attack isn’t a threat. We’ll blow away those water spears and send it back at her!!”

But that wasn’t the real attack.

Another voice rang out.

“Th-the Aspect of Amorality gathers wind power in the knots of the thread and releases it when the knots are untied. Eep. The first, a pleasant breeze. The second, a powerful gust. The third, a raging storm!!”

When no-bake cheesecake bandage zombie girl Dorothea touched her bandages, her willpower reached the stagnant air. A massive invisible sphere targeted Holibre who had stepped out front from a different angle.

Dorothea made it sound simple, but her storm summoning had required using the same magic three times. A normal witch would have gone dizzy from attempting it, but not her.

A student’s exam struggles, whatever form they took, became her power.

That included the dieting, jogging, and memorization Dorothea had kept up on her own.

A sulking voice spoke up. Coming from Formula Broom – Lyceum.

“Tch. Quit that stupid trembling. Adjusted assessment: you’re not half bad when you put your mind to it.”

At first, Dorothea’s eyes widened in surprise, but then she smiled a little. And she gripped her broom all the tighter.

Meanwhile, things were still happening.

“Fall back, Holibre!! Arbamini, are you ready yet!?”

“Almost…there!!”

Red, blue, and green. The trio in colorful waitress uniforms began to show concern in their voices. And someone else made a move against them.

The creaking of bronze shook the room.

“Moloch!? Don’t force yourself! I’ll help you, so please don’t break!!” shouted pumpkin tart witch Viocia by gathering strength in her gut.

Nevertheless, the fallen and crumbled bronze statue opened its torso wide. A beam shot out from the floor. The flames, heat, and shockwave expanded quick. Arbamini, Holibre, and Lampans all tried to escape in different directions, but they were all engulfed by the massive explosion full of orange embers.

Dust hung in the air.

Small pieces of the ceiling poured down. Any flight at all risked crashing in these conditions, so Viocia’s trio landed on the floor.

Dorothea nervously fidgeted with her broom.

“Th-they aren’t…fighting back? Eep.”

“Those three create one big magic spell between the three of them,” said Viocia. “So if one of them is knocked out, they can’t use their magic!”

“No, don’t let your guard down!” shouted Yagoro.

A deep rumble tore through the air.

Everything was blown out from within. Jagged metal and large rocks scattered about, so Viocia’s group quickly ducked. The rubble would have hit them otherwise.

“That wasn’t very nice. If we didn’t have a trick up our sleeve, we’d’ve been badly hurt.”

The trio emerged like nothing had happened. Arbamini, Holibre, and Lampans raised their Formula Brooms, pressed the ends together, and laughed as one.

Something crawled.

The fried shrimp braid, the twintails, and the ponytail swayed side to side with the movement of their bodies. Come to think of it, didn’t a witch’s long hair hold a special meaning in the Black Mass of the Aspect of Amorality?

Melehe gripped her broom with eyes wide.

“You’re kidding. All that and they aren’t even scratched!?”

With a tearing sound, the trio removed some kind of talisman that had been pasted to the handles of their brooms.

Then the three brooms spoke one after another.

“The first proclamation of the formless one: Nothing need concern you save for the Aspect of Adoration.”

“The second proclamation of the formless one: None of woman born shall harm you.”

“The third proclamation of the formless one: You shall never be vanquished until the old meal center to the hill outside of town shall come against you.”

“Ah ha ha. Made it, made it, we actually made it.”

A crescent-moon smile split across Arbamani’s face.

“Nothing can hurt us now. Which means you can’t possibly win!! We can take our time making you suffer before you die!!!”

(That was the witches that led Macbeth astray? That’s an alteration of the prophecies spoken through the apparitions’ voices, don’tcha think!?)

This was a guaranteed victory curse that made the target invulnerable through the combination of multiple conditions. But in the play, they had been truthful statements that were used to gain Macbeth’s trust and then lead him to his doom. Casting that one yourself was about as reckless as it got.

The next voice sounded out of place here.

“Right? Lampans, lend me your ointment.”

“Really? Here, Holibre. What kind of girl doesn’t have her ointment with her at all times?”

Yagoro detected a faint scent.

(That ointment contains scopolia, borage, and some other ingredients. As a witch ointment, that would be a thorough acceleration boost, but as big as this place is, we’re still indoors. They really don’t give any thought to the burden they place on their bodies, do they? Are they willing to crash full-speed into the wall!?)

Melehe shot more water spears every which way, but the trio didn’t even try to dodge them. Just by standing in place, the pressurized water weapons turned to spray and vanished. They all hit, but the trio wasn’t damaged. They didn’t even flinch or bat an eye.

“Direct attacks aren’t going to work!! We need to overturn the fundamental magic structure!”

“Oh, you fancy-schmancy prep school ace. Do you really think we’ll give you the chance?”

Arbamini laughed and twirled her Formula Broom in one hand.

Even Viocia readied her broom in response. She may have thought a powerful magic attack of light or darkness was coming. But she still wasn’t thinking about this on the right level.

The enemy had created a situation where they would never be vanquished or harmed no matter what.

“Viocia, Melehe, Dorothea. Can the three of you drag bronze Moloch away if you work together?”

“Teacher?”

“You expect us to retreat before they’ve even attacked? You don’t think much of our skill, do you?”

“Trick question warning: They can’t be harmed no matter what, which puts this on another level altogether!!”

Arbamini laughed and then spoke.

“Now, Formula Broom – Glamis.”

That curse eliminated all forms of bodily damage.

So no matter how risky the trick, that trio didn’t need to hesitate.

Which was why they gave no concern for the danger it presented to them.

“Witches who led Demon Lord Macbeth astray! Take control of my body!!”

A thick, massive explosion instantly changed the flow of battle.

3

The location itself audibly strained from the pressure. The several layers of dust cloud obscured the view, but there had to be cracks running through the floor and walls.

There was nothing Viocia could have done. Dorothea’s legs had frozen in fear and Melehe had to have been caught in the blast before she could work out a concrete countermeasure.

The trio’s invulnerability had only been the setup for accepting in a Voland and wielding its power with no risk to themselves.

Recall when Dorothea was manipulated by Demon Lord Aristotle. The prep school’s instructors and even Maleficium’s Benandanti had been powerless to defeat that monster.

The same thing was happening here, but what if a monster had found a way to retain control of her body?

So Viocia’s group had something else to thank for their survival.

“Was that you, Moloch!?” shouted Viocia, unable to get up and covered in soot and dust.

The bronze joints screamed in protest.

They were broken and falling apart.

But the joints remained connected by something like countless threads, they forced themselves to move, and Moloch – who had been feared by so many students as a killer pot – crawled forward to guard the fallen girls.

But this defense was far from perfect.

That giant was nearly a scrap heap already and he was unsteady. So unsteady he looked ready to collapse at any moment.

“Kee hee hee, kee hee, ee hee hee.”

Arbamini, with the red fried shrimp braid, slowly approached. Her vertical serpentine pupils glowed crimson, but something was different than when it was Dorothea.

It likely helped that Holibre and Lampans were magically supporting her.

Arbamini cackled with unhinged laughter, but she was still herself.

The human had taken control of the Voland.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes!! Who should I beat to a pulp first? I can wield even the most powerful magic without worrying about dying. A Voland? Power run wild!? So what!? Ah ha ha, none of it can hurt me. I’ll wield all this power and crush you all with no risk to me!!”

She had negated the magical risk. She had transformed the Voland’s uncontrollable power into a tool for her own violence.

Melehe kept her cool the best.

“We need to fall back for now.”

“But…but. Oh, I know. Teacher will do something about this.”

“We might could manage, but Dorothea is too terrified to last long! Not to mention Moloch who is bearing the burden for all our shortcomings!!”

The “snap!!” of breaking metal rang out.

It came from directly in front of them. Arbamini had arrived at the bronze heap that had been Moloch and mercilessly jabbed her slender arm into his body, which should have contained a scorching furnace.

She stirred up his insides and dragged them out.

She now held a red-hot metal pipe. Probably something like a bellows that efficiently delivered air to a fire. She held it in her bare hand, but she didn’t look remotely bothered.

It was Viocia who covered her face with her hands and screamed.

The panic of his initial defeat came rushing back.

“Ahhh, Moloch!?”

“Hmph, that’s not what I wanted. Outta the way, trashcan pot.”

Orange light swept through horizontally. Dorothea and Melehe both tackled Viocia to the ground as the giant bronze mass was blasted to the wall.

Melehe bit her lip until it bled, but she still kept calm and arrived at the optimal decision.

“Run away!!!”

Her vertical takeoff allowed her to take flight without an ultra-low-altitude approach run.

Melehe and Dorothea took flight at the same moment. Viocia was still being dragged along by the sky pirate girl. She kept looking back, shouting Moloch’s name.

(Kh!! But it has to be done!)

Melehe clenched her teeth. Flying so close to the floor caused the air compressed by her flight to push up from below, so keeping her balance was a challenge. And having a ceiling overhead made it all feel so different from normal. She felt like she was constantly flying below a bridge.

And…

“Melehe, o-over here! Eep. Hold my hand!!”

Ordinarily timid Dorothea spoke with strength in her voice. As soon as Melehe obeyed, her Formula Broom obtained a firm stability.

“What did you do?”

“W-well, I’m no good at flying fast and high. Eep. I’m better suited for the ground than the sky. Maybe because I do so much jogging?”

She had this backwards. This wasn’t about what she was “no good” at. This was a strength she had developed for herself.

Formula Brooms were meant to soar high in the sky. The ease with which Dorothea had mastered low-altitude flight was an overwhelming “weapon” in her arsenal.

“But, um. Eep. I-it’s so different when the three of us are together.”

“Yes. Even if one of us is just weighting me down back there.”

“Those three realized this a lot faster than w-we did. Eep. They must be smart, so why?”

Dorothea may have been asking why they only seemed capable of using their talents to hurt people.

During their high-speed escape, Melehe and Dorothea held an impromptu strategy meeting.

“We’re in serious trouble if they have complete control of Macbeth’s witches and the apparitions’ prophecies. That curse generally makes its target undefeatable no matter what.”

“B-but isn’t Macbeth a tragedy? There must be a loophole.”

“Either of you born through caesarian section?”

“Oh, right. Eep. That’s how the story goes.”

“Born from an egg or created in a test tube would work too. They can’t be vanquished by anyone ‘of woman born’, so they can’t defeat someone who was removed from her mother in a special way. So if none of us meet the condition set up in Macbeth, we can’t defeat that trio!!”

Sounds of destruction followed after them. The trio were invulnerable thanks to the witch prophecies, so unlike Melehe’s group, they didn’t need to make any minute course corrections while flying. They would occasionally bump into the walls or ceiling and sometimes break right through those things to take a straighter line in pursuit.

“Ah ha ha!! Run faster. Fly faster. A single hit from us and you’ll be in a real tragic state!!”

Several sounds of bending metal rang out.

A tremor ran through Viocia’s back just before some things flew rapidly after the fleeing group. They were a smashed-up three-legged dishwasher and a food carrying cart, ripped open from within. Each of them was a monster that had driven so many students to abandon the will to fight, but they also had to be items that had wandered the abandoned old meal center while carrying as many feelings as Moloch.

Mocking laughter stabbed into them from behind. From disturbingly close. Instead of standing still and working her violence, Arbamini had mounted her broom to pursue them while grabbing and throwing everything within reach. Ordinarily, her arm would have been torn off the instant it made contact.

“Ah ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”

“How…how can she do this?”

Viocia was dazed. She didn’t seem fully aware of the reality before her eyes.

Was that a fragment of bronze she was squeezing in her hand?

“Moloch is a big pot and he only wanted to feed everyone tasty food. The others are probably also only walking around the abandoned building looking for a place for themselves. So how can she laugh like that while she destroys them?”

“Viocia!!” shouted Melehe. “This violence will continue until we stop that trio. So are you only going to freeze up because you ‘can’t believe it’? All you’re doing is abandoning Moloch and withdrawing into yourself!!”

Viocia gasped and raised her head. She squeezed her Formula Broom tight once more. They were already at speed, so she only had to drift away from Melehe to take flight.

She had decided for herself to save Moloch, so she couldn’t give up on him now.

“Where can we make a U-turn!? We can’t leave him like this!!”

“We need to do something about the Macbeth witch magic first.”

“Th-there’s a big, multilevel room over there. Eep! Fly clockwise around it and we can return the way we came!!”

“Ugh!! This dunce of a witch is a pain even after she’s recovered!!”

Melehe complained, but she still followed after Viocia. They circled around the vast, cylindrical space and made their way back down the long, straight hallway.

“What now?” asked Melehe. “They’re monsters who can use the power of a Voland with no risk to themselves!”

“There must be something we can do!!” insisted Viocia. “We use witchcraft, which is so tricky you need to pass such a hard exam to learn more about it. There’s no way you can use a supernatural power so convenient it really makes you invulnerable, so there must be some kind of loophole we can use. The only reason we haven’t found it yet is because we don’t have all the information. So we need to keep at it until we have that information!”

Arbamini came into view down the hallway. As did Holibre and Lampans. They were riding their brooms straight toward Viocia’s group. Arbamini was out front and she had her arms spread as if in welcome.

That was when it happened.

Just before Viocia’s group crashed into them, Arbamini was struck by a powerful blow from the side, tossing her from the hallway into a side room.

Lots of crashing and exploding came from that room.

Something was happening to Arbamini’s trio. Something the Voland-transformed wicked girl hadn’t expected.

“Was that…teacher?”

4

Viocia’s group weren’t the only ones who were pissed.

He couldn’t bear to see Moloch disrespected any longer. And if that spell had overpowered even a Voland, he couldn’t let it be used against his student and her friends. No matter what.

“Give it a rest.”

“?”

“You damn brats!!!”

Myousou Yagoro threw everything he had into a blow from the side.

The metal pipe dragged out of Moloch, and later discarded, had stabbed into the wall, so he grabbed that in his hands and swung it toward Arbamini’s head with all his might.

He directly attacked Arbamini.

When she flew, she collided with Holibre and Lampans, taking them with her.

He had forcibly struck a witch from the side during her high-speed flight. As long as he didn’t care about the damage to his own body, that was a surefire way of causing considerable damage.

In this case, the trio broke through the outer wall and then through the window of another part of the building running parallel to this one.

“That worked well enough. Arbamini, Holibre, and Lampans need to form a triangle regardless of distance, so the last thing they want is to move independently and have someone attack them separately.”

He couldn’t fly like a witch, so attacking them had taken quite a detour.

But he had finally managed a counterattack.

Yagoro felt the powerful chill of the metal pipe in his hands.

(Thanks, Moloch, for lending me the strength I needed to help Viocia and her friends after you risked everything to protect them.)

“…Ugh…”

He grimaced and then the world seemed to tilt at an angle for him.

He had physically contacted a witch flying at speed. He had been holding the pipe in both hands, but the damage to his dominant hand had been serious. Something felt disconcertingly off in his right wrist and shoulder.

But he wasn’t done yet.

His body was slumped diagonally, but he used the bent pipe to prop himself up.

It didn’t matter how much of a detour it took. He was the one who had pushed his student to save Moloch, so he couldn’t afford to slip into pleasant unconsciousness now. Plus, he couldn’t let that trio get away with treating the bronze statue that way either. Even if it wouldn’t help with the practice exam and even if it wouldn’t improve his student’s score.

If she lost her desires, her hopes, and her dreams, passing the exam would lose all meaning.

He would make his way around to the other part of the building even if it meant limping or crawling there.

The battle wasn’t over yet.

5

“Teacher!!”

“Idiot, you need to eliminate the threat first! Even if we can fight these witches, we can’t protect your unflying tutor while we do it!!”

Viocia reflexively tried to go help Yagoro, so Melehe had to stop her.

“B-but. Eep. How exactly do we fight them?”

“If we can’t defeat them because of that invulnerability spell, we need to find a way around it! Maybe that means getting their feet caught in quicksand and maybe it means paralyzing them – I don’t know!!”

Their brooms let them fly around the cluster of buildings that continued to branch out complexly like a tree growing in fast-forward. These girls could easily beat the tutor to the large room he had knocked that trio to.

Viocia and Dorothea got Melehe’s help landing on the floor.

They heard a clanking sound.

The room was probably used to wash dishes and kitchen tools. The window was broken, the interior was smashed up, and Arbamini was embedded in the opposite wall, holding…something other than her Formula Broom. Pieces of the crumbling wall spilled to the floor along with a crystal flask containing a smashed-up wooden doll.

If they didn’t end this here, they couldn’t save their friend Moloch.

So they had to end it here.

The tutor had said he would teach Viocia how to make the impossible possible. He had told her they could still save Moloch and she shouldn’t give up on her friend so easily. Her grandma had told her not to go to too much trouble and her parents had been strongly opposed to it. When she told strangers she wanted to be a witch, they had all laughed at her. But her tutor had believed in her this whole time, so she knew she had to live up to his belief in her.

And she wasn’t alone.

Melehe and Dorothea also faced their enemy with brooms in hand.

Arbamini had destroyed several washtubs after crashing into the dishwashing room and now she was curled up by a broken wall, holding her nose and muttering to herself. Red blood dripped between her fingers.

She didn’t seem to be thinking about anything other than the tutor who had directly harmed her.

In a way, it was the purest possible reaction, which only made it more terrifying.

“Th-thad baftard. Who…who does he think is he is hitting a girl in the face!?”

Her red serpentine eyes wandered in search of a target.

Viocia realized something while she faced the girl who had taken in a Voland and remained in control.

Yes, something wasn’t adding up.

“Wait… The apparition’s prophecy was supposed to make her invulnerable, so why is she holding a bloody nose???”

“!?”

Yagoro must have figured something out.

He had already made the impossible possible.

And that wasn’t a special move only he could pull off. Anyone here could do it too.

Yes, that was right. Why had he attacked with a piece of Moloch instead of using that weird-shaped stick he always used?

“ ‘None of woman born shall harm you’,” muttered Melehe. “In the play, the loophole was that Macduff was born by caesarean section, so he didn’t count as ‘of woman born’.”

“Oh,” gasped Dorothea. “And Moloch is a cooking tool made from bronze, so he didn’t have a mother at all. So you don’t even need the caesarean section. Eep. The loophole for her invulnerability was right there!”

And in this case, Arbamini and her glowing red snake eyes weren’t what mattered.

“Holibre and Lampans,” pointed out Melehe.

“!?”

“The three of you can draw on such great power by having each of you handle one of the Three Aspects. An invulnerability curse capable of containing a rampaging Voland isn’t your average spell. So you two are the keys here, not Arbamini herself. If we remove your support, Arbamini will be powerless to stop the Voland’s rampage!!”

The blue and green witches quickly readied their Formula Brooms, but it was too late.

They were only just starting to fight, but Viocia had already started.

“The Aspect of Admiration. ATU 0500, the Supernatural Helper’s Name. The imp can wield the greatest power as long as no one can guess his long name of Rumpelstiltskin.”

“That girl… Does she think she knows how our Three Aspects setup works?”

“Right? She can’t do anything. They don’t even know our family names!!”

All witchcraft followed some form of logic. Usually regarding the Three Aspects. Macbeth’s witches weren’t enough. And as powerful as the Three Aspects were, they also provided a broad, shallow weak point to target.

Viocia Modestlucky was no longer a failing witch. Not in this situation.

She wouldn’t end this as an ignorant failure.

Because her tutor had taught her so much!!

“The Aspect of Antiquity! Faust was a tragic magician who had failed miserably at alchemy, but his life would never have gotten so bad if he hadn’t made a wicked deal with a demon. …That means the one thing all Three Aspects have in common with Macbeth’s prophecy is phony immortality. They’re all illusions created by pushing death away with a complex combination of conditions. So if we can take all of those away, you’re powerless!!”

Knowing how it worked wasn’t enough. Viocia had to put together her own Three Aspects magic to fight back.

The prophecy of Macbeth’s witches had already been defeated by the discovery that they could use pieces of bull-like Moloch since he was not “of woman born”. …For Viocia’s Aspect of Immorality, she decided to use the one that stole power away by making noise. For the Aspect of Admiration, she had a text in mind already. And for the Aspect of Antiquity, she chose Isis’s sistrum. That musical instrument kept the entire world in motion, which meant its sound could break free of a deadlocked situation.

Would that work?

Had she overlooked anything in her chosen countermeasure?

Viocia, Melehe, and Dorothea suppressed their nerves and raised their voices as one.

“ATU 0510a, Cinderella!! The bell signaling the ball’s end negates any and all magic, revealing the spellcaster’s original form!!!”

Viocia slammed a bronze piece of Moloch against the wall, producing a dull metallic clang.

That was all.

There was no massive explosion. No light flashed out and no noise boomed forth.

The silence felt strange.

“Bff.”

“Arbamini!!”

“Hey, Arbamini!?”

Arbamini doubled over.

She tried to calm her breathing but couldn’t.

“You used Cinderella’s bell? And church bells already have the legend of robbing a witch’s broom the power to fly. That’s a near-fatal blow for any magic that dresses you up to make you look more impressive.”

Arbamini honestly admitted its effectiveness, but she also slowly straightened up from her doubled-over position.

The serpentine red eyes shined and the Voland was still smirking.

They had failed to stop her.

“But did you forget? The official practice exam began after midnight, which means you can’t use the end-of-ball bell that rings at the end of the day!!”

Something exploded.

The one attack blasted Melehe to the wall behind her. It didn’t matter that she was Carraway Cs’s ace with a practice exam rank of A. Dorothea paled now that their trump card was gone. Something flew in from a different direction and struck the girl, knocking her to the floor. Her glasses came off and skittered across the floor.

“Melehe!! And Dorothea too!?”

Viocia was the only one left, but it wasn’t over yet.

The entire place exploded. The usually-necessary approaching run didn’t matter. She couldn’t see anything, not even an afterimage. She assumed Voland-ized Arbamini was flying around, but she was wrong.

“Ah ha ha. Pass it here!!”

“Right? You gonna try using a Voland too, Lampans?”

“Pass me the control. We’ll be here all day if it’s up to you two.”

Macbeth’s witches passed between Arbamini, Holibre, and Lampans. More accurately, they traded out who played the role with the red serpentine eyes. Witness reports of the Witch’s Sabbath mentioned a dance between the Voland and the witch using a broom. The tearing wind that was stirred up with a short delay revealed the great spiral being drawn around the poor victim.

She was beyond saving.

And since she couldn’t cover for the other two at the same time, she couldn’t ensure her friends’ lives either.

They were using some kind of projectile.

Since these were Macbeth’s witches, they may have been launching cauldron-boiled poison from their palms. But no matter what it was made of, simply being struck by a boiling liquid at ultra-high speed could be fatal.

Witches ruled the skies by flying at supersonic speed while remaining as maneuverable as a bicycle.

But that meant Arbamini, Holibre, and Lampans were capable of attacking with sufficient speed to bring down that kind of witch.

Masses of scorching death attacked from multiple directions at once.

But Viocia still didn’t give up. She worked her brains like never before.

Raising a shield of the ointment that protected her body during supersonic flight would be meaningless. They were just too destructive. Any attempt at stopping their attacks head on would be easily breached.

So…

(I need to throw off their aim! Lead them astray!!)

“It’s not…too late!!”

Viocia scattered wax dolls smaller than chess pieces to create around a dozen phantom copies of herself.

She wasn’t aware, but her idea was more like the Earth concept of a flare than chaff.

It was a miracle she had managed to come up with this idea and act on it in such a short time. Her tutor was stingy with praise, but he might have rubbed her head for this one.

It was instantly neutralized.

But not by revealing which one was real. The dozen phantoms were shot through simultaneously, rendering them pointless.

“Ah ha ha!!” laughed the trio. “Got any other tricks up your sleeve to try and save your life!?”

Viocia really was the only one left.

And it was obvious she had been left for last to fill her with even greater fear.

She had refused to give up before, but now her throat dried up.

(Te-)

Tears welled up in her eyes.

She squeezed her eyes shut and shouted for help she knew wasn’t coming.

“Teacher!!”

“Oh, pipe down. You don’t need to ask every single time!”

It really happened.

She received a response.

It didn’t matter how much damage he would take.

Myousou Yagoro actually thought he was lucky. If Arbamini, Holibre, and Lampans had split up and attacked all three students at once, he really would have been out of options.

But they had chosen to focus on Viocia alone.

So if he protected her, he could prevent any of them from being lost. For that, he was willing to offer them his battered and slanted body.

“Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

6

He always felt like he had been too successful.

It kept happening. He had been lifted up as a genius boy, but he had known that had earned him grudges from so many people. He should have only taken a one-man trip into space, but something must have gone wrong and he ended up here instead.

Was this Earth’s afterlife, or had he somehow been sent somewhere else altogether? Either way, he thought he might not have a place on Earth anymore since he was considered dead there. Someone was obviously hindering his attempts to return, but it was possible that was only someone taking pity on him after seeing him attempting the impossible.

He had no proof of any of it, but the possibility still made him tremble with fear.

But that fear was overpowered by his worry for the people he had left on Earth.

His mother. His sister.

The last thing he wanted to do was leave them hanging. Over and over, he had regretted leaving behind so many questions about his fate. If he had definitively died, they wouldn’t have hesitated to get a new start on life.

So he wanted to provide closure.

He wasn’t trying to return to Earth. Because there was something blocking the way between the two worlds. But he might be able to send a message. After all, Formula Brooms managed to sneak Earth knowledge past the goddess’s watchful eye and store it here. But what kind of message could he send? If he told them to stop waiting for him, wouldn’t that only make them more impatient for his return?

He never did find an answer there.

But if his current situation really was an abnormality, then couldn’t he break free of that halfway position by dying for real in this world? The end result would be no different from if he had died in that accident back at Earth. Then his family could start on a new life.

He pondered that idea.

He could see his life flashing before his eyes.

Meeting a glorious end while protecting his student seemed like a good use of this unnatural continuation of his life. The idea sorely tempted him.

He stood on the precipice of death.

He could sense it so clearly.

“But this isn’t over yet.”

“!?” “!?” “!?”

He rejected it.

He clenched his teeth and shook free of the deceptively sweet resignation.

If he evaded the attack with a sidestep, he would be putting his student at risk. Dedicating part of his willpower to defense magic would only hurt his chances.

He took the attack straight to the center of his back while covering for his student.

The high-pressure shot of poison felt as heavy as a bowling ball. The cracking of pressure damage came from his torso.

The sweet release of death rushed in.

But he still refused to take that easy way out.

Yagoro stood and faced the harsh reality once more.

He thought only of offense. He needed to eliminate the threat as soon as possible to save those future witches.

He knew he couldn’t return home and sending a message wouldn’t help. He was doomed to forever worry and trouble his loved ones.

But that was why he had to do this.

If he was going to repay those people for worrying about him, he had to find happiness in this world. He was only an empty shell or the dregs of his former self, but that girl seriously believed he could give her a future, so he couldn’t abandon his tutoring job before it was complete.

Which meant he couldn’t die yet.

He refused to die here.

“Lampans, pass the Voland my way.”

The witch trio weaved their midair courses together and then one of them shot out ahead.

The red waitress uniform meant the Voland was in Arbamini right now.

“Quit trying to act tough. You’re wearing some kind of armor below that sailor uniform, aren’t you?”

She was right. But armor made by combining parchment like a book wouldn’t even come close to protecting him here.

A line of red blood dripped from the corner of Yagoro’s mouth.

“But that’s all you have. You stopped the burns? Maybe, but it still hurt you. Macbeth’s witches can make all sorts of potions, so we have an intimate knowledge of how the human body works. You can’t even stay on your feet much longer, can you? …This next one will finish it. Because we’ll hit you with a rapid barrage.”

Yagoro smiled a little at the icy voice that contrasted the previous mockery.

Apparently Arbamini was finally taking this seriously.

Now, could he put the magic together quick enough? Viocia still had her broom. With that…

“Viocia…”

“Teacher?”

“Listen, you three weren’t wrong. ATU 0510a, Cinderella, was the right choice, so don’t beat yourself up over that. You just didn’t quite land on the right way to use it.”

He was a tutor, so he had to teach her this.

Drawing on all your knowledge and wielding magic to protect a friend had not been a failure or a mistake. It was a praiseworthy act that only a good witch was capable of.

The trio scoffed.

They had reduced themselves to ugly, despicable witches who could do nothing else.

“How stupid are you? You’re her tutor? If you’d only thrown out your silly feelings, you could’ve played dead and maybe survived this.”

“Right? Now, pass it here. I’ll finish them off, so could you give me the Voland?”

“Nope. It’s scarier for them if they don’t know who the finishing blow is coming from.”

Light blossomed wildly. It seemed at first like they had used invisibility magic, but they were only moving too fast to be seen by the naked eye. The trio soared and looped through the air. They spiraled around the pair like part of the Witch’s Sabbath dance. Both Dorothea and Melehe had failed to avoid that surefire dance.

What did he have to work with? What could he construct with it? The tutor boy knew the answers. So he forced his limp and bloody hand to move and grasp the baton that had fallen nearby. He planted his feet solidly on the floor littered with glass shards.

He couldn’t move anymore, so Viocia propped him up. He would protect that student no matter what might happen. He poured all his focus onto that situation.

He would not deny his desires. Myousou Yagoro moved his bloody lips to speak with his willpower behind the words.

“ATU 0510a, Cinderella…”

“Ah ha ha!! Weren’t you listening!? You can’t use the ball-ending bell anymore!!!”

A trio of distorted voices danced around him.

They surrounded him, weaved together, and then charged him at the same moment.

He could ignore all that.

“+1 point. We don’t need the ending bell. We need the (___)”

“?”

Viocia gulped in that moment.

The glass shards underfoot were so hot he could feel the heat through the soles of his shoes.

Yagoro twirled his baton and roared one last thing.

“I activate the (glass slipper)!! After the ball is over, the bullying stepmother and stepsisters tried to lie about their importance but had their selfishness revealed by that one item!!”

That was all. The illusionary power vanished, the trio lost control in midair, and they all crashed into the wall or the floor.

7

Let’s work together so we can all pass.

Arbamini, Holibre, and Lampans once had a friend they could smile and say that with. They would always gather in the same place to study. They would quiz each other on memorization questions. When they didn’t have enough money, they would buy a single textbook and share it until it was falling apart.

One day, they made a great find in a flea market. The wooden talisman was about the size of a playing card, but Arbamini noticed how unusually smooth the reverse side was. The surface had been covered by a thin layer of wax and an incantation was sealed within using the same concept as a phonograph. The discovery had excited them all. It resembled known incantations, but something about it sounded different. They speculated the gaps of the challenging musical scale had been filled in to reduce the difficulty. And if that was truly possible, it was bound to be useful in their practical lessons.

The practice exam was approaching. Everyone was desperate to earn even one more point.

They had all discovered the talisman together.

But it had only taken an instant for one of them to steal it away.

She had smiled as she walked all over Arbamini, Holibre, and Lampans, taken it away from them, used it to confidently attempt he Maleficium entrance exam, and vanished to heights beyond their reach. All that trio had left afterwards were the deep physical wounds and the humiliation.

The exam results were everything.

No one had listened to their pleas.

They had effectively been exiled to the worst of the prep schools, where the students and even the instructors told them it was their fault for letting a phony friendship blind them like that.

That set them on their current path.

Doing the right thing no longer mattered to them. They had just one goal left in mind: become even stronger than the stolen talisman, pass the rigorous exam, and make that bitch pay once they arrived in Maleficium.

8

At first, only a quiet crackling was heard.

Then the pile of rubble was blown away by a tremendous force from the inside. A pair of glowing red snake eyes emerged.

“Oh, oh…”

Arbamini roared while slanted diagonally. She seemed to be threatening her opponent with bloody teeth bared, but she also seemed to be protecting the other two lying within the rubble. Either way, that was not the face of an undefeated elite. Her entire body radiated the pressure of an animal afraid of feeling more pain.

“Oaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!”

A thought floated up in Yagoro’s mind. They were supposed to be Macbeth’s witches. Arbamini, Holibre, and Lampans always acted as a trio, but he realized something was missing there.

Where was traitor Macbeth himself?

“Was there a fourth?”

“Aspect of Admiration: ATU 0500. The imp Rumpelstiltskin demands my child’s life in exchange for helping with a difficult task. Aspect of Antiquity: Faust. That is the name of the man who met a mysterious and tragic death after carelessly making a deal with an unknown being. Aspect of Amorality: the witches who lead Macbeth astray. That trio of bewitching shades lures him to certain doom with sweet-sounding prophecies.”

Yagoro couldn’t help but smile a little when he saw a broom moving through empty air as if stirring an invisible cauldron and heard an unsteady incantation mixed with blood.

She was following the basic form. Even Demon King Aristotle, who fancied himself a wise man, had forgotten about the Three Aspects and attempted a brute force attack when he was pushed too far.

“The Three Aspects rotate to propel us toward a single goal. This ritual of death cares not if it used for good or evil.”

The fallen prep school ace glared at Yagoro.

Her breathing was shallow and she couldn’t hold her shoulders at the same height, but still…

“This is our power.”

The witch bared her bloodstained teeth and let a low, low voice spill forth.

Arbamini’s oxygen-deprived face was slanted as she thrust her broom handle toward him and roared.

“Macbeth’s witches bring about absolute ruin!! To life, to status, and to the will to fight! This is who we are. This is the source of our power!! Have you ever cursed someone as strongly as thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssssssssssssssss!!?”

Her resentment was like a solid shockwave.

Maybe Melehe and Dorothea were lucky they were unconscious on the floor. Yagoro could feel Viocia squeezing him tighter as she helped support his body that seemed as limp as a broken doll.

With a shattering sound, the colors red and black burst from the handle of Arbamini’s Formula Broom. Several magic circles larger than umbrellas were drawn out in the air, covering the space around her, and a pitch black power swelled out beyond the limit. Once it passed a certain point, the tip of her broom would launch the resentment and dark magic with more force than an arrow loosed from a drawn bowstring. It would be like a sudden downpour directed at Yagoro.

But a small smile was his only reaction.

He had gone through so much, but it was true he had never cursed anyone with such pure intensity.

“ATU 08510a, Cinderella…”

“Kh.”

He held his 70cm baton out as if in response.

While reaching his other hand around the nearby girl’s hip and pulling her close.

He released his final trump card.

“I activate the wedding. After passing the trial of the glass slipper, the pure maiden is wed to the prince, bringing her great blessings and happiness!! Listen up, wicked and malicious family, no matter how powerful your onslaught, you can never surpass and outdo this pure one!”

A torrent swallowed up and eliminated the approaching darkness with even greater force.

Something invisible scraped at the air, blazing orange. It looked a lot like a sugar sculpture, but it was in fact melted glass that shot from the tip of the baton. It burned away the incoming dark magic and rushed toward Arbamini.

“I trust your Voland strength to keep you alive in the 1400+ melting point of glass!!”

“!?”

A tremendous explosion and deafening roar fought for supremacy while the tutor boy distinctly saw a grimace on Arbamini’s face past the remnants of the darkness.

Did she envy him his ability to keep his morals and continue to worry about others while on the verge of death?

(If so, you’ve got it all wrong, don’tcha think?)

Yagoro had his own objective. On that day too early to call spring, he had reached out a helping hand to a girl who looked lost in front of the posted list of people who had passed the exam. At first, he hadn’t done so out of kindness.

(At the very least, I’m not as strong as you three who found a way to prevent any infighting because you didn’t want to walk the same path as the fourth.)

“Hey, Arbamini.”

They all wanted to pass together.

Accomplishing that by sabotaging everyone else to lower the passing line was absurd, but the tutor boy thought their solid friendship was something that surpassed logic and was worthy of respect.

And because they had something respectable that he did not, he wanted them to enter a beautiful and friendly rivalry with Viocia.

He wanted them all to compete against each other so they could all improve.

But that meant thoroughly tearing down their ugly wickedness here.

Do not deny your desires.

If he wanted to call himself Viocia’s tutor, he needed to trust in himself and do what was in her best interest.

And that meant changing that trio’s “situation” before they traveled any further toward the darkness!!

“This is magic. Study enough and you can find the answer!!!”

Did his words reach them even as they were drowned out by the cacophony of destruction?

The muddy orange stream burned away the deadly power and slammed the Voland-tamer girl into the wall.

Today’s Quiz 4

Viocia: Teacher…

Yagoro: I know lot has happened, but you need to learn what you can from that trio.

Viocia: Maybe, but we’re still in the middle of the official practice exam. And this is actually the second quiz you’ve given me during it.

Yagoro: I wasn’t asking for complaints. Now, this time the hints were scattered around the old meal center. And not just in this area. You should return to where I first entered the building too.

Question: Fill in the blanks to explain what magical methods the human Myousou Yagoro used to defeat Arbamini and her powerful attack magic. (10 points per blank, 100 points total)

First, the Aspect of Admiration. Needless to say, I used ATU (___)a – in other words, Cinderella. Specifically, the part that happens after the (___) fits perfectly on Cinderella’s foot. The wicked women have no role after that. But the spellcaster is an almighty and untouchable figure in this story, so I had to make sure I didn’t draw on that part. The key was to have the trio correspond with (___).

Next, the Aspect of Amorality. I referenced the story of Isobel Gowdie. When leaving for the (___), she placed her (___) in her (___) so her (___) wouldn’t suspect she was gone. But you have to be careful with this story because she used her broom to avoid or repel danger, not to fly.

Lastly, the Aspect of (___). I used a dreamcatcher. The Be Silent Spell Bottle would have worked too. A dreamcatcher is an (___) you hang by the window to catch bad dreams. If it can easily stop formless malice and (___), it can physically defend against them, don’tcha think?

The end. Any questions, Viocia?

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