Apocalypse Witch:Volume4 Chapter3

Chapter 3

Part 1

First thing in the morning and he was already getting beaten up.

“I see you can sense a grab coming with your instincts instead of your conscious mind. That’s good. Your reactions are a little too blatant, though.”

“Ugh…”

“God, how can I hit you this many times and still none of it seems to sink in?”

In their secret base located directly below the heliport where the tournament was being held, Letnahe (the overheated and frustrated young wife in glasses and workout gear) spoke to him, looking entirely composed.

She had already slammed Karuta to the hard ground and twisted his wrist to get him in an armlock. She had easily broken through his paper-thin barrier.

“I didn’t get much sleep,” said Sandbag Utagai Karuta like it was an excuse.

He had been woken that morning by a deafening boom and a violent tremor. They were sparring in the surprising blind spot located directly below the heliport, but the place was unrecognizable.

It looked like a solid waterfall made of steel and rebar.

The round, platelike heliport had collapsed and sent large pieces of rubble pouring down to this level. They had been lucky that it had poured past the ship’s railing and into the sea. Karuta was truly thankful none of the audience had been killed.

(How did someone do this to the tournament site?)

Letnahe glanced over at her smartwatch to check her heartrate while holding Karuta in her armlock.

“I heard it was over instantly.”

“And that’s who I’ll be facing in the finals if the next match goes well.”

But there was no point in worrying about that right now. He had to focus on his semifinal this afternoon.

Fortunately, Second Grimnoah was a three hull ship with the school buildings split between the Sub Category and Main Category. One of the heliports had been destroyed, but the tournament could continue using the heliport above the other school building. The staff was working madly to get the seats and cameras set up there.

“Like I said, your movements are too blatant. Knowing how to respond to a grab is useful, but if you flinch at every single attack, a simple feint will be enough to take you out with ease.”

“You say that, but the only way to know if something is a real attack or a bluff is to think about it. If I do that, I’ll be slow to react and take a blow to the face.”

“And I’m saying that assumption is wasting your speed. Keep in mind that your body can’t move while you think and you will be hit by an attack while your body can’t move. Now, hurry back onto your feet. I’ll keep hitting you until your body learns how to move on reflex.”

Karuta was growing more and more impressed that he managed to defeat the Problem Solvers and the Threat. Did this just prove how much he had avoided fair battles and stuck to cheap shots?

Still, things were somewhat different from the first day.

It didn’t happen often.

But from time to time, like some kind of mistake, he actually managed to get an attack in on Letnahe. He was no longer losing every single time.

Except…

“There!!” shouted Karuta, but Letnahe’s low kick was a feint and she managed to grab his collar and lift him onto her back.

Then she made such a perfect shoulder throw it could have been used for a tutorial video, but Karuta intentionally shifted his center of gravity to the side. That sent a dull pain shooting through her fingers. He had twisted his collar, applying a twisting force to her fingers. Her smartwatch played an alert.

This was only practice, so he could not twist to the point of breaking her fingers.

And in exchange, he lost his balance and landed unnaturally on his shoulder instead of on his broad back. The impact was concentrated on that one point, sending pain through his bone.

Letnahe held her hand with the other one and grimaced, but she seemed more worried about him.

“Y-you’ll break a bone landing like that!”

“I know. But breaking my shoulder isn’t fatal.” He smiled. “I can regenerate any injury in only 30 seconds, so I need to take advantage of that. Of course, I can’t let my opponent know I need to protect the crystalized body part during the recovery period, but it means a lot that these near-suicidal attacks leave permanent damage on them but not on me.”

“…”

“Hm? Is something wrong, Letnahe-san?”

“No.”

She did not take his proffered hand and got up on her own. She was not looking him in the eye and seemed to be changing the subject when she spoke again.

“This is troubling, isn’t it? An accident outside the ring.”

“I heard their waiting room fell while the tiltrotor was carrying it to the ring.” Karuta sighed. “Machibula Delphi. That accident won her the second round, so she obviously benefited the most. But it seems she has an alibi and everything.”

She used Greek astrology.

That was a popular enough form of the occult to have a section on the morning news, but it was unclear how exactly she converted that into something deadlier than guns or blades.

Letnahe wiped the sweat from her brow with a towel and sipped some sports drink through her bottle’s straw.

“Will you be okay? Isn’t she your next opponent?”

“I really doubt she would try to knock me out with an accident.”

Two unnatural accidents in a row would be a risky gamble.

Plus, all of the tournament contestants were fighting these deadly battles because they wanted official recognition that their power had defeated crystal magic. If he was taken out without stepping into the ring, she might not take home that trophy she wanted.

However…

“That doesn’t mean nothing will happen though, does it? She only has to trip you up enough that you can still fight but she gets an easy win.”

“True…”

But how exactly would she accomplish that?

To repeat, crystal magic gave him a regeneration power. That preset ability would heal any nonlethal injury in 30 seconds. So with him, she couldn’t injure him before the match to give her an advantage.

…Am I being naïve?

Maybe he didn’t realize how far someone could go if they felt trapped. (However strong he really was,) Utagai Karuta was considered the world’s strongest and that title would place a lot of pressure on the challengers. If someone was willing to do anything to win, how far would they actually go? Had he failed to consider that because he had started looking down on them all at some point?

That was a problem.

What had Karuta himself done to the Problem Solvers in a similar situation?

“Well, my match isn’t until the afternoon. The third round is the semifinals, so there are only two matches today. I still have time, so let’s take it slow and think this through, Letnahe-san.”

“That also gives her more opportunities to attack you before the match. It might be better if you could just get it over with this morning.”

Part 2

“Cinderella Queen here! Out of respect for the Japanese-style seaside restaurants, I’m wearing a bikini apron today! If one or the other strap was going to come undone, would you want it to be the bikini or the apron? Now, it’s time to introduce you to today’s matches!!”

“Sigh. You only say that because accidents like that scare you so much.”

“Silence, assistant! No analyzing my motives on the air. Besides, I’ve never been afraid of accidents.”

“You say that, but you’re the one that barged into the program organization office and made a scene, demanding they didn’t air the part where you wet the sleeping bag during that camping project. If only you weren’t so cute, I might blame you for getting yourself kicked out of the TV industry for that one.”

“Gyahh!? Shut up, shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup, assistant!!!!! None of that is true! Stop spreading fake news!! A-a-a-a-anyway, the third round is this tournament’s semifinals. Ha ha. Eh heh heh. We have one match this morning and one in the afternoon, so make sure you stay glued to your screens and witness this historic moment with the cutest queen on the planet☆ Assistant, I am murdering you the instant this stream is over!!!!!!”

“Yamanen,” said Karuta.

He was away from Aine.

After his morning training was complete, he walked past an LCD monitor set up in the hallway and peeked inside his own classroom. They were running a restaurant too, but he was too busy with the tournament to participate. He hadn’t even been told what they were serving.

He took a look inside the classroom decorated with streamers and cellophane.

“Wow, that is quite a smell. Is that habanero?”

“No, no, no. We’re four generations of selective breeding past that, you ignorant fool. This is our super-spicy seafood curry. It’s free.”

A small boy in a light green (or maybe yellowish-green?) kimono staggered out of the classroom. Wasn’t that Omotesandou Shouka, the president’s brother? And how did even his hat look down for the count?

There had to be more to this.

The ingredients weren’t free and then there was the labor that went into preparing the food. He knew his class better than to think they had volunteered to give food away out of the goodness of their hearts. Yamane Deiri answered his skeptical look with a shrug.

“But a glass of ice cold water will set you back 500 yen. We were hoping the starving athletes would come in, chow down, and spend a fortune, but it’s not going so well.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He could tell they had even mercilessly gone after Shouka’s elementary school allowance. He could guess the entire class was channeling the spirit of a crooked festival game runner, but Karuta made a mental note to get the boy’s money back before the president said some truly frightening things with a smile.

Yamane Deiri breathed a heavy sigh and shook his head.

“It’s that sexy dance teacher, Kurent-sensei! We worked together to come up with the perfect money-making scheme, but now we’re in the red after that real Indian locked onto us. Can you believe it? We dumped in a ton of crazy peppers so spicy a grove of them is supposed to protect you from a tiger, but she hasn’t ordered a single glass of water. And she criticized it for being nothing but spicy!! She even started giving us advice on spice mixtures that would soften the aftertaste!! C’mon, that’s not the point! We’re trying to rip people off, not make good food! Ugh, and she keeps ordering more free plates, putting us further in the red!!”

(How are you losing that much money on curry when you can just make a single big pot of it? What kind of super rare peppers did they buy? Online shopping can be a scary thing.)

Despite his complaints, Yamane Deiri seemed to be enjoying himself. He loved older girls, so he likely enjoyed all this attention from the teacher. …Which also meant he wasn’t the type to care at all about the ring on her finger.

Karuta lowered his voice.

“Anyway, do you think you can manage what I asked you?”

“Why are you asking that now when you already paid up front? With Amaashi Marika, I mean. Now, I don’t get it at all since I’m into older girls, but lending us one of the strongest has been giving us a lot more customers. We’re still in the red, but the Kurent Recession would already have bankrupted us without the Amaashi Waitress Effect.”

Karuta took another peek inside the classroom and saw the curly twintails girl dressed in a skimpy dancer outfit and surrounded by the class’s girls. Since this was a curry shop, were the waitresses dressed in an Indian-style sari? It had been heavily customized and left her midriff bare, so it looked more like something from an isekai fantasy. It made her look like a model doing a photo shoot or fashion show, so the design was popular with the girls as much as the boys.

(What is this place? It’s turning into a power spot where you can see the world’s strongest in person.)

Marika may have been perfect for the job since she loved attention, but Karuta wanted nothing to do with it. Public appearances always made him so nervous it had to be bad for his heart. But a lot of the audience(?) was satisfied with seeing the famous girl from out in the hallway because they left instead of taking a seat.

Yamane Deiri shrugged.

“So you want to know about Machibula Delphi? The entire class is working to secretly research that sneaky bitch who somehow took her opponent out outside the ring and passed it off as an accident. And if she’s willing to do that, why should we hold back? We’re doing everything we can find her weakness. It would stand out if you did it yourself, so leave all the behind-the-scenes research to us.”

“Thanks, but will you be okay?”

“The world’s strongests aren’t the only ones who fought the fake Threat at the Crystal Beach and the real one at Second Grimnoah and lived to tell the tale. We can handle being your opening act. And I think you’ll be satisfied with the results.”

Yamane Deiri winked and smiled before shoving a plastic sleeve full of paper against Karuta’s chest.

As the “opening act”, they had apparently written up a report on the previous day’s accident.

This was not a game of telephone. By compiling it into a single document, they would have worked out any discrepancies between witness accounts, so he could trust this information from his classmates. Karuta kept to the side of the hallway to not get in people’s way while he flipped through the document.

• The “accident” occurred yesterday preceding Round 2 Match 3 shortly after 1 PM. While the waiting rooms containers were being carried in by tiltrotors, the metal wires snapped and the entire room dropped to the heliport 7m below. Hattori Shizuku’s right wrist and ischium were broken, requiring two months of recovery time. She was forced to forfeit the match.

• The tiltrotor and waiting room container underwent a regular inspection that morning and was inspected a second time just before Hattori entered the waiting room. Both inspections showed no issue with the wires or clasps. Assuming the records have not been tampered with and no employees have been bought off, the sabotage must have occurred after that, when the tiltrotor was ascending and the container was suspended by the wires.

• The actual damage was to the wire attached to the container’s front right corner. It is thought the one wire snapping altered the weight distribution, causing the others to snap in a chain reaction. There is evidence that the metal clasp was burned away by a great heat. A natural heat increase from a twisted wire or friction could not have caused this. And since no one could have physically contacted the container after it was lifted into the air, a slow-acting incendiary chemical or powerful acid could have been applied in advance, or a laser could have been fired from long distance.

“…”

(A laser?)

Then a cheerful voice reached him.

“Hey, handsome. Table for one?☆”

“Huh? Hey, wait, Marika!?”

Karuta looked up in shock to see the isekai dancer waitress had emerged into the hallway and captured his arm. And with smile, she got him in an armlock in order to drag him toward the nearby door.

Yes, into their class’s ultra-spicy curry shop.

Afraid what she would do to his wrist, he didn’t dare tell her his elbow was touching something awfully soft. Still smiling, his childhood friend whispered to him.

“(You’re scaring away our customers by standing at the entrance with a big frown on your face. Don’t forget that we’re officially the world’s strongest, skinny boy.)”

“No, wait! I’ll leave, I’ll leave, so just let me go! Ow, ow, ow, ow!?”

“I will break your arm. I’m not exactly pleased that I’m the only one out here using her body to drive up sales, so you’re going to play your part too. Shouka-kun claimed he could handle anything after his sister’s spicy homemade curry, but that didn’t last long. So we need you to eat some of that red hot curry rice while going on about how it isn’t spicy at all and how it’s so good you could eat plate after plate of it.”

“Um, Marika? I am relieved to learn that you aren’t cruel enough to go after an elementary schooler’s allowance, but you’re my childhood friend. I know you know I can’t handle anything remotely spicy.”

“Surely one of the Four Living Gods who can go head-to-head with the Threat isn’t going to cry over some amateur curry, right? And we need to end this Kurent Recession. She showed up wondering what Japanese curry rice was like compared to the authentic Indian stuff and then she wouldn’t stop ordering more free plates of it! I refuse to accept that a restaurant with me as a waitress can lose money!!”

Part 3

He had a match coming up, but his lips were all swollen.

What if his opponent targeted that weak point?

“U-ugh…”

The light-green kimono boy Omotesandou Shouka called out to him in one of the giant ship’s hallways. He used both hands to hold an apple juice box he had bought at one of the vending machines set up in the hall during festivals, but his slender shoulders were still drooping.

“My tongue is still burning. You really are the world’s strongest, Utagai. How did you polish off that plate of curry so easily? I couldn’t even get through half of mine. And I thought my sister’s curry had prepared me for anything…”

Karuta did not want that to be why he was known as the world’s strongest. Also, he had lived with Omotesandou Kyouka in an RV while they were hunting down the Problem Solvers and, if anything, she had a sweet tooth. He recalled Marika complaining that her curry had milk in it. It sounded like Shouka was spoiled by his sister. The loving big sister was a surprising side of her for Karuta who only knew her as a strategist and avenger.

“Sacri-sama.”

Meanwhile, Aine returned.

Shouka must have expected the two crystal magicians would be talking about something he couldn’t understand, so he doffed his hat and politely bowed before taking his leave. The elementary schooler was more considerate than most adults Karuta had met.

Karuta waved goodbye and Aine tilted her head before speaking within the noisy hallway.

“I have checked with Cinderella Queen and Miss Kyouka as planned. They say the starting time of your match will not change at the last second this time since there are only two matches today.”

“I see.”

Karuta beckoned Aine over to the wall where they could talk without getting in the way of the small children attempting the stamp rally spread out across Second Grimnoah’s entire 600m length.

“I had time left for some surface-level investigation of Machibula Delphi. She appears to have some unique traits.”

“?”

“Ordinarily, contestants stay on Second Grimnoah and all other visitors stay on the cruise ships. Trainers and coaches are no exception. But Machibula has been granted an exception, so a few servants she calls Orpheus’s Orchestra are staying with her. The exception was granted because she has been raised as a priestess, cut off from the world since birth, so she does not know how to look after herself.”

“So even if we’re watching her, the others can be committing all the sabotage they like?”

“Yes. In that case, we might not detect a lie in Machibula herself even if we are monitoring her temperature, pulse, eyes, and breathing. Orpheus’s Orchestra may be acting on her behalf without her directly instructing them to.”

How could she be complicit when she wasn’t even aware of it? It was a common defense used by the powerful. And since she had so many servants looking after her, apparently Machibula Delphi lived a traditional Ancient Greek life in this modern age of smartphones and the internet. And that included the emperor and the slaves.

Then Karuta heard a footstep.

“Sacri-sama.”

“No.”

It was obvious what that sudden word of rejection meant.

“Do not attack her. A conflict outside the ring will only work against us.”

He saw fluffy blonde hair worn at hip length.

Bright skin reflected the light and the loose-fitting white priestess robes had so many openings he was seriously worried she might not be wearing any underwear. She only wore leather sandals on her feet. No socks or stockings.

She wore a luscious laurel wreath on her head.

The woman of about 20 looked like she had stepped right out of Greek mythology. Or if you weren’t familiar with that religious background, you might identify her as the goddess of the fountain in a picture book.

“Machibula Delphi.”

“Nice to meet you.”

She silently held her right hand out to the side.

Three women stood around her like her shadow. They all wore tattered black dresses and produced a jangling metallic sound when they moved. That was thanks to a brutal collar and shackles and the thick chains attached to them. They also had long, loose chains connecting their legs.

(Is that Orpheus’s Orchestra?)

“Collars and chains?”

“My, my. I think this gentleman is interested in you, Kildna.”

Machibula had cut herself off from the world but still lived a comfortable life. That priestess could not look after herself, so these servants did so instead.

Orpheus’s Orchestra.

If Machibula had not held her hand out to stop them, what would they have done for that priestess? They had clearly been trained to the point they would not complain about being chained up and managed by shackles and collars.

(Including the emperor and the slaves, huh?)

Karuta was not so full of himself that he thought being the world’s strongest gave him the right to judge entire cultures or civilizations as right or wrong or that one was better than another. But it still felt intensely wrong to see the system of slavery continuing in the current age.

“It would seem my previous opponent was caught in an unfortunate accident, but I am not going to rejoice at this unexpected windfall. Second Grimnoah is the one managing this tournament, correct? You need to ensure our safety better than this.”

“Don’t bother, Machibula. Just so you know, we know a thing or two about deception and sneak attacks. Try as you might, our match will begin as scheduled. You can’t stop me with sabotage.”

“Oh? What an odd thing to say. Could this be a difference of opinion? Your implications are not at all in line with what I heard happened.”

“What…are you talking about?”

“Simply put.” She placed a gentle hand on her cheek and tilted her head. “I was under the impression that it was you who laid a trap for us.”

The change started at the wall.

An LCD monitor had been installed near the ceiling for the event and an internet TV stream was playing.

“Hello, hello, hello! Are you ready for the midday news from everyone’s girlfriend Delane? A-and I’m not doing this just cause I’m lonely after only having the one match to commentate this morning! Ahem. Now, the latest story relates to yesterday’s accident. Supposedly, they’ve found evidence it was intentional.”

The fact that they were going with a story requiring a “supposedly” qualifier showed how loose the standards were for an internet-based program.

But.

What did that matter?

Machibula was the one who had gained the most from the supposed accident since it got her to the third round without needing to fight. So why did she look so confident if her crimes were coming to light?

However.

That view of the situation was instantly overturned.

“This information comes from all of your posts, so we can’t help it if the phone camera footage doesn’t fit the screen. But pay attention to Zone A4 on the second floor. Maybe it’s too blurry, but you can at least tell there’s something of interest there, can’t you? Now let’s pause this and zoom in.”

Karuta noticed something odd about his own body.

He was sweating. His short sleeve dress shirt felt gross clinging to his skin. But he had to wonder why he was sweating inside the air-conditioned ship.

“Keep in mind, everyone, that only a crystal magician could fire a laser capable of severing the wires holding up the container.”

His breathing had grown shallow.

The amount of oxygen you were getting affected the flexibility of your thoughts, so it was not just superstition that stopping and taking a deep breath could help. But that also meant your breathing grew faster and shallower when you were extremely tense or angry.

“And it goes without saying that the most powerful of the crystal magicians are the Four Living Gods.”

The conditions were torn down one by one.

Karuta could have managed if he were the one at risk here, but he could tell the rails had been switched over at some point.

“And which one of them has long silver hair and a white dress?”

That settled it. The enemy’s next move had already begun.

An icy death sentence was being passed on a certain girl in this festive hallway full of cheerful people.

“And let’s not forget the katana. Ah ha ha!! Was I a little too cruel this time?”

“What did you do,” he growled.

“Who says I did anything?” replied Machibula.

“What did you do to her!!!???”

“Kildna, wait, sit. Don’t worry. He won’t bite me outside the ring☆”

“This really, really looks like Aine of the Four Living Gods, doesn’t it?” continued Delane on the monitor. “And if it is, then that container accident where it looks like one of the wires was sliced through with a laser may have been a nasssty bit of sabotage carried out after Utagai Karuta figured out whether he would have an easier time of it against Greek mythology or an occult ninja☆ Lucky for him, Japanese law doesn’t apply out at sea because I’m pretty sure the house manipulating gambling results is extremely illegal.”

Part 4

He had been naïve.

He had been naïve to even assume their attack on him hadn’t already begun.

A true strategist had their target trapped before that target even realized what was going on. No Jorogumo set up her web in a location that already looked dangerous.

The setup for Round 3 had begun back in Round 2.

No one could avoid a trap they had already stepped in. He would just have to continue on with it latched onto his leg.

“No one knows the truth at this point,” said Omotesandou Kyouka over the phone. “Delane herself kept saying ‘it seems’ or ‘looks like’ when reading off the news, so I will start by working to put out this fire. We don’t know how deep Machibula’s trap goes, so making a flustered denial now might actually hurt us in the long run.”

She paused for a moment.

“Karuta-kun, just to be absolutely certain, you didn’t do this, did you?”

“Of course not!! This entire event is meant to eliminate the global social unrest brought on by people’s wavering trust in crystal magic, so winning through blatant sabotage would defeat the entire point of winning!”

He hung up.

He knew Kyouka didn’t actually suspect him. If she thought this was really that dire, she wouldn’t have done it over the phone.

(Still, I still have a problem left to deal with.)

“Sacri-sama?”

He didn’t answer Aine as he returned to his classroom.

The classroom itself was full of challengers attempting the “free to eat” curry with “in-meal purchases”, so he gathered everyone in the neighboring classroom they were using as a kitchen.

“Yamanen, Hirosuke. Can we hold a strategy meeting now? I need everything you have on Machibula Delphi! Immediately!!”

“I mean, if you want…”

They seemed deflated.

Yamane Deiri hesitated to speak and glanced over next to Karuta.

He had obvious suspicion and distrust in his eyes as he viewed Crystal Girl Aine. And that awful friend wasn’t the only one. It had spread to the girls he didn’t normally hang out with. He had to assume the suspicion had spread throughout the class.

He consciously took a deep breath and made sure not to snap back in anger as he slowly opened his mouth.

“I didn’t order her to do that.”

“We don’t doubt that. Unless the tension got the better of you or anything as pathetic as that, we know everything you do is based on logic. It would’ve been weird to rig who you fought in the third round when you had your second round match to deal with. If you panicked and did something stupid, you would’ve sabotaged that mercenary guy instead.”

The footage looked an awful lot like Aine had fired her laser, but Yamane Deiri did not suspect Karuta.

And that logic matched what Karuta was thinking now. The morning semifinal match had ended as soon as the bell rang. If he won his own match today, that would be his opponent in the finals. But he had to focus on today for now. If he couldn’t defeat Machibula Delphi, then that other person didn’t even matter. Coming up with a plan for the finals was meaningless if he lost the semifinals.

So what possibility did he need to consider next?

“Could someone have made themselves look just like her with special makeup? If we peeled away that Aine’s face, would we find the stubbly face of a phantom thief? To be blunt, that would be quite a feat. I won’t say it’s impossible, but it’s as unrealistic as trying to claim a closed room murder was done by someone using the ultrasound weapon an alien gave them.”

“Sure,” interrupted gyaru-ish Hashizaki Tayori. “But aren’t there some other more realistic possibilities to consider first?”

She had been spending a lot of time in the infirmary to look after a friend, but that was the tone she took when taking a peek into the classroom. But not because the class’s gloomy atmosphere had gotten to her. She had arrived at the same answer even with a more detached viewpoint.

She had been skipping classes to be with her friend in the infirmary, but that was why she wanted to eliminate any possibility that might harm another classmate.

Kindness for one person could become a harmful weapon for another person.

Tayori pointed straight at Aine from a short distance away.

Karuta noted that short distance was just out of sword range as the gyaru-ish girl made her suggestion.

“Could Aine-chan have done it on her own?”

“She would never start a battle without being ordered to.”

“Then,” said Yamane Deiri with no tremor in his voice. He sounded like he had been waiting to say this the entire time. “Could she be acting on an order from someone other than you? That’s what I’m getting at here. Can you tell me it’s absolutely, positively not possible, Karuta?”

Yes.

That was it.

It didn’t help that no one could actually explain why Aine obeyed Karuta’s orders so faithfully. Not the teachers who understood the theory behind crystal magic and not Karuta who was a part of her.

From a human perspective, so many of her actions were unbelievable. She had sacrificed her own arm on his command and she had sliced through his body because he had told her to.

Was she acting on some kind of trust, was something forcing her to do it, or did she just mechanically obey?

And.

If Utagai Karuta himself couldn’t explain how his commands worked, then how could he say for certain a third party couldn’t intervene and hijack her? Did he really understand the crystal girl that well?

“…”

Marika did not take either side. She just crossed her arms and leaned against the wall in her heavily customized waitress outfit.

She would do anything to protect Karuta.

But that did not mean she would always take Aine’s side. If she learned Aine’s presence would tear the Four Living Gods apart from within, would she try to save Aine or would she cut Aine away to protect the other three? That was impossible to tell from the outside.

Karuta and Aine had not been together the entire time after lunch that day, so she could have gone off and done something on her own.

“W-wait a second,” interrupted Nekoumi Hirosuke (who would always side with the little girl). “You keep saying Aine-chan did this, but if she did, would she really leave such obvious evidence behind? There’s an etiquette to these things, like wearing a mask or changing your clothes.”

That might sound reasonable at first.

But…

“If a third party is controlling her, why would they care if it gets out she did it?”

“Uh.”

Yamane Deiri’s thorny comment silenced Hirosuke.

Of course it did. If she was meant as a disposable pawn, why bother looking after her? If she had been hijacked, she wouldn’t do anything to protect herself. That blatant and unnatural lack of even the most obvious defenses made it all the more suspicious.

Hirosuke hadn’t meant any harm. He just couldn’t bear to watch everyone turning on Aine like that. But a poor defense could sometimes lead to even harsher criticism. If your counterattack didn’t push back the attack, it would only add fuel on the fire.

With accusations from a central figure among the boys and the girls, the students’ vague suspicions were growing to a solid conviction. Karuta knew this was bad, but he couldn’t think of any way to stop it.

He was the world’s strongest.

But his schoolmates still accepted him because they had seen his weakness during the battle near the Port of Kobe. And that came back to bite him here. He could not take control of this situation by raising his voice.

In this class, Utagai Karuta only had a single vote.

They had him outnumbered.

“I am always with Sacri-sama. I have not accepted any commands from anyone else.”

“That’s exactly what you would say if you were being controlled, Aine-chan.”

Gyaru-ish Hashizaki Tayori remained calm even as she drove someone into a corner.

Yamane Deiri, on the other hand, looked disgusted with himself as he said what he knew needed saying.

“You could have been ordered to never mention what you did and to not let it show on your face no matter what you might be thinking on the inside. I don’t think you’re a bad person, Aine-chan, but one command like that and we can’t trust a thing you say.”

She was shut down by a hypothetical.

Both her thoughts and any attempt to prove her innocence.

A “what if” was convincing everyone that this was a trap laid by Machibula.

With a computer virus, you could run a full system scan with your security software, but this crystal girl was an irregularity even among crystal magic. Her very existence was an inhuman black box, so there was no known way to prove her safety.

There were no standards they could rely on here.

With no endpoint to reach, their suspicions would lead to a never-ending cycle of checking and rechecking. Just like a clean freak washing their hands so much they harmed their skin.

“I’m sorry, but this is the only thing that makes sense.” Tayori pushed on, probably deciding to make herself the villain here. “Aine-chan’s sabotage benefited Machibula and the blame will fall on her next opponent, Utagai-kun. She’s trying to play the victim, but Machibula is the one who comes out on top from this.”

“So let’s have our strategy meeting, Karuta. I’m willing to whisper in secret to help you. But I want to know one thing before we start: is Aine-chan safe? No one knows her better than you. Is there any chance everything we say here will be passed right on back to Machibula?”

“Sacri-sama,” muttered Aine.

Utagai Karuta slowly shut his eyes and took a deep breath.

He calmly reviewed the situation here.

(Is there any way for someone to take control of Aine? Or at least to make it look like they did? Either way, Machibula Delphi definitely has something set up. It started yesterday and it was all planned out. It must give her a major advantage, but what is it?)

He had to look to his own crafty nature.

This was not something Yamane Deiri or Hashizaki Tayori could do. It was separate from one’s ability to use crystal magic. He had to remember who he had been back when he was hunting down the Problem Solvers.

A cornered rat will bite the cat.

But where had Machibula bitten him?

(If she only wanted an easy way through Round 2, she wouldn’t need to place all this suspicion on Aine. And if she only needed to divert suspicion away from herself, she could have made the inspection and maintenance staff into the villain. Why did she bring Aine into this? And how does she benefit from it? Think. Aine isn’t her opponent; I am. So why take aim at her?)

This had people suspecting he and Aine had cheated, but he doubted Machibula was only trying to get them arrested to prevent their match. Like he had said before, she had to actually fight and defeat a crystal magician to earn the title of world’s strongest. If he had to forfeit, it would only look like she had run from a real fight.

Aine was his greatest trump card and this distrust was pushing her away from Karuta, but that was meaningless in the match itself. Aine couldn’t fight in the match to begin with, so unless Machibula was planning to attack Karuta outside the ring, Aine was never an obstacle to begin with.

Which meant…

“The most likely option is she’s trying to make things awkward with my allies and turn the audience against me. She hopes to rattle me enough that she can take the initiative before the battle even begins.”

That was all.

It was about the same as trash-talking him. She couldn’t even be certain it would have any effect at all.

Utagai Karuta gnashed his teeth. He could feel a great heat burning in his gut. It infuriated him that a part of his mind was whispering to him that he would have done the same thing if their positions were reversed and that this was exactly the sort of cheap and ugly move he had used to defeat the Problem Solvers.

But.

That bitterness also revealed to him a way to strike back. The situation could hardly be worse, but he had found something in this short time.

Unlike with security software, there were no standards to rely on here?

Nonsense. There was a bottom to be reached here.

He placed his hand on the crystal girl’s head. The two hornlike things hurt.

“Sacri-sama?” she muttered, staring up at him with that emotionless look.

“Don’t worry. No one is controlling you and I know how to prove it.”

He had to recall the conditions at play here.

If Aine was somehow being controlled by Machibula Delphi, she would be working toward Machibula’s benefit. So if she tried to do something that would ruin Machibula’s plans, she would either stop or correct that action, no matter how unnatural it looked.

And again, Machibula needed to defeat Karuta during the official match.

“Listen, Aine. I have a command for you. A command that will save you,” said Utagai Karuta.

He kept his hand on her head like he was calming a lost child.

And he gave the command without hesitation.

“Chop off my head.”

Part 5

He heard a whooshing sound as a crystal sword appeared in Aine’s hand. It had a short laser sniping unit on the back, making it look like jitte.

Yes, this command was devastating to Machibula Delphi.

To repeat yet again, she was fighting in this tournament because she wanted to increase the reputation of her Greek mythology magic. He didn’t know her specific situation, but she had to have some reason to defeat the crystal magic and become the new world’s strongest.

So she needed him to fight in their match.

She could avoid all the other ones by underhanded means, but if she did not defeat him in front of the cameras, it would look like she got lucky.

And Aine would unhesitatingly carry out any command given to her.

This was not his first time ordering her to cut him down. She had immediately carried out a similar command at the Crystal Beach.

If she was her normal self, she would draw her sword and strike at his neck.

But if she was being controlled by Machibula, who needed to defeat him in their match, that command would be unnaturally canceled.

And Karuta was betting on Aine swinging that crystal sword.

(If she kills me, she’s innocent. If she spares me, she’s guilty. This works as a litmus test! Of course, this only works if I can avoid the attack when she does try to obey my command!!)

The pressure squeezed at his heart.

The neck and head were more difficult targets than the torso and decapitating him in a single blow limited the paths of her blade by a lot. Or so he told himself.

He couldn’t block this with his weak barrier, but he could heal any nonlethal injury in 30 seconds. If he was willing to sacrifice an arm, would he be able to just barely dodge the initial attack? He would have to prove that Letnahe Kurent’s training had not been for nothing.

She was the greatest warrior he knew and he trusted her more than anyone. It was necessary, but now she would be attacking him. Was this what it would feel like to play Russian roulette with your favorite gun?

Utagai Karuta gulped as he waited for the moment to come.

He waited.

And he waited while sweat dripped down his temples.

“Um, Aine?”

She had drawn her sword, so that just left doing it.

This couldn’t be chalked up to it being a ridiculous command.

The quickest path to eliminating everyone’s suspicions was to swing her sword and attack him with the great force she always used.

So why was she stopping?

Why was she biting her lip and trembling like she was resisting something???

“…can’t…”

Some words escaped through her lovely lips.

“I…can’t.”

Karuta grimaced like an invisible needle was being slowly driven into the back of his head.

When things were really bad, the bad feeling only arrived once it was too late.

A scene seemed to explode into the back of his mind.

“Sacri-sama, Sacri-sama.”

Aine had been acting odd ever since the tournament’s opening ceremony.

Had a third party already hijacked control of her back then?

“Roger that, Sacri-tama. You can count on me.”

No.

What if she had simply been excited about the big event?

That was back before Omotesandou Kyouka had announced the new rules given in her altered data, so what if she had been excited about fighting alongside him as his greatest trump card?

When they fought, they would watch each other’s backs and when they stepped out of the ring, he would tell her what a good job she had done.

What if that expressionless fighter had been secretly imagining that likely future?

(Oh, no.)

The impossible continued before his eyes.

Or was it rude to Aine to call it impossible?

She had woken him up in the morning and she had made some odd noises when he asked her about the towel. What had she been thinking when she let Delane dress her up without complaint? Could he be so sure it was only mechanical and efficient logic?

The girl stood there, biting her lip with the sword trembling in her hand like she was trying to resist something. She held that deadly weapon, but she also gripped her skirt in both her small hands. It was like she knew she was at a dead end, but she was too afraid to attempt the only exit.

(That answer is too dangerous, Aine! Dammit, did I misread her so badly!?)

Another memory came back to him.

“Suspect our own people? I would never do anything to harm you, Sacri-sama.”

Aine supposedly obeyed his every command.

So what could be overriding this command? Could he really claim he didn’t know? Yes. He himself had done it.

Back when she was sulking over the cat ears he had drawn on her photo.

No, it had started shortly before that.

“Okay, Aine how about this? This is a request, not a command. I ask that we never harm each other and that we always rush to each other’s aid when we’re in trouble.”

She didn’t need to take it so seriously.

She should have forgotten about that silly promise and prioritized her own safety.

Aine wasn’t stupid. She could adapt to the situation and she could do what was needed to save herself when caught in a bind.

“What is that, Sacri-sama?”

But Karuta had made the order.

He had told her to prove her innocence even if it meant beheading him. He was doing what he could to protect her, but how would she interpret that in relation to the non-command they had exchanged? He had upheld his end, so what would she do?

This was the answer.

“It’s called a pinky promise. It’s a human ritual.”

She still had no expression on her face.

(You idiot.)

Clear drops dripped from that inhuman being’s mechanical eyes while she gave her answer.

(How seriously did you take that silly little promise!?)

She used her words to let go of he hand held out to help her.

“I can’t. I cannot obey that command.”

A gruesome sound followed.

She did not even hesitate.

Her very nature prevented her from disobeying him, so to protect the dumbass she served, she kneeled, grabbed the sword with both her hands, and drove it through her own gut to forcibly pin her small body in place.

She had said herself she would make herself useful next time.

A promise was not a command.

So if she couldn’t keep it, she could just give up on it and break it.

And yet…

Part 6

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

“You’re scum.”

“Yeah, I know!!”

The boy’s shout echoed down the deserted hallway.

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

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

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

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

But.

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

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

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

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

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

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

(How long has this been happening?)

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Go to hell.”

Aine was not here.

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

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

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

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

Those were the only possible conclusions.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amaashi Marika sounded utterly exasperated.

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

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

The damage to Aine was far greater.

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

What century did he think it was?

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

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

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

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

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

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

He listed off the possibilities he could think of.

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

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

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

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

But aside from that…

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

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

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

Karuta’s mouth flapped wordlessly.

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

“Um, M-Marika?”

“Yes?”

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

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

“…”

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

His mind couldn’t keep up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After a brief pause, he was given an answer.

“They faked the footage,” said Amaashi Marika.

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

Utagai Karuta’s mind froze.

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

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

“…”

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

Marika displayed the online news story on her phone.

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

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

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

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

He felt defeated.

She had argued him into silence.

“Maybe you’ve forgotten.”

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

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

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

She was perfect.

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

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

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

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

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

But this new viewpoint did reveal some different conditions.

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

But this method did have its own Achilles’ heel.

Namely…

“Aine’s data.”

“Continue.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“You mean?” whispered Marika and Karuta nodded.

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

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

S19D15.

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

Guest Occupant: Machibula Delphi.

“Bingo.”

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

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

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

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

But.

Karuta remained calm as he answered.

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

Those were the most basic assumptions here.

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

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

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

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

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

He could deliver the finishing blow afterwards.

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

Part 7

An air-compressing boom rumbled across Second Grimnoah’s side deck.

The color black danced about. This wasn’t just three or four people. Where had they all been hiding? Thick chains jangled as a group in tattered black dresses used the watertight door levers, side deck, railings, and anything else as a foothold to run three-dimensionally through the air.

But they did not collide with pursuing Karuta. The side deck was a straightaway less than a meter wide, so it was not suited for group combat. They were moving to escape his pursuit. The group of slaves was guiding away fluffy blonde-haired Machibula Delphi in a white priestess outfit that made her look like a goddess.

“Priestess, hurry!!”

“Oh, dear. Kildna, what is happening here? I thought I was to remain ignorant of all this dirty work.”

Karuta operated the same way, so he knew schemers could never win without trickery.

He would eliminate her Orpheus’s Orchestra and drag her into the ring where she couldn’t escape. Then he would defeat her in accordance with the rules.

Only then would he have earned the right to bow down to Aine and let her hit him.

He flicked his crystal blossom and spoke into it. He was free to use that magical communication outside of the tournament matches.

“Yamanen! How goes the evacuations!?”

“You’re good to go. There shouldn’t be anyone on the side deck. The outdoor café was already closed along with the cafeteria and the teachers hired someone interesting to help: Athabaskan Rio Grande.”

Karuta couldn’t believe his ears, but it was apparently true.

“That nervous Sophia Firenze-sensei apparently begged him to help. I know mercenaries don’t really take sides, but that is one tough guy. He’s already out of bed after you gave him such a beating yesterday. But I guess I couldn’t say no either if a young female teacher came and tearfully begged me to help. Ga ha ha!!”

Karuta wasn’t trusting enough to think the enemy of his enemy was his friend. The old strongests had taken that path from him. But he felt like he had just found a brief moment where he could try to trust in human goodness. He had a feeling that mercenary wasn’t doing this just for the money. It sounded like Karuta and the others had something that had tugged at Athabaskan’s heartstrings, so he had decided to help them out while they fought to help out Aine.

“Which is it, Yamanen? Are you into Sophia-sensei or Letnahe-sensei?”

“What kind of fool limits himself to just one kind of hot teacher?”

Orpheus’s Orchestra may have noticed what they were after. The black dress girl named Kildna ran down the outdoor passageway lined with dangling lifeboats while pulling on the radiant priestess’s hand with one hand and urging the other slaves along with her other hand.

“Go, go!! We will guide the priestess, so you all buy us time!!”

Greek mythology was one of the best known around the world, so the ancient magic developed there had to be powerful. Multiple wires sliced through the air. They held guitar-like string instruments known as a kithara. No, these devices were made to resemble the instrument, but they were actually used to send out several steel wires.

However…

“Sh!!”

Karuta held his hand out to the side and snapped his fingers.

Just as his opponent’s attention was drawn to that side, he sent a hook in through her blind spot in the other direction.

A tempo later than normal, the black dress slave forced her arm up to guard the side of her head, but he used that moment to slam his knee into her unguarded side.

(Do you have any idea how much that brown teacher beat me up? Of course, I was prepared to either knee you in the side or grab your neck chain to headbutt you, so you couldn’t have avoided it either way!!)

The impact lifted her from the deck and the blow to her diaphragm kept her from breathing as she fell to the deck and convulsed, but Utagai Karuta simply stepped over her and continued on. True to their name as an orchestra, most of their weapons were based on musical instruments, like a wire reel lyre or crotales that resembled giant pliers. Some of the apparent wires must have actually been macaroni-like fibers because some kind of glowing beam would occasionally fly his way. That beam had to be the weapon used to frame Aine by bringing down the waiting room.

Greek astrology was known around the world, but he didn’t feel a great pressure pinning his feet to the ground like he had when facing the Problem Solvers.

They were no match for the crystal magic that had defeated the old world’s strongests.

A blinding beam flew over Karuta’s shoulder and blew away the black dress girls who had been blocking his way to buy time, dumping them over the side deck railing and into the ocean.

Yes, Karuta wasn’t the only one pursuing Machibula.

“Power up!!” roared multiple voices as crystal blossoms shattered and cutting-edge crystal magicians emerged onto the side deck with spiky crystal armor adorning their summer uniforms. They kicked off the floor, the walls, and sometimes even the ceiling. They were all furious at what these people had done to their precious classmate who was not just a device.

Karuta leaped at the lever for one of the lifeboats and shouted to his classmates.

“Listen, Yamanen! Don’t kill anyone!!”

“You sure are forgiving after what they did, Karuta. A little girl committed harakiri in the middle of the classroom!! Someone had to play the villain there, but I’m still ready to bow down to Aine-chan and let her stomp on me!”

“That sounds more like a reward to me,” said a panting Nekoumi Hirosuke (who had stayed on Aine’s side from beginning to end), but he was best ignored.

“I agree that we’re getting back at them for what they did to Aine, but that’s why we can’t cause any deaths that could be blamed on her! They could use that as a way out!!”

“Tch, understood. I can’t be causing even more problems for the person I’m risking my life to apologize to.”

That was a major handicap for Yamane Deiri who specialized in flames and explosions, but he accepted it.

Karuta’s group was currently running aft down the 600m ship. Machibula and her protector slaves were a good ways down the side deck, but there was no chance of losing sight of them.

After producing her crystal armor and rapier, Marika floated up off the side deck. She did not user her supersonic speed to fly up ahead of their targets because she was afraid of any invisibly-thin wires in the way. Even with the preset barrier, relative speed and wires were a nasty combination.

She had changed back into her summer uniform and she thrust her rapier device out ahead of her like a wire cutter.

“They don’t seem interested with the heliport at the top, so where are they headed?”

“Let’s assume the worst. The most dangerous target to the stern is the main engine room. A single engine is a 2000ton behemoth. They’re also connected to a ton of fuel, so blow up that massive diesel engine and it might kill us along with the ship.”

“That’s dirty of them.”

“She can’t win her match, but she still wants to return home with the trophy of having killed the Four Living Gods and become the new world’s strongest. Why wouldn’t she start cheating? Blowing up the ship is probably meant to take out me or Omotesandou-san since we can’t fly. She might not get credit for the Catastrophe, but she still gets something out of this. And this is a home game for us, so we don’t need to hold back against those pieces of shit. So let’s capture them and keep them from reaching the goal!!”

The slaves out front were falling to the laser fire from out at sea, but the lasers were not shooting through their heads and hearts. The lasers instead targeted the thick watertight doors behind them, creating a welding-like flash of light that knocked them out like a stun grenade at close range.

One black dress girl gave some kind of hand signal and then curled up before Karuta could do anything more. Almost like she was trying to protect herself from some kind of powerful blast.

“What, do you have some trick left up your sleeve!? You’re just Greek astrology. How’s the morning horoscope supposed to defeat crystal magic, a collision between two pure forms of magic!?”

Yamane Deiri sounded exasperated, but Karuta froze.

Yes. That was right. Crystal magic was the strongest in the field of magic. They had eliminated their greatest rival to make sure of it. But who ever said Machibula would limit herself to pure magic?

He needed to think back and recall the avengers who had persistently pursued the Problem Solvers and created a bloodbath out of them. When a cheater was outmatched, why would they ever play fair?

A moment later, Yamane Deiri was blown away in a deafening boom.

Karuta saw something sparkling in his spinning vision, but were those small crystal shards? He also saw his now one-armed friend slammed hard against the metal wall next to him.

The sound of the boy’s shattering barrier only reached him after the fact.

All the ceiling lights shattered and the nearby metal door bent with a disturbing sound.

“Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

This wasn’t Greek mythology. It wasn’t even magic.

Karuta’s paper-thin barrier had been easily shattered. He had a concussion and couldn’t even stand up, but he still used his trembling fingers to grab Yamane Deiri’s collar where the boy had collapsed nearby. He clenched his teeth and fought the urge to vomit while he crawled along the floor, pressed his cheek against the floor, and dragged his unconscious friend behind a lifeboat hanging nearby. The friend’s severed arm had already crystallized on the floor.

He heard a deep rumbling coming from the vast ocean past the side deck’s railing.

“The Chrisbart electric battleship.”

The ship’s gun slowly turning their way did not use traditional explosives. That main gun was a set of three 45cm railguns. The cutting-edge 300m ship was also equipped with anti-air lasers, wirelessly powered motor missiles, and anti-missile EM weapons.

It was known as an electric warship because it specialized in converting electric energy into deadly force. The power generation unit and the various electric weapons had grown so large it had brought the extinct classification of battleship back to the battlefield. Its long-range precision strikes from more than 1000km away had shaken the theory of aircraft carrier superiority that had ruled naval warfare for so long.

That was the cornerstone of Second Grimnoah’s escort fleet. But that massive ship was now aiming its horrific main cannon at the side of its supposed master from only 500m away.

This explained it. Karuta raised his voice while removing his friend’s belt and fastening it tight around his now armless shoulder.

“When did they attack and hijack that ship!?”

Part 8

The escort ships were fighting each other. Second Grimnoah had more than one ship protecting it. That included the powerful Radioquartz drone carrier. But the electric battleship was not sunk even when outnumbered. The other ships primarily used cruise missiles which all blew up in midair due to sensor and electric fuse malfunctions brought on by the Chrisbart’s powerful EM weapons. And the many attack drones launched from the Radioquartz were shot down by the anti-air lasers.

Then the Chrisbart struck back with its large railguns.

Those guns were so powerful the destroyer class ships were bent like a V when they were hit in the side.

Given the range of the extraordinary railguns, things might have ended differently were the others ships more than 2000km away, but they could not make use of their greater aerial forces while packed in this close together. Here, superiority was determined by pure firepower and armor. Karuta and the others watched on as the Radioquartz’s EM-guided drone catapults were forcibly torn away.

They could not rely on the adults in command of the escort fleet.

Yamane Deiri had woken up and entirely ignored his missing arm as he grabbed Karuta’s collar with his other hand.

“Get going already, you idiot.”

“But what about you, Yamanen?”

“You need to get to Aine-chan and tell her she’s got nothing to worry about because we’ve dealt with everything already. It has to be you! If we tried to approach her, we’d just be the assholes who made her cry and say she can’t obey that command. We can’t fix this without putting our own rotten lives at risk, so I’m ready to do what it takes! …Listen, don’t let that girl commit harakiri again. If you agree with me, then quit worrying over every little injury and go pursue Machibula!!”

Karuta clenched his teeth.

He left Yamane Deiri with Nekoumi Hirosuke, who happened to be nearby, and looked to the ocean from behind one of the hanging lifeboats.

His eyes met with the muzzles of a few of the guns sticking out from the electric battleship like a hedgehog. After gathering his resolve, he burst from behind cover and ran across the side deck.

Sound left him behind as several bright lights quickly flashed.

Before the sound even caught up, several wirelessly-powered motor missiles were sliced apart in midair, triggering several explosions.

Amaashi Marika stared past the ship’s railing with her pointy crystal armor open and spun her rapier device around a bit while yelling.

“Karuta, you get inside the ship so that hunk of junk can’t target you! There are other ways to pursue Machibula, right!?”

“I’d love to, but the watertight doors have been bent too much to open. That’s the only reason Machibula’s group hasn’t hidden inside the ship themselves!”

The subsequent flash of light was even brighter than lightning. It was the side effect of a crystal magic laser slicing through one of the battleship’s railguns. This had reached a point that Karuta couldn’t even follow along with the naked eye.

“And if I don’t keep their aim on me, you’ll have a harder time fighting back. I mean, what if they try to crush the entire starboard side of Second Grimnoah with their electric guns!?”

“Are you serious? Young Karuta, when did you turn into a hero in tights?”

“Isn’t that what it means to be the world’s strongest?”

The Problem Solvers had been the worst, but it was also true the people had innocently believed they were heroes like that. It was up to him to not destroy the world’s dreams a second time.

“Natalena, Letnahe, little Shouka-kun, and our parents are all on this ship. I’d rather draw enemy fire than have a stray shot hit any of them! I’ll keep their attention, so you deal with their railguns and wirelessly-powered motor missiles, Marika!!”

“I notice you’re leaving me with the hard part! But fine, I’ll do it!!”

They could not ignore the attacks coming from the Chrisbart. For one thing, they had to protect the many visitors who were mistaking this for a fireworks show or acrobatics by the crystal magicians.

And by shooting down the attacks with lasers or by gathering multiple people to block the attacks with their combined barriers, they could reduce the amount of direct firepower reaching the side deck.

A few of the slaves fleeing down the side deck came to a stop and turned back toward Karuta. They were going to stop him with a human wall.

It was time for Karuta to do his job. He could not capture Machibula unless he first defeated these slaves in black dresses and heavy chains. If that scum managed to blow up the engine room to take out Karuta along with the ship, then the priestess would win. He could never look Aine in the eye if he let that happen.

But…

(There’s too many of them!)

Their weapons were crotales. Those percussion instruments looked like a bakery’s tongs with two round coaster-sized pieces of metal attached to the ends. They could be swung down like a hammer or they could grab and tear at flesh like giant pliers. The weapons inspired a primitive fear different from a blade or gun.

In the world of professional combat, you always kept two options in mind and put together a plan to crush your opponent’s defenses, but with a wall of them, he didn’t have time to focus on each individual enemy and put together an attack plan for them. In the time it took him to face one of them, another would attack him from the side.

And…

“Really? Why are you following their lead, you idiot?”

Someone shot past Karuta from behind. But not to the side. They placed their hands on his back and leaped over him like he was a vaulting box.

It was a brown-skinned soldier with long silver hair trailing behind her like the tail of a comet.

Letnahe Kurent, the combat machine in a white uniform, got one of the leading black dress girls in a wristlock and then spun her around to the side. The girl swept away the enemy formation like the grim reaper’s scythe.

“Do you still not get it, you amateur killers? The only reason I’m not using my axe is because a soldier must go easy on civilians.”

She was not coming up with two or three plans for each individual opponent. She used the body of one defeated foe to start a domino effect among the entire group. She sometimes used one captured slave as a shield and other times threw an enemy to crush the other black dress girls. She used the fact that the enemy was a group against them in a way that was simply beyond Karuta.

“Hurry. This is only the opening battle. Your real opponent is Machibula Delphi, isn’t it? The official tournament rules mean only you can deal with her.”

“Right!!”

Karuta jumped over a chained slave collapsed on the floor and continued on ahead.

But that had not taken care of all the slaves protecting their priestess.

“Do not fear! There’s only one of him!!”

Karuta heard a husky female voice from beyond the crowd of people up ahead.

“On this narrow side deck, numbers matter more than skill. He has no projectiles weapons, so swarm him and-!?”

The voice was cut off by the crackling of sparks. The scarlet light that shot horizontally from Karuta’s hand weaved between the slaves and struck their commander in the forehead.

“A signal…flare?”

She fell to her knees. A flare was not as powerful as a bullet, but it had to have shaken her brain as much as a fist.

The side deck had a surprising amount of stuff on it, including the hanging lifeboats. After throwing aside the single-use handgun-style flare launcher, Karuta grabbed another metal box and pulled out the AED bag within. He grabbed the flat electrodes in his hands and charged into Orpheus’s Orchestra which had lost any sort of strategy with their commander temporarily down.

(Did you think you knew more about Second Grimnoah’s layout and equipment than us? Whose home turf do you think this is!?)

“Gahhh!!”

He took out some with the electric shock and another group rushed in to tackle him before the AED could charge again, so he made them flinch by shoving the firework-like flame of a lit smoke bomb in their faces. He didn’t want to use the fire axe against them, but he didn’t want them to use it against him either. He grabbed it from the wall and chucked it into the sea.

But he still hadn’t taken them all out.

The colorful smokescreen split open to reveal and a black dress girl who had gotten separated from the group. Her collar and thick chains shined dully.

In the instant their eyes met, time seemed to stop.

Time resumed with a fist thrown toward Utagai Karuta’s face.

“Sh!!”

He ignored the fist itself while throwing a low kick (something that Letnahe had banned him from using). The strike swept in from the outside, forcibly sliding her legs and putting all her weight back on her heels.

Now that he had done it, he could tell she was standing straight up “at attention” and a light push on her chest would make her topple backwards. She failed to control the momentum of her swinging fist and was spun around by it. Without coming close to hitting Karuta right in front of her.

He grabbed the side of her unguarded head with one hand and slammed it against the railing, knocking her out.

I get it now, he thought, analyzing his success while kicking away her guitar-like kithara that could be used as a wire from a distance or a striking weapon close up.

(Just like them, I can only use one kind of defense, so they’ll have plenty of methods ready to get around my defenses. I need to be two steps ahead of them. If I know what I don’t want them to do, I can figure out what they’ll do, prevent it, and retake the initiative!!)

The smoke bomb’s smokescreen and the fire extinguisher powder hung in the air as a cotton candy-like curtain even though they were outdoors. Maybe thanks to the ceiling jutting out overhead.

Now that he had confused them by blinding them in multiple ways, he only had to worry about the girls directly in his path. For them, he would grab their collars or thick chains and throw them over the side deck’s railing. He weaved his way through the combat group to break through to the other side.

Not even Orpheus’s Orchestra had an unlimited supply of personnel. Their priestess only had a few bodyguards left.

He recognized one of the black dress girls who looked over her shoulder at him.

He even remembered her name.

“Kildna!!”

“Tch. Did I send too many forces to set up that trick!?”

That trick. Even with all the automation included on a cutting-edge warship, the Chrisbart had still carried a crew of more than 1000 who knew nothing of magic.

These people’s values placed so little value on a human life. But maybe that was just what you got with a group that had devoted themselves to the same religion since ancient times.

They were not just tools used to cast magic.

This organization followed a mythology or religion.

They had arrived at an outdoor café that took up a large portion of the side deck. It was set up a lot like a hospital waiting room. Beach chairs, side tables, and parasols had been set up to provide a view of the ocean. Karuta vaguely recalled the place offering an optional service for sunbathers where a drone like a disco ball could fly around and shine the sun on you. He was also relieved because the café was closed during the tournament and there was no one there to be hurt.

“Oh, what’s this about, Kildna? Is this something I should perhaps know about?”

“Priestess, use your magic on my signal!!”

“Will do.”

(Hm? They’re willing to use their contestant’s registered magic outside a match!?)

A dull rumbling blasted Karuta to the side.

If he hadn’t grabbed at the metal railing, he might have been flung into the ocean. The beach chairs and side tables were all bolted to the floor, but they were torn away and then slammed back into the floor. His flimsy barrier and his sense of equilibrium were both obliterated. But they hadn’t actually done anything to him. It was the 600m three hull ship that was shaking so violently.

“A…wave!? Are you controlling the ocean itself!?”

“Greek astrology is magic that controls the stars.”

With a mechanical hum, something crawled out from the fluffy blonde goddess’s chest and onto her shoulder. It used four legs resembling small sticks or crab legs to cling to her soft skin and it looked something like an eyeball larger than a baseball, but it was in fact a small indoor planetarium.

The artificial stars expanded across the faint mist surrounding them and the priestess smiled while enclosed in her own little universe. The false lights moved around her to match her finger movements.

Was it a physical device that supported complex calculations and images, similar to an abacus or a slide rule?

“It could be the moon or Mars, but by adjusting the positions of the stars, those celestial bodies’ gravity acts upon the earth. Altering the tides is child’s play.”

(Dammit, she can do all that!?)

“Kildna, what next?”

“Over there.”

Just as Amaashi Marika, Yamane Deiri, and the others attempted to sink the Chrisbart with a unified attack, the electric battleship seemed to hop up out of the way of the crystal magic plasma strike.

No, it rode a wave several hundred meters tall. The 300m, 40,000ton warship was lifted from below and freed from the bonds of gravity. It almost seemed to be flying a loop-the-loop. Flipped upside down, the Chrisbart aimed its railguns down at Second Grimnoah.

The slave named Kildna whispered into the miniature microphone installed in her wrist shackle.

“Fire.”

A series of explosive booms followed.

Marika and the others in the air were slow to respond when the railguns fired from an entirely unexpected angle. They all activated their barriers and sacrificed their own arms and legs to forcibly make up for the defensive power they lacked.

The scattering crystal shards created a brilliant rainbow above the equatorial ocean.

The electric warship leaped straight over Second Grimnoah and flipped back around before landing in the ocean on the other side. The ocean water spread out like a crater, violently rocking Second Grimnoah again. Karuta had been holding onto the side deck railing for dear life, but he was thrown in the opposite direction, flying clear across the outdoor cafe and slamming against the metal wall.

“Gah!?”

The few remaining bodyguards were struck by the flying cash register and side tables, knocking them over the railing and into the sea. They apparently weren’t considered all that valuable. Kildna did not even glance in their direction as she brushed off some glass shards from the fluorescent lights shattered overhead.

“Priestess, use the power of the Coriolis force next. Create a large vortex.”

“A hurricane?”

“They apparently call them typhoons here. They do not appear to have enough power to handle a natural disaster caused by an observation point combined with the arrangement of the stars. Continue to strike them and we can escape beyond their reach.”

“Using the moon’s pull and the ebb and flow of the waves to have tens of thousands of tiny red crabs eat them alive sounds like more fun, but fine. We can do things your way today, Kildna.”

(So it’s the slave making things so much more complex. This isn’t like with the Problem Solvers. Their talents and strategies are mixing together, making them harder to read.)

Without Kildna leading her, Machibula would likely have greedily hoped to turn the tables on him and win this. That would have let him lure her in and strike. But with the slave tapping the brakes, she was reminded that her objective here was simply to escape.

The miniature planetarium on Machibula’s shoulder hummed again and the Greek astrology priestess was surrounded by artificial stars even in the bright sunlight. Her outstretched fingers manipulated their arrangement.

(If she keeps this up, Second Grimnoah itself is going to break apart.)

“Ohhh!!”

Karuta swallowed his fear and forced himself forward. Fortunately, Machibula’s magic required time for the calculations. She could not activate it just by pulling the trigger, so he had a chance to intervene.

Kildna stepped forward to make up for that.

They really were Orpheus’s Orchestra. When Karuta pulled his modified military flashlight from his hip, Kildna pulled out a metal trumpet. Its design was simpler than those the concert band used and it lacked the three piston valves. Thanks to that, it looked something like a metal pipe with one end opened wide. But he seriously doubted she was just going to hit him with it.

And in fact, she placed her lips on the trumpet.

He could not just raise his arms to guard himself. He focused on putting together two different plans while considering the possibilities.

(Is it an acoustic weapon that rattles my head with a loud noise? Or is it a blowgun? The difficulty of dodging this changes a lot depending on whether it shoots a single dart in a pinpoint shot or spreads a powder in a cone-like shape.)

He heard the roar of a flame consuming oxygen.

He was again caught by surprise. The color red filled his vision because that weapon was…

(A flamethrower!?)

“Gaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

Greek fire was perhaps the best known ancient flamethrower, but that came about in CE times, an era already ruled by the cross.

But the finished product had not just popped into existence one day. Earlier, during the 9th Century BCE, before the Ancient Greek migration or the completion of the city-states, they were already launching unnamed incendiary weapons at each other, whether they were handheld or burning arrows.

This sticky fire was launched across a surface rather than a point, so it filled the space out ahead like a wall. Karuta had no way of dodging. His barrier was lost and crossing his arms in front of his face wasn’t going to cut it. His summer sports shirt and his short-sleeved dress shirt would melt like cheese on toast and fuse with his burned skin.

So what?

What was that compared to Aine disemboweling herself in front of everyone?

(As long as I don’t breathe in the scorching air and take out my lungs, this shouldn’t be lethal!! I can breathe out, but not in! I can ignore the burned skin, so I’ll be fine. As long as it’s nonlethal, any wound will heal in only 30 seconds!!)

“!!!!!!”

He tackled right through the wall of fire. The electronic components of his flashlight were dead now. He didn’t even need to raise the burned-out blunt weapon. He didn’t need the weight. He went for a quick jab instead. He slammed the red hot flashlight into the back of Kildna’s hand.

With a sizzling sound, she felt the pain of being branded.

She dropped the trumpet.

“Gyahh!?”

(I only burned that one point and it was with your own fire. Meanwhile, I’ve been burned all over by the very clothes I’m wearing, so don’t expect a spirit of ladies first from me right now!!)

The black dress slave grimaced but still pulled out another weapon. The nine-stringed lyre she held was the symbol of Orpheus. Karuta had seen those wires used as a weapon already, but then he felt his body ache.

The crystallization of all his burns had begun. And during regeneration, he could not afford to take even the smallest injury. If those fragile crystals broke, that part of his body would never recover.

She did not use the wires to slice at him.

When the wires intersected to create some kind of string figure, the fire extinguisher, the fire axe, and the cleavers and thick skewers the café used for churrasco all defied gravity to float into the air. Karuta had to laugh. Any one of those could be fatal.

Their weight was apparently controlled similarly to a suspension bridge.

Kildna shook her thick chains and clenched her teeth.

“You cannot win,” she groaned.

“Are you sure about that?”

“No one will come to save you. You are trapped here!!”

“What do you know about our class?”

Battered and covered in crystal, Karuta smiled and stiffly swung his head to the side.

As if clearing the line of fire for someone.

“?”

Kildna raised her guard, thinking someone might be providing supporting fire, but then confusion filled her mind.

Who could possibly do that? Karuta himself was helpless.

Amaashi Marika, Yamane Deiri, Nekoumi Hirosuke, and the other crystal magicians were all struggling against the Chrisbart. Even Letnahe Kurent had her hands full with the other slaves.

Then who could it be? She found no answer.

Nevertheless, a powerful beam shot over Karuta’s shoulder and struck her.

The dangerous lyre burned and melted. The many steel wires supported by wire reels could not withstand the heat and snapped one after another, leaving shallow lacerations on Kildna’s cheeks. The floating weapons dropped to the floor one after another.

“Gah!? What?”

“Maybe Amaashi Marika, Yamane Deiri, and Nekoumi Hirosuke are busy, but there’s still someone from my class left!!”

“Who!?”

She hadn’t given up. She wasn’t out of the fight. Even if she could no longer join the others in the classroom. Utagai Karuta had not forgotten about the classmate who spent her days in the infirmary fighting desperately against herself.

A welding-like light had struck the thick watertight doors to knock out the many slaves like a stun grenade and lasers had intercepted the ship’s railguns. Those laser shots had come from out at sea. But Karuta had watched it happen with Marika by his side. That meant it hadn’t been her. Then who had done it?

He knew exactly who.

“Isn’t that right, Matsuda Imi!!!???”

Part 9

At a certain point in the sky, someone flew unsteadily while supported by gyaru-ish Hashizaki Tayori. Her flight was shaky and unreliable, but she still had her crystal armor activated and held out a gun-type device in one hand. A scalpel, forceps, and other medical devices were spread out in a fan shape below the barrel where a bayonet would be. She had borrowed the name of Neith, an Egyptian medical goddess.

Tayori whispered to her friend while holding her around the hips to support her flight.

“Are you sure?”

“…Yes.”

She was scared. Of course she was. But she was supported by the conclusion she had arrived at while curled up in bed, trembling and worrying. It had been awkward and clumsy, but she had gone through every option in her head. There was no room for falsehoods there.

“Getting hurt does scare me.”

She had built up a way of judging where she stood with others.

That would help her understand them.

She had reached the point where she could notice how much her current plans resembled what Amaashi Marika had done when she cauterized her leg.

And once she understood it, she could conquer that fear. She would hesitate no longer.

“But sitting by while I lose someone scares me even more. So I will fight again!!”

Part 10

Several explosions rang out in quick succession. The flurry of long-distance magic from Matsuda Imi struck Kildna and slammed her against the outdoor café’s metal wall. She slid to the floor, apparently unconscious. That just left one. Machibula Delphi continued running all on her own, but it was only a matter of time before Karuta caught up to her.

“…”

Letnahe Kurent sighed after dealing with the slaves and catching up. She toyed with some thick zip ties and used one to bind the last defeated black dress girl’s arms behind her back.

“Hee…hee hee.”

She heard laughter from the girl whose arms she had bound to the metal pipe of a parasol that was bolted to the floor.

That girl was Kildna, the collared and chained slave in a black dress.

Letnahe sighed again.

“Are you still not done resisting? As a professional fighter, surely you know ending a fight without killing your opponent is a lot harder than just killing them. You have no chance of turning this around.”

“You don’t understand. I was counting on this. Now I can finally break free of the infuriating hand holding me down.”

“What?”

“My name is Kildna Delphi.”

Utagai Karuta had pictured their world as including the emperor and the slaves.

But an outsider like him had not considered the implications of that as much as someone who lived it.

“I was the older sister!! All of that rightly belonged to me! And yet…and yet a match determined by no more than random chance shoved all the responsibility onto me and let her steal the position of priestess from me!!”

“…”

“Now Orpheus’s Orchestra can return to its rightful form.”

Letnahe Kurent wore a ring.

She was a mother of two.

Which was why this pained her so much to hear.

“The line of succession will be restored once Machibula is killed by the world’s strongest. No longer will that foolish girl treat her elder sister with such disrespect. I can’t erase the fact that she put me in chains and used me as her slave, but I can still reclaim my throne!!”

Part 11

Crystal Girl Aine stood all alone in the student counseling room that acted as her jail cell.

The door was not even locked, but she was not permitted to leave.

Second Grimnoah had been shaking with a dull rumbling for a while now. Some kind of emergency was clearly underway outside. That boy had to be suffering.

Aine thought once more about what her purpose was.

Was staying here as commanded really the right thing to do? That protected her, but that didn’t necessarily mean it would save Utagai Karuta, did it? If she left the room, it would confirm people’s suspicions about her. It would convince people of the false conclusion that she was being controlled by someone else.

So what? What did that have to do with Utagai Karuta currently suffering due to some unexpected turn of events? If she was truly worried for him, she should open that door and rush to his rescue.

Even if that would truly isolate her in the end.

Even if it meant Utagai Karuta himself would criticize her and give up on her.

(Sacri-sama.)

With that brief comment in her mind, she raised her head.

She walked to the door and grabbed the knob without hesitation.

But then…

“Ksh.”

She heard some static. This was a magical transmission using a crystal blossom. She did not have a blossom pinned to her chest, but her connection to Karuta let her communicate in the same way.

Was there a problem with the transmission medium of the air, or was the problem with her own control? Regardless, the static eventually became something else.

A human voice.

“Ksh…the…sbart…?”

She was unsure if she was supposed to be hearing this. Had they forgotten to exclude her from the list, or were they too focused on fighting to care? She did not know what was happening outside, but she did know the 600m ship kept shaking violently. This had to be something major.

And amid it all, she heard some savage and violent voices that were also full of cheerful excitement.

“I don’t care if that’s an electric battleship, you assholes!! We wouldn’t have to mess with this if not for you! And you’re the ones who made Aine-chan commit harakiri! Admittedly, it was that dumbass Karuta who supplied the finishing blow there, but you’d better get your asses out here! We can’t even apologize to Aine-chan until we deal with all of you!!”

“Kee hee hee. The crime of snaring a pure little girl in a dirty trap is a costly one indeed. You made one fatal mistake here: having the audacity to be high schoolers no younger than 15. I have no reason to show any mercy now! You must die for bringing tears to the eyes of an eternal little girl like Aine!!!!!!”

That was Yamane Deiri and Nekoumi Hirosuke, the boys who were always hanging around with Utagai Karuta. And they were the same people who had not even tried to listen to what Aine said when she had been trapped.

Or maybe it had only looked that way to Aine. They must have been gritting their teeth at the fact they were forced to suspect one of their own. Would Aine have felt so strongly if the situations were reversed?

And it wasn’t just them. She also heard Amaashi Marika’s voice.

“Yamane, and Nekoumi too. Get all fired up in your own idiotic way if you want, but don’t just rush in and get yourselves killed. Make Aine-chan feel any worse and I’ll make sure you’re deader than dead.”

“Yeah, yeah. We’re not gonna go down easy. We’ve gotta be all together when we go apologize to her!”

“Less than 39kg is where you find the true goddesses. A-and getting stepped on by a tearful Aine-chan’s beautiful feet sounds more like a reward to me. No way I’m dying before that happens.”

Their entire class was going nuts. Was this really a deadly battle they were fighting? It was so much different from when they had fought the Problem Solvers or the Threat. The festive elation seemed to blow away the pressure usually associated with combat.

Based on what Aine could hear, Marika had joined Matsuda Imi and Hashizaki Tayori.

“Oh, Imi!! I knew you’d make it, my BFF!!”

“I hear you made Aine-chan cry, Marika. God, never a moment’s peace when you have such an inconsiderate friend. You know I hate this kind of gloomy atmosphere. But I’ll make short work of that.”

“Hey, she came to visit you in the infirmary enough times, so I’m sure she can do the same for Aine-chan. Anyway, lets get this over with so we can apologize. I feel responsible for this too.”

They were not trapped in a bog of doubt. They were pursuing the true culprit in order to prove the crystal girl’s innocence. That entirely changed the meaning of this battle. They could join together and charge right into the hail of enemy fire without a moment’s hesitation. And they were doing it for her.

“Karuta, that goes for you too!!” roared Yamane Deiri. “Don’t you dare die there! Who’s gonna wipe away Aine-chan’s tears and comfort her if you’re gone!?”

“Yeah.”

The girl felt something leap in the center of her chest. She doubted the boy knew his words were reaching her, but they still hit her right in the heart.

“This is just the opening round. The real challenge comes afterwards, so let’s win this, come back with a nice story to tell, and show Aine how sorry we are. As a class!!!!!!”

Part 12

“Whoa!!”

Omotesandou Shouka, a small boy in a light green kimono, cried out nervously when the ship shook below his feet. That’s about what I would expect, thought his sister Kyouka. It had been a little embarrassing when he barged in and insisted she evacuate, but there was nothing the ordinary people outside could do when the crystal magicians were battling the electric battleship. He may have thought he was risking his life to protect his sister, but it looked more like he was clinging to her legs and resting his head in her lap without bothering to fix his slipping hat. If only the redheaded bob cut treasurer holding the wheelchair’s handles wasn’t breathing so heavily at witnessing this beautiful example of sibling love.

“Wh-wh-wh-what is going on, Kyouka!?”

“Hee hee.” She raised her index finger, winked, and laughed. “A display of youth☆”

Part 13

She ran and ran and raced up a narrow metal stairway to leave the outdoor café, but Machibula Delphi was ultimately cornered at the heliport that resembled a massive plate.

She and Karuta would have fought here had it not been destroyed in the previous match.

She heard the dry cracking of the sharp crystals covering the boy’s body shattering away. The severe burns from the flamethrower were nowhere to be found.

The ocean view from the rooftop heliport was marred by black smoke. The Chrisbart electric battleship was tilted, but it was not sinking. The slaves aboard it had apparently surrendered, so the crystal magician students were busy setting up a perimeter around it.

Karuta was glad they had not been forced to sink the captured ship.

It would have reminded him too much of what happened to the first Grimnoah.

“Ha.”

Without warning, Machibula moved her fingers swiftly through empty air. But he already knew what the real threat was. He forcibly tore the flashlight from the skin of his palm and threw the blunt weapon. Machibula must not have been an experienced fighter because she was slow to react and only managed to swing her head to the side. Unfortunately for her, that was not his target.

He had aimed at the miniature planetarium on her shoulder.

That physical device supported her calculations and imagination like an abacus or slide rule, but now its stars vanished.

“Ha ha ha.” Machibula Delphi laughed weakly and put her hands up. “Okay. I get it. I surrender.”

“…”

“This is going a little too poorly. I never would have missed such a major change in the light of the stars… Was this an inside job? Eh, it’s probably just Kildna rebelling yet again.”

“…”

“But you can’t kill me outside the ring. Those are the rules you set and the entire tournament would be meaningless if you broke them. I’m not aware of all the details, but I know you wouldn’t have held this tournament unless it was necessary for some reason.”

“…”

“Which means you cannot kill me! You have no choice but to back off!! Ha ha! Ah ha ha ha ha!! That’s what you get for being the world’s strongest. You have to be a role model, showing the people how they should behave.”

Utagai Karuta’s fist immediately flew toward the priestess’s face.

Her eyes instantly lost their focus. She didn’t understand what had just happened and he could guess her mind had gone entirely blank.

The force of his fist alone damaged her very soul.

And his clenched fist stopped only a few millimeters from her nose.

He had followed the Catastrophe’s rules, but the Greek priestess’s legs still went limp and she collapsed to the heliport a moment later.

But this was not over yet. Just like Karuta had said to Yamane Deiri, this was revenge for what they had done to Aine.

“You’re right. I can’t kill you here.”

“Pant…gasp.”

“So.”

So he was not in a forgiving mood. And he knew exactly how to deal with someone like her.

“I’ll kill you in the ring. I promise you the world’s strongest will kill you. You no longer have your saboteurs in Orpheus’s Orchestra. And someone who resorts to tricks can’t hope to win without those tricks. Yeah, that’s right. I’m the same way, so I know that all too well. The most frightening dead end for a coward is to be forced into a direct confrontation.”

He heard a phone vibrating, but his own had been fried along with his body. It came from the chest of the blonde priestess’s loose-fitting clothing.

“Check your phone.”

“…”

“I’m sure it’s an important notification. To be clear, I win by default if you run away instead. And once that happens, you’re no longer a contestant and the rules don’t say squat about what I can or can’t do to you outside the ring.”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………”

She looked half dazed.

She pulled out her phone with a trembling hand and checked the screen to find the following message:

“Stardust (for tournament staff only): Round 3 Match 2 will begin as scheduled. Miss Dephi, please report to the contestant waiting room so you may begin at any time.”

Part 14

“Oh, ouch! Hold on there, Karuta! The human body isn’t supposed to bend at that angle!!! Medic, someone call a medic!! Oh, but she’s still just barely conscious, so we can’t declare the match over yet! H-how many of her bones has he broken now? He’s just holding her by the hair and turning her into a living punching bag at this point! At first, I thought she had thrown the match to rig the gambling results, but yikes – scratch that idea. What kind of bad blood is there between these two? Ahn. Oh, my phone is vibrating to recommend me a new video. Are the rest of you seeing this too? Eh? How to fake a video? …B-b-b-b-breaking news!! The video was fake all along! Is World’s Strongest Utagai Karuta really going to steal the role of victim from Machibula Delphi tooooooooooooo!?”

Part 15

A distant, deep rumbling physically shook the hallway.

“That was some match, huh? But with tens of thousands of viewers, we can’t end the stream now just because there were only two matches today. So get ready for a surprise performance from everyone’s favorite edgy idol – Cinderella Queen!! You there! The rock band, concert band, cheer squad, cheerleaders, and anyone else who wants to be the center of attention!! Get up here on the stage!! A million cameras and drones await you. The entertainment industry isn’t gonna give you any attention if you let a little thing like shame get in your way!!”

Utagai Karuta left the heliport and leaned against the wall in a deserted hallway.

He was in bad shape.

Orpheus’s Orchestra was gone and Machibula Delphi was out of tricks. But even if he had robbed her of the ability to cause cataclysmic events with the power of the stars, he could not keep her from struggling with her own arms and legs.

Nevertheless, he had won.

He had to get back with that report.

He needed to inform the innocent crystal girl who had refused to set foot outside her unlocked cage even though she had been framed.

“Aine.”

“Yes, Sacri-sama?”

“It’s over and there’s nothing more to worry about, so give us a chance to apologize.”

She finally took that one step over the threshold. She left the boxy student counseling room and entered the freedom of the hallway. Those invisible bonds no longer existed.

And she did something other than lower her head in front of him. She pressed her forehead against his chest, which was not exactly broad or muscular.

She said nothing.

He only felt her trembling.

She may have been holding something inside without it showing on her face.

Their classmates gathered around. Yamane Deiri shrugged and Nekoumi Hirosuke gave Karuta a jealous look. Those beat up warriors had all fought that 300m electric battleship until Machibula Delphi was no longer able to fight and her slaves had surrendered. The looks on their faces said they wouldn’t feel right with themselves until they had bowed down and apologized, but they had enough tact to not interrupt this.

So it was someone unaware of the situation who got time moving again.

“Senpai,” called a voice.

Karuta let Aine stay where she was while he looked to see Natalena Blast hesitantly approaching. That avenger girl had once infiltrated Second Grimnoah all on her own in order to slaughter the world’s strongests, but she had regained the ordinary sensibilities that made a small middle school girl nervous when approaching the giants from high school.

She was the type to do her duty even when it was forced onto her, so she held a report to her small chest. Since she was wearing the short maid costume again, it looked more like she was holding fliers to hand out to passersby.

“Um, I have some results for what you asked me to investigate, so I thought I would give you a report.”

“Huh? What’s this about an investigation?” asked Yamane Deiri, leading Maid Natalena to hide behind Karuta’s back.

She grabbed at his shirt with both hands, but Yamane himself didn’t seem too bothered by her fearful reaction. Strangely, it was Nekoumi Hirosuke who bit at a handkerchief (and glared at Karuta).

The middle school girl failed to notice that as she responded.

“He asked me to investigate the identity of the human string pullers.”

“Hey, is that true, Karuta-chan?”

Karuta nodded.

He and the rest of the Four Living Gods were too busy looking into the tournament contestants. And they would have a hard time surprising the string pullers who were constantly watching them. So how were they supposed to figure out who had used the tournament to put Karuta in such a bind? They had needed the help of someone outside their immediate group of four.

Natalena raised her index finger.

“It seems the hidden string pullers got a little overeager during your battle outside the ring. They were watching a lot more carefully, hoping you would make some kind of mistake, so they got careless. This probably would have taken longer if not for that.”

“Huh, was this like a sliver lining?” asked Yamane.

“I-I would say it’s more like a reason to never let your guard down. Eh heh heh,” added Nekoumi.

“Don’t ask me,” pouted the small maid using Karuta as a shield. She seemed more instinctually cautious when it came to Nekoumi than Yamane.

Karuta felt bad about it, but he couldn’t deny Natalena was extremely cute when she bristled like a hissing cat.

“(Also, you should have called me to help with that fight, Senpai. You work me so hard, but then, um, you start treating me like a child when it’s time to fight.)”

“Natalena?”

“Never mind. I didn’t manage to track down the string pullers themselves, but, um, they slipped through an off-limits door and climbed up to an observation tower. The electric locks aren’t perfect, but we use a proprietary offline system that requires a special connecter to hook up your phone or tablet and send it a special unlocking program. There are only three of those connectors on the ship, including the spares. If you see which one has been stolen, you can, um, uh, find some traces the culprit left, like sweat, oils, footprints, and body odor. Not even an expert can avoid sweating at all on the equator like this.”

“Did they appear to be in enough of a rush to make a mistake like that?”

“If they had been thinking straight, I doubt they would have used the off-limits observation tower at all. Um, there were plenty of places where they could have mixed in with the crowd and still gotten a good look.”

Interesting.

Karuta was thankful their system required that physical connector. Especially so soon after that digitally altered video had caused Aine so much trouble. If they had to rely on the records from a security camera or sensors, they might have needed to worry about the accuracy of that data.

“Understood, Natalena. Arrange to have those connectors investigated immediately. But now that you’ve gotten so close to them, they might view you as a target as well. You need to be on your guard around the clock from now-”

Utagai Karuta’s words came to an abrupt end.

They had been forcibly cut off by an external force.

That force was the sound of footsteps. They were awfully loud…and not just because the hallway was relatively deserted thanks to Delane’s surprise concert. It didn’t matter that the world’s strongest magicians were gathered here or that they were approaching the truth about the human string pullers. Whoever was there still made themselves the center of attention.

“…”

Someone was there.

They were coming this way.

The gorgeous girl wore her exceptionally long blonde hair in large ringlets. She was either Karuta’s age or a little older, so 16 or 17.

“Who…are you?” Karuta groaned.

“Pendet Denpasar.”

Her manner of dress, on the other hand, was very casual.

It looked like athletic wear for dance lessons: a casual tank top and puffy dance pants. On her feet, she wore basketball shoes designed for pure functionality. The outfit’s imbalance with her physical allure actually accentuated her sex appeal.

“I am your next opponent. Or should I say your last?”

“Kh.”

His next opponent.

That meant she had won all of her matches to reach the finals, just like he had.

She was what stood between him and keeping riots from erupting all over the world.

“Utagai. Utagai Karuta.”

She laughed.

The girl named Pendet kept her hands in her puffy pants pockets as she whispered seductively to him.

“It sounds like you’ve gone to a lot of trouble, but I’m afraid the truth you have worked so hard to find will not save you.”

“Get lost!”

The first to boil over was Yamane Deiri, not Karuta.

He took a large step forward, presumably to grab her collar.

“Quit acting like you know a damn thing what we’re-”

The entire right half of Yamane’s body was torn away.

Or it would have if Karuta hadn’t shoved him aside at the last second. Crystal shards sparkled in the air as Karuta’s friend’s right arm and leg simply seemed to vanish.

“Yamanen!!”

Karuta knew he had to make sure this wasn’t fatal. He pulled off his belt and started to wrap it around the wound, but he had trouble. With the entire arm gone, he had nothing to really tie the belt around.

He had to do something. Stopping the bleeding was easier said than done. It differed from person to person, but a human could only lose around 1.5 liters of blood before it killed them. Open the faucet, and they had less than 30 seconds before they died. Yet Karuta’s vision blurred as he watched the red spreading out before his eyes. There was so much noise he had trouble grasping the concepts of time and space.

“Move!”

With several high-pitched sounds, it was Matsuda Imi who stepped forward. He recalled that she used Neith, an Egyptian medical goddess.

“There isn’t time to tie off the wounds. Yamane, I’m going to cauterize the wounds. Have him bite a handkerchief or something!!”

“Imi…?”

Amaashi Marika’s voice carried a questioning tone.

But Matsuda Imi only held down the convulsing boy and raised her voice.

She had the look of someone who had already overcome this.

“Marika, what you did was awful, but I can’t deny it was the right thing to do. So help me! He already had his arm blown off by the Chrisbart, right? He only has at most 900mL left, so he’ll die before the regeneration can kick in if we don’t stop the bleeding!!”

Pendet Denpasar did nothing.

She simply grinned with her hands in her baggy pants pockets. She shrugged like that was the same thing as raising her hands.

“Barong, Rangda. Pause. Stop for now.”

Karuta could finally see something there.

Two objects about the size of a boar were circling the ringlet girl like a typhoon. But they had not just started to move. They must have been moving nonstop this entire time. They had only just slowed their rotation speed enough to be visible to the naked eye. They maintained a circle with a diameter of about 3m.

They looked like a collection of wood and cloth.

They made a sound like something beating at the air. A mask carved from wood and a brightly colored cloth sheet formed a body larger than a human. The legs were jointless sticks similar to a mop handle. The beast named Barong had four legs and the monster named Rangda had two. The girl pulled her hands from her pockets and placed them on the heads of the dolls(?) that approached her on either side.

She smiled in a way that suggested everyone there would have died as if shredded by a giant propeller if she had not stopped them.

Pendet whispered lovingly as she used her hands to calm the monsters whose stick legs rapped against the floor like they were tap dancing.

“Hold off for now. We can kill him whenever we like, but rushing things would only bring more harm to us in the process. We can simply wait until the time for his death has arrived.”

This was bad.

This wasn’t an unmanned attack drone or the Chrisbart electric battleship.

This was the truly dangerous ace up the sleeve the Catastrophe had prepared.

Utagai Karuta felt a tingling pain on his skin. This was the pressure of true power. The same indescribable sensation he had felt when facing the Problem Solvers.

Yes.

In the end, the real occult was the most frightening thing of all.

Utagai Karuta gulped and altered his position to cover Aine and Natalena.

Crystal glittered from Aine’s hand as she drew her sword out of thin air.

“Give me the word, Sacri-sama.”

“No, Aine.”

“We cannot afford to worry about the rules with an opponent like this.”

“Do that and all our efforts go down the drain!! If we don’t follow the rules of our own tournament, the social unrest we hoped to end will explode all over the world. And it isn’t us who’ll die in the frenzy of rioting and looting that follows!!”

He heard laughter.

Pendet Denpasar was looking to Aine in interest.

“That girl is correct here. Utagai Karuta, you are the same as me. Maybe she understands this so well because she too is an inhuman pawn used by a magician.”

He could not give in to her provocation.

Any outburst from him would only be playing into her hands. She couldn’t have made that any clearer.

Even if Aine was completely right, Karuta could not fight the final match outside the ring.

“How much do you know?”

“Perhaps everything.”

“Where did you come from? What connection do you have to the human string pullers!?”

“If you want to know, meet me in the ring tomorrow.”

The blonde ringlet girl laughed some more and released her hands from the two masks.

“Play. In 360-degree surround sound, okay?”

With a roaring of wind, Barong and Rangda vanished into thin air once more. No, they had sped up too fast for human eyes to follow.

They formed a circle.

An inviolable holy ground had formed around her.

She stood at the eye of the storm where nothing could touch a hair on her head. She put her hands back in her baggy pants pockets and calmly stepped away from Karuta.

“I look forward to seeing you in the final round. Assuming the answer you have found doesn’t break your spirit, of course.”

Between the Lines 3

“Wow, that was a lot of excitement. My ears are still ringing from those fireworks.”

“Well, they need a big parade for the world’s strongest, don’t they?”

A salaryman and a housewife held a carefree conversation in a hallway throbbing with the beat of Delane’s surprise concert. …Although secretly, the family finances were primarily supported by the advertisement money from the online cooking channel the wife updated on her tablet during the breaks between her housework. Even more secretly, she had an online cookbook coming out that would finally let her live off of the royalties like she had always dreamed of.

Or you could call them Utagai Karuta’s parents.

They did know how to use a phone, but they had not called their son. They did not know what Karuta was really doing any more than the other 5.5 billion people out there, but one look at their son’s face on the flatscreen monitors hanging in the hallways was enough for them to know he was busy.

They did not want to get in the way of his schedule by forcing him to make time for them. They had already seen he was doing well, so they could wait until he had more time before they spoke with him.

“Neat, they still sell chocolate bananas at these festivals.”

“I wonder what their haunted houses are like. I hear they use their cutting-edge magic for it.”

“Ahm, mm, ooh, this is good.”

“Honey, honey. Don’t use your tongue like that in public.”

“Hweh, what was that? I’m enjoying this banana now, so give me a second.”

It was lucky Utagai Karuta was not here. He would have experienced the same horror as Marika but 100 times greater. It was apparently a habit she had picked up as a child, but the usually kind and gentle wife was the type to eat a corndog by gradually peeling away the breading and working inwards. She unfortunately did not realize how ill-mannered that was.

This ship was the training ground for the world’s strongest magicians and a mobile fortress in the fight against the Threat, but it was also a school. The Utagai Couple were seeing what each class had prepared while mostly feeling nostalgic for their own school days.

And the father spoke to no one in particular, oblivious to the situation underway on this very ship.

“He seems so busy, but hopefully he’ll have some free time tomorrow.”

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