Apocalypse Witch:Volume4 Chapter4

Chapter 4

Part 1

The next morning, Aine had healed her wound after spending the night inside Karuta’s body. It was time for an official investigation within Second Grimnoah, which was President Omotesandou Kyouka’s time to shine. Karuta had left her in charge there and the plan had been to make an early morning surprise attack on the human string pullers once she had tracked them down.

However…

“She’s not here,” he said the instant he opened the door to the student council room. “We were supposed to meet her here, but she’s not here! Hey, Marika, has she contacted you at all!?”

“No, nothing,” said Marika over the phone. “Besides, I’m pretty sure she’s the type to avoid communication devices and stay ‘off the grid’ when things get bad.”

That meant things had in fact gotten bad.

Crystal Girl Aine tilted her head next to him.

“Does that mean Miss Kyouka went to question the string pullers on her own?”

“But why would she do that?”

They had no reason to stay in the deserted student council room, so Karuta ran out into the hallway with his new phone in hand.

“We don’t know who the string pullers have here. We might not outnumber them!”

Yes, this might not be a lone-wolf spy or sniper in a thick trench coat hiding within the crowds. Second Grimnoah was the Four Living Gods’ home turf, but the assumptions that came with that could always be overturned. For example, what if every single visitor here to see the tournament was actually a string puller assassin? Then the 1000 Second Grimnoah residents would be surrounded by tens of thousands of enemies. And that kind of ridiculous scale was exactly what he would expect from the human string pullers.

Omotesandou Kyouka was a known tactician, so he doubted she wouldn’t have considered such an obvious possibility.

And…

“No…wait.”

“Sacri-sama?”

Karuta didn’t have time to answer Aine’s question.

He went back over the examples he had come up with in his head. Was that possible? It was true Omotesandou Kyouka was not the easiest person in the world to predict, but he couldn’t deny the possibility that even she would respond in the obvious way.

Wasn’t there an answer that she couldn’t share with the other Four Living Gods? In fact, their great power would make her even more reluctant to share it with them.

“No, it can’t be…but…dammit!!”

“Karuta?” said Marika over the phone.

“Listen, Marika. Do not hang up. I’m going to give you a location, so meet me there. Hurry!!”

They had no way of tracking where Omotesandou Kyouka had gone.

But if she was going to meet alone with the culprit that made her most cautious, she wouldn’t have many options even on this 600m ship.

It had to be a location accessible with her wheelchair.

It had to be a location with multiple exits just in case.

And it had to be a location where she could secure a bright light or smokescreen to help her reach one of those exits.

And of course, it had to be a location where she needn’t worry anyone was eavesdropping.

“Omotesandou-san!!!!!!”

Karuta and Crystal Girl Aine burst into the dining hall.

No one was here thanks to all the restaurants running out of the middle and high school classrooms. They found Omotesandou Kyouka seated silently at that temporarily empty coordinate.

She did not turn back when he called her name.

She was facing someone else while seated in her wheelchair. She did not take her eyes off of them for a second.

That would be someone sent here by the human string pullers.

That was the person they had been searching for this whole time. Identifying them should have been the clue they needed to begin a counterattack against the monsters who manipulated each generation of world’s strongest to gorge on the benefits their power brought.

But.

The answer should have been obvious. Receiving full access to the special server required the biometrics of Karuta, Marika, or Kyouka.

And hadn’t Karuta considered the possibility of the human string pullers operating on a ridiculous scale? It hardly mattered that there were 1000 magicians on Second Grimnoah if every single one of the outside visitors was working for the string pullers. Karuta and the rest of his minority group would be entirely surrounded by tens of thousands of assassins.

But wait.

Wouldn’t that mean the assassins sent by the human string pullers were in fact some people they already knew!?

Karuta could only groan the name.

“Omotesandou Shouka.”

“Oh, you remembered my name! I still can’t believe the Four Living Gods know who I am.”

He sounded genuinely delighted.

In fact, the boy in the light green kimono may not have been putting on an act as he hopped up and down with a hand holding his hat in place. If he could make the emotions look so natural with nothing but pure acting, he had to be a better actor than a professional.

Yes.

A family member could do it.

No matter how strictly Karuta or Kyouka worked to not leave their fingerprints or DNA anywhere, there would still be hairs left behind in their childhood rooms.

Their preserved umbilical cord was all someone needed to get through a biometric lock that used DNA data.

“Shouka…”

Omotesandou Kyouka remained motionless.

She gripped her wheelchair’s armrests tight and kept her back on Karuta and Aine while she viewed her transformed brother.

She had pampered that boy enough to skew his standards of spiciness by always putting milk in his curry rice, but it turned out they were willing to use even familial bonds.

Was this what happened once they got their claws into someone?

“Why? Does this mean you’re with the human string pullers? But why!? How could you sell out your own family!!!???”

“String pullers?”

“You gave them a hair, her umbilical cord, or something else from your house, didn’t you? You gave them the key they needed to get past the DNA authorization!!”

“Oh, that?”

Something wasn’t right.

Karuta had poured such contempt into the word “you”, yet Omotesandou Shouka’s face was bright without any hint of fear or panic.

How strange.

Whatever the reality might be, wasn’t Utagai Karuta known as one of the world’s strongest magicians? How could a boy of only 10 or 12 remain so calm when a monster like that yelled at him?

The boy was so young he was easily mistaken for a girl, but he only tilted his head curiously.

“I only did it because they told me it would help Kyouka.”

“…”

Who were “they”?

Had he not even bothered asking?

“I had to search all over the house to find her umbilical cord. I don’t know how that was supposed to help her, but all those important people said it would. I mean, isn’t that how the world works? I don’t know all of our country’s laws. I haven’t memorized the entire Book of Six Codes. I don’t even know how they go about making laws. But you can’t wonder if the people in charge made a mistake with every single law, can you?”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

Finally, Karuta felt like he could see the outlines of a fundamental distortion he had failed to see until now. He kept talking about the human string pullers, but had he really understood the implications of a group like that?

“I’m going to be a crystal magician one day and then I’ll be as strong as you and my sister!”

That hadn’t been a lie. Shouka had been speaking from the heart. But he had been remade into someone who saw no contradiction between that belief and what he had done.

If someone with a fancy title came along, he would sell out his family or friends.

If an online ranking said something was #1, he would believe it unconditionally.

If all the important people said something was true, how could you question it? That might seem reasonable, but it was such a relative standard to follow. If everyone else was wrong about something, you wouldn’t even notice how their wrongness corrupted you. And who was “everyone” anyway? Was he going to stare down the barrel of a laser cannon and get fried just because he saw a bunch of other people doing it? How was that any different from the insanity of war or the witch hunts?

No, maybe it was Karuta’s group that had been naïve. The human string pullers had been waging a real war against the apocalypse witches from the beginning.

Amaashi Marika had yet to arrive here.

And his phone was still connected to hers.

“Oh, Marika. What are you doing here?”

“…”

(Damn, has she run into them too!?)

Karuta frowned, but he did not have time to come up with a plan.

If Kyouka and Marika had run into trouble, why wouldn’t he too?

“Karuta.”

A carefree voice called out to him from the side.

He knew that voice all too well. It was the last voice he wanted to hear right now.

He forced out a response with a bitter look on his face.

“Dad. And mom too.”

“What are you doing here, Karuta?”

They spoke to him just like they would while watching TV in the living room.

The same as always was the most frightening option here.

It wasn’t so bad with Marika or Kyouka who noticeably went berserk. The most frightening thing was someone who only had the one mode.

“Did you do it too? Did you search the floor back home for some hairs or pull my umbilical cord out from the back of the closet? Have you all…all been working to set us up this entire tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime!!!???”

“Yes, we were setting you up for success. And now you’ve made it to the finals of this once-in-a-lifetime event. You shouldn’t be wasting time around here, should you?”

They confessed their crime with a smile and no clue they had done anything wrong.

Karuta had expected the human string pullers to be some sketchy politicians or hitmen who wore leather gloves year round.

But that was wrong. They were not limited to the shadows.

They were exactly what their name implied.

They were anywhere that the category of “human” was found. They were the idol and athlete on TV, they were the neighbors and the childhood friend next door, and they were even your own family. Anyone could be made a part of the plan at any time with a few whispered words.

And people did not even question that system or those rules.

A policeman told me to. I got a call from city hall. A judge commanded it. My teacher at school said so. They said it on TV. My parents told me. People did not even think about it enough to begin questioning it, to confirm it was true, or to protest it. When Kyouka’s brother and Marika and Karuta’s parents received the email or call, they would have truly believed they were helping out their sister, daughter, or son. They might not understand how, but it had to be true if someone important said so. That was all it was really. They had obeyed and compromised just like they would when someone showed up saying they were there to check the gas meter or to perform maintenance on the elevator over the weekend, so they had readily placed their own family into danger. The entire planet had been set up that way from the beginning.

This wasn’t an issue of people being good or evil.

The string pullers controlled people on a deeper and more fundamental level than that. And their control was absolute.

People obeyed them because “that’s just how the world works”. They weren’t just the humans who pulled the strings; they were those that pulled the strings of humans.

(Goddammit!!!)

Karuta’s phone was vibrating.

His call with Marika was still active, but she still hadn’t shown up. He only heard the occasional suppressed sigh coming from the phone. He knew Marika had to be facing her own traitorous family.

A new popup appeared on his phone’s screen.

He tapped that to display a message without ending the call.

“Stardust (for tournament staff only): Repairs to the Sub-Category rooftop heliport are complete. The tournament will now resume with the final round. Mr. Utagai, please report to the contestant waiting room. Your match will begin soon.”

“Omotesandou-san.”

“…”

“Omotesandou-san!! We can’t waste any time here!! They don’t even know what they did, so we won’t get anything out of them!! The final round matters more. And you have to commentate, don’t you? Let’s get going.”

This was unusual.

Highly unusual.

Kyouka was the one frozen in shock and Karuta had to snap her out of it. That president made of point of being skeptical of everything while setting up her own schemes, but this must have caught her completely by surprise. This may have been the one “sanctuary” she had refused to doubt no matter what.

But they had to keep going.

When they were thinking, they weren’t moving. And when they weren’t moving, they were open to attack. They were in a zone of maximum density death, just like when they had fought the Problem Solvers and the Threat. They could not let their guard drop after falling into the human string pullers’ trap.

So Karuta grabbed Kyouka’s shoulders and crouched to her eye level like he might with a small child.

“Whatever conspiracy they might have in the works, we can end it. We just have to win this final round of the Catastrophe!! So our best bet is to focus on that. If that’s what it takes to damage and tear down their plot, then it’s worth fighting, right!?”

Part 2

“Cinderella Queen here. Out of respect for our final two contestants’ determination, I’m wearing my official dress today. Now, we are about to witness something that will make us feel so lucky we were born in this era!! So join me in the loudest cheers this tournament has heard!!!!!!”

A deluge of cheers swallowed up Karuta.

Someone had set this stage for him.

He just stood there in front of a deadly cage full of good will and kindness.

“All those critics stupid enough to doubt his power need to answer for their smug overconfidence. Okay, everyone! Dig up all those articles and videos that aged like milk so we can make them the biggest laughingstocks of the age! It turns out the world’s strongest really was the world’s strongest. This crystal magician is the protector of the 5.5 billion! It’s Utagaaai Kaarutaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!”

A metal container suspended by wires was slowly lowered by a tiltrotor on the other side of the ring. The double doors opened from within and a familiar face emerged.

It was the mystery girl with gorgeous blonde ringlets and a casual outfit made from a tank top and dance pants.

She had spoken like she had already known who was working for the human string pullers and how it would affect him.

“And then we have the only person still crazy enough to get in the ring with him! But she’s also enough of a monster to survive this long, so who knows? This no-name newcomer clearly has some kind of superhuman secret!! She’s a priestess of the unique Balinese form of Hinduism and a dancer to boot. It’s Pendet Denpasarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!”

He heard what almost sounded like tapdancing. A boar-sized object floated on either side of the blonde ringlets girl. Those dolls(?) were made from a large mask, a thick, cloak-like cloth, and jointless sticks for legs.

Barong and Rangda.

Wasn’t that what Pendet had called them?

“But what kind of magic do you get with Balinese Hinduism? I really only know of Bali as an island tourist destination. And if an entertainer like me is going on a vacation, Bali and Hawaii are the place to be, don’t you think?”

“…”

“President Omotesandou?”

Not even Delane could get a response out of her.

Eventually, the president spoke in a low, quiet, and unsteady voice.

“Barong is a benevolent beast who symbolizes good while Rangda is a wicked witch who symbolizes evil. The endless battle between those two opposites is the core and whole of Balinese Hinduism. The form it takes has changed a lot from the original Hinduism, but the idea of an endless battle between good and evil which gives the current world its form is a fascinating one. It isn’t quite the same as the dance of Shiva who is a god of destruction but has also been granted the power to set the world in motion.”

“Huh? You mean good doesn’t vanquish evil for a happy ending?”

“In Balinese Hinduism, it never tilts too far in either direction. The world is an eternal mixture of good and evil. They promote a neutral or balanced state known as Rwa Bhineda. Of course, the religious philosophy isn’t the issue here. We want to know how Pendet Denpasar has converted that into a deadly power.”

The ringlets priestess gave a snort of laughter.

She did not pull her hands from her pockets.

“She makes it sound like a helpful explanation for the ignorant audience, but she’s actually giving her ally some last-minute information. What a farce. Information on Balinese Hinduism isn’t going to do me any good, so this only benefits you.”

“What, are you going to claim we’re cheating after you set us up with the human string pullers?”

“I never said that.”

She pulled her hands from her pockets.

But not to send her ultimate attack his way. She casually grabbed one of the detonating cord ropes surrounding the ring.

“Get up here. Only so much of the truth can be conveyed verbally. If you want to know any more, then at least clench your fists. The world should be overrun with answers that you can’t find even after giving it your very best effort, don’t you think?”

“…”

Karuta responded by wordlessly ducking below the ropes and into the ring.

The poles in the corners glowed red to signal the explosive cage had closed.

“This is it!” roared Delane. “We will soon know who the real world’s strongest magician is. All of you in the stands and all of you gathered around your screens after buying an online viewing ticket! Are you ready to be witnesses to history!? Then let’s do this! Laugh or cry, this match ends it all!!”

Pendet Denpasar wasn’t even listening.

In a move that didn’t match her fancy blonde ringlets, she pulled out some bulky wireless headphones and put them on.

Karuta could hear the music from where he was.

“Damn, that girl’s got guts to disrespect a tournament official like that. But I won’t let this get me down! After all, I’m more of a Utagai Karuta girl myself!! Maybe I’m supposed to be impartial, but since when have the rules stopped Cinderella Queen?☆ So this countdown is just for you, Karuta! Are you ready? 3, 2, 1!!”

He couldn’t even hear the bell with the entire heliport shaking from Delane’s amplified voice and the ten thousand people cheering in response.

And Pendet couldn’t hear it in the first place.

So when the Balinese Hindu dancer whispered, it was on her own timing.

Yet it still coincided with the bell.

“Play. This is goodbye, Utagai Karuta.”

Barong and Rangda. Those two dolls were waiting at her side like a Shinto shrine’s Komainu, but now they burst into motion, vanishing into thin air.

He could no longer see them.

But he knew they were most likely forming a tornado-like circle around Pendet. His flimsy barrier meant nothing to them. His right arm was immediately torn off at the shoulder and he was thrown spinning through the air.

Part 3

“What?” groaned Marika from the audience surrounding the ring.

This was well past the point where she could pass him information with a flashing light.

“What was that? What just happened!?”

“Miss Kyouka said that Balinese Hinduism believes the world is formed from an endless battle between good and evil. Isn’t that what this is? To her, a battle between the gods is no more remarkable than seeing the sun rise in the east every morning.”

There was a circle there.

Enter it and you died.

That was one of the massive gears that kept the world moving.

Gamelan and Kecak were two examples of how Balinese Hinduism used dance as a specialized tool to accurately pass down their culture and legends. Sometimes a priestess would use her body to express a legend and other times multiple people would precisely operate a single doll. Legong, Ardja, Topeng Pajegan, Baris – they would change the format depending on what kind of story they were telling and they would tell of the world’s structure through their rhythm and movements.

Thus, anyone who stood on the stage and used their body to dance was worthy of controlling miracles as an embodiment of the legends.

If the priestess using her body to represent the eternal battle between good and evil were to stop, that would mean the world had run out of steam as well.

“Is Karuta okay!?”

“That was not lethal. His severed arm will be good as new in 30 seconds.”

That was not very long, but only under normal circumstances.

And standing in the ring was not at all normal.

A single round in boxing, for example, was three minutes long. A lot of fierce fighting could happen in such a short time. It wasn’t hard to imagine the rush of attacks that could hit someone if they were defenseless for 30 whole seconds.

“And these Barong and Rangda things move too quickly for even me to see,” said Aine.

“…”

Marika and the others were magicians who could slice through the average bullet or missile with a sword.

And yet…

“If you can move faster than your opponent can even perceive while enclosed in a ring without access to any tricks, then the rush of attacks will be at a far greater density than what an ordinary human can pull off in a boxing match. This will likely have an attack density greater than a Gatling gun.”

Part 4

Karuta’s arm had been taken off at the shoulder.

His barrier had shattered and his right arm had flown off somewhere with the modified military flashlight still in its grasp, so he had lost his dominant hand and his only weapon.

He had no chance of hitting the ground safely.

For one, his center of gravity was off center with one arm missing. His midair spinning was awkwardly out of balance in a way he couldn’t account for.

“Gah!?”

His back slammed into the mat and he had so much trouble breathing he forgot all about the pain in his shoulder.

But he could not afford to writhe on the ground.

Pendet Denpasar had yet to take a single step. The large headphones still covered her ears and her hands remained in her pockets. Yet she had managed to tear a limb from Karuta’s body.

Barong and Rangda.

He was already in range of those things that kicked at the floor with mop handle legs to form a closed circle around Pendet. Without spending the time to get up, Karuta rolled across the mat to get as far away as he could.

A sound like a shrill whistle pierced his eardrums. But by the time he heard that, the benevolent beast and wicked witch had already passed through. This was a destructive tornado. Pendet was the eye of the storm, so when she took a step forward, the pressure of death moved in to crush him.

(I had my dominant hand torn away and I lost my flashlight.)

“But that doesn’t mean I’m helpless,” he whispered from the mat.

His opponent was enclosed in her own world thanks to her headphones. That Balinese Hindu priestess danced to represent the eternal battle between good and evil which gave the world it’s structure, so she may not have even paid much attention to her opponent.

Still, Karuta crawled desperately along the floor and grabbed something with his left hand.

A new weapon had rolled to him when he most needed it.

He bragged his own severed and bent right arm and threw it with all his might.

The arm had begun rapidly crystallizing after it was severed and it was still holding the modified military flashlight that doubled as a blunt weapon.

That last-ditch attempt of course failed to reach Pendet Denpasar where she stood at the center of the world.

Before it could, something unseen chewed it up, tore it to pieces, and blew it away.

But that gave color to the dense tornado of death.

The four-legged benevolent beast had vanished into thin air, but it grew visible as whitish shards surrounded it like a bullet fired through a thick layer of water.

(Yikes, that’s close!? But now I can see it. I still have a chance if I know haw far away it is!!)

“Barong, Rangda.”

“!?”

A faint whisper left the blonde ringlet girl’s lips. To reiterate, the dancer in the headphones was not looking to the outside world. Her focus remained inwards while she gave herself over to the rhythm, but that may have helped inform her of even the slightest disturbance to that rhythm.

She pulled her hands from her baggy dance pants pockets.

An she loosely spread them.

“Fast Forward. Activate noise canceling.”

This time, he could see it.

They formed a circle with a diameter of about 10m, but this one was not arranged horizontally, like Saturn’s rings, in order to protect Pendet.

This was a vertical rotation.

He could just barely make it out thanks to the small fragments of the destroyed ring and smoke of the detonated ropes. Barong and Rangda spun like a giant tire or the rotating blades used to till the earth. And they destroyed the ring’s floor as they approached him! A passive defense had done so much damage, so how destructive would they be now that they were being used for an active offense!?

(But…)

If he ran in fear, he could survive for the moment.

But that alone was not a solution.

(If I can get past this, I don’t have to worry about the defensive circle. I can charge in at her and bring the fight to close quarters!!)

“Ohhhh!!!!!!”

He focused his senses on his broken right arm and charged forward with his center of gravity still off center. This was not something he could consciously avoid, so it actually helped that he failed to stay on a straight line and staggered awkwardly to the side. After ending up right next to the giant wheel spinning with a supersonic rotation speed, he felt his feet planted solidly on the floor again.

That was when the promised 30 seconds arrived. Small crystal shards burst from his brand new right arm.

He just barely managed to get past Barong and Rangda and made his attack on unguarded Pendet Denpasar. He heard the vertically-rotating storm tear through the detonating cord ropes and burst from the ring behind him, but he focused on moving right up to Pendet!!

“Pend-!!”

“Not good enough.”

His momentum was blocked by a scorching pain in his face. Both of his attack plans were shattered and he couldn’t move how he wanted. His fist found only empty air.

She was fast.

But the strike hadn’t had her weight behind it. She had only struck him in the nose to stop his momentum, but that had been enough to break through and shred his flimsy barrier.

(An open palm? No, did she scratch me with her nails!?)

That wouldn’t be lethal unless she had painted them with a powerful poison. But if she was only stopping him in place, her true attack was sure to come next.

He could not breathe a sigh of relief at only receiving a jab. Something more was coming.

He could not have lost his focus for more than half a second.

But by the time he got his arms up to defend himself, he found his feet lifting from the floor. An unthinkably heavy blow had smashed right through his defending arms and struck him in the nose. It felt like being hit by a hammer designed to demolish concrete walls.

This time, she had spun her body all the way around and placed all of her weight behind it.

“A kick!?”

With his feet lifted from the floor, he literally could not stand his ground. And after he collapsed backwards, her foot dropped down like a pile driver.

She stomped once, twice, thrice.

He just barely managed to roll out of the way, but…

“Okay.”

“!?”

When he saw her twirl, he assumed a major attack was coming, but then she stopped before completing a full circle. That meant this was not a roundhouse kick. Instead, she stopped with her back to him, leaped toward him, and spread her legs to drop her shapely butt on his face.

She performed a butt attack.

The name might sound comical, but it was one of the simplest killing moves that placed your entire weight on someone. It was simple enough for a kindergartner to perform it without practicing and it was powerful enough to crush someone’s skull if it hit.

Karuta was too busy rolling out of the way of the deadly attack to even think about moving at her and attempting a pin or a chokehold.

In fact…

(Oh, no. I can’t come up with two different plans right now. But if I let her guide me along this singular path…!?)

A hammer flew toward him.

After landing on her butt with her legs spread, Pendet stuck her hands between her legs, pressed her palms against the floor, and then rotated the rest of her. She flipped herself upside down and swung her legs around in a tornado-like kick that resembled breakdancing. This time, she did not hit him through his defending arms. The low-to-the-ground kick slammed into his right side, launching him through the air.

Difficulty breathing was becoming the new normal for him.

After landing and rolling, he very nearly grabbed the detonating cord rope like he was grasping at straws.

He had arrived at the end of the ring.

He had no more room. He was being pushed into a corner.

“Agh, geh!?”

“Barong and Rangda are only my backup dancers.”

Pendet took a step toward him with her back straight. That alone seemed to solidify the air and shrink the world around Karuta.

He had made a mistake.

He had been focused on the wrong thing.

And the one who embodied the world was working to correct that mistake.

“The dance of the world is focused on me at the center. As long as the world exists, the priestess’s dance cannot be stopped. The Balinese Hindu dance swallows up both good and evil. Did you really think mere violence could stop this colossal vortex?”

“Sh!!”

He attacked while she was talking.

He scooped up some crystal shards from the ground and threw them at her face. While she moved her head aside to avoid that, he charged toward her again. He needed to escape this corner of the ring even if it meant forcing her out of his way.

There were parts of her she could not move out of the way just by moving her head.

For example, the gorgeous blonde ringlets that trailed behind her movements.

(Grab one of those and I can hold her in place. And then I can hit her!)

But even with her hair in his hand, she easily dropped her hips down to avoid his fist.

Her hair suddenly grew longer. Or so it seemed to Karuta.

(Ringlets? Damn, so that’s it. They can stretch out because they’re curled up like old-fashioned phone cords! I can’t restrain her just by grabbing the ends. In fact…)

“Thank you for falling for my bait.”

Her knee jabbed into his gut, easily lifting his entire body weight from the floor.

He couldn’t breathe.

Before he could fall back down, she whirled around and slammed a full-power roundhouse kick into the exact same place.

That special move was like pressing the hammer against the head of the nail before swinging the hammer down at full force.

Karuta felt something like a soft bag of water bursting inside his gut.

“Gah, ah!?”

He rolled along the mat and tried to breathe the air caught in his throat, but a clump of red came out instead. Something had really had ruptured inside him.

(Can I last…30 seconds? And what just ruptured? That wasn’t fatal, was it!?)

His trembling fingers would not listen to his commands. He tried to grab onto the pole at the corner of the ring for support, but he collapsed back to the mat instead. He was supposed to win in an impressive way worthy of the world’s strongest title, but he had already failed at that. Not that the audience was going to complain when they were so entranced by the excitement in the ring.

Pendet Denpasar slowly approached him.

He had tried to rush at her to get away from the ropes, but he had only ended up back on the ground and even more cornered than before. He had nowhere left to run.

Part 5

Specialized filming stations were located high up and beyond even the audience seating surrounding the ring. The webcams for ordinary viewers who had bought tickets were attached to the metal railings, but these stations contained the giant cameras for the broadcast station that was officially sponsoring the tournament.

And an elevated location with a view of the entire ring was not just useful to the broadcast station.

It was also useful for a sniper.

However, the sniper and spotter on this filming station were focused on their earpieces.

“Stage 2 here. I have a shot.”

“Stage 3. Pendet Denpasar might just finish him off and save us the trouble.”

“He’s either lost his spleen or one of his kidneys. And his corpse will turn into a crystal statue anyway, so it’s not like they can do an autopsy. If I hit him where he’s already wounded, no one will know the difference. That independent crystal magic girl is annoyingly hard to predict, but we don’t need them all. As long as we have another member of the Four Living Gods – Amaashi Marika or Omotesandou Kyouka would work – we can move to the next phase.”

“Stage 3 to Stage 2. Stand down until we receive further orders. I repeat, stand down until we receive further orders. Our top priority is Pendet Denpasar. Utagai Karuta doesn’t matter – just do not create a situation where a stray shot could hit that girl. Avoid even the slimmest possibility.”

The sniper clicked his tongue. Loud. Then he realized he hadn’t ended the transmission yet.

“Avoid even the slimmest possibility? Those cowards are all talk, no action.”

He received no response.

Puzzled, he looked to the side.

He saw a fountain of fresh blood and his spotter missing everything above the chest.

“Eh?”

The way the rest of him stood there without falling looked like some kind of sick joke.

Which was why the sniper failed to react with sufficient shock.

He still had no idea what was happening to them when his torso was bisected vertically.

The culprit was Benevolent Beast Barong.

Part 6

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

“Wait…”

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

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

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

Terror and anger.

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

And red blood and gore rained mercilessly upon them.

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

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

“Pendet!!!!!!”

“Barong, Rangda.”

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

She withdrew into her own world.

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

“Spoilsports?”

Something dropped down from the sky above.

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

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

(Does that mean…?)

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

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

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

But her complaints continued.

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

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

“Wait! Then you…?”

She was not listening.

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

“!!”

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

But he didn’t have time for that.

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

He found her sharp nails waiting for him.

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

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

“Gyaaaaaaahhhh!!!???”

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

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

“Not all truths can be shared verbally.”

She grimaced, but she did not stop.

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

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

A whirlwind whipped up.

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

The deadly bearhug was closing in.

Meanwhile, he heard some high-pitched cracking sounds.

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

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

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

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

“Pendet.”

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

There was no hidden side to Pendet Denpasar.

What was it that dancer had said before they fought?

“Ohhh!!”

“Ohhh!!”

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

Karuta charged toward her.

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

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

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

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

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

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

They clashed a few more times.

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

But for some reason, Utagai Karuta was smiling thinly.

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

However.

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

(Yeah.)

Maybe it was inappropriate to think this way.

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

But.

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

“This is fun,” he said.

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

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

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

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

Sweat flew and bodies danced.

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

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

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

He wished it could have always been like this.

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

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

(Honestly.)

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

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

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

“Ohhhh!!”

“Ohhhh!!”

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

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

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

He did not hit her.

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

It was similar to a tomoe nage.

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

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

Part 7

Barong and Rangda’s destructive force was undeniable.

They had destroyed the solid ring floor like they were tilling the dirt, they had made short work of the snipers hidden in the crowd, and they had torn off Karuta’s own arm.

However.

(Why did she do that?)

Karuta’s mind focused on a single point while time seemed to freeze with him in midair.

He couldn’t give in to fear.

He had to follow the hunch he felt now.

(Why did she say “fast forward” and switch to that vertical rotation? Her best bet was to keep Barong and Rangda protecting her while she slowly approached me. She should have stuck with her basic strategy to kill me. So why did she abandon certain victory?)

Fast forward. That term wasn’t something you would use when enjoying a song or a dance. It was a staticky shortcut used to make up for lost time. She always withdrew to her own world with those large headphones, so why had she focused on the outside world’s flow of time there?

She had said Barong and Rangda were the backup dancers and she was the focus of the dance, so it didn’t matter whether or not she had that tornado-like defense in place.

But was that really true?

Could she have had a more pressing reason?

For example, she had changed tack after he threw his severed arm and covered Barong with blood.

What if she had viewed that as a threat?

That would mean Barong and Rangda were not just backup dancers. He had also noticed how their footsteps wounded so much like tap dancing. Their rotation was like that of a record. They were the band, an indispensable part of a musical performance. She could not allow them to be harmed.

So.

What if she had switched to the vertical rotation mode to move her musical instruments away from the ring and thus out of Karuta’s reach?

(And is this tomoe nage really going to give you the checkmate you want, Pendet Denpasar? You might just find yourself regretting that decision before long!!)

“Ohh!!”

He twisted his body in midair to intentionally throw himself into the vortex of destruction.

He offered up an arm as sacrifice.

Earlier, he had his arm torn off, but the snipers’s torsos and heads had been sliced through. That suggested he could protect his vitals if he was willing to give up an arm.

This tactic only worked thanks to his crystal magic regeneration.

He heard something soft being torn through, but he did not flinch. That impact had slowed the doll, so he pressed his remaining arm down against it.

This was the four-legged benevolent beast – Barong, the symbol of good.

(So you’re the one I get to fight, huh!? And here I thought I’d been abandoned by everything good and just!!)

If the doll stopped, the song stopped. If the song stopped, the dance could not continue.

But at the same time, stopping Barong was not enough to destroy it. If he let go now, it would regain its ruinous freedom.

However, Barong and Rangda also moved as a set. The wicked witch would follow the same circular path taken by the benevolent beast.

In order to rescue trapped Barong and obliterate Karuta for interrupting their performance, two-legged Rangda rushed in at max speed.

He didn’t need to stick with Barong to the end.

He only had to let go and dodge to the side.

Barong was obliterated like it had been stopped in the tracks and struck by a freight train.

“Pendet.”

“Kh.

“Barong and Rangda work together as a pair, right? Then can you continue your performance with just one of them?”

After destroying Barong, Rangda lost its speed and fell to the floor. It fell, bounced, rolled, and finally came to a stop.

The panicked and fleeing spectators froze in place. Delane was still holding her mic, but she couldn’t say anything for a while. A painful silence settled in over the ring.

The rhythm tapped out by those mop handle legs – the song of good and evil – had come to a stop.

The ringlets girl still wore the large headphones, but her song was missing a part. Her song would sound as unnatural as a band playing without a drummer, so her dance could no longer reach the level of the divine.

Finally, she removed the headphones with one hand and tossed them aside. Dancing was everything in Balinese Hindu magic, so she could no longer perform her supernatural movements without her music and with her rhythm taken from her.

But she had not lost her will to fight.

Karuta also pulled a new right arm from the crystal shards shattering past his shoulder.

There was a future they wanted to se.

There was a truth they wanted to confirm.

So…

“Gahhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

“Gahhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

They both roared and a punch crossed with a kick.

No one could utter a word.

The first to finally speak was Utagai Karuta.

“What did you divine?”

His lips were twisted and his teeth didn’t line up properly. His flimsy barrier had been entirely useless, so Pendet’s foot had smashed into the side of his face.

“Rangda destroyed Barong, ending the divine dance that keeps the world running,” said the half-dazed Balinese Hindu dancer.

The boy’s fist had broken her cheekbone.

Perhaps she had been worried about the world, so she had wanted to put her mind at ease by seeing what kind of good future awaited them.

However.

She collapsed to the side, but the priestess dancer still finished her thought.

“Which means that is how the world will end. Not the future I was hoping to see.”

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